Bringing the `57 home this weekend...

[JPotter57]

Me and my 11 year old boy are going to pick up the `57 this weekend.  We will be making the close to 600 mile trip to Texas tomorrow, and come back saturday.  This should be a fun trip, the farthest I have ever gone to get a car.  And what better car to go 1200 miles round trip for?  Gawd, I cant wait....I'll keep you guys posted...

[F570RD]

Drive safe

[briney]

I wish I had know you are coming.  I would have like to have met up with you and your son.

I was only about 40 miles away.  Maybe next time. 

Post some detail pictures when you can.


Patrick / Dallas TX   

[JimNolan]

James,
   If he were to have an old 427 side oiler, tell him you'll haul it away for him. Good Luck
Jim

[shopratwoody]

I'd settle for a Top Oiler

[JPotter57]

Got it home!  I wish I had known Briney, I would have enjoyed meeting you.  We had a good trip.  Besides getting the car home, we had an adventure ourselves.  Instead of doing the sensible thing and either renting a new truck or having the car transported home, we took off in my `74 F100 and open trailer to get it. . .Yes, this is a short bed, and it drove great on the way there with an empty trailer.  On the way home with the Ford on the trailer was a different story.  I wish it had been a long bed, would have been an easier trip.  But we made it back alive, and about $300 in gasoline later, we have a `57 Custom Tudor to start with.  The car seems to be pretty solid.  It has a little cancer in the lower rear quarter, but not really bad.  Not like my last Ford, where the quarters, rockers, floors, trans tunnel, trunk floor, pretty much the lower 4 inches of the car were gone.  This one looks like a good start, but I will need some parts, mainly front end stuff.  A former owner had attempted to make a tilt front end, and had gotten rid of the inner fenders, splash pan, lower filler pans, and hood hinges.  I will need all of that.  Most of the other stuff is just beat up, not rusty, and can be fixed in a little while.  Luckily, they did not cut up and  ruin the rust free radiator support.  Let me know what you guys have out there....
By the way...this one will be yellow too...check out this pic of the last one...

[JPotter57]

I'll get pics today, its still on the trailer right now...

[JPotter57]

Aw crap, guys, original color on this dude was that awful salmon and white color.  I took a few pics while I was working...check this out....

[JPotter57]

another..

[JPotter57]

another

[JPotter57]

last one for now, look for the rest in the gallery this week sometime....
Yeah, I'm planning on something this size, maybe a little smaller.

[JPotter57]

Jim, I just sold a std bore std/std crank 428 CJ to a guy in Florida...I think I'm gonna run a great big old 460 type motor, maybe 535 or 557 inches...Still thinking about it.  I still may do a small block, but I really like those big blocks.  Time will tell.  Then again, with $4 gallon gas, I may have to put a 4.6 mod motor in it.  Whatever I do, I will drive it.

[JimNolan]

James,
    That's the spirit. Driving the car is what it's about to me. I've won a lot of plaques and trophies at the car shows. But when I'm beat, it's by a car that only sees the light of day on weekends.
    When you pick an engine and transmission you probly should choose it according to what you're going to do with the car. If you're going to drive it every day like me you're going to make consessions to it's drag racing abilitys and it's car show cosmetics. I've got a new windshield to go in my car that I've had for three years. I'm waiting for a rock to go through my old chipped one before I install it though.
I know it's going to happen, it's just a matter of time. In the mean time it distracts from the car appearance at car shows. Tough.
   With my old transmission I cruised at 2000 rpm at 60 mph. Got almost 21 mpg. With this new transmission I'll cruise at 60 mph at 1850 rpm. That should get me 23 mpg, hopefully. I probably won't live long enough to reap the benifits but in the mean time I'm enjoying the versatillity of being able to ring the tires off it and the capability of going on long trips without listening to the roar of an engine doing 2800 rpm just to do 60 mph.
    When I grew up I bought cars that I could afford to drive, always wishing I had more performance. The key phrase in that sentence is, (I could afford to drive) if I hadn't been able to drive it every day, performance probably wouldn't have meant that much to me then or now.
    Good luck with your choice. Jim
   

     

[JPotter57]

I know what you mean, Jim.  I have a long way to go on this car, and I probably wont even start on it until at least spring.  My son and I will be stripping the Maverick(lots of paint on that one), and gteting it ready to paint Grabber Green.  Witht he 306 smallblock it should go in the 13s or so.  It will be pretty mild, but plenty fast for him to learn the ropes.  He will be 12 in February, and will be going to the track with me for the next few years and learning everything about the car and how to drive it before he ever gets the keys to it.  I want him to know the work that goes into a car, so he will appreciate it when he gets to take over.  Also, I want him to understand the importance of doing his fst driving at the track.   
As far as the powerplant for my `57, its all up in the air right now.  Most likely it will get the Cleveland motor I already have.  I dont really know what I want to do.  I want to drive it a lot, but I dont want or need to drive it every day.  I want it to go at least 11s in the 1/4, but I want it to be able to do Crusin the Coast too.  My other one did it, this one can too.  I dont really expect a lot out of it, just what I want.  MPG is not really that important to me, since I probably wont drive it that far off.  I would like to be able to drive it the distance you do, but I'm not willing to give up the extra couple hundred horses it takes to go 11s in a 36-3700 lb car.  I know I'm eaten up with the go-fast bug.  I wish I could be satisfied with a show car or even a nice cruiser, but I just love the thunder of a barely street legal machine, with way more power than it really needs to go to the store and back.  I guess thats how my last one got out of hand.  It started out to be a nice cruiser, then I wanted to put in a 351 Lightning motor, next thing you know, the 351 had grown to 427 with aluminum hi-port heads that needed custom headers, an automatuic with a 4800 stall convertor, and it was really a handful on the street.  But gawd, that car was fast.  It had more in it, it just couldnt hook.  If the 60 ft times had been what they should have been, the car would have went 10.80s or quicker.  I never even adjusted the Demon carb, just bolted it on, set the idle speed, and let it eat.  The plugs read good, so I never changed anything.  It could probably have picked up a hundreth or two by fine tuning the carb.  This one will probably have close to the same size tire I ran on the other one, but it will have ladder bars and coil springs.  I ran the original leafs and southside machine bars on the last one, and the 60 ft times suffered because of it.  I think the best 60 ft I had was 1.61, which isnt bad for stock leaf springs with what amounts to slapper bars.  The car was still pretty heavy too, I believe just at 3600 lbs.  The ladders will be a little stiff for normal driving as they wont let the vehicle roll any, so I may change my mind and go with 4 links.  I really like the simplicity of the ladders though, so I will wait and see.  I ran ladders once before on a street car, but I cant remember how they rode, its been a long time, nearly 20 years.  I am excited about this project, cant wait to get started on it, but I told my son that we would get the Maverick painted and V8 powered first, so we could start taking it to the track in the spring or early summer this year.  I am glad he's taken an interest in this stuff.  Get him started stripping my `57 as soon as we're done with the Maverick, lol...