Question about Thunder Road reunion police chase.

[Ecode70D]

    As most of you might know there was a 50th year Thunder Road reunion a few years ago.  Well during that reunion they had a mock up police chase through the center of town.  Did anyone happen to notice the real neat unmarked 2dr. 57 Ford Custom police car in the chase?   As I recall the rear bumper had a period clamp on whip antenna.
    Well I was just wondering. Is the owner of that car a member of this forum? 

[57AGIN]

Ecode70D:

This obviously isn't the 2 Dr Custom Police Car used in the Thunder Road reunion, but I do believe it is still for sale.  Steve Pierce of Twentynine Palms, CA owns this 4 Dr. Period correct Police Car.  He loaned the car to Rick and me back in 2007 for use at the Knott's Fabulous Fords Forever Car Show and the Seal Beach Car Show.  As I recall it had an automatic and a 352 or 390 FE for power.  It sure was a neat addition to the two shows, as you can see Rick and I had fun with the car.  Neither Rick nor I have room enough for another car and our current finances won't handle the purchase either.  Oh well, you just can't have all of the cars you'd like to have.  lol

Bob
57 AGIN

[Tom S]

This was up for sale a couple times a while back.  Cork Fork?  Not in Alaska.





Donut Patrol.

[57AGIN]

Tom S:

That's a real nice black & white Fairlane, love the bubble top on the roof and the car's nickname.  The location of the spotlights is interesting, I've never seen them mounted up high like that.

Bob
57 AGIN

[hiball3985]

Thats COOL! The poor thing as one of those overhead oiling kits 

[Ecode70D]

      Jim
      I suppose that the intravenous tube was the necessary evil in order to get the life blood circulating in some of the old Ys.  Sometimes it's a case of clogged arteries. 

      Re-builders have been known to install the cam bearings  improperly.   Is there an easy cure for improper cam bearing installation?  An old time mechanic once told me that he removed the heads and went down the oil hole with a drill. I asked him how he got the small pieces out and he just shrugged his shoulders with a dumb look on his face. This was back in the day and he also stated  that he had done several this way and none ever came back.
       It would bother me to know that particles were floating around my engine.  That would be putting a lot of faith in the pick up screen.
      Sure should like to hear other opinions.   
Jay
     

[hiball3985]

I've heard that about cam bearings, some claim they turn but I had never seen one. I think it was just a way for auto shops to make some $$  I fixed a few that had the oil passage in the heads blocked, usually a result of people not changing oil regularly and back then we didn't have good detergent oils, we used things like Quaker Sludge  I got two of them to oil without removing the heads..

[Ecode70D]

Well Jim
    You're one of the lucky ones.   Back in the day I never got one to free up without removing the heads.  I don't know why Henry put the step in there.  That made it just about impossible to poke a wire in it to free it up.  In the old days I tried all kinds of magic snake oils to soften things up in the hole but nothing worked for me. I did know that there was an attachment that bolted onto the top of the head after removing the rocker arm assembly and you used compressed air  or a grease gun.. But who had a compressor in those days when we were fixing cars on the sidewalk in the streets of Boston?

   "I've heard that about cam bearings, some claim they turn but I had never seen one. I think it was just a way for auto shops to make some $$ "
    I never saw one spin also and you could be right about that.   I have heard of machine shops not installing the cam bearings properly and not lining up the oil holes though.  That's what I was referring to when I stated that the old mechanic just drilled it out after taking the heads off.

    Yes the oils were crummy and the engines did get sludged up big time back in the day.
Jay

 

[hiball3985]

I did here of shops getting the bearings in wrong on rebuilds but never saw a factory one that turned. I never had compressed air either back then. You are right on that Jay, that kink in the casting was impossible to get anything down there. I was lucky on a couple using MEK and a good soaking over night, sometimes a few nights, I would pull the plugs and crank the engine to build up oil pressure until I got oil coming out. But that was only on a few, others were to bad and the heads had to be pulled.