Five Years (+10) and counting

[gasman826]

Day five of six day Back to the Bricks Tour.  Blue Water International Bridge...Port Huron, Michigan

[glenmichael]

Beautiful picture of a Beautiful car, I love the fact that you are willing to drive it on the street let alone take that 57 ford on a distance trip, True Classic Car Guy!!!

[mustang6984]

Nice pic! Glad you're having fun! 

[terry_208]

Stunning!  They always look better in the natural environment but your car would look great wherever you park it. 

[RICH MUISE]

Looking great Gary. Thanks for sharing. Neat bridge also.
I had Miss Texas in my car today!

[djfordmanjack]

outstanding pic ! I know the bugs on the hood and windshield are annoying, but they confirm that your 57 is really getting driven. Beautiful !

[Ford Blue blood]

Bugs on the windshield are a sign of happiness!

[CobraJoe]

She looks phenomenal as always!

[gasman826]

Since being home from the 'BACK TO THE BRICKS' tour, the Custom has been in the shop for 'nut & bolt' inspections.  I fixed a little oil leak, changed the oil and filter, checked all fluid levels, cleaned the air filter and radiator screen, ran the valve lash, tweaked the tuning, and generally inspected for any rubbing, melting or worn paint...all good!  I then moved on to the causalities of the 'nearly running over the kid' mishap.  The morning after the mishap, I found the AC belts had twisted and were running upside down.  In the hotel parking lot, three of us old guys managed to flip the belts (not a big deal but a major accomplishment with no tools).  Hindsight: I knew the belts were junk with broken belts and should have just cut them.  A 150 miles later, yep...the AC belts came off and popped the PS/water pump.  With no power brakes, power steering, and no water pump, we coasted to a I94 exit.  With a rock and stick, I got the PS/water pump belt back on (no AC belts this time) and made it home an hour later.  I believe the AC belts failed due to the over revving during the mishap.  Now, all new belts.  Upon reflection, the over rev should have been limited by the rev limiter setting.  There were three rev limiters on the car.  Way back when doing the rewire, I zeroed out the rev limiter in the tach and in the MSD CD box to use the rev limiter feature in the EFI ECU (the easiest to adjust).       When I removed the EFI and returned to carburetor, I also removed the rev limiting feature and completely forgot to set one of the two remaining rev limiters.  The second causality was the hydraulic clutch pedal.  After the mishap, there was too much free travel and the terrible grinding feel and noise.  After removing the pedal support, I found the clutch pedal pivot shaft (through the pedal support) had bent and was cracked nearly halfway through the shaft.  The autopsy disclosed that my do-it-yourself engineering was off just a tick.  I had thought that the downward clutch pedal travel was limited by the floor.  I was wrong!  The pedal stopped when the master cylinder bottomed.  Thus, during the panic stop mishap, I stomped on the brake and clutch pedals so hard that even though the clutch master cylinder had bottomed, the pedal still had downward movement to the floor.  I am amazed that the little, aluminum clutch cylinder didn't shatter.  But with 220 lbs. of panic driven old man, something had to give.  Fifteen plus years ago when I upgraded to hydraulic clutch, the clutch master location was a huge frustration and I was never satisfied with the design but it worked and it never failed until now.  During the hydraulic clutch conversion for the '65 Galaxie, I found a new company making hydraulic clutch pedal kits.  Malwood USA builds complete hydraulic clutch pedal conversions.  The '65 Galaxie kit bolted in with only two bolts that fasten into existing holes.  No more searching for rare OE pedals!  The kit includes a new clutch pedal and even a new and correct pedal pad.  After taking most of the day to remove the pedal support, the support upgrade took 10 minutes.  Now, reinstall the support and mount the brake fluid reservoir.  Maybe tomorrow!

[gasman826]

More PICs

[lalessi1]

I REALLY like that setup! What are you using for a throwout bearing? Any details would be greatly appreciated.

[cos]

Thanks for putting info up. Sticking with stock set up for now. I looked into hyd set up early on but after reading problem getting everything at correct angles I declined. I do like this setup noting hanging off firewall.

[gasman826]

The hydraulic throw-out/release bearing is a McLeod as well as the twin disc clutch.  I have three of these setups using Tremec TKO600, T56 Magnum, and TKX.

Getting the MC angles was a lot of trial and error.  Another issue was the firewall mounting area was not braced and supported like the brake master mounting.  Adding the turnbuckle brace finally brought stability (PIC).

[Fairlane62]

I also use McLeod, its good stuff.  As mentioned earlier, getting the master cylinders positioned was usually the time consuming part.  Thanks for posting the information on that under dash setup its pretty slick.  I'll look into that on the next project.

[gasman826]

Finally finished up under the hood...old MC gone and shiny, billet reservoir filled and ready to bleed.