update on Rich's build

[mustang6984]

Kinda neat! I like it Rich. Congrats!

[suede57ford]

Congrats Rich!

Good to see you a the show yesterday.  Definitely a First Class show that "Cook's Garage" puts on.

Pat

[RICH MUISE]

Yes it is........pretty well organized for just a second year show. More 57/58 Fords there than at the goodguys show 2 weeks ago. LOL, I did have to laugh though when I realized the parking lot was all gravel and dirt..........they obviously photoshoped their last year's pics to add paving, even with the parking space lines painted! They drew a heck of a crowd there as well.

[lalessi1]

Congrats Rich, Cool trophy too!

[djfordmanjack]

very cool trophy Rich. well deserved !
I keep coming back to liking your 57 so much all the time. (Now, I am not into modern drivetrains or interiors at all). but your car simply has it. right color, stance , hundreds of little details and, well. most innovative ! 

Now that it is getting spring and most probably your new garage has been set up....why don't you just get us some fresh pics of your pride and joy ?

[RICH MUISE]

Thanks Lynn, and DJ. I'll do that sir, I never have taken pics of my '57 in front of the '57 house. My garage is so cluttered and dirty already with all the woodworking projects I've had going on!...........no pictures of the inside til I get it cleaned up and finished. Not sure when that'll happen, lol.
Forgot my camera this past weekend, or could posted pics of Pat's really solid Ranchwagon, his dad's '58 mostly original retractable, and a friends '57 Ranchero from Amarillo that's sitting on a '87 Mercury Marquis frame and drivetrain.
I'll definetly get some pics in a week and a half when I take it to the NSRA show in OKLA. City, and hopefully in Rio Rancho, NM at the end of the month.

[RICH MUISE]

Got some fixin' to do. My A/C sprung a leak. Turns out it was the compressor. My AC guy said he could just replace the seal, but I opted to replace the 23 year old unit with a new one, which I  picked up today, complete with clutch assembly. My A/C guy with all the fancy equiptment is going out of town for three or 4 days, so I told him I'd put the new one in and bring it over to him when he gets back to run pressure tests and recharge with an added dye as I suspect I may have an additional very slow leak. He'll be back wednesday, but I'm wanting to leave next Friday for a show in Red River, NM.

[mustang6984]

Question...what sort of air unit are you running? I'm thinking of going with Vintage Air in mine.

[Ford Blue blood]

Very nice Rich.  The processes you went through to make it work are completely unknown to anyone but a true motor head.  Very nice someone did appreciate the work and tremendous amount of "trial and error" a build such as yours requires to come out as perfect as yours did!  I know it is going to be hard to keep the hat size the same.....:<)

[RICH MUISE]

Mustang: I'm running a Gen IV Magnum from Vintage air. Everything but the compressor is VA. The compressor is the stock Lincoln unit FS-10. I am running a Ron Francis 70 amp relay because of the cooling fan amp requirements. There is plenty of room for the Gen IV evaporator under the dash, but you will lose some of your glove box, or all of it depending on where you mount the evaporator. Mine is more away from the firewall (actually cut  into the lower dash a little), and all the way to the passenger side sidewall than most guys would have to be because my windshield wiper motor was moved to inside the cowl, and removes from under the dash.

Nice compliments, Bill. They're always appreciated from you guys! 

I've got the compressor unhooked from everything and ready to be unbolted. I'm not sure at this point if it's going to drop out without removing stuff. At least it's not still in the Mark VIII. Looking at the shop repair manual, removal starts with removing the cooling fans and radiator!! I really struggle with this stuff anymore. My old body just doesn't cooperate, and my hand strength is really diminished..

[RICH MUISE]

Old compressor is out with no clearance problems. It is centered right above the lower control arm with that big open arc leaving plenty of room for bolt access and clearance for the compressor to just drop on out. Yay!! I've got the new one prepped and ready to go in, just cleaning up the area as well as I can so the leak test dye will show up if I have a leak. After I rest a bit, I'll take a nap then see if I can lift/hold it into place and get a bolt in there.

[mustang6984]

Thanks Rich. Appreciate the info.
I'm in Missouri right now...about 6 hours from you...should I pop over and give ya' a hand?   

[RICH MUISE]

Appreciate the offer, but I got it done this afternoon, but still feel free to pop over.
Would have been easy with the car on a lift.
BTW, Motorcraft compressors come with a 2 year warranty IF you replace the dryer ( or accumulator), system hoses and condenser. I think I have 4 or 500. wrapped up in hoses alone, plus lots of hours. Hope it's a trouble free compressor since I won't have a warranty.

[RICH MUISE]

Update: A/c has been working fine, but I've moved on to another car project I had been putting on the back burners for too long. I'm sure most of you know I've been putting lots of miles on the car, and it's been running very strong at highway speeds. However, around town stop and go, traffic, etc., it's been getting progressively worse. Idling has always been an issue, and throwing codes since day one. Idling got to the point it didn't want to slow down when I took my foot off the accelerator, and practically standing on the brakes at a stoplight, and the surging up and down was getting progressively worse.
Found an ex Ford certified master technician with all the scanners and analyzing stuff to work on OBD1 systems, and he spent a few hours looking and fixing some stuff. He got the car running quite better, but at closing time he told me to work on the air plenum, install another MAF sensor he had in stock, and to get done the stuff I had told him I planned on doing. He had checked all the sensors and said they seemed to be functioning properly, but not getting or sending the correct signals due to the car running too lean, and he felt that was causing a domino efect on the O2 sensors, egr, etc.
So, in the past few days, I've removed the throttle body and gave it a thorough cleaning, replaced the throttle position sensor, pcv valve, and had a real struggle access wise to replace the idle air control valve, but got it done.
Just a head's up for you 4.6 guys: at least some of the aftermarket idle control valves do NOT have an oem style connector. I found out the hard way. I forgot to check the replacement I had purchased a year ago against the oem before I spent hours struggling to install the new one. The good news is I was able to buy a connector in stock at the local NAPA store. The bad news is I had to splice it into my Ron Francis wiring. I avoided spicing like the plague when I wired the car, also that little 1" wide connector with two 6" wires was a whopping 34.00 !!!!!!!!
THE GOOD NEWS: car is running radically better. It idles great with no surging, it actually slows down when I take my foot of the gas. Response has always been good when hitting the gas, but now the response is good when taking my foot off it, YAY!
Only downside is the car is still throwing codes, so on to the next step. I bought a set of injectors a year ago I never installed, so I'll get those on tonight or tomorrow, and give those a test run. If those work as they should, I'll install the MAF sensor the mechanic gave me. I'm doing this one step at a time so if there are any issues with what I've done it'll be easier to trace back. Jeff, my mechanic, has a gut feeling the lean condition is coming from the MAF sensor. At that point, I'll reset the computer to force it to relearn and go from there. Jeff is also going to do a smoke test on the vacumn system.

Edit......misspoke.........it's called an idle air valve, not idle control as posted above.

[mustang6984]

WHEW!!! I thought tri-power was bad! LOL!!!