57 Custom 300 Rehab

[fadmon30]

Well, I have owned the car for 15 years now, tried to sell it once but couldn't get out of it what I thought it was worth.  The car was my Grandfathers, my grandmother bought it for him on a farm auction in South Dakota in the late 70's ( It is a Custom 300 with a 272 and an auto).  They had a Fairlane 500 back in the 60's but it suffered an untimely demise due to an engine fire.

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B_wZ8nml64mSZ0ctZ2Rqc2lzQTg&usp=sharing

After stumbling on this forum I decided to start working towards getting back on the road.  All in all the car is very solid, a little surface rust here and there, the front drivers side floor pan is gone but the supports and rockers are in great shape.  The plan is to get it moving under it's own power and relocate it to Two harbors, MN ( it is currently 300 miles away at my sisters where it as sat for at least 30 years).  The Y-block is stuck and has been for probably 20 years. 

The plan is, and it's pretty ambitious, to source a 351W and an known good AOD.  I am going to look at a 351 this Saturday and a buddy down near Somerset WI has a tranny for me.  The family and I are heading to the farm Memorial Day wknd, work detail is to remove the Y-block and trans and take measurements.  Then at the end of June we will be back down there for my nieces wedding.  Load up the 351 AOD and head south, plunk them in and load it on a trailer under it's own power(:  I don't have a large work space here in Two Harbors but once it is moving under it's own power I will be able to move it around and start replacing the floor pans and updating the brakes.

So with that, the things that I have gathered from others on here is this, 351W needs a front sump pan, fox body mounts will get it sitting in the frame rails.  Trans cross member can be modified to work with the AOD or find a late 80's town car cross member.  Still unclear as to whether or not the drive shaft length will be ok and by the looks of it a ford truck shift arm for the transmission, although the Lokar unit looks pretty universal.  I am trying to do this as economically as possible.  Thanks for all of the help so far!

Karl Z

[fadmon30]

Sorry about the link to my google drive folder, I can't figure out how to post pictures.  The pic with the white house in the background is my grandparents Fairlane 500

[Marc]

Looks good Karl. Good luck with your project. It's always good to see another fordor getting some love!

[junior58]

Great car, good luck with the build and welcome to the forum.

[JPotter57]

awesome, and no problem at all on the pics.  Great project, keep us updated.

[fadmon30]

Well, was down at the farm last Wednesday and looked the car over for myself.  Took some more pictures and added them to my google drive.  It is a very solid car, dirty yes but very solid!  I opened the hood and the pipe wrench I was using to try and turn the 272 over was still laying in there .  So for shats and grins a put it on the stub of the broken crank pulley and gave it a tug, pretty sure that it moved.  Oh well,  it will make removal much easier.  351w parts are showing up, gaskets and mounts here, oil pan pump pick up and bearing and lifters will be here tomorrow.  Found some good 90s truck heads, picked up some 80s Mustang headers last week cheap and I will go and pick up the AOD on Monday.  When I got the 351w i got just about everything with it, the PO pulled it and dropped a 401 AMC in its place.  He kept the Ign module and wiring and me not being a diehard blue oval guy I didn't realize right away that I am going to need a Dura Spark module and the wiring to go with it, so when I go to get the trans on monday I will have to search for that.  Or, does it make more sense to use MSD instead?  The streetfire boxes can be had pretty cheap and it looks like a really simple hook up,  thoughts? Input?  Opinions? 

Thanks

Karl

[lowrider]

When I converted my 57 292 to Duraspark ignition I picked up the wiring harness at the wrecking yard. Was only a few bucks and the final result made it look like it came from the factory that way.

[JPotter57]

I would use the MSD box. Its easy to hook up to the Duraspark, and the Duraspark distributor is a good piece.  In fact, it uses the same magnetic pickup and reluctor as the MSD, as MSD borrowed from Fords excellent design.  Fords Duraspark box was good, but the aftermarket ones from auto parts houses, not so much.  I would wire up the MSD 6 box and run it.

[fadmon30]

Alright, a friend suggested an MSD Streetfire vs the 6 series boxes.  THey can be had for $114 on Ebay from MSD as a factory refurb.  With the MSD it will work with just about any engine I decide to put in once I have the car nice.  Same friend suggested I drop a Coyote in it .  Told him maybe eventually, was thinking of a Mod motor.

[fadmon30]

Well, went to a fishing buddies salvage yards to get an AOD for the 57.  Called two weeks prior in response to a CL add.  Have two of them.   Get there and the one I needed got dropped and the bell housing shattered?.  Go and look at the 2nd one and its been mothballed in a bus for 5 years.  No shift linkage or throttle valve linkage.  Pretty disappointed,  thought well maybe I can get ignition and voltage regulator.  Wrong, everthing was pretty well stripped.  Get on Facebook and CL, and there is nothing out there. 

Today, went to the salvage yards in town, old guy buys junk cars and crushes them when he needs $.  Found 2 F150s, and 86 and an 90.  He couldn't remember if either were good but was going to head out there with a jump pack and a can of ether and see if they would fire.  Neither seemed to have burnt fluid so I'm optimistic.  Besides, I have a known good 4r70w at my disposal.

Msd street fire ignition got here today, just about have all of the pieces for the transplant.

[RICH MUISE]

the mentioned 4R70W is a computer controlled tranny.

[fadmon30]

Thanks, I'm aware.  The internals are interchangeable in input output shafts drums clutches.  The valves bodies differ obviously, but from what I've read, you can use Sprague gears, sun gears to go from a .67 to a .7 overdrive but gain a short first gear.

[fadmon30]

For those that have done an aod swap with a 5.0/351W.  Which tail extension length did you use?  10 1/4" or 11 1/4"?   I can shorten the drive shaft easy enough, but I won't have access to the tools where I am doing the swap.  Hanks in advance!

[fadmon30]

Well,  it was a bit more ambitious of a project then I thought it would be.   But I did manage to make the 300 mile trip south to the farm to work on the car 3 times over the summer.  Memorial day weekend was plagued by an inoperable cherry picker so that slowed progress but eventually got a working bottle jack for the cherry picker and got the 272 removed and set the 351w in its place.  The next opportunity I got was the last weekend of June, only got about 6 hours to work on the car ( nieces wedding took up most of the weekend).  Did however mate the aod to the Windsor and figured out what I had to do to make the Tranny crossmember work.  Managed to cut for pan clearance and made a new mount pad, turns out it was 3/4" to low.  Out of time I removed the crossmember and brought it back to Two Harbors with me.  Did manage to figure out about how long of driveshaft I would need to find.   

Break in action,  wife lost job ( restaurant she worked at burned to the ground).  Low on funds project on hold.   

Labor day weekend,  got to salvage yard prior to go and work on the car and sourced a driveshaft.  Trans crossmember modified truck loaded up and took Friday off of work.  Got to my parents Thursday night.  Mom made breakfast Friday morning so kind of a slow start, spending time with Mom, wife/ Angie and our little boy.  Weekend went good. Worked all day Friday and Saturday.   Saturday night I was ready to put the carb on realized I needed a 1 in spacer for the carb linkage to clear the intake manifold ( stock 80s ford emissions 4bbl intake minus the egr plate).  Sunday was off to the Minnesota State Fair, it's a pilgrimage we do annually.  Found an Oriellys on the way home that had a carb spacer.  So Monday morning bright and early I got to work on the car, finished the Ignition, got the carb on, hooked up the tv cable (lokar) set the radiator in an made up some hoses.  Started filling the radiator and wouldn't you know it, it has a massive hole in it.  Not to be deterred I filled a 20oz pop bottle with gas and poked a hole in the top to squirt gas in the carb.  IT LIVES! Kind of.  I need a gas tank and radiator,  or I need to at least flush the gas line and use the 6 gallon boat tank but that will have to wait.   My goal for the weekend was to get the car off of Jack stands and roll it out of the way for the boats and rvs that will be showing up to be stored for the winter.  Oh well, gives me 5 months to aquire brakes, radiator and a gas tank.  Thinking about Auto city classics for the gas tank and radiator.

[RICH MUISE]

I got my tank and radiator from Auto City, as many here have. I'm really happy with quality, pricing and service on everything I've got from them.
Sounds like you got quite a bit done for what little time you had to work on it.
a 5.0 btw is a 302, not 351