1957 Ford Country Sedan mocha silver V8 4dr wagon

[Jeff Norwell]

Looks great G! and a fantastic solution.I have used Swans on a few Hotrods in the past..... I try NEVER to buy from Macs anymore... SoCal's are a much higher quality..and of course the so is the price.

[RICH MUISE]

My '67 Chev mirrors I got at Socal in Arizona. Made by Fargo, happy with the quality. The first driver's side one I got was loose, but it got damaged in my accident and it's replacement was very stiff. I think the first one I bought was loose because it was an open shelf display and probably played alot. Very happy with the visibility on both sides. larger than normal mirror, posts slant outwards, so clears the wing window easily. May have used the left on the right and vise versa. Covered the bowtie with embossed alum blue ovals...only thing I don't like about them.

[57AGIN]

Rich:

Do those Brand XXX mirrors use the same mounting holes or at least cover up the original type Ford side mirror holes?  I don't mind using a better part that serves the purpose better than the original.  Since I now use an electric 2 speed windshield wiper motor AKA 57 Brand XXX.

Bob
57 AGIN

[RICH MUISE]

I did not have door mounted mirrors previously, if I did they got welded up, so I don't know if the hole pattern in these is anywhere close. When I get back to the new house where my car is I'll measure the base. Doug/57imposter installed them also, and somewhere on this forum is all the locational dimensions I used. I'll try to find it.

[RICH MUISE]

couldn't find our old thread, but I did measure the base of the mirror......5 1/2".

[57AGIN]

Rich:

Thanks for your efforts, I measured my external rear view mirrors and found the mounting holes to be 5.5" apart and the overall length of the mirror to be 7.5."  I was able to access my driver side and took photos of the mirror mounting and the clearances.  I have no vent window clearance issues on the driver side, tomorrow I'll check the passenger side clearances to see if there are any clearance issues.

Bob
57 AGIN

[djfordmanjack]

all your door mounted mirrors look real nice and obviously clear the vent wings. well done!
on my first 57 I used '55 ***** mirrors and I put them further back, so I could see the pssgr mirror through the main door glass (to the rear of felt channel). They worked nicely.
Unfortunately the pics I have don't show that well.
There is no way to safely drive a Sedan Delivery without a pssgr mirror these days.

[mustang6984]

"There is no way to safely drive a Sedan Delivery without a pssgr mirror these days."

There has NEVER been a "safe" way to drive one. I had big "cargo" mirrors on mine...was planning on going back to the smaller mirrors that were stock...but reading how much of a pain it is to find decent ones without resorting to brand "X" stuff...I may go back to the cargo mirrors.

[KYBlueOval]

Rich:

Thanks for your efforts, I measured my external rear view mirrors and found the mounting holes to be 5.5" apart and the overall length of the mirror to be 7.5."  I was able to access my driver side and took photos of the mirror mounting and the clearances.  I have no vent window clearance issues on the driver side, tomorrow I'll check the passenger side clearances to see if there are any clearance issues.

Bob
57 AGIN

Bob....your description of these mirrors sounds great........can you tell us exactly what mirrors you are using?
Thanks

[djfordmanjack]

Today I replaced all brake hoses, stoplight switch and fluid and the new hoses make for a somewhat stiffer pedal. nice ! The new (50 yrs old) camber/caster gauge is an absolutly wonderful thing to have! today I set up my 4 post lift so everything was straight and level and measuring turning angles with some wooden beams and ruler with angle scale. Should be very close to the actual caster as I observed that a few (1-3) degrees more or less of turning angle wouldn't affect the caster reading too much, maybe 0.1 degrees. My readings should be pretty ok, since I measured 25degrees of toe in angle on the inner wheel when having 20 degrees on the outer. pretty much the factory specs.
started out with 1 degree neg camber and 3/4 caster on both wheels. after calculating the shims  (considering the distance of the upper and lower ball joints, which is pretty much 12 ") came out with 1/2 deg positive camber ( minimum factory specs) and 1-1/2 degrees pos caster (max factory specs) on both sides.
The car does handle justa little different now.

steering effort while parking and at low speeds is a tad higher.
the wagon is just a bit more nervous in city cruising (30mph) and road corrugations.
It is even a bit more stable at high speeds now (80+).
The tire squealing in tight corners is gone. obviously the right setup for little wear on bias ply tires.

feels as if this is a good setup for the moment and tires I am using.

[djfordmanjack]

trailer hitch finished. data tag and Euro spec plug connector.






first the camber caster gauge boxes needed restoring....


before




After: 1/2 deg camber


1-1/2 deg caster

[57AGIN]

djfordmanjack:

Sorry Rich and I hijacked your build in discussing the mirror stuff.  I'll put my response to KYBlueOval over on General Discussion in my posts on 57 AGIN back at Santini's.  The work you are doing on your project is really great, you obviously have top notch fabrication skills and a great love for the 57's.  Keep up the great work on your Country Sedan.

Bob
57 AGIN

[lalessi1]

South Lousiana must be a third world country! You should see what a trailer hitch is here...

[canadian_ranchero]

here is a picture of the hitch i am putting in my wagon

[RICH MUISE]

Wow..that's a sturdy looking hitch! Does that replace the small final crossmember? Care to share some info on it?