1957 Ford Country Sedan mocha silver V8 4dr wagon

[djfordmanjack]

You're welcome Hugh, thx.

At the moment it is being discussed if the 2020 show will again be held at the same location, or moved to an even larger steam-era brick building. I am really looking forward to that show and meeting all those nice people and having the cars around for a party !

I would love to post more efforts on the 57s, but I have been very busy with other projects. There are many things still in need of doing on the CS. For now I just want to keep it roadworthy and inspected and further work will have to be delayed. In spring I want to replace the valve stem seals. I have all parts lying around for an AOD conversion with a Bendtsen speed Gems adapter kit, but not enough time right now.  the og 3spd Fordomatic shifts nicely and works great, but generates lots of heat on long highway cruises. the rearend is high geared and causes high rpms at cruising speed of 75mph. That would be improved a lot with the 0.67 AOD overdrive. I think it would change the wagon from a runaroundtown car to a long distance cruiser.
For next year I still plan to take the 57 on a 600 miles roundtrip to the Adriatic sea in early June. So I still got to get a few things done, like the valve stem seals. For now I am just happy to find enough time for recharging the battery ( which is actually plugged in at the moment) ...That's something!

[mustang6984]

Those cruises sound fun...especially to the Adriatic. Make me want to ship mine over when I finish it and go for a few drives. But that would probably be prohibitively expensive for a few weeks worth of cruising.

[djfordmanjack]

There are many obstacles in shipping a car. Usually it's not a big thing, but I have had bad experience lately. workers are careless and push or damage cars to their likings. it is possibly better if you have a drive in/out container and the car is in pristine condition. it will get insured properly and taken care of. project cars they push around like scrap iron. they are aware of the low purchase price and value and no insurance will cover anything on a car like that.
That said, if I shipped a car to drive on the other side of the ocean, I'd want to have an extended journey for several months or so. It could be a dream come true though. I am still thinking about one time shipping one of my own cars back to the US and doing a nice cross country trip, but that will have to wait for a looooong time.

[mustang6984]

I have heard this before from Aussies who used to come over here once every 5 years when we did Mustangs Across America. They would buy first gen cars and drive them around the country after the MAA trip, then ship them back to Australia. Always sent them back in containers (2 per) so they didn't have to worry about abuse by handlers.
If I were going to do this...I would surely be doing it with an eye toward spending about 6 months or so there...see the country as much as possible. But expense...is a concern of course. We'll see...have to finish the little devil first! LOL!!!

[djfordmanjack]

sometimes you need to clean out the property of foreign scrap iron.

[mustang6984]

Well...in it's defense...at least that particular vintage had some design to it...as opposed to the scrap produced now. Would make a good Custom Street Rod.

[djfordmanjack]

I have to confess , it's coming, not going.

[rovohn]

This is the 667th reply just to be safe
John

[lalessi1]

This is the 667th reply just to be safe
John

That is brilliant!

[djfordmanjack]

didn't even notice that before, but thanx. we don't want to mess with the wrong man.

[djfordmanjack]

past weekend, and it seems we are early this year. nice 60 degree Sunday afternoon and time for a wash and warm up drive around the neighborhood.
Again and again it brings loads of joy to crank the Y block, feel and hear its familiar rumble and slowly get that old beauty into gear and cruising down the road. Hopefully spring and driving season will arrive soon also for all of our other northern members !

[mustang6984]

Ah...does my heart good to see that car being prepped for another summer of fun and frivolity. Also makes me jealous. LOL!!!

[RICH MUISE]

If the weather holds, I'll be putting 8-900 miles on mine later this week. 17* and snowing when I got up this morning, but suppose to be in 60's this weekend, and also in Fort Worth (Goodguys)............it's just the 60% chance of rain there Saturday that's making it iffy.
The car is looking great, Gunther!

[djfordmanjack]

keeping my fingers crossed for you Rich, the spring meets in that part of the country must be great ! Probably lots of new builds showing up every year?
our cars should be driven (even more)!

I want to drive the 57CS more this year, as I barely made any longer road trips last year. lots of work and also my other cars running so nicely kept me from using the 57. I have to admit that it has the lowest mpg rate of all my cars, and gas price is something that we really have to consider here in Europe. Luckily gas price went down almost 10-15% from last year and will hopefully stay for the summer. so this makes it a little easier on the wallet.
The 57 starts great, idles well and has good power. there are some small oil leaks, nothing major. There is a list with smaller projects that I plan to do on it in the next 3 months:

frt oem stabilizer bar needs installed ( all hardware stripped and painted already, new rubbers in stock.)
lower bump stops install on a arms (og hardware restored, but might use universal rubber stops because of lowered suspension)
generator needs part overhaul (clean and cut back gaps on rotor, inspect/replace brushes, get a new shorter belt)
replace all 16 valve stem seals ( both rubber and silicone in stock) w/ engine in car and heads on.

I really don't have the time and funds at this time to tear the engine apart. It also runs nicely and has good compression, just oil consumption from crumbled stem seals. I made good efforts with replacing stem seals on my German Ford 4 banger last year ( Built a valve keeper tool). I Have a spare Y block head lying around, so I will try building a similar tool or using the sparkplug with an air pressure fitting.

Hugh, about frivolity.... remember this is a glass house wagon with at least 120 windows or so ( at least it feels airy like that ), so privacy in my longroof is somewhat limited....
Anyway, I plan to take it on our annual seaside trip to Croatia ( about a 700mls roundtrip) in June !

There are a few other roadtrips this year that I might want to take out the 57 as well.

[hiball3985]

Hope you get it out more this year, I'm not getting out much with all the damn rain but at least things are turning green for a change and should make for a nicer ride when the time comes.
Just another old shade tree suggestion but rather then using air in the cylinders you can bring the piston down and feed some rope into the cylinder through the plug hole then bring the piston up and it makes a good solid stop for the valves, be sure to do it on the compression stroke when both valves are closed. I wonder if a valve spring compressor similar to the one used for flatheads would work?