New Member

[CobraJoe]

Hi, new member here from Massachusetts, been lurking around for a bit as I have been searching for a '57 for some time and wanted to learn as much as I could before I bit the bullet.  I'm 58 and been a Ford guy my whole life, mostly Mustangs, Broncos and pickups, so there is definitely Ford Blue running through my veins.

I finally pulled the trigger on a '57 Fairlane 500  a few weeks back and it got delivered to me today. I know you guys are familiar with the car because I've seen it discussed here in the past. I also know it's not to everyone's taste, but it was a pretty complete car and in my price range. I had thought about several project cars and really wanted to build a Gasser ( I still have a couple of 427's upstairs at the shop) but the wife reminded me that I was still building a Bronco and had a full time job. So, between work and other projects, I figured this would be a good driver that we could use, at least for the time being. Here's a few pics, I don't mind some of the custom stuff like the rear bumpers and valance, tube grill, etc... but I despise the quad headlights. To me the single bug eye headlight defines the '57 ford, so that will probably be the first thing I change.
I know I'll probably have a lot of questions as I go along, so thanks in advance for the help. 

[rmk57]

I like the rolled pan and the rear bumper treatment, but not so much to the quad headlights. It's a nice mild custom.

And yes to the Broncos, I have a 66.

[RICH MUISE]

Good car to pull the trigger on.......congrats!
One of our especially knowledgeable members lives in Carver.....don't know how far that is from you, but if your in the cape area can't be too far. Jay Arrow, his tag is Ecode70D

[CobraJoe]

Thanks guys! Carver is about 25 miles from me, so easy ride. I'm not technically on the Cape, but from Fairhaven. I started using Cape Cod as a location on forums years ago because it seems like the only two place people seem to know about Massachusetts are Boston & Cape Cod.

P.S. if anyone knows where I can get some headlight doors & buckets reasonable, please let me know.

[Marc]

Looks good! Gotta agree with you about the quad headlights.

[RICH MUISE]

Redoing the headlight buckets I would think is gonna be a major project, unlike what installing the dual headlight aftermarket piece was like. You may wanta sit on it for a while to see if you can get use to the duals. Of all the replacement panels available for '57 Fords, the headlight surround is the worst. Takes alot of panel beating just to get them close. oem Ford replacement panels have come up occationally on Ebay, but very high $, and only seen one in 15 years.
I'm from Mass. originally. Acton I consider my home town. My sister (from Waltham) lived in Hyannis for 10 years or so, they  finally gave up and joined the migration to Florida full time.

[CobraJoe]

Thanks Rich, Acton/Concord area is nice, used to go up there to the Concord (technically Acton) Auto Auction every Friday.

I'll sit on them but doubt I'll get used to them; main reason I was able to buy the car "right". I know some guys have posted in the past about them. So if someone wants to trade......   

Any of the used stuff out there worth looking into?

Thanks

[RICH MUISE]

I actually worked at the Auto Auction for a few months one summer in the late 60's while I was looking for a machine shop job. Couldn't find one, and that's how I ended up in California. Small world.
Take a close look at the '57 headlight surround. An educated guess would be that it would be easier just to replace some of the oem '57 surround, rather than the whole surround. That guess is arrived at because I know how badly the replacement panels are formed, or more accurately, not formed. Either way, it's gonna involve alot of sheetmetal manipulation and welding. Then of course you have the matching paint problem.
Your "wanta trade?" idea may be worth looking into. There may be someone out there that wants the dual headlights and has a good set of oem fenders to trade. You'd still have the paint issue, but a whole lot less work for both parties. Be REAL CAREFUL with that though, not too many good fenders out there. If their's are  rusted as normal, your looking at even more work.
Just thinking out loud.

[junior58]

Welcome along. Gorgeous car. I had been contemplating going the other way from you and doing a quad headlight conversion but I hadn't seen a really good clear picture of one that had been done, until now. I don't mind it too much, but I'm not convinced yet, might have to look at your picture a few more times.

[djfordmanjack]

welcome. you gotta love Cape Cod and going over Sagamore Bridge ! all those beautiful houses as well. Hopefully the last 4 storms left some of them standing around....oh boy !

That 57 is great. Do you have any info about when this car was built? It looks oh so familiar to an old custom. those quad headlight conversions were some of the old tricks performed 6 decades back.
I like the look of your car very much! great entry into 57 Fords ! Enjoy !

[djfordmanjack]

these are all old customs

[CobraJoe]

Thanks for the info Rich Muise, used to love those fresh sliced roast beef sandwiches at the auction.  Please explain when you say "replace some of the surround" , do you mean trying to splice/weld the pieces of the headlight door together to make one good one? Also, when you say there aren't too many good fenders out there; I only need the headlight buckets and headlight doors, correct? ...why would I need the fenders? ...are they matched to specific fenders??? Paint, at least for me is the easy part; a friend with a body shop matches colors to a "T" with a spectro, so that's the easy part.

Junior58, this is all you: 




djfordmanjack  for a guy from Austria, you know more about where I live as well as the weather than most locals do, lol.  First off, thank you (and everyone else, for the compliments) I have no history on the car other than the guy who has owned it for the last two years, he bought it the way it is and put a couple of hundred miles on it.
the pics of the customs you posted are really cool, but I grew up with these cars and to me, they need the single "bug eye" headlights. It's just me, a lot of my friends have shoe box tri-five chevys and to me the '57 Fords were a much sexier car than the chevy's were. I think a lot of the allure with the quad lights was that they made the car look more modern. I'm an old phuck so I want the old look. 

[djfordmanjack]

Also loving the factory single headlights. nothing wrong with wanting to go back to that. Just wanted to express that whoever modified yours, they nailed the look and got it out really pretty. What Rich probably is trying to referring to is that the full front corner has to be replaced and, although available, they seem to be the least quality parts of all 57 repro panels. Originals are hard to come by, since most of them rusted out by design and lack of draining.
That said it might still be easier for you to look for and buy 2 og fenders than trying to undo whatever the PO or builder of this car did.
somebody might even like your dual quads and trade you for a straight deal, who knows.
I confess I might know a little more about MA than the average Austrian does Been there before and I have a special information source 'round your corner. hahaha...

[junior58]

Thanks for the pics CJ. DJ, are you suggesting I might like to swap with CJ? That sounds like a good idea, but being on the other side of the world, the shipping might be a tad expensive compared to CJ being able to find a set in USA. If I do go ahead with it I'd probably want to hang on to mine just in case I wanted to go back.

[Jeff Norwell]

I know I am in the Minority..But I love the dual quads... the whole car is a mild Custom.... love it.