The 4 eyed ugly younger sister....the 1959!

[Fabulous50s]

I bought this car in 2017. It had been sitting since 2001.

There also was a 58 that I wanted bad, but I couldnt get the guy to part with it. It was his deceased aunt's car.

I am 36 and have two kids and a stay at home wife so time and money dont permit a full restoration, but this will be a good driver and I wont be completly upside down. After all it is a 4 door sedan, not the most desirable on the list. I've dreamed of a 57-64 Ford ever since I was a kid (in the 80s). This certainly fit the bill.

[CobraJoe]

Yeah..... bad move, not a pretty car. You should keep looking for something more desirable and give that '59 to me.

[Fabulous50s]

More from 2017.

[Fabulous50s]

Some recent

[Fabulous50s]

Bosch 90Amp alternator I had laying around from my VW days. A bit of fabrication to make that work, and retained the GEN light on the dash. This was just a test fit.

Note, I was pressure testing cooling system. I am very close to going on the maiden voyage. Waiting to get some interior metal painted, and need to fab a battery tray for a modern (less expensive) battery.

[RICH MUISE]

Thanks for sharing. I'll bet 80% of us are wishing ours was that good when we started. Looking forward to pics when you can drive it out of that garage. Good luck with the maiden voyage.
Keep us up to date on progress.
Rich

[djfordmanjack]

Beautiful car and a sweet color combo !

[sprink88]

Rich couldn't be more right.  Mine is a driver now and I wish it could be as good as your is now! 


Nice 59!!!?

[Fabulous50s]

Thank you guys! This car was originally all green, the PO who was not mechanically inclined, had all the work done by others. He had it painted the two tone, which I'm glad he did. This was all done in 1988. For the most part the paint is an 7.5 or better out of 10.

I've had to replace all the inner rockers and fabricate most of the body mounts. Most of the stainless and chrome I removed and buffed with a yellow rouge.

I've gone through everything but the 3 speed toploader. I stripped the 9" rear completely down and cleaned, replaced reassembled. New seals throughout the whole drivetrain/engine, everything was wet.

New Spectra fuel tank as the original had been patched once and had considerable rust inside. Electric fuel pump at the tank and all cupronickel fuel and brake lines, with mechanical fuel pump block off plate. I brazed in a return line in the tank in case I want to make a return system or fuel injection someday.

The 14" Coker wide white radials just about killed me, but ah well it's only money.

[Fabulous50s]

Rear

[Fabulous50s]

I've done extensive sandblasting on all the small parts and the only thing not doing myself if had the front bench reupholstered. Found some of the fabric as NOS on Ebay, all of the springs were broken in the seatback for the driver.

I've rewired the car starting completly from scratch. I added a fuse/ relay box under the hood and a large fuse panel under the dash. Now every wire is sized for the load and fused appropriately within 12" of the battery. All original switches are retained but are used to run relays and not and loads.

I worked as a mechanic for 10 years, and saw too many car fires from old/shoddy wireing.

I was at the upholsterer when a guy drove I  with his 55 Lincoln. Noticed what looked like steam coming from the grill. We went outside and opened the hood, it was smoke which was now billowing from the DC Generator. We rushed to disconnect the battery and had to use the fire extinguisher on the generator to save the car!

[RICH MUISE]

Glad that car got to the right person! It was obvious from the first post on that this wasn't your first rodeo.

[Jeff Norwell]

Beautiful car..Beautiful work!

[mustang6984]

Very nice cruiser. As for being a 4-door...who cares? Looks great! Lots of future memories for the kids coming in that car! THAT is the important thing.   

[fdlrc]

I'm enjoying the pictures and descriptions.