57 custom 300 build

[lalessi1]

Holy crap! (Car.) Holy crap! (Heart attack.) Your car is VERY nice... I really thought you were just starting, talk about fast forward. Keep posting pics.

[Ford Blue blood]

WOW, JUST WOW!!!!!  What a glorious Ford!

Where in Wisconsin are you?  Originally from Pardeeville, wife is from Antigo, we visit twice a year, hook up the next trip?

[mustang6984]

There is more to life than work...especially once we hit 60!

Nice ride! VERY nice! Like others, I was ready for a build thread...but I will settle for more pics of this version too! So nice!

[glr7533]

WOW, JUST WOW!!!!!  What a glorious Ford!

Where in Wisconsin are you?  Originally from Pardeeville, wife is from Antigo, we visit twice a year, hook up the next trip?

I am about 2 hours to the west of Anitgo on highway 64. It's a small town called Cornell. It was named after Ezra Cornell the co- founder of Cornell University.

[glr7533]

The former owner of this car bought it in 1982 when he was 15 years old. It had been sitting behind a repair shop in Rapid City for years. It had plates on it from California that were from 1972. There was no motor or transmission in the car when he purchased it. He thought that it was probable driven to Rapid City by one of the airman from the base at Rapid City. He assumed that the motor or transmission had gone bad and the car was abandoned. The car originally had a 272 with a three speed. He put in a used Y block and three speed with overdrive. He managed to drive it for less than a year before he had smashed it enough that he couldn't drive it any more. He gave me a picture of the car that showed a big U in the passenger side front bumper where he had ran into a fire hydrant. I also had to replace the rocker paned on the drivers side where he turned short in a parking lot and hit the cement base to a light pole. The trunk had a big dent in it where he backed into a dumpster a McDonalds. He finally put it in the ditch and damaged the front enough that he couldn't drive it. I was lucky that he had collected the parts to repair the front and they went with the car.

[mustang6984]

Sounds like he had no business driving! LOL!!!

[glr7533]

One of the things that I found to be kind of fun with this car is seeing the dumb things and quick fixes that a 15 or 16 year old kid does. The engine in the car was stuck when I got it. I wasn't concerned about it because I was planning on putting in a FE anyway. After I got the car home I thought I would try free up the motor. When I went to check the oil there was no dip stick. Now it had been probably forty years since I checked the oil on a Y block but I was sure I new where the dip stick should be. I went to the internet just to make sure of the location. Went back and looked at the front location and there was a plug in the hole so the dipstick tube hadn't fallen out. That's when I realised this engine must have come out of a truck. It made me wonder how they checked the oil and if this may be why the motor was stuck. I crawled under the car and pulled the plug and about four quarts of oil came out without any water. Went to the parts store and got oil and a filter and finished the oil change. I pulled all of the plugs and put penetrating oil in each cylinder. I let this set for about a week adding a little oil to the cylinders every couple of days. The car had a three speed in it so I put it in third gear and every couple of days I would rock the car a little and one day it broke loose, I put a socket on the crank and it turned over free with out making any strange noises. When I asked the previous owner about the dipstick he said they had taken the motor out of a pickup and had an oil pan for a car which they swapped onto it. It wasn't until they had the engine in the car that they realised their mistake and didn't know how to fix it. I asked him how he knew when to add oil. He said he would just add oil when the pressure gauge would start to bounce at a stop sign. Guess it goes to show that a Y block can be tough.

[glr7533]

I decided to try and start this engine to see if it would even run. Knowing that the tank and lines would be full of crud I rigged up a one gallon container and attached it to the cowl to gravity feed the carb. Took some sand paper to the points and put the old plugs back in. The wiring was in bad shape so I made up a push button starter switch and put a toggle switch in a wire going to the coil, and screwed in a oil pressure gauge on the block. Pumped the throttle a few times, flipped the switch, hit the started and it started right up. The motor actually  ran good and had good oil pressure. The radiator leaked real bad so I put a garden hose in the filler and let it run slow. After a few minutes it must have burned all of the oil that I had put in the cylinders because it quit smoking. Sold this motor to a guy form southern Wisconsin. He was going to put it back into a pickup. I told him that the motor had been stuck and showed him the dip stick was missing. I suggrsted that he should look at the bearings when he had the pan off but he said he was going to just put it in and hope for the best. The transmission and bellhousing went to a guy in northern Minnesota.

[mustang6984]

Built Ford Tough...

[djfordmanjack]

actually that was a pretty desirable motor. judging by the D1*** casting numbers on the heads, and your info that makes it a 61 truck 292, which are said to have great castings and they also have the road draft tube closed in the cast and a PCV system added on top of the valley cover.

[glr7533]

I am not real familiar with the Y block so the D1 thing is interesting. I wondered if this engine may have been rebuilt before the previous owner put it in the car. The motor was real clean on the outside with good red paint. This didn't look like something he would have done since everything that he did to this car was done with a maul, chisel or 1/2" drill.

My next problem with the car was the title. I had the signed South Dakota title but it had the build number from the VIN tag instead of the VIN number. I wasn't real concerned about it because the build number is still unique to that car. I took a picture of the VIN plate and went to the DMV to get it taken car of. The guy at the DMV was really good. He said if it had just been one number on the title that was off he could have taken care of it but with a completely different number the state office would have to handle it. He did give me a new Wisconsin title with the build number so that I could get the tax part taken care of and the paper work to send in. He said that with the picture I had and paper work he gave me it shouldn't be a problem. I sent the paper work in and six weeks later I get a letter saying they needed a state inspector to look at the car. No problem I have the car sitting in my garage with the front clip off and the frame VIN exposed and it matches the VIN tag. Called the DMV and they wanted me to bring the car to them. Told them that it was impossible because all of the front suspension is off. So she tells me they only have one inspector in the area that can do this and he is really busy. OK, no problem the car isn't going any where I just would like to get it done. Her next question is what is the vin number on the dash. That's when I knew I was in trouble. I don't know if I ever got her to believe the tag was on the door frame. Her next problem was that the VIN didn't follow the proper number format. Anyway she  said the inspector would be calling. A couple of months went by with several calls to the DMV and no inspection. One day going thru town I saw a DOT truck inspector parked on the side of the road so I stopped and talked to him about my problem. He drove to my house looked at the vin on the frame and tag signed the paper work and told me to send it in. Two weeks later I had my title.

[mustang6984]

Sometimes going around the system pays dividends. Had to do that with my red Explorer...bureaucrats are a pain...and those that follow their edicts can be worse!   

[glr7533]

I bought this project in September and spent some time cleaning it out and inventorying all the parts. Got the engine started and pulled it out so I could sell it and looked the car over to see what parts I would need. I found a Fairlane that was missing the complete driveline but had the parts I knew I would need. The car had come from Illinois and the bottom half of the car and frame were completely rusted away. I needed one half of the grill because mine had two of the cross bars missing. These had been cut out for some unknown reason, The dash had the radio opening cut larger to fit a different radio and the cover plate was missing. The previous owner had also drilled  a hole in the dash between the cigarette lighter and ash tray for a manual choke control. He also installed a floor shifter and cut a slightly over sized hole for it. On the passenger side of the tunnel where the hole is ( I think it is for adjusting bands on a automatic) he cut it bigger. That had me scratching my head for a few minutes until I saw the fill plug on the side of the transmission. I new the bottom of the car near the trans was greasy so apparently he figured it was easier to just fill it from the top. I think I mentioned this was all done with a maul, chisel and large drill.
Jerry

[glr7533]

After I stripped everything off the Fairlane that I thought I could use or sell I pulled the 300 into the garage and started on the front suspension. I thought about powder coating the frame but since this was going to be a several year project and would be done in phases I decided to use Chassis Saver instead. I purchased a siphon sand blaster and built a small covering over the car to contain the sand and went at it. The sand blaster actually did a good job and was quite fast. The frame had surface rust and very little grease so it went fast. One thing that I did that I am not sure was a good idea was I replaced all of the ball joints. The ones that were on the car were tight and seemed to be in good condition. I figured they were sixty years old and it would be easier to replace when everything was apart. Since then I have heard people say the new ones don't last, guess time will tell. The mount for the radiator support was also bent but this was something I would take care of latter.

[mustang6984]

Looks like great progress already. Maybe shorten that build time a bit? LOL!!! Once ya get rollin'...might be hard to stop...