falconvan

Great looking wagon! You did some really nice work.

Looking great! You'll have a rolling chassis before you know it.

Great looking car and a big plus that it was your grandma's! Looks like it was well taken care of when it was on the road.

Thanks! It was really nice to actually drive something instead of working on it the whole weekend. I hit two shows Saturday and drove it around a lot both days. Lots of confused people trying to figure out what the engine was. Still got a few minor bugs to address but it's all stuff I can fix on the fly. Im taking it to a Saturday night Main Street cruise next weekend; i'll try and do a short video while I'm there.

Thanks, all. Other than a few minor bugs to address, it's pretty much done. My wife and I gave it a bath today and took it out a little. It runs and drives really nice. Should be hitting the first show next weekend.

Success! Two trips down the road and back without a hitch!

I should be doing a short road test tomorrow; over the last few days I wrapped up a lot of little stuff. I built a new shifter handle with some 1/2" stainless rod, wired the radio and put a check engine light in next to it, got the carpet and seat back in, plus some other goodies. Still a fairly good list of misc to finish but it should start making some short shakedown trips this week.

I'd go with the hoses, I've had that happen a few times on old cars.

She know all too well how mind mind works; im either chasing a car project or chasing her aound the bedroom.

You're not kidding, Don. I'm ready to drive it instead of work on it for a while. Of course I have my wife's 48 to finish as she keeps reminding me.

Thanks! It's fun to put all the pictures in one place so you can look back from the beginning. Hopefully there will be a test drive video next weekend.

Jeff, just see if you can find a grade 8 bolt for that thread long enough to go through your shock. Should work fine. OK, clutch is fixed, grill is on, and a couple of annoying oil leaks fixed. Should be road testing by next weekend! I decided to put a short build video together, check it out if you have 8 minutes to spare.

Thank you, Jeff. I appreciate that and it was a pleasure meeting you, too. Still can get your old ones to come out?

We're in sort of similar fields, I manage the maintenance at a data center & records facility for Citibank. I'm more on the mechanical end than the data end, though. I think I got this without pulling the trans, I bled the slave and bearing again and it's working. There was already an inspection port covered with a rubber plug at the bottom. Thanks for suggesting bleeding, I was ready to tear it all apart again.

I've got a frame mounted Wilwood master cylinder hooked to the throwout bearing with an An-3 line and bleeders on both ends. It seems like it's bled but the bummer is you can't see the throwout bearing inside the bell housing. I thought about cutting a small inspection port in the bottom of the housing so I can see what's going on with the throwout bearing. I know it's moving fluid as I have a good steady stream coming out both bleeders but almost no resistance on the pedal. I probably should have used an aftermarket bearing and checked the clearance before I put it together but it looked new so I just put it together. So you were a Ford mechanic? When did you retire?

Yeah, hydraulic but no rod. It's a hydraulic throwout bearing. I used the stock Ranger one from the trans but I think it might need one with more travel or some shims behind it.

Fixed! The valve cover vent tube was supposed to be hooked to a fresh air tube on the throttle body but I had it hooked to manifold vacuum. It was sucking oil right out of the valve cover into the intake. Great news but I am going to have to pull the trans back out as the throwout bearing is not disengaging the clutch. But compared to what I though I was going to have to do, that's pretty minor.

Well, good news, bad news. The good news is I got the chip in, chased down a bad TPS and the car started right up and ran beautifully......for about 20 minutes. All of a sudden it started smoking like a dog and blowing raw oil out the passenger side exhaust.:CRY::CRY: Its not missing so Im guessing a broken ring?? Whatever it was, it's got to come back out this weekend. And I was so close....... At least all the fab work is done so it should just be pulling the motor, fixing it, and dropping it back in. Or getting another SHO motor if something is really broke bad. Ive got too much time invested in the setup and dont want to back up and do something else now.

It seems like when you're getting near the end of a project the small task list is endless. Spent the last few days putting on the front shocks, bleeding brakes, zip tying wire bundles & hoses away from hot items, finished the drivers side fenderwell, found wiring diagram for stereo amps & sub and got them mounted, put some tailpipes on, and several other things I probably forgot. My computer module should be here this week along with a few other parts. Man, I need a couple weeks garage break when this is over.

Awesome work! I did those same brake and suspension mods on a few of my old Mopars and they worked great. Even printed out the same diagram to make the brackets. That's what hot rodding is about; use what you got and build what you need. Went through the same crap with the rockers although I got them from Rock Auto. One fit pretty good, one was a huge pain to get it to fit.

Sounds like you've got some good progress going, Cass. It there a test drive in the near future?

Very cool looking, she'll get lots of attention heading down the road.

Lots more done this week; exhaust is on except for the tailpipes, clutch is hooked up and working, front bumper is on, hood hinges are on, pulled the MAF apart and cleaned it, figured out the tach wiring and got it working, plus several other small jobs. The front is sitting about 1 1/2" lower; the front shocks were too long and bottomed all the way out so I pulled them off and will get new ones. I started it this afternoon and let it run about 30 minutes. After stumbling for a few minutes it settled down; idles really nice and throttle reponse seems good. Vital signs all look good. Still need to get a programmer but this is pretty promising. For exhaust I just went with a couple of Summit's house brand of glass packs and 2 1/4" pipe. It has a really interesting tone especially when you rev it.

I've done it a couple ways and they all worked fine. 1) three leg puller with heat. 2) cut the rivets and leave the hub in place (did this on my first 49 and had no issues driving with the drum not riveted to the hub) 3) I've done three 8.8 swaps; this is a great rear end for these cars. Now it's a given, whenever it start on one of these cars the first place I hit is the Ford explorer section of the boneyard.

Looks great, Joe. Thanks for posting the pics, I need to do my seat and this will be a big help.