Problems!

Work on the engine is at a bit of a standstill! While Red and I were trying to get the motor properly centered on the engine steady rest, we noticed a few parts that needed replacing.



So the 'bracket assembly' is the actual engine steady rest that we are trying to get attached to the motor. Aside from not being attached to the motor on the left side, there doesn't appear to be any other problems with it. The spacer however is broken, and the insulator has totally perished as has the rubber part of the retainer. Mine looks like this:



About to post these pictures on http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ somebody must have had the same problem!

Parts

Replaced a couple of parts last night. The oil leak from the crankcase is now fixed but the oil leak coming from above the oil filter canister is a lot worse. No surprises there, more back pressure forcing the oil out. Also the idling speed has been set to compensate for all the problems, now that those problems have been taken care of, I need to adjust the idling speed accordingly.





Finally a picture of the inspection sticker mentioned in the last post. I imagine Mr. Mohler was the last person to have it inspected in the state of California.

Discovery!

Just got off the phone with Randy Mohler who happens to be the son of Raymond Mohler. Raymond's was the name on the receipt I found under the carpet.

After finding the receipt I took a shot in the dark and looked up "R. Mohler Ripon, Ca". My search returned a few phone numbers the only one answered by a human was Randy Mohler's. I spoke to his wife and she told me she would have him call me. To be honest, I wasn't too hopeful but Randy very kindly called back and told me a few things about the car that I could possibly have learned had he not!

Raymond Mohler was the original owner of the Crestline. He bought it from a ford dealership in Manteca, California in 1954 just before he left high school. There is a Knapp Ford in Manteca but Randy wasn't sure if Knapp was the dealership back in 54.

The Crestline served as the Mohler family car for 18 years until 1972. It was never involved in an accident and Raymond changed the oil religiously every 2000 miles! Randy tells me the routine oil changes bordered on an obsession with him! It has certainly paid dividends, in 2008 the motor sounds great!

In 1972 the car was sold to Mr Simmons (Ken?) who owned a dry cleaners in Ripon. Mr Simmons had bought the car with the intention of restoring it himself. It sat in his garage untouched for a while and at some point it was transferred across town to a ranch where it sat covered by a tarp for some time. Randy said he walked past the covered car countless times and it was only after it had been moved that he dicovered it was his father's old Crestline.

The fact that the car was sold in 1972 makes perfect sense. The last service sticker appears to be from 1972 and the California state vehicle inspection sticker on the windscreen expired at the end of 1972.

So this fills in a lot of the blanks! The Crestline has been traced from 1954 to 1972 and some years beyond. That leaves a few years in between, I suspect it sat in a garage or barn somewhere undisturbed for a good number of those years.

Thank you so very much for the information Randy, I'm thrilled to learn more about the car's history. Hopefully I can restore it to the condition you remember it in all those years ago!

Naked

So the Crestline is still up on jack stands in the garage and the clean up continues. Made some decent progress over the last few days though. The underside, particularly the front end, is looking fairly good. Sprayed it with a bunch of degreaser on Friday night and blasted it with the power washer on Saturday. Not clean enough to be painted but clean enough to get to work on the front end. On the driver's side, the Pitman arm needs looking at, on the passenger side, just the bearings need attention. After that gets taken care of, it's on to the brakes.

Got a proper fuel pump block off plate to replace the ridiculous one that had been fab'ed up out of formica!! So I bolted it on as soon as I got it. That should improve the performance of the motor no end!

I was hoping a friend might come over with his floor jacks so we could jack the engine up a bit and set it on the mounts correctly. Somehow, it is off the mount on one side. Might be a good idea to replace the main engine seal while we've got the engine jacked up.




As the title states, the car has been undressed! I didn't want to sit idle while I wait to start on the suspension, so I went to work on the inside. Removed all the scuff plates and pulled the carpets out. Unbolted the front bench seat and pulled it out. The back seat and back cushion came out easily too. Removing the seats and carpet revealed a solid floor with very little rust. Some surface rust but no holes, everything is good shape! Not bad at all for a 54 year old. This opens up a few more sub projects that I should be able to get working on if I need to wait for help on any mechanical stuff.







The highlight of the days work was a little find I made. When we pulled the carpet out, underneath it where the front bench seat had been, was old receipt. A chap named Raymond Mohler stopped into Douma's supermarket in Ripon, California for a spot of gin in January of 1966. Worth nothing, but I thought it was a cool find nonetheless!

Manuals

Got a couple of books in the post today, one, a Ford shop manual for 1952/1953/1954 passenger cars, the other a book on the Y-block engine. Yesterday I got a new crankcase breather screen (with new 'O' ring). The 'O' ring was the part I really needed, the old one had totally perished and so, was leaking oil. Haven't put the new one on but that should take care of that leak, just the one from the filter to deal with now. I've already changed the oil filter and all the associated seals, I was hoping that would fix it but apparently not. I did run the car briefly tonight and I didn't notice any oil leaking but I didn't look all that closely either.


Put in a full shift tonight on clean up underneath the car. Scraping 54 years worth of gunk off all the suspension components. I took a couple of pictures of the driver's side (which I've started on) and the passenger's side (which I haven't). I think I'll end up getting a new front end kit, all the bushings will need to be replaced at a bare minimum.

Also assembled the front grille with the new turn signal housing.

More later, I'm tired!

Couple more things

From the pictures you can see the front grille, the hood ornament and a couple of emblems are missing. Just about everything was in the boot/trunk. The only thing I didn't have was one of the turn signal housings for the front grille. I've since picked up a pair of them on ebay for 25 bucks!

First Time

Right then, my first attempt at a serious blog. The subject of this and probably most subsequent blog entries will be my first restoration attempt. On Saturday the 10th of May I picked up a 1954 Ford Crestline Sedan. Josh and I drove down to Santa Fe (Texas, not New Mexico) and pulled it back on a trailer with his F-350. Started up no problem and sounded great as we drove it up onto the trailer.

Guttingly, between looking at it and picking it up the guy pulled the old 1963 California plates off the car!

Got it home and decided to take it for a quick spin before parking it up in the garage. Again, started right up and sounded great. Driving it was a real work out! No power steering and the tires weren't properly inflated. The '3 on the tree' gear positions took a couple of minutes to figure out too. Once I got the hang of them, it was just the steering that was an issue, that should be very easily remedied.

I was aware there was an oil leak, as I parked it in the garage, it was leaking a lot of oil. Fixing that will be the first order of business.

The guy I bought it from took the following pictures.