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.