'57 Ford Custom 300 Tudor Sedan

[Elliot949]

Originally Posted by Vic1947

Thanks, John. My main limitation is pictures ...didn't take as many as I should have. At least I finally scanned them in and put them in order - thinking maybe I'd do a website one day. Little did I know that forums would develop the way they have. Makes it a lot easier on us old timers.


[Groan] I'm all about the time crunch now. Lately, I've been going back down to the shop after supper for a couple of hours in addition to my daily routine. Only do the forum during breaks or early / late. However, I'm very nearly caught up.

By mid 2007 we'd acquired a fifth wheel RV and for the next three years very little got done on the Ford. I inventoried all my stainless trim and hand delivered a single piece to two different restorers as a test. The one shop did an excellent job and was very prompt. The other guy took 6 months for one piece of trim and then shipped it via UPS in a FedEx box. It was delivered folded in half. To add insult to injury, the dipsh!t didn't insure it for enough to cover a new one. So I located another restorable piece in Oregon and shipped it and the rest of the stainless to Vintage Vehicles in WI. They did a fabulous job and just to be safe, we drove to WI to pick it up.

I also discussed a custom front end design with my buddy Steve. He and his cousin Charles Smith whipped out an old school approach and sent me a sketch. Later on, Charlie updated it in PhotoShop and sent me several rendering with different headlight suggestions. I began the search for the parts I needed and was able to acquire all of them over the next few years.

Dude.. I love that old school custom look of the front...

I am looking to do the 63-67 Corvette touch to the front of "Class Act"

[Vic1947]

Originally Posted by Elliot949

Dude.. I love that old school custom look of the front... I am looking to do the 63-67 Corvette touch to the front of "Class Act"

Across those years, there's a wide range of possibilities, Dan. Interested to see what you come up with.

[Vic1947]

We pulled up stakes late 2009, moving from TX to KC. The Ford would sit for another year before it got some love. My dislike of the headers had continued to grow to the point I could no longer abide them. The key factor was the stock steering sector. I revisited the power rack and pinion conversion and found an individual that was selling a kit. I ordered one and when it arrived I pulled the engine and got busy with the swap. Regrettably, I don't have a lot of pictures of the final product, but it served it's purpose which was to free up the space to build a new set of headers.

Years ago, in anticipation of this moment, I asked good buddy Shaun Sublet to CNC some stainless header flanges for the 460. I also purchased the stainless U-bends and collectors to build the new set. I dug thru the dusty cardboard boxes that were slowly disintegrating on my shelves and found the long lost treasure. I'd done a few tubes before, but never a full set. You start with flanges on one end and collectors on the other and thin air in between. I'm not a fanatic about equal length, but I still wanted to keep the primaries as close to equal as was reasonable. I'd watched John Harrison build headers in his shop, so I knew the basics. Never, ever, miter a joint ...always cut perpendicular to the tube. Use teeny, tiny ticky tacks to join the tubes because you're going to make mistakes and have to break them apart. The longest tube should be the straightest and the shortest will have the most switchbacks. Plan ahead, plan ahead, plan ahead.

Welding thin stainless tubing is a bit of an art form, but it's a lot easier if you purge the tubes with argon. I picked up a handy little gadget that fits in one end of the tube and some special aluminum tape to seal off the other end. Punch a tiny hole in the tape, turn on the gas and watch the magic. Doing it like this results in a nice clean weld with no sugaring and uses minimal filler rod.

[Vic1947]

You may have noticed the engine has a new look. While it was out and the rack and pinion steering was being installed, I decided to tear it down again (third time) and address some nagging issues. The rods were stock Ford forged units with ARP bolts and had been shotpeened and the side beams ground. I had used a rod bolt stretch indicator to torque them and was uncomfortable with the procedure. So I bought a new set of forged H-beam rods and swapped them in.

Also, the cast iron heads had been ported and the exhaust floors raised for improved flow. In order to convert an oval exhaust port to a D port, I had to insert a stainless "tongue" into each one. To attach them, I had to mill a pocket in the head, then drill and tap holes for countersunk screws. Most of the tapped holes went into the water jacket. I used a high temp adhesive sealant but was concerned it might come back to haunt me. So I anted up and got a set of aluminum heads to replace them. Problem solved, plus they look nicer and weigh a whole lot less. I repainted the valve covers in the colors I planned to use on the rest of the car. Steve arranged for a shop he uses to laser cut some stainless trim pieces to match the trim on the sides of the body. Added them to the covers, which by the way, are an old set of M/T finned aluminum pieces I milled down and re-contoured.

A video of the engine assembly can be seen here at 460 Ford Build.