3 years later and my 54 Ford has interior

I figured this would be as good a place as any on this forum. I have recieved help here and thought it would be a good place to show the finality of the project in this phase.


I still have plans to chop it and do some more customizing. I have another project I will be working on so this will just be my cruiser until it swaps places with the new project. You have to have one car running, while working on another, right?

Well, you can see the build up of the car here:
Public Home | desertdroog | Fotki.com


It never would have been a reality without the hard work and patience of a friend showing me how to do it and giving his free time to do the stuff I couldn't do.

It has a 351W just starting to get miles on it. I have the overheating issue resolved for the winter, anyways. It bounces between 195-210 when driving and idling, so at least I know the cooling system works. I am trying to get miles on it so that when the Az heat arrives this summer, it won't be prone to puking its coolant in traffic.

Earlier this year the radiator top tank ballooned due to running a 16 lb rad cap. I had it repaired and now run it with an 8 lb cap, not ideal, but the old radiator wasn't happy with the higher pressure. I still need to build a shroud for it, as the mech fan I have only covers the bottom half of the tall radiator. I may step up to a custom aluminum one in time.

I still have some chrome to put on the car, but essentially, it is on the road and ready for its second life. Thanks to those on this forum who helped me when I had questions.

Hey Droog
Glad to hear you're making progress. Not too many '54's up and running anymore. Your car is basically the same as mine, drivetrain-wise. I used to run the stock radiator with a 7lb cap. Because I run the stock gages and senders, I don't know how warm the cooling system gets, but the temp. needle usually stays on the E of the word TEMP in the stock gage. Probably in 2000, I moved up to a new radiator from US Radiators but haven't really noted a difference in cooling temp. I have sat in a 2 mile line of cars at the Syracuse Nationals a couple of years ago and the temp did climb to the letter M but dropped right back to E once we got moving. I don't use a shroud or anything special, just a 17" flex fan which gets noisy at higher rpms. The trans cooling is handled by the radiator alone. Probably the greatest move I made with the car was getting rid of the bias ply tires! What a white-knuckle ride that was!! The radial wide-whites not only look cool, but it's like driving a different car.
Here's a pic of my car taken at the Goodguys Hershey show, this year

Lee

Car looks nice, bet you get some really cool looks riding around in it.

Nice clean black car. I wish I could run a 17 inch fan in it, I have a 15 inch 6 blade fan I picked up at So-Cal Speed Shop Phoenix location. Pretty aggressive for its pitch. The reason why I am running such a small diameter fan is because I used an engine mount kit from ndgearheadscruiserproducts.com that mounted the engine pretty low. Anything larger than 15 inch and it hits the lower radiator hose.

So far I am chasing the bugs on this car. I have to put in a new light socket on the passengers side grill turn signal area. The springs are loose and intermittently work. Like when I hit a bump. Hehe. I also have very dim headlights, but the brights work. Any recommendation on headlight bulbs? I am using Sylvania Halogens right now, but they look like brown incandescents when the system is on. The rest of my lights are nice and bright, so I assume they are the bulbs. It may be a ground issue, but my buddy put in a 12 volt system for me with three large chassis grounds to alleviate any electrical issues that may arise.

Thanks for the accolades, I do get people checking it out and talking to me at gas stations.

Try running your headlights through relays instead of the light switch. It could be that the
'54 light switch is creating a voltage drop, and the lights aren't getting a full 12v feed

Lee

Originally Posted by lees6t

Try running your headlights through relays instead of the light switch. It could be that the
'54 light switch is creating a voltage drop, and the lights aren't getting a full 12v feed

Lee

This is the second time someone recommended this. Sounds fair, I will do a voltage test on it to make sure nothing is arwy. Thanks for the suggestion I will look into it.