Slick 60's

I meant to start this a couple months ago but time got away from me. I'm new here and I'll try to bring you up to speed.

Short version is I am building a '56 Ford Customline Altered drag car and wanted to get something vintage to tow it to the track. So after looking around for a while I ran across this ad on craigslist and picked it up. Long bed, very straight, solid and complete. I'll fill in the rest as I post up pictures to bring it to its current state which is far from done.

Oh and the drag car is called the Canned Monster, so this became the Monster Hauler.

I'm getting a "Sorry, the board attachment quota has been reached" error. Its a small file. Can someone direct me as to whats going on?

Its not letting me add any images.

We have to load pictures on places like photobucket and link them here. It keeps the cost down to the member that hosts our site...

Okay, I think this will work. I'll link from my blog at Speednchrome.com
The day I drug it home. I live in Modesto Ca. I found this up near Sacramento.

The truck was complete, I mentioned that before. I was hoping to get it running on the cheap, even if it ran bad thats okay. It would be something I could fix up as I moved along. It had been sitting for about 12 years. Came out of Nevada originally and was in Ca. for a couple of years. The guy I got it from told me it had been sitting but ran when parked he said, the prior owners told him that. He didn't do anything with it and posted it up for sale after a couple of years. After getting it home I pulled the plugs, oiled the cylinders and let it set. Grabbed a socket and rotated the engine over to see what would happen. The motor would rotate just a little then a hard stop. Over and over, I thought maybe some rust in the cylinders or maybe a stuck valve. Nope nothing would work. Pulled the valve covers and everything seemed find. Then I pulled the pan. See the photo of what I found. Rod bolts, parts of pistons, metal, bearings etc. Catastrophic failure is what I would call it. Engine was toast. I pulled it down and out and took it down to Tim McMaster, the Y-Block Guy in Visalia to assess.

Not what you want your parts to look like.

Getting hot tanked to clean up the nasty mess.


The rod bouncing around inside broke this, along with the came and the distributor.

Clean and now to assess.

The crank was also toast and what cause the failure it seems was zero oil in the engine. The crank became very hot so the block is getting line hones to make it all true again.


All done and ready to assemble.

The bottom of the rod pinched like that, that's impressive!

390fastback wrote:The bottom of the rod pinched like that, that's impressive!

Isn't it, its now a piece of artwork. I told my car club we could use it as a hard luck award at some point in the future.

The crank was bad, rods, pistons, cam, distributor and had mis matched heads. So much for getting it on the road for cheap.

Heads, I mentioned that they were mis-matched. One was a factory replacement so that makes sense, but the valves were not the same size so thats not to cool. Tim, had another head that matched my good one so we now had a matched set to work with. Since he had to cut them for hardened seats why not make them bigger for larger valves as well. 1.94 intake, 1.6 exhaust.

I am sure it ran when parked most of its life, just not the last time it was parked.

Wow, impressive carnage. Need to make something cool out of the parts. Love the pics of machine work.

Truck looks very clean and rust-free for its age. Please keep us updated on your progress. I have to live vicariously through you guys.

bruceandersson wrote:I am sure it ran when parked most of its life, just not the last time it was parked.

I'm sure that is true Bruce.

orangeRcode wrote:
Its amazingly straight and rust free which is why I took the change on it not running. I must say I've purchased dozens of cars over the years that "ran when parked" and I have never seen anything like this. Guess I was due for a lemon. Its okay, the price was right for it and it will be amazing when I get done with it.

I have more pics to post, stay tuned.

It's not the run when parked I like to know about, but how sudden was it parked, and that looks quite sudden.


Johnny

Still a shame they didn't use oil in it! pretty basic really.
Tim can fix it though.
Should be fun to watch.

Started on the bodywork.




Pulled off the rear barden bumper.

Grill pulled out and front bumper pulled off.


Welding up a dozen holes from prior mirrors. Also shaving off the Custom Cab script.


Windshield pulled out. Was broken anyway so makes it easer to access and prep for paint.


Cleaning out the old seam sealer.


Filling the stake bed holes. No reason for these. Will be installing some hooks inside the bed for securing items when needed.


Side and rear windows pulled out as well.

More sanding and prepping.

Makes us Midwesterners jealous that you don't have any rust repair. Looks like you might have it painted before the engine gets back at that rate.

Bruce the engine is back, just have not gotten all the pics posted yet. Tim knocked it out, now I need to get busy with the truck. I'll post pics soon, it looks amazing.

Rust, well, I live in Central Ca and we do have a decent amount of rust issue, nothing like you do I'm sure. This truck came out of the Nevada desert which explains how nice it is.