A Solid Parts Car: Organ Donor Found

Bob found me a parts car! A 1958 Ford Fairlane 500 Four Door Sedan. It is solid, and will be used for its Cowl, tranny tunnel, and floor pans if they are good enough. Also, it has an original  running 352 V8 with an Automatic Transmission that I will use in the Ranch Wagon.  The wagon’s original 6cylinder/column mount 3 speed trans are completely shot, and will be junked. I will also be using the power steering system off of the Fairlane in the Wagon.

The car has the deluxe dash trim, Town & Country AM Radio and other deluxe trim from a Fairlane 500 that I will be using to jazz up my Ranch Wagon.  The bad weather is delaying the delivery of the car,  the guy is planning on delivering it this coming weekend.  The front sheetmetal looks good, which I can use, or sell to offset the purchase price of the donor car. It was a good find by Bob, and will really help keep the costs down on the sheetmetal end of the restoration.

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Tailgate Dismantling is no fun.

I brought the replacement tailgate into the shop last night and began stripping it.  It started out easy, but ended up a battle of wills.  I got it stripped of all latches, rods, catches, handles, and gaskets.  By the end, I looked like I was in a hatchet fight, as my forearms were all chewed up from having them stuffed up inside of the gate.

It began to snow outside and the temperature dropped quickly so I finished up and ran back into the house. I couldn’t get the phillip head screws that hold the hinges onto the tailgate to budge, so I sprayed them down with some PB Blaster and am hoping it will work its way into the threads and loosen them up.