Control valve rebuilt

So I spent Friday night dismantling the control valve, in order to soak it all overnight for a Saturday morning rebuild. It all came apart relatively easy. After having it all soak all night in some super clean, I cleaned it all up an then soaked all the internals and housing in some power steering fluid. I rebuilt the valve with a rebuild kit and a new ball stud kit as well. Then I coated the spool valve spring and nut with some white lithium grease and installed the end cap.

I then painted it in some chassis black semi-gloss and installed the stud boot and retainer. All done!

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Power Steering System

It’s been awhile, so I had better get with it!

I have decided that the next project I will tackle will be rebuilding the power steering from the parts car. The next few posts will be about this process.

Chopped up the Parts car this weekend.

The 4 door that I bought in the spring needed to be harvested and gotten rid of.  The car had been sitting in Bob’s driveway since being dropped off last April, and the floor boards out of it were promised to another ’58 owner that needed them. So this weekend was the time to cut it up. Bob & his family pushed the car into his garage earlier in the week, and he started unbolting as much stuff off of it as he could during the evenings after work. He had removed the doors, the front clip, and cut the top off before I got there Saturday.

Here is the car when it first arrived:

           

We started at 9:30 am and were finished by 5:30pm. The car didn’t put up to much of a fight, and the only casualties were when we were cutting up the frame, a section came down onto Bob’s foot, and I got a couple of metal splinters in the hands. Here are some pics of the car in different stages of being cut up:

        

                              

The parts I gleaned from this car for use on my wagon are:

1. Complete Dashboard with deluxe trim

2. Complete front clip (Fenders, Hood, Grille, Turn signal light assemblies)

3. Front Cross member

4. Trans crossmember

5. Automatic Trans Steering Column

6. Complete Power steering system (Ram Cylinder, Control Valve, Tie Rods, Pitman Arm, & Idler arm)

This one Four door has been cut up, and the parts we got from it will be going into My ’58 2 door wagon, another guy’s ’58 2 door wagon, Bob’s ’58 Fairlane & ’62 Ford Truck, Zapato’s 57 Ford, and if somebody buys the motor/trans combo that came out of it, another lucky car. That is 6 different vehicles! It was a great donor car, and was well worth it. If you ever have the chance to buy a parts car for a project you are working on, I highly recommend it. It will save you a lot of parts hunting and money in the long run. Plus you can sell the parts you don’t need to offset the price of the car.

It’s also nice to have good friends who will let you park a car in their driveway for 6 months, and will help dismantle & cut it up. Thanks again, Bob.

Del Rio Trim Found

I have always liked the deluxe trim for the 1958 Ford Wagons. That trim package was used on the high end level wagon which Ford called “Del Rio”. It was a Gold ribbed band of aluminum that ran down either side of the 1/4 panel and doors, surrounded by stainless trim. I also liked the way the 2 tone paint is used with this trim.

The Blue/White Wagon has the Del Rio Trim.  The Red/White Wagon has the standard Ranch Wagon Trim. I like both, but the Del Rio trim level makes the two/tone paint breaks look better. It is just a matter of personal preference.

So I discovered  that the 1958 Ranchero could be ordered with this Del Rio Trim, and that finding a Ranchero with the trim would be alot easier to find than an actual Del Rio wagon with the trim.  I found a set on Ebay, and purchased it. The trim was in decent shape, with a small ding here or there. It can be repaired and polished fairly easily.  I have done it before, and while it is time consuming I have had great success in making slightly dented trim look like brand new.