'54 Ford Ranch Wagon,it's finally a driver!

Well boys & girls after 9 long years I can say "It's a driver".

A test drive proved everything worked as it should,with the exception of the horn & gas gauge,I think the sending unit is bad,but I can drive the car and it's not a static piece of art anymore!

I have built several hot rods over the years ,so cars are nothing new to me having built Model A's,'32 Ford's and '40 Fords,but I was about to dive in head first in shallow water with this project.

I now have immense respect for you guys building mid 50's and up cars.

It's been a long road,,

As you may already know from my introduction I built this car for my wife,,her grandmother bought the wagon new in '54 and used it in her flower business hauling buckets of flowers filled with water,,time and rust worked on the wagon,,my wife helped her grandmother and learned to drive in this car,,we dated in the wagon,,hauled our children in the wagon until it was parked almost 30 years ago.

So,enough background,,I took these photo's yesterday afternoon,,it was cloudy so the color looks a little darker than it actually is.















I added this photo of the wagon on the way to the alignment shop to show what the color actually looks like in the sun,,



And the final photo,,the guy in front is my pal Dave who has helped me with this car from the beginning and also did the upholstery ,,and the handsome devil to the right is yours truly,, HRP


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It is BEAUTIFUL!
Something for me to look forward to, thank you for posting. Hope you do not become a stranger. I like to see pics of the car daily...

As for the fuel gauge. Most likely a sunk float. Those were two piece brass floats soldered together. The solder fails eventually and the float fills up.
You can order a new one from Carpenter and just snap it into the wire arm holder.

Or.... drill a small hole in the old one, drain the gas and solder a patch over the hole.
I did both with mine just to see if I could.

Good idea to test the sending unit too by pulling the sending unit out of the tank, move the arm up and ground the mounting plate. Switch on the ign. and see if the needle moves. If it does.... its just the float. Of course popping it off the arm and shaking will determine that. Carpenter only sells units for sedans... but the parts are the same other than the arm. If the sending unit is indeed failed, you can buy a new one and mix and match the parts.

 

Beautiful

 

Drop dead stunning, congrats!

 

Jarvis,,It's a new sending unit and I figured out the problem this morning when I filled up,,,I have it out of adjustment,,

Gas tank is full and it's showing a half tank. HRP

 

VERY sharp. Looks like it just came from the dealer.

 

You did a great job with it!!!

 

HRP....thats just sexy !!!!
I went and looked at a sedan delivery the other day.....fortunately....he wanted tooo much moola for it

 

Thank you guys,,Danny

 

Gawk! Beautiful! You should be very proud.

 

Did anyone already mention that wagon is stunningly beautiful? Great job on it! and and for picture rating.

 

ANOTHER YES !!!!!!:banana:

 

Kudos for very nice work!

 

Beautiful car!
Congratulations on a wonderful restoration!

 

WOW HRP, that is awesome! That is how a resto is supposed to be done!