Retrieving a 59 Fairlane 500 convertible

Got it installed end of the day yesterday. I snapped a couple of photos this morning.

 

Well, there are still a few odds and ends that need to be straightened away, but at least we can drive it now.

Every summer the Downtown Association sponsors cruise nights. We enjoy participating in them and my Father-In-Law was all excited to take the 59 out.

I got it all cleaned up and ready to go on Friday afternoon.




Unfortunately the weather soured with wind and rain. My Father-In-Law actually got caught in a cloud burst driving home with the top down. He tried to out run it, but wasn't successful.
He got it all wiped down once he arrived home and now it is patiently awaiting it's next chance for cruising.

 

Yeah, that sucks mightily, the only bad thing about a ragtop. But I bet he had fun in the parade! Will there be a Fourth of July parade nearby on Wednesday?

 

He probably had even more fun trying to outrun that cloud burst. While he was wiping it down, though, perhaps numbers beginning with 427 and ending with 460 were running through his head, during a cussing session

 

Haha maybe so. One of the things the mechanic has yet to do is install the new electric wiper motor. So he had no wipers either!

Yes, but he and Mother-In-Law are out in the San Juans for the Fourth.

 

Lucky them.

 

I sold my 59 to a guy who had found a 430 Lincoln Y block sitting on a shelf in a warehouse in Wisconsin. He said it was a police interceptor engine with factory dual quads on it.

 

Dang, that would be neat.

 

We've been driving the 59 a bit the last few weeks and we determined that the exhaust needed some attention.
It sounded like there was a leak up close to the manifold on the drivers side when you first fire it up and under initial acceleration, as well as the tail pipe being tweaked on the driver's side of the car which made the back of the car look caddy-wampus.



We figured it was going to be a simple task of fixing the aparent leak and installing some new tailpipe.

I dropped it off at the exhaust shop this morning (which is across the street from our manufacturing plant) told exhaust man extraordinaire Dave Sharp what the skinny was and then headed over to our shop to figure out a ride.

It wasn't more than 5 minutes later that I received a phone call from Dave asking if I could come back and take a look at something. Once the car was in the air Dave was able to asses the situation quickly. He wanted me to see it, because it was so bad it was almost hilarious.
The entire system was a circus. Pipe was booger welded all over the place, there were areas where the pipe was rubbing on the frame, or up against the bellhousing, etc. Half of the "hangers" were nothing more than bailing wire and there were rust holes in almost every section. It was all topped off with the drivers side tailpipe trailing off in a random direction.

So, in order to continue the tradition with this car of a simple project snowballing, we decided to go with an entirely new exhaust system from the manifolds back to the new shinny tips.

I attempted to take a photo of the car when it was up in the air, but my phone wasn't cooperating so I wasn't able to. You'll just have to use your imagination.

 

I thought you said the underside had been inspected before you bought it!

 

I hate to “like” this but it had a picture! A nice one at that! The car looks great. I love the round tail lights. They look like rocket boosters. That’s good you have a shop that will let you take a look see for yourself. Or was it just that crazy looking that he had to share ?

 

Oh, he's a great guy and it's a small town. We've done a lot of business with him over the years.
He likes for his customers to have an idea of what is going on and lets us (the customer) decide how we want to proceed.

 

I can't honestly remember. Today was the first time I can recall ever being under the car like that.
The underside of the car is actually very, very solid. The only repair that has been done looks like someone cut an access hole for something and then patched it up.

 

And it just popped in my head, you didn't hear the exhaust moving around while driving? It's very distinctive when it does.

 

It wasn't moving around. quite the opposite in fact. It was so solid, since it was literally wedged against hard points on the chassis and transmission. In the time we've had the car we haven't driven it much due to it constantly being in a state of restoration. So this week was the first time we really noticed anything.

I got a call from Dave at 5:15 saying the car was done, so I'll be picking it up in the morning.