m-mman

Yeah, and those companies never seemed to have or feel the need for a styling department.

My guess is clutch fork actuation rod. The threads hold a nut to adjust the free play. It looks bent (?)

Tire pressure - the never discussed aspect is How often do you really check? It is impossible for a tire to gain additional air. (Yes temperature will increase pressure but that’s not the point) Pick a number “32” psi as the optimal pressure. If you actually fire up the compressor and get out the gauge every time you drive (and every morning on the tour) then you will always have the optimal pressure. But……? A tire gets its strength from the pressure inside. You can drive a long time with too much air but flat tires can move only a few feet. Taking the optimal as 32 then if you actually inflate to 35, as air inevitably leaks out, your tire will move INTO the optimal range instead of out of range. (Remember an overinflated tire can travel farther with less damage than an under inflated tire) Of course none of this applies if you take things to the extreme. If 32 is your target pressure and you inflate them to 90psi then all bets are off. Whoever checks their spare? I typically put 40 or so in the spare so that when I have a flat and I haven’t checked it in well…. who knows when, I will have an inflated replacement to get me to a destination. So optimal tire pressure, it’s a little less about how much and a whole lot about how often.

This is a driver training simulator machine. The wheel & cluster look Mopar to me. Any thoughts?

Nope. Standard flathead Ford V8. Very good parts and club support. Early Ford V8 club.

Seems perhaps like a car pieced together from “sweepings”.

This is either a heck of a deal, or a scam. Most scammers don’t use unrestored cars however. Not Mine. https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/345222151342946/?mibextid=HHaHfI

Very confusing, the names changed over time and were coined by the manufacturer with no industry standard. During these years a sedan had a post or frame around the door glass. Two door, Tudor, coupe were equivalent. If there is no frames around the glass and no post from the front to rear then the word is “hardtop”. 2 door hardtop, 4 door hardtop, sport coupe and sport sedan.

Location….location….location…If the seller wants to make a deal, he will need to “subsidize the shipping” (or just the trip to see it) by making the price very attractive. Aero cars just aren’t popular enough to overcome the geographical handicap.

The #1 most important thing to do when dealing with ANY collectible (cars, books, coins, jewelry…..) is correctly identifying exactly what the item is. Not what you THINK it is, not what you want it to be, but rather what every expert in that area of collecting agrees with what it is. Only then can value begin to be estimated.

An 8 cylinder bottom line business coupe. Interesting, I wonder who ordered this.

It’s true in cars too. Many sellers either have no understanding of business, or there are too many emotions involved in the process.

The large 57 Ford four door sedan was called a “Town Sedan”. The four door hardtop was called a “Town Victoria”. Then mix that with the Facebook inability to post accurate descriptions in the title and you end up with…..57 Ford town car. As in late model Lincoln.

Chevrolet was alone offering a sedan delivery 49-51. Ford had the 2 door wood wagons and they wouldn’t be appropriate for the rigors of heavy commercial use. Ford came back with a SD for 1952 when they introduced their all steel wagon. Ford (the wagon master) built both two and four door wagons so their SD had the longer two door doors. Chevrolet only had a four door wagon such that their SD used the short door. (Up through 1954). Considering the practical utilitarian reason for having a SD I think that having a longer door would be advantageous for entry-exit and loading.

For 1962-63 Thunderbird offered an optional 390 with three 2 barrel carburetors. Aluminum manifold. When equipped this engine the code in the serial number changed from the standard Z to an M. The engine was available in all body styles. Factory roadsters with the M engine get the most attention (and money). The rarest are the vinyl top Landau with the M engine. More than just a manifold swap factory M engines have different lifters and transmissions. The valve body shifts slightly differently from the 4 barrel engine. I knew a guy who was an expert on these cars. He said you could recognize a M car across the parking lot because it sat slightly higher in the front due to the weight differences between the iron and aluminum manifolds. Ford put 2 four barrels on the 427 engines but never on the 390 size. The original aluminum air cleaner is quite valuable and I think that they have made modern versions for a 4 barrel car. If this car had tri- power I’m sure the seller would have mentioned it.

Wow, that’s good that there’s lots of patina. The last few times I bought a car I got it home and was disappointed because there wasn’t nearly as much patina as the seller described. ☹️ I don’t know which is worse, going through a new car and discovering that it’s missing critical parts, or that there just isn’t much patina. 🤔

This is a rare car, but there is so much work to be done (redone?) coupled with all the problems of moving a “kit” that I think the price needs to come down significantly.

He took the old joke (urban myth) and put it into a current ad. “Man dies and his will directs his wife to sell his valuable car and give the money to his mistress”. “I know the guy who bought the valuable car for just $10! “ We have all heard it for decades. Nothing new here.

Magic Muffler. A chain of shops in the LA area. They had a fleet of 56 Chevrolet wagons all painted the same way

Yes it is. Tropical Rose. Yes it is/was intense. Yes it is the exact shade of Pepto Bismo. For 1955, Ford also offered Regency Purple. It too is an intense shade. Not lilac, not violet but a purple. It was the 1950s and the world had been filled with dull colors since the crash of 1929. Black, gray, dull green, dull blue, maybe a brown or two. Virtually every manufacturer offered some Easter egg colors. Some more than others (56 Lincoln had the most). The thing was that they were VERY FASHIONABLE. They attracted people who wanted to stand out and wanted the latest. People who buy the latest also trade frequently. The Easter egg cars were typically traded back in within 1-3 years. Since they were then not the latest styles and they stood out, they did not appeal to used car buyers. They were hard to sell and depreciated quickly. Dealers in the monied parts of town sent them to auction and they ended up in the poor areas where people would “buy here - pay here”. They couldn’t afford the car but they dreamed that they too were fashionable. They couldn’t afford maintenance they abused the cars and they were junked early. Survival was very low. The few Easter egg cars that stayed with people who did maintain them might actually like the CAR, but the COLORS would quickly become tiresome. Their friends and neighbors might even object to having it in the neighborhood. Finding Easter egg cars that were repainted single tone white was common. Connoisseurs always check the data plates to see what was original. The low survival of an original or mostly original Easter egg car is what makes this example special. It wasn’t for everyone when it was new and it certainly isn’t for everyone today but for true connoisseurs of genuine 50s flashy cars it is a desirable artifact.

There are some dealers who are well known on this board who buy at auctions. Nothing wrong with that. They have to get their inventory from somewhere. If you were at the auction and had the cash, you could buy too. But legitimate dealers (not flippers) will do things to the car that add value then take excellent photos (not snapshots) and invest time into marketing. A legitimate dealer will protect the car until it is sold and will negotiate a sale for a fair price. And they expose themselves to fraud, warranty and possible buy back issues. A flipper wants cash ASAP, will put little to no effort into improving the car, and if they can’t get their (always exorbitant) price rather than negotiating, they move it outside, cover it up until someone will pay what THEY have decided that it is worth. However long it takes.

No. The official color for a funeral is purple.

What you didn’t know is that on a 1957-59 Ford the doors on the retractable Skyliner are SHORTER than on the other Fairlane class 2 door models. Skyliner retractables have unique doors, quarter panels and moldings! but the firewall forward is the same.

According to the Marti report the original buyer walked out on the deal. The “order type” is RETAIL. This denotes a car that was specially ordered by a customer. If the car was ordered by the dealer to sit on the lot and await a customer the Order Type is STOCK. So the order was sent to Ford November 13, 1969. The body was welded (bucked) November 25, actually built November 25 (typo in the Marti) Released from the plant November 25 But then it sat on the lot and wasn’t actually sold until March 5, 1970 about 4 months later. This typically indicates that whoever ordered the car refused delivery. It then sits on the lot waiting for someone else to take it home. The colors and equipment weren’t strange so it’s unlikely that the dealer was too worried about having it sit around. But the dealer was paying flooring charges during that time.

Y-block distributors aren’t that difficult to maintain. However replacing the plug wires is a 2+ hour job! They run behind the block and under the exhaust manifolds. They are secured by 2 retainers on each side and use unique grommets to hold them. (Fortunately the grommets have been reproduced).