Fleetwood Meadow

Took a week off while waiting for some primer to arrive. I finished preparing the fender tonight and applied the primer. I found a dent I didn’t like on the top of the fender so I have to fix that before finishing the primer. It’s looking good so far and I only took a little damage when the grinder I was using decided to jump. I am going to paint a color layer onto it before I put it back on the car. My thoughts on that is that it will have protection where the metal joins the rest of the car, and it will add to the completeness of the car rather than having it just in primer to get ruined by the weather. I have been bouncing back and forth on what I want to use. This won’t be the final paint but it will be closer and I found a Rust-oleum Custom Lacquer in gloss navy that caught my eye. I don’t have any experience with today’s lacquers so I don’t know if they are the same as the old ones that didn’t like the sun’s uv rays and had to be buffed constantly but it says it’s “50% more durable.”

The bulk of the inside and outside are stripped. I need to figure out what to use to get the corners and areas my tools can’t reach. I found two Ls on the inside of the wheel well. I don’t know what they mean because it’s the right fender.

I can’t speak for the rear seat’s condition but the front seat looks to be in pretty good shape. It’s interesting because the spots that were hidden are gray but the exposed areas of fabric all look tan. I will be sending the car out to be re-upholstered. That is way beyond my precision work.

Took the headliner out. Found 2 large mouse nests in it, one in the front and one in the back.

Thanks. I will update as I can. I have a car in the build section. I started it in July, 2018. It’s about my 1952 Cadillac.

She has no problem with the car. She just thinks the front is ugly. She’d happily go for rides with me in it. I also started this post asking what to look for on an Edsel since different cars have different problem or tell-tale areas. I have to agree with Terry on two things. The first being that the seller is throwing up some flags by being so difficult to communicate with. In his defense he said his house was flooded so he is dealing with that. The other thing that I agree with is that Glenn is right, as others on here have said, with do what you want as long as you can feel justified in doing it. And for those who think I jumped overboard in my reaction to Dave I apologize. Sometimes interpretation is the downfall to us. If he had said it to me in person I would have heard how he was saying it and I probably would have laughed. But since it was in text I had to assume the intention. Dave I apologize for jumping at you.

Over the winter the garage was 35 degrees. It’s hard to work on metal in that type of temperature. But since it’s getting nice out and my engine should be back soon it would be nice to have it ready to be moved around so I have to get going.

The paint removal has begun. There is some rust that I’m not liking but it isn’t anything to worry about. I’m about halfway done the outside of the fender. Then I have to deal with the engine bay side of the fender before I try to tackle the areas where the undercoating was.

Dave I wouldn’t have taken it that way except every time I put something on here I get told how stupid I am for even looking at it. I had asked a question about a corvette on here earlier this year and got some of the most insulting responses about it I had to take the whole post down. When I have asked how to fix things on here I get comments about how ridiculous it is to fix it and just buy a new one. Unfortunately experiences here have ruined the good nature that I had when I first came on here. And everyone on here seems to have hundreds of thousands of dollars so to look at a car under $10k and have to think about finances is ridiculous to them. For a man in his mid-thirties I have to be smart with my money, especially in light of the obvious recession that we are come into, so for me to spend $20k on play car like the next one for sale is is just not feasible.

While I was waiting for the second layer of filler to harden I took to paint removal. From what I am seeing there were 3 layers of paint, the original light green then a darker green and finally a medium green for the final layer. The primer, at least I’m assuming it is, between the darker green and the top medium green appears to be black. I’m not sure what they used since I have only used gray primers. As for the top layer, most of it chipped away except in the middle of the fender where it came off in long thin sheets. I found this to be a little strange and wonder if that’s due to poor adhesion or something else I don’t know. My intention is to get the green paint off as well as the underside where the undercoating was and then find a company that can get me a small spray can or can of paint so I can paint it before putting it back on. By doing that it should keep it in good shape until I can get the entire car painted, rather than just having it in primer for however long it takes until I can paint the car.

So I went back to the fender. As I was sanding the filler that I had put on in the fall I realized the mixture must not have been right because it seemed tacky still. So I fought and fought and got the filler off. Then I prepped it and applied new filler. Then I waited and enjoyed a cigar while it hardened, a Black Dahlia for those who might be interested. I sanded it smooth then applied a second layer. After it hardened I sanded it smooth again. I have to say that I am thrilled at how it came out. It’s smooth to the touch and feathered in beautifully. Since it is 3AM I am not going to start any other work on it for tonight.

It’s amazing how many times I have heard that but nobody has shown me a car with no rot, good paint, and at that price. Since I think the front end of the ‘59 and ‘60 Edsels are boring as sin and look like every other ‘60s car it limits it quite a bit. Since the closest comparable car is 50% higher in price it makes the picking a little harder. Perhaps if the people who have condescending sarcasm offered me money to buy a more expensive car I would be able to move on from this one. (It’s comments like that that make me not want to be part of this group anymore..)

The vacuum picked up a lot of stuff before the cleaning.

I finally cleaned out the back seat from when we moved last year. It’s amazing what the mice have done to the headliner and jump seats. Even with moth balls and mouse repellent in it they still consumed it. I took my upholstery cleaner and went to town on seats and floor. I did not mess with the headliner because it needs to just be removed. Hopefully the clean smell combined with a new electric mouse repellent will keep them away and I can start rewiring the cabin as well as repair some of the metal holes in the floor pan.

The seller finally got back to me. Turns out he had some serious stuff happen at home. I mentioned to him I was still interested in the car. It took me a week to get back to him because my email was acting up. So a week later he got back to me saying the car is in the shop because he took it out and it broke down. So now I don’t know what is happening. I don’t know what broke down means to him. So I’m sitting here waiting with no idea what’s going on with a person who writes very vaguely in his emails.

Yeah I remember the car. In fact i wrote in the post several times. The car was nowhere near me and didn’t run. If I remember correctly the man disassembled some of it and never put it back together. I wanted to buy it. What I never understand in this hobby is the constant need for “resale value.” I thought we were supposed to love and collect the cars. If we are only interested in buying them to fix them and sell them then we are used car salesmen. My collection includes a ‘51 Dodge Meadowbrook, high “value” at $5k and a ‘52 Cadillac 75 sedan. Neither are high value but I’m not interested in that because I’m not in the buying/selling game. I’m in the collect/restore/preserve/love game. That car has been on my bucket list since the first time I saw one at a car show and said wow that odd looking but it has a cool shift in the steering wheel. I know appropriately priced ones are out there. This car was at the max of my price limit so they are still out of reach until I can afford to go higher on my buying price.

Well it turns out that the seller was one of those sellers.. the type that advertises it, sees if there is an interest in it, and when it’s low they keep it. I sent him my offer on Tuesday and followed up on Saturday with no reply either time. I guess an Edsel is not in the cards for me.

Buffalowed Bill, you nailed it. When I started this thread I wanted to know a couple different things specifically, but ultimately I wanted to open the door to a nice conversation. Reading this I have felt like I was sitting in a room with all of you enjoying a nice conversation. As I had stated, my concern is not of resale value. I don’t have an intention of selling it if I buy it. My concern was of what to think about in regards to this brand, and Ford cars in general. Since I have never owned one I don’t know what to look for. On a Mopar I have an idea of places to look at and what to listen for. I asked about a fiberglass body a couple of months ago. On top of that I wanted to hear what people thought about various things. Overall everyone seems to love the FE engines. That’s a plus as it means that there is knowledge of them out there to help me in my quest of restoring it to drivable. I had originally asked the question of price because I wanted to make sure that I wasn’t being ripped off. After this last conversation with the seller it sounds like his OBO became FIRM. However that’s not definite. He said something that irritated me and it could have been said for one of two reasons. “Part of me wants to keep it and have a couple friends help me get it drivable again.” Either he actually is having second thoughts of the car, which I haven’t asked why he is selling it, or he is using that line as a tool to make me make a quick decision to buy it before he changes his mind. As time goes on I will keep you all updated on things. During that time I hope to continue to hear more in this thread as it is making me check the site multiple times a day to see what is being said.

So the seller finally got back to me. He said that the engine was rebuilt by a machine shop near him. The more I read what you are all saying and him saying that makes me think that it probably is a bent rod from machining the head. The question that that leads me to is, how do I determine the correct rod or lifters if I find that it is a valve issue?

And yes, using the money on the Cadillac would be logical. Or I could use it to fix the Dodge. Or pay off my truck. Or use it for the mortgage. There are a sea of things that money could go to. But in this hobby, the logical choice is not always the best. I only like the style of the ‘58s. They only made a limited number of them in sedan. And they destroyed many of them. So it’s not easy to say “eh, I’ll wait for another time.” Buying an Edsel won’t take away the money or time I have allotted for my Cadillac and my Dodge because each of them has something unique that the other one doesn’t have. I’m sure I will oddly get some criticism on this, but I have an emotional attachment to each of them, so adopting an Edsel won’t take away my love for the others.

I have always found the ‘58s so unique that I liked them. It would be the first car I would spot in the sea of cars at a show. The spinning speedometer I didn’t like but it’s growing on me. If the guy would be serious and respond to my emails I could have driven down there this weekend to look at it and possibly trailer it back.

I can’t speak with any certainty but I found a video of the engine running in the pics he sent me and it sounds like an irregular lifter tap. It’s hard to tell because phone cameras try to pick up all sorts of sounds to make it sound dramatic but to me that’s what it sounds like. With that being said, does that change the views of anyone? To me a couple bad lifters is a lot better than rebuilding the engine. However, then I have to figure out what has caused the lifter issue.

I meant the conversation on here. I haven’t had a conversation with him. Hard to show seriousness when the seller hasn’t responded. One thing I have never understood was the desirability of a coupe over a sedan. Coupes have never been my style. I find them to be played out because that’s all you find in collections it seems. I am not new to this hobby and I’m not interested in the resale. But before I ever get myself into things I like to know what I’m getting into. It being a Ford made me feel a little more comfortable in terms of parts availability. I’m going to reach out to him and see how things are going with him taking pictures. He might not have gotten to them or he might be testing me to see if I’m a “tire kicker” or I’m actually trying to go somewhere with it.