Aaron65

It's the brake pedal I'm talking about (I already have the zip tied heater hose on the e-brake). My car's a southern car and the spring hasn't given any signs of problems, but old springs are always potential problems in my experience, so I'm looking for a new one. It sounds like I'll have to improvise.

I was underneath my '53 for several hours yesterday adjusting brakes and flushing the lines, and I noticed that my brake pedal return spring has seen better days. To save myself some running around needlessly, has anybody used a generic off-the-shelf spring before, or is this a specialty piece? Thanks!

It looks amazingly dry under there! Nothing I own looks as leak free as that does...wow!

My favorite car is the '40-'41 Continental Cabriolet, but I think I prefer the Zephyr in the postwar years. Neat car! The weird half (three-quarters?) of me would buy it, spiff up the interior a bit, get a set of tires, make sure it's safe, and drive it around as-is. It probably deserves a restoration, but beaters like that call out to me loudly.

You might want to try calling RENU to see if they got it. I sent a 1963 Thunderbird power steering box back to a company in California as a core, and the part dropped off tracking one day. I called the steering company, and they found it in their warehouse. It had never been marked as shipped.

I'll second the chassis ears. My '53 Buick was making a low, loud noise last year that I thought was a carrier bearing or an axle bearing. I hooked up the chassis ears to both axle bearings, the center section, and the rear of the transmission where the u-joint is. No abnormal noises...I swapped tires from left to right and the noise went away. I also used the chassis ears to diagnose that the electric steering rack on my wife's 2012 Mustang was clunking, an odd problem. If I were more ambitious, I would use them to track down all the little odd noises my old cars make, but some noises bother me more than others and I can be a bit lazy sometimes.

The '65 Mercury has one of my favorite dashboards ever, and it's hard to go wrong with a Breezeway window. I think you did really well here, but as my screen name attests, I think 1965 is the best model year for cars. If the Mercury were mine, I think I'd repair the rust behind the wheels, try to wheel out the paint to get some gloss back, and spot paint my patches. Then I'd just clean it up and drive it and repair things as needed.

I'd say those are Special 45R doors, almost certainly for '53 like Dave said...I just went out and measured the length of mine (which is a '53 Special 2 dr. hardtop), and they were just under 45 inches long. I know that '52s had a similar door and trim piece, but I don't know if it was identical.

You may want to give Kanter a call. I got pushrods for my 263 there, but it was back in 2007, so who knows if they still have them.

I sent a PM about the clock.

It's been a while since I messed with the lighting in the back of mine, but it's been quirky. Make sure you check the passenger side bulb sockets really well. They have to really seat in the housing. If my memory is correct, I've had to replace one or two sockets back there.

Thanks everyone. I wonder what cars used this coil.

It certainly looks like the one in your center picture, Greg. I didn't take a picture of the top side, but it has two connectors there in addition to the two that are visible in my pictures.

Here's another picture...

After my grandma passed away about 11 years ago, my dad cleaned out her basement and brought home anything automobile related that he thought I might like. I just got around to bringing most of that stuff home, which wasn't hard, as my mom and dad live about 6 blocks away from me. Anyway, in the bag was this old electrical component that I can't identify. I've attached some pictures, so if anyone has any ideas, I'd love to hear them. Nothing on the piece pivots or moves, in case you were wondering.