Affordable Ford V8's

That 53 with V8, auto, and power steering will make a nice driver. Turns a bit wide, and the doors feel like a mile long when you have to park close to another car, but very nice to drive.
 
Yea; You need a running drive-able car to facilitate export movements. The shippers really don't want to deal with dead cars. Recommend a batt cut off for the long trip in a container. 52/53' s are an excellent choice for modern type conveniences. Newc
 
The car is getting transported by West Coast Shipping, no complaints about it not being driveable.

Old picture of the car, from the late 80's.
 

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I'm trying to decode the VIN of the 1953 Customline and I found out this, but earlier in this thread I was told that the San Jose assembly plant didn't open until 1955?

B = Flathead V8
3 = 1953
R = San Jose, CA
G = Body style (in this case Tudor Customline)

Or am I missing something here?
 
Any thoughts on the question I had above?


And the car has arrived at the shipping company's storage faciltity, waiting to get loaded into a container and shipped across the Atlantic.
 

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Mikko, you might consider buying the Early Ford V-8 Club's 1952-53 book.It's a two volume book that will give you a ton of information on your "new" Ford. According to the V-8 Club book the R in your number is the Richmond, Ca. assembly plant.
 
Mikko_ said:
I'm trying to decode the VIN of the 1953 Customline and I found out this, but earlier in this thread I was told that the San Jose assembly plant didn't open until 1955?

B = Flathead V8
3 = 1953
R = San Jose, CA
G = Body style (in this case Tudor Customline)

Or am I missing something here?
Click to expand...

Yes, you're missing something here. When Ford started adding the assembly plant code to the VIN you can see many of the plant codes used the first letter of the city the plant was in, such as 'A'-Atlanta, 'B'-Buffalo, etc.

Think about it - 'R' = Richmond, as in Richmond, California. They probably kept using the same code when the plant closed down and moved in '55 rather than assign a new one - might be same story with 'E'-Mahawa, NJ as well as it came on-line in 1956 to replace another plant (and I'll wager dollars to kroner it's city/plant name started with a 'E'). Dearborn's 'F' probably is 'F' for 'Ford' and its main plant at the Rouge since Dearborn and Dallas both start with 'D'. Why Chicago got 'G' and Chester, PA got 'C' I don't know - probably because 'G' was an open character in the string of what was used. If you pay attention, the 'P' for Twin Cities takes the first letter of the second word in the city's name, i.e. St. Paul, as 'S' was taken by Somerville - why they didn't use 'T' requires some more digging - maybe because there was a truck other plant that started with a 'T' during the '40s-'50s?

The attached plant code list, which appears to be from the '53-'57 Ford Car Body Parts Catalog and found on the Crown Victoria ***'n's website
( https://thecvaonline.com/howtos/DataPlateDecoder.pdf )
probably doesn't take the Richmond/San Jose change into account.
 

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Makes sense they didn't change the letter when the plant moved.
Thanks for the clarification.

I'm new to these old Fords but like to learn as much as possible.
 
You better not leave it at the storage facility too long or the tires may disappear like the coupe in the background.:)

I saw a Youtube video on washing the car with CLR, I think it was, to remove most of the patina on the hood and front fender. That is a nice, straight looking car with good looking chrome. Let us know when it arrives.
 
Today the car arrived at my place.
Very happy with it and looking forward to get it drivable again.
 

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Good luck to you and your project!

I think you have a great and unmolested car to start with and you'll get it in running/driving shape in no time. Keep us posted of your build process and progress - we all love to see younger folks getting into the cars that we all love. Also, this site has a lot of knowledge - tap into it as frequently as you need . . . we're all here to help. Best of luck!
 
Going to start with rebuilding the brakes.
Picture of the front before tear down.
Hose and cylinder will be replaced with new stuff.

Also found a manifold in the trunk which I believe is for use with dual exhaust?
 

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Mikko, just a personal, curiosity question:
You are in Sweden, but everything you have written is in perfect English. Better written than most of us native English speakers. Are you native English, and you, like your car, were transported to Sweden?

I am always impressed by multi-lingual people, because I know my brain doesn't have what it takes to learn a foreign language. Couldn't do it!
 
one of our V8 ers passed away and the family want to move 51 tudor with a new engine and lot of work was done on the car. look it up on v8 for sale it is in anderson,sc and they are ready to deal
 
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