My '53 Customline

Mikko_

Mikko_

Senior Member
Some pictures of my Customline.
Got it inspected and titled here in Sweden a few days ago and this evening I made the first longer testdrive, about 20 miles.

It's running great, oil pressure is good and it doesn't overheat.

Not bad I think for a car thats been sitting in a shed in California for the last 30 + years.
 

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Thank you.

Bought it in December 2020 and it arrived here in March.

Got it inspected by a Swedish guy who lives in Sacramento and he arranged the whole shipping with West Coast Shipping.
He's also the one who found it for sale on Craigslist for me.
 
A picture from the shed where it's been sitting since 89-90.
And one from when it arrived at my garage in March.
 

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The previous owner in the US changed the oil in the engine, replaced the ignition parts and got it started.

Since then I restored the wheels and changed the tires.
Rebuilt the brakes and water pumps.
Cleaned out the tank and carb.
Changed oil in the trans.
Replaced the headlight wiring with new stock looking harnesses from Dennis Carpenter and replaced some other wires in the rest of the car.

Also found the reason it got parked, a worn fuel pump lobe on the camshaft so I went with an electric fuel pump for the time being to be able to drive it.
 
VeryTangled said:
Result! Happy days ahead for you Mikko. Thanks for keeping us in the loop, maybe update the old thread?
Click to expand...

I decided to start a new thread instead because people keep giving me advice on affordable V8 cars even if I already bought one.

And yes, very happy days ahead and summer has only begun.
 
Thank you, I'll see if I can manage to make a video but here is a picture from yesterdays countryside drive.
 

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Then this happened.

Don't no if I got a bad quality tube or if I messed up when installing it.
The tires are for tubeless use but I decided to go with tubes since I don't really trust those rivets that holds the wheel together to be air tight but I might have to reconsider now.
 

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Mikko
Great looking 53! Yikes on the tire. Dont have that happen often nowdays?? I remember riiding in my uncles 52 Ford.
Regards,
Chris
 
Mikko_ said:
Then this happened.

Don't no if I got a bad quality tube or if I messed up when installing it.
The tires are for tubeless use but I decided to go with tubes since I don't really trust those rivets that holds the wheel together to be air tight but I might have to reconsider now.
Click to expand...

Running tubes in tubeless tires is generally not a good idea. This is what can happen.

I have tubeless tires on the stock riveted wheels on my '51 Fords. I have never had a problem with leaks. On the other hand, I chased a slow leak in one of the welded wheels on my Corvette for several weeks until I finally found it.

Glad to see you're on the road.:)
 
I'd suggest to just give it a try tubeless with the wheels as they are and monitor the pressures. If you find you are slowly losing pressure then look at adding something. Any air loss will be gradual and not sudden. Is the tyre damaged, or can it be used again?

I ran tubeless radials on my 58 GMC successfully. The only problem I had was on the fronts when they had tubes in. The tubes get abraded by the tyres as they flex.
 
I will remove the tire from the rim tomorrow and inspect it.
Hopefully I can use it again, expensive to buy a new one.
 
I have run tubeless tires on old riveted Ford rims on several vehicles for 20 years. The most I have done was sand blast and paint the inside of the rim to prevent leaks, and I have never had a leak. I'm about to put the third set of radials on my 53 sedan since the tires are aging out (current 9 year old Diamondback tires with 22K miles, many at 70+ mph).

I'm also attaching a couple pictures of my 53 with tubeless radials since I also need to remember how to post pictures on the Ford Barn. I hope you don't mind.
 

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Running tubeless tires on my '53 stock wheels. No issues. All hold pressure just fine.
 
Seems like my wheel holds air pressure fine too.

Just need to remove the tubes from the 3 remaining wheels now, hopefully I'm back on the road by the weekend.
 
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