Boys I am back at it after having a long stint of illness and travel related to what I do for a living..." unselectable="on" style="max-width: 90%; border: none; cursor: text; vertical-align: text-bottom; margin: 0px 1px; width: 18px; height: 18px; background: url("styles/default/xenforo/xenforo-smilies-sprite.png" -40px 0px no-repeat;">
At any rate here are some photos of progress. First up would be the AC/Alternator Bracket setup from Vintage Air. The plates used are near bullet proof and the hardware looks pretty complete. I have since painted the brackets and hardware with Black Engine Paint. More on that install later - the AC kit just arrived and I am looking at mock-up, routing, etc.
  

I am thinking of replacing the firewall pad - should I go with original, ABS plastic, or something else you guys are happy with?
A radiator catch can came in while I was down so I got that installed this weekend. Pretty easy to do. The kit came with pop rivets to attach the brackets to sheet metal up front, but I decided drill 1/4" holes in the radiator support and attach the brackets with bolts - the holes were tapped 1/4 - 20. Kind of think that will be much better than pop rivets and of course removable as well.
    
  

The catch can is made of aluminum, has a decent cap on it, and obviously it has the tubes inside - one for intake/one for exit. Looks nice in the engine compartment. Keeping the brackets on the radiator support will also allow room for relays if I need them on the sheet metal panel to the left in the photo.
I also removed the rear bumper brackets so I could access the body at the rear for sanding. Since they were off and handy I went ahead and blasted the brackets and coated them with Rustoleum.
  

Daniel Jessup

Lancaster, California

aka "The Hot Rod Reverend"
check out the 1955 Ford Fairlane build at www.hotrodreverend.com

And...
I also decided it was time to remove the trunk so we could get that painted since the fenders turned out so well. I did make adjustments to ensure that the gaps were right on. After that I decided to drill a 1/4" hole in the middle of the plate that bolts to the trunk.
 
 
I used those 1/4" pin clips (easily purchased at most hardware stores). Since the circlips are somewhat spring loaded, the pin will stay in its boss. As you would surmise, this was my idea to make re-installation much easier to keep my gaps. It may not be 100% spot on when I go back to install it after paint, but it will be very, very close. At any rate I don't think I will have an issue with an paint scratches.
The trunk was turned upside down so the lip could be cleaned really well and primed. I did tape off the holes so that no sand and could get in the cavities.

The lower lip has some corrosion, but not enough to warrant a trunk skin.  
 

Hopefully I can get the trunk sanded and primed a little more next week.
Moving right along now...

Daniel Jessup

Lancaster, California

aka "The Hot Rod Reverend"
check out the 1955 Ford Fairlane build at www.hotrodreverend.com

Daniel;

Glad to see you are back at your project. It's a good feeling to get up and get going on a project you love. I have heard about the Vintage Air Alt/AC brackets, but this is the first time I have actually seen the kit. Looks good! We plan on putting Vintage Air in the Ranch Wagon and will be using that bracket kit.

We also mounted a radiator overflow tank in the Ranch Wagon and I didn't use the pop rivets they included either. I took a little bit different route for mounting and made 1 long bracket that attached to the two radiator mounting holes. Then I mounted the two tabs on the tank directly to the bracket.

Your 55 is looking great! Keep it up.

Rono

  Ron Lane,  Meridian, ID

Hello Rev,  Sorry to hear you were under the weather a bit, however I am very happy to see your progress on the 55. I will be following your progress on the AC install for whenever I do that on my 56 Fairlane Club. I tend to keep my older cars as original as possible but adding the coolant recovery tank make sense. I hate the thought of puking coolant on the ground.
I am pretty poor at body work and understand using some sort of pin on trunk or hood removal. There is a system using "Cleco" pins to  keep parts in alignment. I believe they go down to 1/8". ( They are definitely more expensive than the tractor pins)
I know you also post at Ford Barn and am starting to follow discussions and maybe contribute my limited knowledge there. Cheers - Bob

AKA   Bob-93021

I have used clecos too but only in welding panels together and such...never thought about alignment, but maybe that would work. Post some pics of your progress too when you can fellas. I am not a thief but I like "borrowing" good ideas!

Daniel Jessup

Lancaster, California

aka "The Hot Rod Reverend"
check out the 1955 Ford Fairlane build at www.hotrodreverend.com

I was hoping to have more time to get things done but life calls and the work beckons - greater things to take care of at this time of year. Recently though I did have the chance to get a couple of things done (albeit late or night or early in the morning) .

First up would be the trunk lock mechanism and chrome. It all needs to be replaced but I thought I would like see if I could not remove the keyed cylinder. The key has to be inserted and turned just so - that small pin at the back in the middle of the threads can then be pushed down and the cylinder slid out of its boss.




Since I was able to do that I thought I would fit the old lock cylinder into a reproduction trunk lock assembly, yeh right, it wouldn't go. Looks like the interior of the repro lock assembly is chrome too where as the original sleeve was not chromed at all.

I also removed the bezels for the windshield wiper pivots. They will have to be replaced as well - and those cheap paper gaskets too...



Of course, I mark everything I remove.

Daniel Jessup

Lancaster, California

aka "The Hot Rod Reverend"
check out the 1955 Ford Fairlane build at www.hotrodreverend.com

Ever have one of those moments when what you thought you were going to do had to be changed because you really screwed up the measurements? :confused:

the best laid plans of mice and men... anyway, on with our story here. So to introduce the idea of AC, which this car never had in its lifetime... a little background. The females say the car must have AC, so ok time to get to work looking at different kits, manufacturers, pricing, reviews, etc. Vintage Air and Classic Auto Air at the top of the list of course (see previous posts about the Vintage Air brackets for AC Compressor and Alternator for the Y Block).

My thought - "Wouldn't it be great to put the round, chrome, louvered vents in the dash?" In my mind video of Jay Leno's 56 Buick came to mind when I recall watching a show years ago that told the story of how louvers were put into that dash. Knowing I have like 5 extra 55 Ford dashes that are in great shape, why not take the chance to customize one? We also wanted to keep the original controls for the heat with the matching ductwork in the engine compartment. All of these things narrowed our options, so it looked like the custom route it was. A company named "Coldmaster" down in Florida, had good reviews from Bus Companies (basically people who run greenhouses on wheels) and people posting on 4x4 websites. And... what's this? they sell a kit to put louvers in your dash!

So, I measured, measured again, looked at the specs, and I says to myself, "This will work just fine." So I ordered a custom kit that would give me an evaporator core under the dash with four exits for ductwork and louvers!

Here's the box:



And here's my son getting in on the act as we laid out all of the parts on mama's kitchen table. :eek: Very good looking setup indeed. The kit came with full contents as listed, bagged, labeled, wrapped, protected, and secured.



After the inventory was checked off, it was time to get to the install. First up, let's get that evaporator core in there so we can run the ductwork. By the way, this is the front face of the core...



If you are looking at the photo and checking things out you can tell what's about to happen because there is regular vent face in the photo about to be installed! Yep - once I got that unit up under the dash the front plate where the ducting would begin was sticking out way too much. Seems I had not measured when the heater plenum was against the firewall...:mad:

Once that was discovered a new face plate was ordered and quickly installed.



The way the evaporator core is put together gives you three attachment points to hang the unit under the dash.




The installation went reasonably well but my main concern was that shifter. As you follow along in the photos you can see it is pretty close up in second gear but there is plenty of room to spare. I did have to use my own bracket for the rear of the unit - what was supplied was way too short, but the other two were just fine.





And one more final picture as it sits...



While it certainly ain't the ductwork action we were planning to do, the unit fit pretty well even though offset and it the air handlers look pretty good. More on this install coming up...

Daniel Jessup

Lancaster, California

aka "The Hot Rod Reverend"
check out the 1955 Ford Fairlane build at www.hotrodreverend.com

Now that the evaporator core is hung, we will move on to the excitement in the engine bay. Vintage Air and their compressor/alternator bracketry that was expensive enough to be gold plated is up next. Very nice kit, bullet proof metal plate that will stop bullets and IED's ... I painted them with high heat engine paint and away we went.

First a couple of photos of the formerly used setup on the alternator -



The plan is to add one crankshaft pulley before installing the bracketry though, so thankfully when I laid out the brackets and instructions I had an extra crankshaft dampener to help me mock things up.



There was going to be interference if I was to use the old crank washer. Check this out:



That shiny washer was just the ticket.



I was glad I had an extra crank dampener to use on the bench! Ok, so we got the pulley installed, and things are looking good so far.



According to the Vintage Air instructions, this will be the pulley that drives the compressor, so let's hope the alignment is ok with the bracketry and with the Sanden compressor from the kit I purchased.

From here we will just say that the kit from Vintage Air includes quite a few spacers such as what is shown in these pictures:





With the variance in Y block timing covers, several different spacers are included in the Vintage Air kit so you can get things lined up. After you remove the original generator bracketry or other custom bracketry, you are really just going to use the hole under the passenger head, the two holes on the timing cover that seal one of the coolant passages, and then one hole on the lower side of the timing cover. The hole in question is towards the middle and upper portion of this photo:



The original hole used for the tightening arm for the generator mount is not used.

The first bracket to install is the one that bolts to the timing cover AND the original boss on the head. The instructions pictured above indicate the spacers needed according to your timing cover variance.



After that I installed the flat plate that mounts a 10SI or 12SI alternator.





Of course, don't forget the spacers. And of course you will want to use thread sealant on that one hole for the timing cover that is open to the coolant passage.



more coming up...the picture count is getting high

Daniel Jessup

Lancaster, California

aka "The Hot Rod Reverend"
check out the 1955 Ford Fairlane build at www.hotrodreverend.com

Since I do not have the correct alternator, I could only install the compressor today. Vintage Air has a good reminder here about the oil cap and making sure your compressor is oriented correctly.





The compressor installation was pretty quick. Keep in mind that with the location of the compressor and the way these brackets are made, you are going to have to use a rear exit compressor as shown. (it's going to be tight enough as it is.)

Next up was the condenser. Hey, check this out, it doesn't fit lol!



Yep, the overall size of the condenser is great - lots of square area to cool the refrigerant down. But the horn brackets get in the way of mounting it near the radiator. So, we broke out the Dremel tool.



After notching the frame of the condenser, I fabricated/salvaged a couple of mounts that worked great but we still had a problem - we needed room to make sure we could tighten the fittings to the condenser. A couple of spacers helped with that issue. Using a few self-tapping hex head screws the condenser was put into place.





You can tell that installed the upright support that fits between the gravel pan and the hood latch panel. I thought that important to do since the electric fan was coming next.



plenty of room...

So the fan went on next



The receiver-dryer came next and it proved to be a little difficult to find a place where it would be 1. not exposed to excessive heat, 2. installed upright, 3. good port access to the condenser/evaporator core, 4. not in the way of anything else. I really think that what I came up with is about the only place it would have gone. However, if I put it inside the engine bay maybe there would have been more options? At any rate, here are some photos:





As you can see, another spacer was needed. But, everything is now installed and the AC lines and wiring are all that needs to be put into place before we charge it up! :p

Daniel Jessup

Lancaster, California

aka "The Hot Rod Reverend"
check out the 1955 Ford Fairlane build at www.hotrodreverend.com

Well, well, well... another story to tell about the new alternator and AC compressor mount that involves a lot of receipts, conversations at a parts counter, and chasing a scrap of part-numbered scrap of paper through a parking lot! :confused: Buckle up, time for the Ford Follies...

Where do we start? Let's start with the front porch - after being out of town for a few days working with scores of people at a church hundreds of miles away I was looking forward to getting back into the garage to unwind and "rest" as it were. Thankfully, the new alternator had arrived, along with some other goodies, so in the afternoon we were all set to get a few things done.

If you are working through a restoration for a car that will be as about as original as possible, usually things fit - FoMoCo saw to that years ago. For those types of cars and trucks it is just a matter of finding the right parts, or even period pieces, getting a hold of a good shop manual or Ford parts book with diagrams and away you go. If you are doing a restomod that will be a daily driver, then well, good luck. :o You guys that are experts know full well you have to plan, measure, research, plan some more, use some of your own sketches, think things through, etc.

Ok, after thinking, "Yeh - it's a Vintage Air bracket, it cost quite a bit of money, they are bound to think through how this all fits together..." I went ahead and pulled the 10SI alternator out of the box. It looked pretty good since I went the chromed route and 120 amps no less. A 10SI or a 12SI is what the bracket calls for... so down we go.

"Wait, what's this?"



Yep - that long bolt cannot go into that hole in the bracket because it cannot clear the electric fan/radiator (that Vintage Air recommends...). Ok so now what? Time to loosen up the bracket and slide that bolt ever so gingerly into the hole, twist the alternator just so, get that rinky dink 1/2" spacer into position and... and... wait a sec... there! she's in!



Looks good. Never knew there would be so much drama over getting an alternator into position. I purchased one that had the 2 wire socket at the 3 o'clock position, thinking that we would be ok on that side and thankfully it fits like it should - the position of that main battery hook up is close though!



If you know Y blocks, by now you can probably tell that the dipstick tube is backwards. In other words, the main bend is oriented towards the passenger side when it should be towards the driver's side. I am glad I did this. I really don't know how the alternator could have fit into position if the dipstick tube was in the stock position. Maybe a 12SI is smaller?

Back to our story.....

Now it was time to get some belts! Vintage Air had some suggested measurements in there instructions, but they did not seem to match what I was coming up with on the Y block. The instructions did say something about variances with pulleys and all of that so I decided it was time to take things into my own hands.

I took some wire, placed it around the pulleys, twisted it together, and then cut it so I could measure it on the bench, adding a little bit of length to make up any difference in pulley groove depth.



What happens next is an exercise in futility. I ended up going through these pictured belts lol...




Let's just say I am glad that Autozone is literally 1.5 miles away from my house! What a fun time all of that was. You should have heard the wife when she found out I was going for the third time...:eek: "Are you kidding me? You gotta go back again? That don't sound like you at all, you usually nail this stuff..." Oh my, if she only knew!

One of the best parts was on my second trip the piece of paper with measurements and part numbers went flying out of my grip and across the entire parking lot. I waddled around trying to step on it, chasing it down. That was completely hysterical. I probably looked like I was chasing a $100 bill!

Ok so, third time's a charm - these grooves look to be lined up really good, and the belts fit very nicely with good tension.



After assessing this alternator install a little bit however, I realized that the heater hose from the water pump is going to rest right smack dab on top of that alternator as it swings back to the heater core. Nope, can't have that.



What I plan to do is make a sheet metal bracket that will come off of the alternator, placing both the hose from the water pump and the hose from the intake manifold above the alternator a bit more as they travel back to this spot on the passenger side fender -



And, after reinstalling the aftermarket battery tray what have we hear?



Looks like this tray barely rests against the Vintage Air bracket. It is a plastic tray, not a big deal, but I do wonder if I should not notch it or find something else. I would imagine that over time with any engine movement it will wear into the tray.

If you want more Ford Follies, stay tuned. I happened to start looking at the RebelWire wiring harness tonight. Oh boy, we are in for some fun!

Daniel Jessup

Lancaster, California

aka "The Hot Rod Reverend"
check out the 1955 Ford Fairlane build at www.hotrodreverend.com