Not a total newbie here, I think I was a member back in the early 2000's and had several '57 Ford wagons and sedan delivery's. Anyway, they're gone but I just bought a '58 F100 SWB pickup and its got a 272 motor and a 3 speed manual trans. The motor ran when the guy drove it home 15 years ago but now its stuck. He didn't try very hard to get it loose and that will be my first priority when I get it home tomorrow evening. Any suggestions other then the old standby of diesel fuel and tranny fluid down the cylinders? I've got a few questions now and I'm sure I'll have lots more when I get the truck home and start looking it over. One question is whats the best conversion for front disc brakes? Is there an easy swap for good power steering? Also, when I was looking under it the other day I noticed that the 9 inch pumpkin had the two vertical ribs, isn't that a good indicator of a nodular case? And one more, I like the looks of the '57 grills, is this an easy swap from the '58? Thanks for any and all info and I look forward to learning from you folks.

I will let others answer most of the questions, but one thing I have a great deal of experience with is changing grilles on the 57 and 58 models.  It is simply a bolt on application that can be done quickly.  You have two sets of wires for headlights on each side and you only need the one with both high and low beam.

After removing the headlight doors lamps and buckets, put plenty of penetrating oil on the exposed threads of the bolts holding the grille to the fenders, especially the upper ones because the heads are hard to get to from inside the fender well and have been exposed to all kinds of rust creators (water, mud, salt?).

Charlie Burns Laton, Ca (South of Fresno)







BurnsRacing981@gmail.com

Thanks Charley, guess I need to start looking for a nice '57 grill.

To help with the disc brake and power steering questions.  Both are relative and subjective with many options.  That said, if you plan on keeping the straight axel this is what I used with good success:

 I just installed a Classic Performance Parts (CPP) vacuum assited power disc brake kit on my 1956.  The install was straight foward, all the parts fit, and the difference in stopping power is huge.  This install does requires cutting the brake lines.  Fittings, tubing bender and a flare tool are required and not supplied in the kit.  I replaced the hard lines with stainless and got a complete kit with fittings, adapters and tubing from Inline Tubing.  CPP probably has this stuff also.  They failed to mention these were needed when I was buying the brake kit so I got it from Inline Tubing.  After much research I did get the best deal for the brake kit and booster from CPP though (There are lots of vendors with this kit).  I too have a 3 speed transmission and that did give me a little difficulty.  I believe the 57 and 56 have the same clutch linkage set up with the brake riding on the same shaft.  If you plan on keeping the manual trans and pedals you will need the kit that allows this.  The difficulty came with removing the old shaft.  A long story short the tapered, slotted retaining bolt could not be removed while in the truck so I had to cut the old shaft out in order to remove this special bolt to use with the new shaft.

Sorry about the long winded response...I guess to answer the question I should have just said CPP's kit is good.

Again assuming the straight axel is retained and the 3 speed is column shift, then the power assist ram type power steering is the best bet.  It is not cheap though.  There is a kit using a Toyota box that is supposed to be good but requires cutting the column and with "3 on the tree" would cause problems.  I'm not sure it would work on the 57 though.

Anyway, I hope that helps.

   

1956 F100 Big Window 309ci Y-block,  1956 F100 small window 272ci Y-block

Greg.  Mountains of North Eastern CA

I do not advise you to do this, however...

I once had a hog that got stuck pretty good, and would not budge.

I decided to run an experiment with my oxy/acetylene torch before having to pull the jugs.

I pulled the spark plugs, ran and adjusted the torch, snuffed out the flame, and put the welding tip to the spark plug hole, and filled the one cylinder that was on compression stroke with "live" gas, and quickly shut the torch off and put the spark plug back on.

I then stood back as I reached out and triggered the coil to fire that cylinder.

It went "TINK!" and spun the motor free. I ended up riding that beast for many more miles.










'59 F-100 292

'59 F-350 292

An old mechanic I knew would use ether to get stuck heads off a flathead. Remove the head bolts and plugs. Squirt a fair amount of ether in each cylinder and quickly replace the plugs as you go. Crank it a pow the heads are loose (or occasionaly completely off). Again not recommended but it seemed to work for him. Chuck in NH

Y's guys rule!
Looking for McCullouch VS57 brackets and parts. Also looking for 28 Chrysler series 72 parts. And early Hemi parts.

MoonShadow, 292 w/McCulloch, 28 Chrysler Roadster, 354 Hemi)
Manchester, New Hampshire

Oh I know that trick... but if you are going to experiment with this, it would possibly be better not to take the head bolts completely off!


'59 F-100 292

'59 F-350 292

Correct. In fact as I recall the same guy used to leave some headbolts on later on. Most often with the studs the heads would not come up that far. Chuck in NH

Y's guys rule!
Looking for McCullouch VS57 brackets and parts. Also looking for 28 Chrysler series 72 parts. And early Hemi parts.

MoonShadow, 292 w/McCulloch, 28 Chrysler Roadster, 354 Hemi)
Manchester, New Hampshire