55 Ford drivetrain upgrades

The newer valve covers are so cheap. I have had the same problem with mine. Just got a older set powder coated. That is what I'm going with.

I was hoping to take it for a little drive this weekend but for some unknown reason the city came by and put that slat brine crap down on the road today and its going to be nice tomorrow,no good cars will be driven until it rains again.

Found some vintage looking speaker grilles to cover the speakers I will put in the rear panels,while I was looking for the parts I needed Doug looked around for stuff like that. Came out with two sets of speaker grilles and some needed parts plus a glove box light from a 56 merc that I hope I can make work.

Sounds like a good day Scrounging!

Sure was a nice day around these parts for a trip to the junkyard.
Did you guys go to Stark's?

Starks it where we went,I met up with anther member of the VCCA that lives in Eaton to look for 41 Chevy truck parts.

It looks like I might head back to Starks next weekend to look for a old looking glove box light to put in the 55,since I do alot of traveling after dark with it so its time to put one in. The original parts are way too expensive and did pick one up from a 56 merc yesterday but I dont want to drill any holes in the dash so I came up with another plan. I am going to find one and attach it to the glove box on top and hook the power source to the courtesy lamp under the dash so when its on the glove box is lit up too. I was hoping for a plug to remove so the light can be installed but if it did not come with one no hole was drilled,I need to get the parts to build the Y block so I wont be going crazy doing all this little stupid stuff but this stuff is much cheaper.

Went back to Starks yesterday and grabbed a couple glove box lights,one from a mid 60s Lincoln and the other from a 63ish big Buick. I ended up using the light from the Lincoln and kept the other for a future project,when you can only come up with two lights out of all the early to mid 60s cars that are in there you know that yard has been picked over good. Even though it was a little cold it was still a good day to do walk around a junkyard.

I need to order material to do the seats so I will get motivated to get the sewing table up and running.

Going to install a new cam this winter to get the motor to produce the most power at the RPMs I need it,the dipstick who built the motor installed a cam that starts making power at the spot I want it to be at almost the max. I took a day off work this week and talked to George Montgomery about it and he has the cam I need in stock so after I hook up a tach to see exactly how fast the motor is spinning then I will buy it,some day I want to put a Y block back in but since its a long distance driver gas mileage is a concern so the 351 will stay and maybe a AOD will be installed in a couple years.

AOD would be nice.

Don't wait too long AOD's are disappearing around here.

I have a low mile AOD that came out of my Thunderbird if you are interested.

I am interested and what year is it as I heard the best are 87 and up,I have one from a 83 but its been sitting outside for many years and probably junk now,speaking on something disappearing I thought I could find a complete 67 to 72 f100 9 inch easier. On my junkyard trip yesterday I could only fine one that is complete and will be going back next weekend if the weather is decent,there is a yard up here that that I usually forget about that should have one but will see how much they want for one. Starks did not have one that is complete either but had a few 65/66s but the gears are steeper and the 67 to 72s have wider brakes that I want.

Mine is an 80. Not being a fan of automatics, I don't know much about them. It has 46,000 miles on it and I would take $150 for it. I have the flexplate and block plate also.
 As far as the rear end goes, its funny how things that were so plentiful are now getting harder to find. Maybe some of the people on Craig's list that are asking crazy money for these things are onto something. No matter how bad I would need one, I still wouldn't pay anywhere near what some are wanting.

I read that the AODs had all the major upgrades by 87.

Taking the front seat into work in the morning so I can start the rebuild,going to order the material tomorrow so I hope I can get started next week. If I am not to busy tomorrow I am going to take apart the drivers side backrest to see what spring is broken,I drove it to Florida 3 times with it sticking out and poking me in the back so its time to get fixed. I have some springs out of a 70 falcon seat and hope I can get one to work but most likely will have to get a 55 4 door seat to get springs from.

I was able to use the falcon springs to fix my seat so that is done but I did take one backrest cover apart and the green material is just not as close as I would like,I have some more samples coming and I am trying to avoid redoing the whole interior right now. The white is right on but the green is just a little too dark and will stick out a bit,it has a third color on the rear of the backrests that is not supposed to be there as I think they ran out of the correct color and substituted a 56 color but I am having a hard time matching it so I will most likely make it the way its supposed to be. I am getting samples from that material company out west that is very expensive and might have NOS material,I might get NOS insert material and the rest reproduction so only the front seat will get done.