1957 Ford Thunderbird - mtbird57

1957 THUNDERBIRD
Vin:
Date Built: October 16, 1956
Restoration started July 4, 2007

4 January 2009

I am writing this document to detail the restoration that has been performed upon my car with certainty and accuracy. I want to pass along what is being accomplished and why. I also want any future owner/caretaker of my Thunderbird to know how to properly maintenance and service this outstanding vehicle. History:



This is a picture of my Thunderbird & I shortly after I bought it in 2003 with only a few non-stock modifications in place: An alternator in place of the factory generator, electric wipers, and a new Vintage Air heating & air conditioning system. It had previously been restored, from what I have been able to ascertain from documents and written dates, in 1983. It had been driven very little since it was restored and looked and drove wonderfully. I drove it from Block Island, RI to Wichita, KS without fail in August of that year. I used it primarily as a pleasure vehicle but drove her often. I did not do a whole lot of work to the car at this point with the exception of installing front disk brakes, supplied by Prestige Thunderbird in California, and removed the rear end housing due to a leak. I had the housing powder coated gloss black at Wichita Powder Coating and pressed new bearings onto the axles, I installed everything back into place and she ran out fine. I also installed brand new leaf springs at that time (2004). A Petronix Ignitor II replaced the old points at this time as well.  I eventually left Kansas and drove back home to Montana in the Thunderbird in 2004. Once again, I had absolutely no issues getting there and must admit that I drove over the Big Horn Mountains @ approximately 110 miles per hour! I guess I was just anxious to get home. I did lose the driver side fender skirt somewhere on that trip. Either it let loose and I did not hear its departure while in motion, or it was stolen at a motel I stayed at for a few hours in Torrington, WY. Either way, it did not make it to MT.

In Montana, the car remained in storage most of the time. When the weather permitted I would occasionally take her out for a spin to keep the fluids circulating. I did buy http://classictbird.com/ and install a Griffin aluminum radiator in 2005 from CASCO auto parts in Ohio.  It may very well have been the best money I had ever spent on a Thunderbird in the 20 some years I had been fooling around with these old cars. The cooling improvement was immediately noticed by about a 20 degree F drop in normal operating temperature.

In November of 2005 I accepted a Paint Operations Manager position for Gulfstream Aerospace in Savannah, GA. Part of the moving package I received included transport of my vehicle from Montana to Georgia. The Thunderbird arrived in Savannah on the back of a huge car hauler on November 29th, 2005, in the evening. I was not pleased when I discovered that the apathetic transport people had dislodged the fuel filler tube from the tank and the right gas tank strap was also displaced leaving the tank hanging at an angle. They also somehow managed to spring the inside driver’s door handle. After hotly inquiring about the condition of my car to the driver, I commenced to repair the gas tank on the spot. I drove the car daily for almost exactly one year in Georgia. I never had a problem with the old car except she began to run rich, I did have to replace the ignition switch (it eventually froze up with age), and the electric wipers that had been installed prior to my purchasing the car were a poor design and failed. Other items started to wear out or fail as well including turn signals, the driver’s side door window kept jumping the track, the fuel gauge quit working, and the door handle remote on the driver’s side door broke. The bottom line, however, is that amazingly, this 50 year old vehicle always got me where I needed to go and never let me down. Simply stated, it became clear that after previously owning four Thunderbirds over the course of 25 years ranging from 1957 to 1960 convertibles, that this was the car I would “settle down with” and try my best to hang on to. I had never had a Thunderbird that had not failed me at some point until now. In November of 2006, I parked the Thunderbird in my recently purchased Town House’s garage in Rincon, GA and bought a 1998 Nissan truck to drive daily. Shortly there after I began to acquire the parts to restore the car in the way she deserved to be restored.
       



This is a picture of the Thunderbird (which I have affectionately named Roxanne) about 9 months before parking her and preparing for the restoration. Note the two bumper bolts on the side of the front bumper. I am told that only a handful of early production 1957 Thunderbirds were built with this anomaly. It’s kind of like finding a Coke bottle with the label upside down! This production mistake is discussed in Ray Miller’s book “THUNDERBIRD” where he speculates that only “a dozen or so” of these cars were built with a “dummy bolt” in place.
The following is a breakdown of what was done to & for the vehicle by category and why:
Frame & Suspension: The body was dismantled and removed from the frame in October of 2007. The body was mounted to a rotisserie and the frame and suspension were completely disassembled. The frame was powder-coated gloss black (all powder coating was performed by Savannah Powder Coat in Rincon, GA). The frame was in wonderful initial condition with no corrosion, cracks, etc to be observed. A arms, brackets, and literally anything that could be powder-coated was. A new Kanter suspension was installed and a rear sway bar for better cornering control was also added. The front sway bar was already an oversized, high performance part, so it was powder-coated silver and reused with, of course, new bushings and hardware installed. New matched front coil springs were installed at this time. A custom-made steering gear box (based on the GM Saginaw 605) was purchased from ND Gear heads Cruiser Products and bolted directly to the frame with no modifications needed to do so. http://www.ndgearheadscruiserproducts.com/ The reason was simply a matter of performance. The Saginaw gear promises to cut the lock-to-lock steering ratio in half for incredible responsiveness (from 6 turns lock-to-lock to 3 on a stock power steering car such as mine). It is also a truly integrated power steering system that does not require the antiquated slave cylinder, which habitually leaks no matter how well or often it is rebuilt. Further, the increasingly difficult quest of obtaining Type F fluid, at the corner gas station, will no longer be an issue as the system uses modern power steering fluid. Believe me, if you insist on maintaining the stock set-up you better have plenty of Type F fluid on hand due to the leaks. In modern times, this upgrade just makes sense if one is to drive this car regularly, which is what I intend to do. In order to install this steering set-up, the original power steering center link had to be discarded and a 1957 manual center link was purchased, powder-coated, and installed. I also installed a new end kit with springs, bushing, plug, etc into the end of the link. A new polished tilt steering column from Flaming River was also purchased. It accepts the original steering wheel, so it will go unnoticed by most observers. I bought this item because it has a new harness, signal cancelling mechanism, and wearable parts equating to better performance and responsiveness. I also want to have the advantage of a tilt wheel because the factory steering wheel is large and intrusive at times. Now I have the ability to move it out of my way  with ease. Because I used the Saginaw gearbox, I had to purchase the Flaming River column that they use with their rack & pinion kit. I used a polished anti-vibration joint to mate the column to the gearbox. This was also made by Flaming River. Along with the steering gear upgrade, I also purchased a beefed-up idler arm from the Cruiser folks. The stock idler arms exhibit considerable flexing when turning the vehicle making for sloppy handling. The new idler arm will not flex, and like the gearbox, it was also a direct bolt-up installation.

 
Please note the brace used to secure the body from flexing for, and during, removal from the frame. I got extremely lucky and purchased this already fabricated part off of eBay from the gentleman who made it. He sold it after the conclusion of his frame-off restoration on an early bird. I believe I will hold on to it after I am finished.

Securely mounted to the rotisserie with a few innovations by my friend Harold Wilson. This is his incredible shop in Brooklet, GA where the restoration is taking place during my limited weekend and holiday time.

Frame freshly powder-coated and ready for assembly.
Other suspension improvements include premium KYB gas front shocks and Monroe rear gas shocks. The leaf springs were reinstalled after being cleaned and treated with cavity wax (paint does not hold up well on these things and powder coating would have meant disassembling them and removing the anti-squeak pads) and new bushings, bolts, etc.  
Body:
Being a black car, the level of panel straightness, gloss, and distinctness of image in the exterior paint was excellent when I purchased the Thunderbird in 2003. Over time, a few hairline cracks began to appear in the right front fender and a couple of other isolated spots which indicated previous body filler to me. I performed a frame-off restoration not because I had a primary interest in aesthetics (although if done right, a high quality level of aesthetics should be a natural by-product of the completed restoration) but rather to insure that my car would live as long as I do. As I am writing this, I am 37 years old and purchased my first T-bird, a 1959 hardtop basket case, when I was12 in Miles City, MT. The primary reasons for the frame off restoration was corrosion elimination, enhanced functionality/reliability/enjoyment (without compromising the integrity of what makes it a ’57 T-bird), durability and knowing that the work completed will withstand the test of time even in occasionally adverse conditions. I also find great pleasure in doing today what they could not have conceived of back in 1957. Can you imagine how well these cars would have remained preserved if only powder coating in lieu of paint were available and employed on the under panels and frames in the 1950’s?  I want this car to last at least as long as I do. Also, in the past 25 years, it has become abundantly clear to me that everyone out there has a different understanding of what an automotive restoration consists of. Universally, most people believe that fresh exterior paint, new interior, a rebuilt suspension, engine and transmission, and some fresh chrome constitutes a restoration. This belief is not unfounded or incorrect, but the end product is incomplete if the most vulnerable points of the car are not addressed. In other words, if the underside and frame of the car are not properly stripped and refinished, then it is like putting sweet decorative frosting on a moldy or stale cake. A lot of folks do not want to consider this reality when performing a restoration because of the commitment and/or expense involved in doing the job completely and to be honest, neither did I. When I first crawled under my 1957 to look at the underside it was caked with 50 years worth of undercoating and the typical other crap that builds up over the years from normal driving. I did not note any weak points or issues that needed to be addressed, but then again it would have been impossible to note these things with the layers upon layers of crap built up under there. It was when I first began dismantling the interior that the front floorboards caught my eye. It was evident that the corrosion, particularly on the passenger side, was becoming severe. I knew at that point that a full frame off was in order (with the persuasion of my girlfriend Billie Sue) and so, I coughed up the cash to buy a rotisserie off of eBay for about a grand.
   
This is what we were tasked with. Scraping off 50 years of crap! Take a look at the gunk on the floor that Billie Sue is stripping away. A heat gun with a scraper attachment proved to be invaluable in getting the undercoating off. It proved to be over ½” thick in some areas. You can observe a lot of areas where the original green factory primer has been uncovered, and of course, also the surface corrosion that laid underneath the undercoating. You can also observe that the weak front floor pans have been removed and new pans are being mocked-up for final fit and installation. The pans were powder-coated after purchase. Powder coating has proven to be a phenomenal primer to be abraded for paint application. So, why powder-coat if you are going to paint over the top of it? The answer is that due to the electrostatic application of the powder, you are guaranteed complete and consistent protection on the panel you intend to paint. The powder coat will stand up to the rigors of the elements many times over even the best anti-corrosion primers. Please note that the date on the picture is correct…Merry Christmas!!!
The sad truth of the matter is that had I not taken these preventative steps to arrest further corrosion, my car would have undoubtedly been destroyed under there in another decade. It makes me wonder how many “restored” cars out there will be facing that unfortunate fate in the near future? Even the cars out in sunny California are not immune to the effects yielded by natural chemistry and physics that transpire over the course of half a century.
As I continued to uncover the truth of my car, I also found that (4) of the floor braces needed to be removed and replaced. At some point in her life, someone had made a half assed attempt to repair the left end of the long brace under the trunk. This constituted one (and the most difficult) of the four braces removed and replaced. All braces were also powder coated to ensure that the inner surfaces would never corrode again. There were also areas of significant pitting in the steel clad of some of the belly panels. All of the new panels were welded in completely and them seamed-in and faired to contour with 80/20 lead. Yes, we used old school lead (available at Eastwood) to make sure it look  like the panels had never been replaced from the bottom! Additionally, all inner rocker panels were replaced in the same fashion. The refinish process went as follows:
1.Stripped all gunk from nose panel & inner fender to tail. Every square inch.
2.Sandblasted all aforementioned areas using DuPont’s star media. All steel was perfectly clean when finished.
3.Applied phosphorus treatment and Eastwood’s 2 part rust converter to all clean, sandblasted metal. This step was done after washing pans with MEK (methyl-ethyl-ketone).
4.Immediately before painting, the panels were once again sanded using 120 grit 3M paper. After sanding they were rag blown and washed again using the Sontara wipes available from DuPont.
5.DuPont’s Corlar self-etching chromated primer was employed to be the first line of protection. The chromated primers are the most reliable anti-corrosion primers ever invented. Due to EPA mandates they are going to become illegal within the next decade so you better get it while you still can.
6.AF 3500 DuPont Imron gloss black (a single stage polyurethane paint) was applied to all aforementioned surfaces. This product has some of the best (if not the best) physical properties for paint on the market today. It is highly resistant to chipping, staining, etc. I am so confident in this material that I apply it to prestigious 50 million dollar corporate aircraft on a daily basis. The gloss of this product is also phenomenal.  
7.The engine compartment was cleaned, sanded and gloss black Imron AF 700 series base-clear polyurethane was applied for added UV protection. A newly reproduced correct VIN tag was ordered & installed from A.G. Back East in Grand Junction, CO. Unlike the original, this tag is impervious to most every chemical and will not fade or peel over time. The original style rivet were included with the $75.00 fee and used to attach the new data tag.

       
This was by far the most tedious & painful part of the restoration. It took 9 months.

The topside of the Thunderbird, as I mentioned before was in fairly nice overall condition at the start of the restoration. The one issue that did present itself was that wherever the inner fenders, etc had been subject to high levels of heat from the process of removing undercoating or using lead, the exterior paint bubbled. This was present on the top of both front fenders (in isolated places) as well as on the rear quarter panels. As a result, all paint in these areas were ground down to bare steel and reworked using a very unique product not available to the public. The product I am referring to is a trowelable, chromated, epoxy primer simply designated by PRC Desoto (PPG's Aerospace division) as 7660. This particular material has the consistency of any ordinary two-part body filler such as Bondo, but is chromated and can be applied to properly prepared bare steel with the peace of mind that it will effectively stop or retard the potential of corrosion. It is an epoxy so it will not shrink, however, it has some extremely unique characteristics in that it will not crack and it is highly flexible after cured. The aforementioned is highly irregular for an epoxy-based material. All areas where minor hairline cracks were observable were stripped down to bare metal and repaired as appropriately as possible. Dents were metal finished with standard body tools and fiberglass and 7660 finished the job. Because it is a black car, I was able to powder coat a lot of the inner body panels without fear of color match issues. An example of this is the passenger and driver-side door jambs and inner walls of the doors as well. Other areas include: the inner headlight doors, tail lamp bezels, gas door, and both inner air scoop doors. All removable panels (doors, hood, trunk, etc)  were painted off of the vehicle to ensure that the level of detail was nothing less than excellent. The product used was DuPont's 3500 series Imron polyurethane. Due to so many modern black paints featuring odd pigments that take away from the richness of the color, my Painter (Joe Clark) specifically formulated and mixed what he deemed as “ink black” to meet the high requirement of the Thunderbird. The formula is:


All panels were then color sanded and the DuPont AF 740 clear coat was applied topically to the 3500 Ink Black. The clear coat was then sanded and polished using 3M's Trizact polishing system. It is a mirror finish from front to back to include the underside of the hood which acts as a mirror to show off the fabulous detail of the engine. I must emphasize once more that this is the same material you find on the outside of all 50 million dollar Gulfstream jets painted at the factory. Further, the paint work was performed by the same technicians that paint Gulfstream aircraft. The important difference is that we were able to do this at our leisure rather than on a production schedule which equates to an unpresedented paint job. There is no question that Gulfstream are the most luxurious and prestigious aircraft on the planet, and I can personally attest that the customers of these airplanes do not take their paint quality lightly. Because the paint used was designed for aerospace use, it has properties that make it very durable under extreme conditions (for example, repeatedly going from 110 degrees F to -70 degrees F in a matter of minutes) as well as the ability to resist damaging fluids such as hydraulic fluid. The AF 740 clear exhibits some of the best UV protection properties available and this clear will not yellow with age. The bottom line is that this is the best paint material I could have employed for the purpose of restoring this Thunderbird. It will easily last 20 years if kept clean and occassionally waxed. Most standard automobile paints last around 5 years if one is lucky. As a side note: An NOS left fender skirt was purchased and fitted while the body was still mounted to the rotisserie. Of course the trunk and hood hinges were removed and powder coated  along with the hood latch pieces. The driver side door latch was sent to CASCO for rebuilding. I was able to find an NOS passenger door lock. I used Eastwood's electroplating system to do a final metallic finish to both locks for consistency and durability. Both doors were completely rebuilt including new windwing assemblies/chrome pilisters, new power window units available through Concourse Thunderbird Parts were installed, and every screw, seal, etc was replaced with the highest quality correct parts. All window tracks were lubricated using a dry lubricant containing Molybdenum disulfide. It is the best dry lubricant available today and unlike the greases of the past, it will not attract or trap dirt or debris which eventually leads to sluggish window performance or a burned up window motor. My car did not have power windows when I purchased it. It was the one feature I missed from my first 1957 Thunderbird and the new kit is undistinguishable from the original set up until you actually look at the mechanism itself. All of the relevant chrome trim items, switches, wiring, etc are an exact reproduction of the original. I expect greater reliabilty and longevity of this set up over the old system that had wearable brushes in the motors. At almost $1,000 it was an expensive upgrade, but very much worth it to me. Let's face it crank windows are just not cool when installed in the world's first reputable “personal luxury” vehicle!
External Trim & Such  
1.The door handles are original parts that I had re-chromed several years ago for my first '57 T-bird. They were not finished in time so I installed reproductions on that car and kept these.
2.The hood scoop is NOS from my friend Wes McFarland in Claremore, OK.
3.The front head lamp buckets were powder coated, and new Xenon headlamps were installed for improved night vision.These were direct plug in types that did not require the wire harness to be modified.New wire harness' were installed on both lamps.
4. New turn signal housings were bought in a kit that included: chrome housings, lenses, harnesses, and seals. I installed CASCO's LED light kits in them for improved visibility by other driver's. A new flasher was included in the kit and installed when I re-wired the dash. The rate of the flash should be significantly faster as well. Regular 1157 bulbs can be used with this kit with no problem if necessary.
5.The rear bumper was replated by an outfit in California. It is beautiful. I reassembled it with new hardware, had all braces powder coated, and also had the exhaust ports powder coated. I had the license lamp housing powder coated and painted the inner surface silver for better reflectivity. A new lens, seal, bulb and harness were also installed.
6.I bought a new emblem and trim kit that included both birds and plastic inserts, hash marks, and scripts with new hardware.
7.Winshield washer nozzels: One is brand new & the other is NOS.
8.Original chrome door lock ports were re-installed.
9.NOS upper grill molding (still in original Ford wrapper) was installed.
10.An original grill that had been freshly replated was installed instead of a new one because they fit and look better. The one I acquired is virtually perfect!
11.The original middle gravel shield is in such nice condition that I simply reused it. The corner pieces were powder coated black.
12.New windshield rubber and flashing was used with the original windshield. All trim pieces were beautiful and required nothing but some light cleaning.
13.Sequential, LED tail lights from CASCO.....cool addition and much safer than stock lights. When they light up they look like an explosion of light within the lens!
The 312 Y-block Engine
The original 312 with the correct ECZ-G heads were in place when I purchased the Thunderbird, and as I have mentioned, it ran wonderfully. Unfortunately, the older couple I acquired the car from did not know much about the mechanical history of the engine or when it was last rebuilt. Although they had owned the vehicle for about a decade, they only knew that in that time frame they had personally only put about 800 miles on it. Driving the car for as long as I did, I can tell you that it was the best running T-bird I have ever owned. Driving it daily during my first year in Savannah, things did begin to need attention. First and foremost, the original Holley carburetor began to run rich. Upon heavy accelaration considerable carbon would be released. It did not burn or leak oil, but not knowing exactly what to expect I decided to do a complete rebuild of the engine and make some upgrades to the engine for the frame-off restoration.

The picture above shows the engine coupled with the original transmission the day it was removed during the restoration.
The correct ECZ-G heads were sent to arguably the leading authority and builder of Y-block engines in the country: John Mummert of Southern California. John's website can easily be found on any search engine when “Y block” is typed in. I had the bare, magnifluxed heads powder coated Ford red prior to sending them out to be ported & polished at his facility. The stock 1.92” intake valves were replaced with a slightly larger, very street-worthy 1.94” titanium valves. The exhaust valves selected were 1.60” stainless steel over the original 1.50” stock variety. All retainers are made of titanium. Mummert surfaced the heads and installed new hardened seats. Mummert also custom ground a 265S camshaft to perfectly compliment the ported heads. Along with this I purchased an aluminum “Blue Thunder” intake manifold, a phenolic carburetor spacer, a 525 cfm Demon carburetor, a set of nicely built exhaust headers (along with a set of copper gaskets), an MSD billet electronic distributor (requiring no additional box), and a Petronix II “Flame Thrower” coil. Perhaps one of the nicest additions proved to be a beautiful set of true roller-rocker rocker arms made of titanium alloy that were built by “Cascade Rockerarm Company” in Cascade County, California. Not only do they look phenomenol, but the fact that they are designed to avoid the perpetual beating that the original style tappett rockerarms give to the valve trane, give peace of mind that all of the hard work put into this incredible car (& her engine) will last for many, many years to come. A high performance double geared timing chain set  was also purchased from Mummert and later installed. As for the block itself, I turned to a very credible restoration facility that I have been aware of for many years. I chose Georgia Classic Restorations (also easily found on the net) located in Woodstock, GA. Georgia Classics specialize in 1955-1957 Thunderbird restorations and are renowned Y-block rebuilders in the small circle of ancient Thunderbird owners. I took them my heads and all of the parts I had amassed along with the block itself in October of 2008. Ironically, the gentleman that built my engine shared the name of my friend Harold Wilson who has been a major source of innovation and technical know-how on this project. About a week after they received the engine, Harold called me from Woodstock and stated “this engine can't possibly have more than 12-14K miles on the rebuild, and whoever did it knew what they were doing.” After explaining to me in almost CSI Mechanic terminology as to how he knew this engine had been rebuilt very well, Harold went on to say that it had been bored .30 over on the last rebuild and aside from honing the cylinder walls it would be a down right shame to bore them again. I concurred and on Harold's advisement had them hone the cylinders, deck the block, install new bearings & moly rings, and professionally reassemble the 312. Upon completion, Harold broke the engine in on a test stand at the facility. All technical information for all of the components and correct specifications for timing, etc. will be supplied with the master copy of this document. The engine broke in nicely and I was able to see the footage of the break-in the day I picked up the engine. The oil pressure was excellent, as was the compression. Other components for the engine included a rebuilt damper by Damper Dudes (the original), improved design head gasket set produced by Mummert, a blue printed Melling oil pump with a beefier pump drive, a Holley fuel pump, an aluminum water pump, and thermostat housing. The 312 dyno tested out at approximately 350 hp with stock exhaust manifolds. I do not know what net increase the headers may have yielded additionally. While the engine was being rebuilt, I also had the folks at the restoration facility rebuild my third member. The gears have been increased from the stock 3.10 ratio to a 3.50 set-up. Nothing that is too radical, but certainly should be a noticeable performance advantage without killing me at the gas pump. Most engine components were powder coated the appropriate color with the block itself being the only exception. I painted it to match using an aerospace polyurethane made by PRC Desoto (PPG). The same careful preparation to the engine was given (including corrosion primer, etc) as any other part of the vehicle requiring paint.      
     

The Transmission Transformation!
Perhaps my least favorite aspect of old Thunderbirds is the weak Ford-O-matic transmission that was installed on every automatic T-bird built. They were inefficient and short-lived, never capable of transferring the Y-block's power to the rear axle the way a better transmission could. Also, they require antiquaited Type F fluid like the original power steering set up. For years, there has never really been any options for upgrade to consider (other than replacing the Y-block for something that would bolt to a better tranny). A few years ago, however, products began to appear out there on the market that finally gave a Thunderbird owner a choice. Today various manfacturers are producing kits that allow the installation of transmissions such as a C-4 or an AOD to a Y-block engine. The benefits are tremendous because both options offer a lighter transmission to be bolted in place that use modern fluids to operate them (I can't tell you how many transmissions I have had destroyed over the past 25 years because some unknowledgable tech put the wrong fluid in my Ford-O-matic in the various T-birds I have owned). The ultimate benefit, of course, is in the performance of the transmission selected. When considering my options I finally decided upon a Bendsten's AOD adapter kit (Bendsten can also easily be found on the web). For a bit less than a grand I received a beautiful aluminum adapter plate, a new fly wheel, and a rebuilt mini-torque starter for improved start-ups. It bolted right up to my 312 and the rebuilt AOD I purchased mated nicely to the plate. A new 1900 CFM torque converter was also installed.

I am very g;ad that this modification was made with the body off of the frame because I did encounter some difficulty fitting the AOD to the X frame on the Thunderbird. In order to do this successfully Harold & I had to grind off the rear mounting base of the transmission and fabricate our own mounts (which was much easier than it sounds). We were able to take threaded hooks available at any hardware store, tweak them, plasti dip them to avoid metal-to-frame contact, and secure them in place to the frame through existing holes on the AOD using nylon lock nuts. The rear mount was probably not necessary because the engine mounts would most likely have provided enough stability, but why take any chances? Additionally, I had to have my stock drive shaft lengthened by an inch and 1/4 in order to provide ample seating into the AOD's tail housing. This was done by Dixie Power Trane here in Savannah, and they balanced the shaft at that time as well. New U joints were installed, and the fit was perfect! Another factory weakness that was resolved from the AOD installation was the removal of the old, unreliable bell crank, and throttle linkage. If you have driven a car from the 50's era with any regularity, then you have probably have had the accelarator linkage bind up on you. It can be down right dangerous in the wrong situation.

In the picture above you can see the Lokar AOD kickdown cable located below the new Lokar throttle cable. The result should be smooth dependable accelaration with no binding or inefficiency.

Here you can observe the kickdown cable attacked to the AOD. It really is a sweet set up! As a side note, a stock 1957 speedometer cable was purchased new and is a direct fit. I also purchased the right speedo gear to account for the reconfigured axle ratio.
Think about this for a moment, how amazing is it to have an automatic overdrive on a car like this? A phenomenol passing gear that will make the engine last twice as long due to less wear, how can you beat that? I know some of the purists out there are shuttering right now, but they are most likely not enjoying their cars the way I intend to enjoy the comfort and reliability of mine.

This is a picture of me on the day we set the body back down upon the frame. All new clips, bushings, and harware were used and I even had all of the new body shims powdercoated to ensure that they would not corrode. Please note, that this is not the final paint you are seeing in the picture, this was merely a sacrifical coat that was sprayed by my friend Ray Thompson to determine if the waves, and other defects were gone. Regardless of whatever color you are applying, I recommend you do this step using black paint because it shows everything! The paint you are seeing was wet blocked three more time with 120, 240, and finally 320 grit sandpaper to ensure it is final paint-ready. We put on a lot of paint for this purpose, and used a very hard aerospace grade material.

The Guts of Glory
A new red interior kit was installed in the '57 supplied by CASCO. Along with the standard kit, new visors, brackets, and rolled aluminum trim were purchased. The dash is perhaps the most noteworthy project of the interior for discussion. The dash was removed, completely stripped down, and the metal shell was sent off to Savannah Powdercoat. A perfect red powdercoating was applied to the dash and all other red, metal interior pieces that had the correct factory texture, color, and level of gloss. All pieces that could be powdercoated on the dash were. Some of the items include the ash tray, the instrument cluster bezel, the latch for the glove box, the radio support brackets, etc. NOS fuel & temperature gages were purchased, tested & installed, A new red pad was, of course, installed, A rebuilt speedometer was installed with the odometer set back to “0”. CASCO performed a quartz conversion on my clock, and the radio...
Ahh yes, the radio! How can you build a car like this and not have awesome Rockabilly tunes to cruise with? When I bought Roxanne, she had one of those direct-fit stereo systems in her. Not a bad system, but it left me uninspired. Fortunately, the factory Town & Country signal seeking radio was included in my purchase. I researched my options and found S&M Electrotech in Blaine, MN to convert my tube AM radio into a AM-FM stereo unit that can receive XM Radion and has inputs for an Ipod!!! It was not cheap, but it was well worth having the ability to listen to what I want to without detracting from the factory appearance. Let's face it, an aftermarket radio simply does not compare to the way the original radio looks.

A new headlamp and ignition switch were installed and a brand new wire harness was as well, while the dash was out of the vehicle. The only thing that will not function in the dash is the tachometer. With the installation of the new MSD distributor, the only option is to have the tach sent off and converted to an electric unit in lieu of being cable driven. This may be an option I will consider at a later time.
The factory shifter was completely rebuilt, but was nice enough that the chrome housing did not need replating. The mounting plate, however, was powdercoated gloss black.