Homealone's 62 Ford Country Sedan Build Up

[Baron Von Crowder]

Thanks for posting your build pictures. It's inspiring.

[homealone]

Same process on the back seat. Cut, stretch, fold, hog ring, etc.

If anyone is looking for hog rings, Academy has them in the meat smoking section for sausage making.






Assembled. I found the flaw in these covers here. The bottom and back were made a little different. Good thing it was on the back seat.




The set ready to be installed.

[homealone]

My intension for the interior is for it to be in like new condition. With a time crunch to get this on the road for Good Guys and the sticker shock of having the seats recovered, I opted for a cleaning and a set of saddle blanket covers for now. In time, the seats will be recovered, the interior sheet metal will be resprayed and door panels will be redone.


I bought a set of saddle blanket covers off Overstock.com, cut them apart and fitted them to the seats. With the use of some brass grommets and hog rings, here is what I came up with.


Front seat. I added a little foam to the drivers side.




Covers draped over the seat.




Bottom stretched and hog ringed. The sides were folded and tucked.






For the back of the seat, I stretched it over the frame using hog rings, grommets and rope.








Chrome trim reinstalled.






Front seat done.

[homealone]

Before I could reinstall the interior, I had to replace the windshield. If you noticed in my previous pics, there were a few bullet holes in the existing one. Gonzoss was nice enough to include a replacement windshield with the wagon.

I have installed several windshields over the years and this was by far, the worst one I have ever attempted. Now I know why I could not get a glass guy to touch it.

It took multiple attempts over 3 days, 3 people and one big sealant mess to get this thing in. So far so good.


Old windshield w/ bullet holes.




Windshield channel cleaned and prepped.




Setting the gasket with butyl sealant.








Rope installed.




So with cool cat's help, after 3 days of cussing, stomping and nearly giving up, here it is installed.

[homealone]

Lets get back to the interior. Along with the spray on insulation, I wanted to make sure there wasn't any air/heat/fume infiltration through the firewall and a little extra cushion and insulation on the floor.


First a sneak peak of near future upgrades.




First was the firewall. Dynamat is nice but it's expensive so I used a cheaper alternative.

I used Peel and Seal from Lowes. It has it's reviews in this application but in my opinion, most of the poor reviews are from people that used it incorrectly or in places not prepped, dirty, rusty, etc. Infact, most of the people that recommend not using it were people who sold Dynamat material.


At $1.37 vs $8.43 per sqft, my choice was easy.








On the floor, I laid down a layer of reflective bubble wrap insulation. I prefer jute but it's heavy, holds dirt and moisture.










And the carpet was laid down to let it start relaxing a little.

[homealone]

A quick blurb about the power steering and hydro-boost brakes. I was lucky enough that the stock wagon and Lincoln booster hydraulic lines worked together with a Ford adapter. Somewhere during the 70's Ford started a changeover from flare to O-ring fittings. The wagon was flare, the T-bird was O-ring and the Lincoln was both.


Ford was nice enough to use an adapter for use on the crossover years. If anyone is looking for obsolete Ford parts, I have had really good luck with these guys.

NOS Parts LTD in Waxahachie,

http://www.nospartsltd.com/

Here is the flare to O-ring adapter I used in a couple places.




The pressure line to the booster was flare and so I bent and flared a coupler to use with the adapter to hook it all up.








The new system requires two return lines so an extra fitting was added to the PS reservoir.

[homealone]

Glad you are happy with your decision. I know I am. Too bad I had the tire rubbing issue and you couldn't take it for a spin before you left. Let me know next time you are in town.

[gonzoss]

bout time you post pics...It was great to finally see it before I left for California. The pics don't do this wagon justice guys! I knew selling it to Kevin was the best decision! Looking forward to other projects you need to finish! Maybe you should road trip to LA so you and I can head up some shows, and then I pay you loads of money for it!

and I'll think about changing the avatar...

Wow, you've done some really amazing work on this thing man. A lot of this stuff is looking like it was factory installed. Love it, fantastic work.

[46Tbird]

Love it.

That trick with the fuel lines / ends / caulking gun is fucking genius. Duly noted.

Carry on...

[BLAKE]

Love watching your fab skills at work! Thanks for posting this stuff.

[Mach1]

Nice tricks, looking great!

[homealone]

Let me host a couple videos and we'll see it run.

[homealone]

Let's run some exhaust and then we can fire this little up.

There was a fairly new exhaust system on the wagon when I got it. But two issues, it was set up for the 352FE and it was muffler-less straight pipe exiting through Bell Flower exhaust tips.

So I set out to change that a little.


Fox Body X Pipe supplied by Tyler (Mach I). I had to shorten and pie cut the ends to relocate them a little.




The pics are a little out of order so you will see things like the old floor pans. I had an exhaust shop make a couple flared adapters I welded into place.




And a shot of it running out the back.




Picked up a couple overstock Flowmaster mufflers for $22 each and welded then in place. Then with a little rerouting of the tail pipes, I exited the exhaust just behind the rear wheel.

[homealone]

Lets make some fuel lines. Now for about $100 you can buy a tool to do this. I guess if you do it everyday, it would be worth it. My case, not so much.

Here is what I did. You will need a few things: Your parts, a caulking gun, the tube holding tool from your flaring kit and a splash of mineral spirits for lube.




Clamp the tubing leaving a hair more than the barb length sticking out. Just clamp it until it holds, no need to smash down on the tubing.




Now the fun part, using all three of you hands, wipe a little lube on the fitting, place the flaring tool in the caulking gun using the end off it to stop the tool, line up the fitting and squeeze. Take you time, go slow and don't stop until you seat it.




And there you go, one completed fuel line end. 5 more to go.




I was able to reuse the T-Bird front fuel lines including the filter and bracket. They ran from the motor, across the inner fenders, down the firewall and stopped at the frame.


T-Bird fuel filter and bracket. It was shortened and I relocated one of the mounting tabs.






Formed a metal feed line and ran all the fuel lines.