Water Pump

I took the car to a local body shop in February. The bottoms of the doors were rusted out, there was some rust on the trunk lid, on the fenders, rocker panels, and a couple other places. I found some replacement doors from the T-bird center in Ohio. I ordered some new fender skirts, since the original ones disappeared somewhere between Italy and England. I also ordered all of the weatherstripping and gaskets needed.

During the body work, the shop found out that the new drivers-side door was somewhat warped, and did not fit the body well. Since these doors are scarce, I had them work it as best as they could.

I have never liked the original color of this car. In 1956, Ford offered T-birds in Fiesta Red, which has too much orange in it for my tastes, so for the new paint I chose Torch Red, which was offered in 1955. It's a much deeper red, less orange. Also, since the interior of the 1955 is quite similar to the 1956 (only the pattern on the seat was different), I can get interior vinyl and paint in the correct color to match the body.

So, I finally got the car out of the shop about a month ago (pictures coming soon). On the drive home, I noticed a new (not good) sound. At first I thought it was the transmission, but I eventually tracked it down to the fan. The bearings in the water pump broke, and the water pump was throwing grease on the underside of my newly clean and painted hood.
So, I got to work tearing down the cooling system. I bought a new high output water pump, new thermostat, new hoses, new gaskets, new clamps, and various other fun things.
When re-installing the thermostat housing with the new thermostat, one of the bolts broke. I had the torque wrench set to 18 ft-lbs, and later I checked, and the correct setting was 12-15 ft-lbs. This difference should not have broken the bolt, so I figure it was just old. I found new bolts, and installed the thermostat housing.
Next came the water pump, fan, belts, fan shroud (how I hate that thing), and all of the hoses.
On the test drive, I found a leak at the bottom radiator hose (where it meets the radiator). That's always a hard one to get right. I have yet to be able to get that down, but I can do that some night this week.
Anyway, after all of this, I hope to drive it to work next week (after I have a bit more confidence in my fix).

Now that the exterior looks so good, the interior looks worse than it did before. I need to get the power windows working, and I've got a new wiring harness for the driver's side door. Once the windows are working, I might be able to start on the rest of the interior.