"new" car build log- 1954 ford

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alright i just got a 54 ford crestline, its in really great shape, the interior just got new upholstery and the body is really straight, i want to put a system in in, just for SQ mostly, and be able to get it loud enough to not hear road noise, my plan is as follows:
Kicker 6.5" components in the kicks and in the rear deck.
Pioneer head unit, probably the deh-p680 or 740
1 10" sq-based sub
1 amp, 4 or 5 channels, if i do the 4 channel, i will bridge two channels for the sub, two channels for the kicks, and have the speakers in the rear deck powered from the HU
Kicker wiring

ill go take pics of the car for you guys so you can get an idea of what i want to do.

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ok heres some pics, you can see that i have a lot of room to work with on the kicks, and i was aso thinking of maybe putting another pair of 6.5's under the rear bench, and i forgot that theres a factory spot for a 6x9 in the dash, so ill be using that too.

[Quiet_Vette]

Does that car have a 6V electrical system or has it been converted to 12V? If not you will want to convert before you install any stereo equipment.

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its got the 6v, buthe thats just for the gauges, it runs from a 12v battery and just has a voltage drop regulator thing, to i will just wire a new stereo, and run all new wires myself.

[Regal1975]

sounds like a solid plan all around. And a damn nice car. Save some money aside for deadening though as in those older cars, road noise can be a bit of a problem

[basicxj]

Nice car .

Flathead still under the hood? If so, they have some neat alternators that fit inside a very OEM looking hollowed-out generator housing, and it bolts right into the original mounts...should you want a modern charging system.

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Originally Posted by basicxj Nice car . Flathead still under the hood? If so, they have some neat alternators that fit inside a very OEM looking hollowed-out generator housing, and it bolts right into the original mounts...should you want a modern charging system.

yea the flathead is still under there, but its on its last leg, because its never been re done, and just sat for a long time, i mean this car only has 83,000 origional miles. I think since im not going origional with much else, i'm going to drop a a 351 in there and call it good.

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Originally Posted by Regal1975 sounds like a solid plan all around. And a damn nice car. Save some money aside for deadening though as in those older cars, road noise can be a bit of a problem

yea it has really bad road niose, and a bunch of factory holes where noise can just come right in. so i am DEF. going to be doing a lot of deadening.

[basicxj]

Originally Posted by chevylover yea the flathead is still under there, but its on its last leg, because its never been re done, and just sat for a long time, i mean this car only has 83,000 origional miles. I think since im not going origional with much else, i'm going to drop a a 351 in there and call it good.

Just for info...the later model flatties are generally the most sought after by the early Ford hop-up crowd, so it'll be worth some money. With that kind of original mileage on it, it's likely not been bored out already (unless something happened early on). Some speed parts and a going through will get you lots of horsepower out of a late model flathead .

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Originally Posted by basicxj Just for info...the later model flatties are generally the most sought after by the early Ford hop-up crowd, so it'll be worth some money. With that kind of original mileage on it, it's likely not been bored out already (unless something happened early on). Some speed parts and a going through will get you lots of horsepower out of a late model flathead .

really? interesting to know. any more info on the subject? im a noob when it comes to these old cars. how much do you estimate it would cost to rebuild this motor, i want more horses, but i dont want a race car either, i just want it to hav some get up power, like 250-300 horses. thats all. if its not too expensive to get some power out of this motor, i will just keep it instead of getting a new one.

I started on the kick panels last night and the night before, i have both of the base shapes cut out and trimmed to fit, ill take some pics when i get home from work tonight.

[ComfortablyNumb]

250-300 from a flathead? You'll need a supercharger. Flatheads never had very good intake or exhaust ports. Stock it is most likely 65-85 horsepower. A mild cam, A stroker crank, some port work and a 2-pot intake would only raise it to around 150 hp.

That's why most Hot Rodders way back when, prefered the larger Mercury versions of the flathead. Then they would put them in their lightened early Model A's.

[basicxj]

Originally Posted by chevylover really? interesting to know. any more info on the subject? im a noob when it comes to these old cars. how much do you estimate it would cost to rebuild this motor, i want more horses, but i dont want a race car either, i just want it to hav some get up power, like 250-300 horses. thats all. if its not too expensive to get some power out of this motor, i will just keep it instead of getting a new one. I started on the kick panels last night and the night before, i have both of the base shapes cut out and trimmed to fit, ill take some pics when i get home from work tonight.

It really depends on what you want out of the old Ford- a reliable "Sunday cruiser", a daily driver, or an interesting (yet driveable) old car that maintains much of it's originality (and inherent value).

I wouldn't go hog wild cutting up an original old Ford like that, but some simple bolt-on speed parts coupled with a ring and valve job would be really nice in that car. There is a lot of aftemarket product for your engine- it just depends on whether you're a DIYer that wants to learn, or a turn-key type that will want to track down an old timer to do a rebuild on it. Either way, some rebuild parts with a pair of aftermarket aluminum heads, headers and a twin carb manifold will wake up your old flatty nicely.

The '54 was a transition year, and depending on whether your car was made for the US or Canada, you had either a flatty or a Y-block under the hood. The last generation of flatties incorporated some of the best features going back to 1932 (and some of the mods the old timers did to get more power out of the earlier engines). To give you an idea of the prices these old engines can command on today's market, here's a site selling some NOS French Ford flathead blocks (that were used by their military until recently) very similar to what's under your hood:

http://www.halibrand.com/flathead_info.htm

Resource links should you want to DIY:

http://www.bestprices.com/cgi-bin/vl...BT?id=nsession

http://www.amazon.com/Build-Flathead.../dp/0760314934

http://www.vanpeltsales.com/FH_web/flathead_home.htm

http://www.reds-headers.com/html/flathead_eng.html

[basicxj]

Originally Posted by ComfortablyNumb 250-300 from a flathead? You'll need a supercharger. Flatheads never had very good intake or exhaust ports. Stock it is most likely 65-85 horsepower. A mild cam, A stroker crank, some port work and a 2-pot intake would only raise it to around 150 hp.

That's probably a good estimate. The thing to remember is the flathead made most of it's power down in the lower revs, as in torque. Supercharging in a daily driver flatty is expensive, both in cost of parts and mods required for reliability. The vintage SCoT superchargers are going for huge money, as are the new repro versions. GMC versions are out there, but some hunting would be required for a manifold as most available are for SBC. The OP probably doesn't want to go down that expensive road, but would probably be surprised as to how big a difference some basic warm-ups would do for that engine if he's already driven it with a tired engine under the hood.

Originally Posted by ComfortablyNumb That's why most Hot Rodders way back when, prefered the larger Mercury versions of the flathead. Then they would put them in their lightened early Model A's.

Or...used the Mercury crank to stroke their Ford block. Ford incorporated a lot of those mods during the production run.


In case you haven't noticed, I like early Fords (though not so crazy about the newer ones) . Putting a late model V8 in the '54 would probably be the cheapest thing to do, but would also require some cutting on the car. If the OP wants to keep it forever and doesn't really care about doing irreversible mods, go for it. Small block Chevy's often went into early Fords, mostly because they were shorter (and easier to cram in) than the later Ford offerings. There were adaptors on the market to mate almost any engine/tranny combo for a swap like that, but Wilcap is probably the only manufacturer still around. Good luck finding adaptors for anything uncommon.
For the sake of the car, I'd lean towards going through the original engine and some simple performance mods. The original rear end and tranny would hold up better long term, as would value. I'd hate to see a nice car like that end up parked in pieces due to some miscalculations in what will/won't fit .

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alright, i finally got around to putting up some pics, here they are

[ligero18]

Are you going to relocate that dimmer switch??