Kerry's '54 Restoration - Part One

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The old store building has no power or heat and from the water marks on the tires, at one time the water has been 4 inches deep.  My 54 was at the front of the row and we had to move two Packards (One was a 40 160 Full Classic, the other a 40 120. Both were nice low mileage cars).  The building has posts and swinging the Packards was pretty easy but the big old Imperial was a different story.  The left rear was flat but we had an air tank and it blew up fine.  I brought a small floor jack and we were able to lift the rear wheels and apply some bbmp (big butt motive power) to swing it around.

Here she comes.  First light of day in a LONG time       

      The famous Mr. King in the white shirt and Ray Hickey pointing to the wonderful chrome.  Dirty but great!   Mr. King talking to Donald Taccone.  

I had a rollback scheduled for 11 am.  At 11 I called and was told they had a breakdown and it would be an hour and a half more.  Luckily I got a local company to do it.  

   Ken Newberry is in hog heaven. Undrecarriage is not rusty THE store where all the goodies are.   Chrome is dirty but no pits or scars  We had to wait for the wrecker guy to get off work so we walked down the block and had a barbecue.  This is the gang walking back

 Roll back rolling back into my shop.  

We spent some time trying to crank the engine.  Robert Soule said we should touch up the points but I suggested we just hit it with ether.  Spray, spray, crank, VARROOM!!!!!  The look on Roberts face was priceless.  He said "I NEVER get that lucky."  We dropped the gas tank, drained the gas, and discovered it was full of crud.  We tried the Dick Benjamin boogie with a chain but it is too bad so I'll take it in and have it boiled out.  We spent some time trying to get it to run by putting a gas hose in a can of gas but the fuel pump is not pumping.  It runs really nice if you fill the carb with gas but as soon as it is dry -- sputter, sputter, cough, die. So we decided to push it outside and give it a bath and get some of the years of dirt off the car.

The interior is pretty nice.  The fabric is torn in places but the leather is very restorable.  The dye work I just did on the 73 and 64 will come in handy on this one but it will be much easier. The front seat You can see the torn fabric.  The seat bottoms are under plastic seat covers.    Headliner is perfect.

Couldn't get the power windows to work.  Messed with it a while and found the main feed wire had been taken off the starter relay.  Hooked it up and they all four work.!!!  Yeah.  The AC Fan works also but that is as far as I got.  Stay tuned.

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