1958 Ford Fairlane 500 Club Victoria
When I was in grad school ~30 years ago, I worked for a cabinet maker. His wife came down with a rare lung disease and it got in the way of his business. He asked me to take the body apart on his 1958 Ford Fairlane. After that, he asked me to start sanding and wire wheeling the frame. When the frame was cleaned and painted, he had me put new brake lines, drums, & shoes on. He hauled off the 332, tranny, and rear end to various shops to be rebuilt. Did the same with the seats. He had a personal body shop as he had restored several vintage cars in the past. So, he had me clean up the body parts, paint them, and put the car back together. It is fun to look back through his old records and see that he paid me $1100 just for the frame clean up. Another $1700 for the body. The rate was $7/hr at the time. Anyhow, he was meticulous and so was I. I never got to drive the car except for a few times when we thought it had carburetor problems. In the end, it was a sticky advance in the distributor and not the carb. We stayed friends all these years and I bought the car from him a little over 2 years ago. I finally got to have some fun with it (some car shows and the Hillsboro parade) and am ready to move it on. It appraised for $30k in 2017 and I can’t imagine it has diminished as I have only improved the car since I bought it. Since the restoration, it has been garaged AND covered continuously. Since I have owned it (2 years), it has had its car cover and sheltered, but not temperature controlled.
· Complete overhaul 1994, odometer reading 55,199
· $30k appraisal, April 2017, odometer reading 65,370
· Current odometer reading 66,781
· Lots of records in the file
· Lots of left over parts from a Ford 300 the fellow bought to steal parts from (we took anything that was straighter from the 300 and used it on the 500, not much though). This is why the fenders do not have the emblems/bezels. They are easily obtainable, but you’d have to drill holes in the fenders to attach them.
· Original FoMoCo radio works, which is cool, but not much out there on AM anymore
· Tires have 1463 miles on them
· Brakes are new and job well done. It had been ~30 years since the last time I did it and the auto parts stores and internet are VERY shaky when it comes to this car’s brakes. I am proud to say I kept it original, but it wasn’t easy.
· Wheels are freshly powder coated.
· A mouse got in the car, so replaced the headliner and carpet recently. NO more mice 😊
· Not pictured is a flyer from the year of the car. I have it framed along with a newspaper article from the year he entered the car in the Concours d’Elegance.
· The file on the car is brain candy if you’re into that sort of thing. You can figure out the history from the time we started restoring on it. Its not like a dealer car where they tend to chuck all that stuff along with the floor mats (weird in my opinion).
Cons:
· Front bumper could use re-chroming (again). One spot is peeled and it is a little rough around a couple of the bolts.
· The windshield washer stuff is all there (I think), except the hoses. I have not tried to make it pump.
· The back up lights do not work. The wiring harness in the entire car is correct, but somehow it does not get power to those lights.
· The clock is sporadic. It should be sent to a car/clock guy while one still exists.
· The windshield has a 1” crack at the upper driver’s side. I know………small cracks turn into big ones. I believe the headliner installer cracked the window, didn’t tell me about it, and I didn’t notice until a couple months later.
· The carburetor is Edelbrock. We went through the Holley (still have it) several times, thinking it had a problem. It did NOT. The distributor faked us out (sticky advance).
· The seat adjuster knob is missing and hard to find one.
· Seat belts could use replacing. The back ones are stained and the new front ones are too long. If I were to do it again, I’d order 4 of the shorter ones.
Price: $30,000
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Seller's other items: huff310
Location: Hillsboro, Oregon, United States
