Vehicle Description
Fantastic older award-winning restoration. Multiple magazine cover
car. Runs and drives superbly, smooth and comfortable. Everything
works, including clock, radio, radio and overdrive. Nearly silent
flathead V8. The best we've ever seen. For a restoration
approaching its 35th birthday, this car is flat-out extraordinary.
It's easy to see why it won all those awards. It shows just about
43,000 original miles and starting with an ultra-clean original car
makes great results like this possible. Victorias were only
available in three color combinations, with this car's Greenbriar
and Sea Green combination arguably being the most attractive. The
paint is lacquer but it's holding up superbly with no checking or
cracking and only the most minor signs of age and there's a
wonderful shine that looks perfectly appropriate on the '50s Ford.
One of the perks of a restoration of this vintage is that few
reproduction parts existed at the time, and as a result all the
chrome and stainless trim is original or NOS so it fits together
beautifully. You should hear the doors close on this car! The
lovely green interior was restored using two yards of NOS fabric
found at a yard sale, and yes, it's 100% correct. Everything is
restored to a very high standard and it all works: gauges, radio,
courtesy lights, and the clock ticks away reliably. This car is
equipped with a 3-speed manual transmission with overdrive, and the
overdrive works properly including the kick-down feature. We've
found that 2nd gear+overdrive is great around town, offering the
ease of an automatic transmission and easy cruising from the smooth
V8. Check out the beautiful headliner, which required three tries
to get right, and the neatly finished trunk which has a
custom-fitted mat over the original rubber piece for protection.
Last week, we had a visitor in the shop who was interested in 'Just
an old car I can enjoy' so I showed him this Ford. I told him how
beautifully a properly tuned flathead runs and he asked to hear it.
I simply reached in and turned the key and let it crank for about
three seconds. My visitor said, 'It didn't catch.' Then I opened
the hood, and there was the copper-colored 239 cubic inch flathead
V8 ticking away almost silently, the soft wooshing of the fan
blades generating most of the noise. The fellow who restored it is
a master flathead mechanic and after he disinterred this Ford from
storage, he replaced both water pumps, installed a new gas tank,
rebuilt the original fuel pump and carburetor, and changed all the
fluids. The brakes were also serviced with new wheel cylinders and
rebuilding the master cylinder, and four new Firestone wide whites
were installed. It obviously starts easily, idles beautifully, and
drives superbly. There's a suppleness to the suspension that is
unusual in restored old cars, the engine's torque pulls the Ford
around effortlessly. The transmission shifts cleanly with light
clutch action and no chatter, and thanks to the overdrive, the 4.11
gears in back make it peppy but a comfortable cruiser at 65 MPH.
Steering is effortless and it tracks straight, even on bias-ply
tires, and don't start thinking you need disc brakes to be safe,
because the binders on this handsome Ford are strong enough to
detach your retinas. Check out how ultra-clean the floors and
rockers are, too-that's what you get when you start with good base
stock. A reproduction exhaust system has that soft flathead purr
and it was refinished in a dark gray to keep it out of sight under
the car. Factory wheels were painted to match the bodywork and
fitted with correct hubcaps and trim rings, and wrapped in fresh
6.70-15 Firestone wide whites. Lovely! If you know flathead Fords,
you know how great they can be. For a low-cost car, it feels
expensive and precisely built, and the quality of the
restoration--despite its age--makes it one of the best we've ever
seen. And have no fear of using this car as intended, because the
guy restored it remains flat-out the best flathead mechanic I've
ever known and this is his pride and joy which he has owned for 40
years. A wonderful car in every way and the asking price is still a
fraction of the cost of restoration, even in 1986 dollars. Harwood
Motors always recommends and welcomes personal or professional
inspections of any vehicle in our inventory prior to purchase.
