The Story of the 51 Ford

My first car was a 1950 Ford Custom 2 Door Sedan that was Pea Green. My Uncle helped me buy it in Los Angeles in 1956 where I had dual pipe with glass pack mufflers put on and the front coil springs cut to drop the front before I drove it back to the San Francisco Bay Area. I joined a Hot Rod club and got interested in drag racing and in 1957 I installed a 1957 DeSoto fire dome V8 Hemi engine with four Stromberg 97 2 Barrel carb on a home made log manifold, a roller tappet cam, a cadallic LaSalle transmission and an Olds rear end. The car turned in the high 90's/ low 100's and ran in B gas. Eventually, the car was sold in 1961 after marriage, children, and trying to save for a house. In 1994, (43 years later) I had a 1985 Ford Mustang Gt and started attending weekend Rod runs, poker runs and went to the Goodguy's show in Pleaston Ca. where I saw some nice 50's and 51 Fords. So, I bought over the next year 2 1950 2 door sedans, 1 -55 club coup w/no engine or transmission, 1- 51 2 door in pieces, and 1 -51 4 door with a 302 engine and C4 automatic transmission. The plan was to drive the 51 4 door and build one of the 50 2 doors. But, when I started working on the 51 the engine installation was really bad, the wiring was burned up and the exhaust was poorly done in flex pipe. The gas line were "hanging hose" and bailing wire not to mention the stock worn out suspension.