When I got out of High School, I needed a car, to go to work.
Only made about $ 1.20 an hour, so my choices were limited.
I went, where everyone goes, to buy a car, with little money.
R.L. Smith's Auto Sales. Smitty's
Most of his cars were, either good body's, bad engine's, or good engines, crappy bodies.
My two choices, came down to a 1952 Ford, floor shift 292 C.I. Metallic Green.
Car had 55 Olds tail lights. $ 200.00 Really wanted it. After it warmed up. it played the song "I hear you knockin"
My second choice, that I bought, was a 1957 Chevy Station wagon, 283 3 on the tree.
Didn't knock or smoke. $ 175.00 It took me a month, to save enough, to bring it home.
Ran good. I decided, I wanted to put a floor shift in it.
Couldn't afford a Hurst, so I got a Foxcraft. Lived in an alley way, that got little traffic. Pulled the car half on the sidewalk, layed a blanket down, over the snow, and started removing shifter arms and rods. The replacement arms were different, and needed to be put on upside down. Drilled a hole in the floor, and used a chisel, to make it larger.
Chisel always, does a Neat job.
After hooking up the arms and rods, shift pattern was backwards.
Got too cold, to finish. Next day, I had to do some filling, and reversed the arms and adjusted the rods and it worked pretty good. The shift lever was held on, with a 7/8 " Nut.
No way, to keep it tight. Banging 2nd gear, was a painful experience.
Punching the dashboard almost every time.
A few weeks, after I had the car, I found out, if I drive it hard, it blows oil, out the Oil Filler Tube. If I didn't clean it, after it happened, it would gather on the Intake, and the fan would blow it, on the firewall.
Eventually it made it's way into the car, under the gas pedal.
.Drove it for about a year, and then found my 1964 Impala SS Conv.. 409.