The Pacer was the hit of my family's July 4th party. It was really encouraging to see so many people so excited about the car (even though it's not finished yet) and interesting to hear stories about other relatives who owned Edsels! My great uncle owned a pink Villager, evidently!

 

The Pacer is up and running again and has most of it's front end trim back on! Small steps... We drove the car for about 6 miles, and it purrs like a kitten- a really big one!

Today was moving day! The Pacer has moved from the body shop to its new home in my parents' garage. I'm looking forward to having the car in a more accessible location and getting it finished.

I added a new page to the site,"Vintage Edsel Literature." I'm scanning in and posting some of the vintage publications I have about our favorite car. First up is an article from the September 1957 Popular Mechanics Magazine, Here it is, The Edsel!  Enjoy.

I've added a few new photos to the other Edsel restorations page. Make sure to check out my Edsel's near twin from Utah! I also found one of the many photos I took of the Edsel that made me an Edsel fan back in the summer of 1987.

Wow, it's been a long time since I've updated the site. If anyone has contacted me about making changes to photos, ownership of cars featured on the site, etc, please e-mail me again. I've lost everything in my e-mail account. As a result, I have no record of your requests. Hopefully you will see more updates in the following weeks. Unfortunate circumstances are forcing me to move the Pacer from it's secure "hiding" place, but the plus side is that it will be more easily accessible to me! Happy Spring!

The seats and door panels have finally made their way to the upholstery shop!  With the newer covers stripped off the original seats, it looks like there is quite a bit of the original material left to work with... at least enough to make a decent pattern for the new cloth and vinyl.  The car will make a journey via flatbed to have the upholstery and carpet installed.  There is finally an end in sight!  Now, I have to decide on tires and find a good chrome shop!

It's been too long since I've posted anything here!  I hope that no one thinks I have given up the project.  I've been moving and getting settled in and the car has just been on hold for some time now... The good news is that as of yesterday, things are back underway.  The shifter motor is finally back in and everything works like a charm!  Can't tell you how relieved I was to find that the Teletouch system was in great working order!  The next step is to take the car to the upholstery shop where it will get it's long-awaited and well deserved new interior.  As soon as I have some photos, I will get them posted.  Hope that everyone is having a great summer!  Hard to believe that it's August already!

The good news is that the fabric for the interior has been here for a couple of weeks.  The bad news is that the upholstery shop is booked until August!  Looks like another summer lost to waiting!

I ordered the fabric for the upholstery yesterday.  It shouldn't be long before I have a decent looking interior!

It's been some time since an update.  I've had a lot of e-mails asking about progress on the car, but unfortunately, there isn't much to report.  I will be ordering the upholstery fabric soon.  Hopefully, the car will be ready to go this summer.  These long Pennsylvania winters make it hard to get work done because the car can't be moved from the body shop to the machine shop without being exposed to road salt.

I have updated the fallen Edsels page with a couple more entries. 

The front and rear windows went back in today.  I'm glad that there was no distortion in their shape since they have been out of the car for a year and a half!  Take a look at the pictures.  The installation of the Teletouch motor is the last thing that needs to be done before the car can be driven.

It's been a long time since I've written anything in here, so I thought it was about time that I put something down.  I'm very pleased with the progress on the Pacer.  It's really coming along and is turning out so much better than I ever thought it would!  I've really appreciated all of the encouragement from you folks out there who view the page regularly and drop me messages.  It's great to hear from you!  Keep the messages rolling in.

I was taking a few minutes tonight to reflect on just how far the car has come in a year and 6 months... the engine has gone from sputtering and groaning to almost silently purring... the body is well on its way to being smooth and shiny again!  It's really exciting when I think about it... and I just hope that everyone who has helped along the way knows how much I appreciate everything they have done for me... particularly my father, who I definitely could not have done this without.  Thanks to everyone... and I hope that thign continue to proceed as smoothly as they currently are!

The first coat of primer is on the car... it's an epoxy primer to help prevent rusting.  Let's hope that it works like it's supposed to!  The next coats of primer will be the base for the final paint job.  I'm really looking forward to seeing some color.  Let's hope mother nature gives us some time before she lets the snow fly!

I just realized that I never posted a picture of the grille now that it is all finished... so here it is!  I'm happy with my efforts...

The windows are out and patching has begun on rust that was revealed under the seals.  Soon the priming will start.  I can't wait!

The last of the body work is being completed.  There were some trouble areas around the trim clips and some old dents that had been leaded in.  The windows will come out soon...

The body is nearly stripped.  Once the front and rear windows are removed, the body work can be completed.  I've found the proper window gaskets, so it looks like things are on track!

The engine and transmission are back in the car and she runs like a charm... aside from the fact that we seem to have lost the bracket for the teletouch motor somewhere in the shuffle... something else to add to the parts list! 

The engine painting is finally nearing completion... Talk of hauling the car out from its winter and spring hiding place has started, so it shouldn't be long before the engine and transmission are back in the car!  Now I need to get some tires! 

The engine is done and so is the transmission.  The painting will be starting as soon as these are back in the car!  There is some sort of end in sight!  I'm looking forward to getting the car on the road for a test drive.. but before that I need to find some suitable white wall tires for her!

Winter is setting in and things have come to a standstill with the car.  I am presently working on paying off the repairs to the engine and transmission... a bit more than I had planned on!  The car is in storage for the time being, but once the engine is back, the painting will resume.  The car should be running and painted for next summer.  As for the interior and chrome, that's going to take some time, but it will get done eventually... that's why they call these projects, right?  Well, enough for this entry.  Take care everyone and keep warm (for those of us that are in cooler regions :) 

My car's 45th birthday is quickly approaching.... on the 11th.  Things are progressing... insides of trunk and hood are painted.  The radiator is ready to come home from the shop, the generator is back, and the engine is almost ready to leave the shop.  Once the engine and stuff is all back in, it will only be a matter of a few weeks until she's done.  I'm still in search of insulation for inside both trunk lid and hood.  I may have a lead.  Not sure though. 

I'm still polishing trim and chrome.  What a job!  I'm also trying to get together lists of seals and stuff that I will need.  The lists seem endless!  Upholstery, window seals and brushes, door seals, miscellaneous little parts, and tires (having problems finding 2 1/4 inch white walls).  Here's hoping that I'll manage to get everything together in time to take her for a drive before she gets garaged for the winter!

The painting and body work are progressing.  The hood, roof and trunk lid are almost stripped and ready for priming.  The inside of the trunk is painted... look s great!  I can't wait to see the whole car wearing it's new coat of paint.  The engine and tranny should be back within the next few weeks... they keep getting put off.  The teletouch motor is back and ready to be put back in, so all in all, things are moving along.  I'm still working on my side trim and pot metal... trying to get it to shine as best I can.  Found something else that I need to search for... the hardware that holds the spare tire in as well as a spare rim and the bumper jack. 

Well, things are progressing.  I'm waiting to get my shifter motor back from Mike Brogan in New York.  Once it's here we'll get that reinstalled and then it'll be time for the engine to go back in!  It should be back within a couple of weeks.  I can't wait to see it back in there!  Rick is working on patching a few bad spots in the trunk and starting to get things ready to be primed.  In person the turquoise color is great!  I didn't like it at first, but it has grown on me.  Hopefully things will get wrapped up before the snow flies! 

With the arrival of the paint and the painting of the firewall, I can finally see some sort of end on the horizon!  It's really encouraging to see come color!  I don't think I'll make my hoped finishing date... I had wanted to be able to make the 45th Edsel Birthday Bash at Raystown Lake in late September, but I can't see all of the work being completed by then.  Oh well.  At least things are progressing and I should be able to take the car for a spin before winter!

Things are really starting to progress.  The end of the project seems almost in sight.  I am just about done repainting the grille.  The engine compartment is all primed and ready to be painted.  The cans of paint came in on Friday, so it shouldn't be long before Rick starts to paint the engine compartment.  I believe that he is planning to get the body ready for painting before the car is sent to have the engine and transmission put back in.  I can't wait until it's done! 

Things are progressing well with the car.  The rear end is back in shape, the new battery tray is built and things are really starting to shape up.  I've been working on the horsecollar grille.  It is progressing slowly.  I've coated the mesh with a rust-converting primer.  I hope it works well.  The mesh part of the grille is getting pretty rusty.  The chrome is polishing up very nicely.

Things are really starting to shape up.  I've brought the horsecollar grille and dealer script home to be cleaned up, repainted, etc.  I'm anxious to get the project underway.  Below is a picture of the grille to document what it looked like before I began working on it.  I've already done some rebending of the wire mesh so that it's back within it's metal edging. 

Things are progressing!  Most of the patching is done on the front end.  It looks great!  Next job is to get the firewall ready for the return of the engine.  I'm still waiting to get the teletouch motor back from Mike Brogan in New York.  Hoping that everything is okay with that. 

Work is progressing on the car.  The last I saw it was on the 26th.  All the welding was pretty much completed on the driver's side.  Rick found some serious damage to the front fender up by the headlight.  He is going to be able to fix it, so I'm happy that I won't have to find a while new fender.  Here's hoping that we don't find anything else as bad as that.  The engine is progressing although I haven't seen it since the last photos of it were taken. 

The welding is done on the passenger's side of the car.  Things are really shaping up.  There are some more problems on the driver's side near the headlight... lots of filler and little metal.  I guess these things happen with 45 year old cars...  Anyhow, I'm puzzling over paint and all kinds of questions right now.  There is so much going on that it's hard to talk about just one thing! 

Not much new to report today.  Rick found a lot of sand down in the body panels of my car... I wonder if it spent some time near a beach.  As far as I know it was never owned by anyone outside of Pennsylvania. 

Not much new to report... the car is mostly stripped of its trim, aside from a couple strips around the windshield.  The inner fender is repaired, now I just need to know what the battery tray looked like so that that something can be made to replace the missing one.  I also need to find trim clips, and antenna with the right trim plate and the passenger side window real soon. 

Took a trip to the body shop today.  The trim is mostly off along with the bumpers.  Rick was hosing down the undercarriage... it's in pretty nice shape under there!  There is more rust on the body than i thought there was initially.  The pictures pretty much say it all... when I get then posted, you'll see what  I'm talking about. 

More bad news today, the crank shaft is scored and needs to be remachined... I have another bent push rod, I need a water pump, a timing chain, and one of the valves is stuck in the head.  Pretty neat, huh?  The work continues...

Well, my move is complete....  and I'm working on getting the new house put together.  Now, on to the car.  The engine was pulled yesterday.  I'll have pictures of that soon.  So far, Curt hasn't opened up the engine too much, but there are a few things that are certain... I have one very bent push rod, the bearings are leaking, I need an oil pump, and the starter motor is shot.  So... the list of repairs is mounting.  The transmission is going to be sent to the shop in the next few days.  I think that's all for now... I'll probably have some more news tomorrow.  Now I have to go on a parts search!

Heard from the garage today... the mechanic... Curt... has already started taking things apart... cleaning the carb (which wasn't even attached properly)... checking out the condition of things under the hood.  The oil pressure problem is the result of the drive rod for the oil pump being twisted and broken.  The rod was actually twisted.... I am guessing because the pump seized up.  Thankfully there is no damage to the distributor.  I'm hoping that there isn't much damage to the engine.  Curt seems to feel that the best thing to do is pull the engine and tranny and see what's wrong with all of it.  I'm a little nervous about that since it involves disturbing so much stuff... especially the wiring.  I'll be interested to find out what comes of all this.  Wish me luck everyone who is reading this... I think this could get real expensive real quick if it doesn't go my way.   

The car had an uneventful trip to the garage and body shop today.  We hauled her out on a flat bed around 10:30 this morning.  I took some pictures that I will post on the webpage as soon as they get back from the developer's.  I'm feeling very good about the mechanic who is going to be working on the car... his goal is to get her running and driveable before she leaves the garage.  Here's keeping my fingers crossed that there isn't anything too wrong in the engine.  I also visited the body shop guy... his work is amazing.  I'm feeling real confident that he is going to make her as close to new as possible.  Well, that's about it for today... I'll keep updating as I hear news from the garages....

Well, tomorrow is the day that my car heads off to the body shop and garage.  It's going to be a tag-team effort by two guys that came highly recommended to me.  I'll miss seeing her every morning when I am leaving for work but this is for the best, especially since my new apartment doesn't have a garage!  Anyhow, I'll keep up with entries to let everyone know about the progress on the car... I also plan to have some new pictures tomorrow.  So, check back often... 

Well, it's been a while since I've written anything... and it's been a while since I've actually touched the car... aside from patting it on the fender every morning before I head out to work.  I'm in the midst of an all out apartment search and not having much luck.  I may have found a temporary solution to my car storage problem.  The shop that was going to do the body work for me is willing to take it in and work on it as I give them money... and the real plus is that there is a garage down the road from them that can possibly help me out with the oil pressure problem!  Things are starting to come together... slowly, but surely. 

Found out that I will have to leave my apartment a month earlier than I expected.  Talk about throwing a wrench into the gears!  I haven't touched the car in a few days.  I've been trying to find a place for the car... not to mention an affordable place for myself! 

Finally got the oil changed this morning.  Don't know how successful it was since there still isn't any oil pressure... and the oil pan was full of all kinds of crud... including fine metal shavings.  Guess I maybe looking into both an engine and tranny rebuild.  The transmission is still stuck in reverse despite the fact that it was manually shifted into neutral. 

Tried to change the oil today with no luck.  The oil plug is screwed in so tight that ten horses couldn't get it out.  Was hoping that the oil pressure problem was caused by thinned oil.  Looks like I will probably have to drop the oil pan anyhow to get the plug out.  Guess I'll check out the oil pump while it's down. 

Also vacuumed the rust and crud out from behind the front grills and from inside the engine compartment.  Noticed some coral paint behind the horizontal grills and behind the horsecollar grill trim and turquoise overspray on the chrome.  Looks like the front fenders and hood have been replaced at some time in the car's life.  For not being original fenders, they line up really well anyhow.  Once the car is painted and polished up, no one should be able to tell that they aren't original.  Well folks, that's about it for today.  I may fight with the car some more later... but we'll see. 

Finally managed to get the teletouch motor working after cleaning all the electrical contacts and fiddling around with some wires.  Now all I have to do is figure out why the transmission is stuck in reverse, and why I'm not getting any oil pressure. 

Yesterday was a bad day and I was too angry to write anything.  I discovered that there is no oil pressure in the engine and the transmission is definitely stuck in reverse.  I'm not completely sure of the cause of either one of these problems.  It could be any number of things, so the search starts.  Not making any progress with the teletouch motor either.  I think it's dead.  Didn't do anything with the car today.  I needed a break. 

Spent some time working on cleaning the interior.  Vacuumed the carpet and tried to get it looking a little more presentable.  I think I may be able to reuse the original carpet.. at least for now.  It's in good shape.

Replaced several bulbs in the dash cluster.  I managed to find ones that fit at K-Mart even though I had heard that they were hard to find.  I spent nearly 3 hours playing around under the dash.  One needs to be an extremely long fingered midget contortionist to do things like this!  Anyhow, that part is done, now I need to find a new wire and socket for the radio light.  The original one is gone. 

I finally got the dash lights working!  I managed to break one of the bulbs trying to get it back into it's little dash socket, so now I'll be on a quest for the bulb.  I hear that they are hard to find.  I still can't seem to get the radio light working... Actually, I can't even find it!  I have no idea where it is.  I guess I'm coming to terms with the fact that this whole project is going to take FOREVER, especially with the transmission problem.

Am ready to roll the car out into the alley, take a sledge hammer to it and call the junk man to take it away.  I've just spent the entire evening rolling around on the greasy floor of my garage trying to get the manual lever on the transmission to shift into neutral.  The thing won't budge.  All I have to show for my hours of grimy labor are a pair of really greasy, black hands.  The lever seems to be stuck, so I can only imagine that something is really wrong in the transmission and that the shifter motor is probably burnt out from trying to move the arm that won't budge.  Just when i thought I was getting somewhere on this project.

Picked up my battery today.  This is the first time I've actually seen a battery with caps on it.  Some of the dash lights work, not those in the dash cluster and the radio.  I don't know if it's a blown fuse or what.  Had the car started for about 10 seconds.  Big problem... there was gasoline everywhere.  There is a leak somewhere near the carb.  Someone suggested a stuck float. 

The car arrived tonight at about 7pm.  My dad, roomate, and truck driver pushed the car into the garage while I drove it.  The car is much better than I thought it would be.  I'm beginning to wonder what I've gotten myself into!