YB:
Aside from the fact that the car is 50 + years old these were great
cars. I owned one many years ago. I drove it 120,000 miles with very
few problems. As I recall I had to grind the valves on one bank at around
100,000 miles. Tune ups, and brakes were required at regular intervals and
I did have to replace one water pump. The engine and transmission
were very reliable. The rear springs tend to weaken some but if you are
not regularly carrying more than four passengers this should not be a
problem.
I would expect finding someone to perform the maintenance and obtain the
parts may be a little bit of a challenge. Pulling the rear brake drums
requires and "industrial strength" puller. Power steering pump and gearbox
will seem very foreign to most of todays mechanics. The six volt
electrical system works OK but requires good clean connections and the correct
size cables and wires. If you upgrade to the higher candlepower sealed
beam headlight bulbs you may have trouble with the circuit breaker shutting off
the lights when you least expect it. Adding a headlight relay in the
circuit will solve this problem.
That is about all I can recall.
Good luck. In my opinion you have one of the finest examples of a mid
fifties vehicle.
Rolland
Westra
Rockford,
Illinois
|