A trip to B and B Auto Parts in San Mateo; the Moog book says No Longer Available on the tie-rod ends and control-arm bushings. Next day, turns out he can get them from a different source but they aren't cheap. Fine, I'll take what I can get.

The brake stuff shows up from MP Brakes. Wife ignores two 75-pound cardboard cartons at front door. I lug them inside; open one. Wow, clean new parts. Everything looks really good. Try the new ball joints in the spindle holes; they seem to be the right size. Boxes move to dining room floor; spouse ignores them. Of course once these go on I'm committed to new wheels even to get the thing to the body shop; there's no way the old pre-disc 14-inchers will clear the calipers.

Your $995 At Work: The MP Brakes '57-72 Ford brake kit

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The bullet has been bitten. I don't feel like spending money on a real solution to the carburetor situation until I really know what I want, so I sit down with screwdriver, solvent, and toothbrush in hand to rebuild the existing carburetor. The secondary float-bowl is 1/2" deep in crud, and the secondary jets haven't flowed a drop in years. The secondary butterflies are gummed closed. Every rubber part on the primary side is rotted, split, or separated. Half the choke linkage is missing. Scrub, soak, scrub, soak. Three hours later it's going back together, with bits of two different carburetor kits. Half an hour later it's back on the car.

The parts shopping list has gone out to a number of would-be suppliers via fax, email, and snail. Replies are coming back. One firm has a pile of the exterior trim I want, used but most supposedly in 'excellent' shape. Order a bunch, on the Visa card just in case. A couple other firms have a few things I need as New Old Stock (NOS). Interesting: one particular part is $65 NOS from one vendor, $75 'excellent used' from another, and $250 NOS from a third. Another firm sends me a 20-page list of their inventory via email. Not much of what I wanted, but a few things I could use (a windshield-washer kit!). Two firms both appear to have sizeable inventories of NOS wiper switches, but one wants 60% more than the other. But nobody, NOBODY, has door or tailgate weatherstripping. Not like I expected to find it anyway.

The Dove Manufacturing catalog showed up. Home of the aluminum 427 block. If you've got $35K in your itchy little hand they'll UPS you a 541 cubic inch repro of the SOHC 427. Now that'd be a sweet motor for that '56 Premiere convertible. $12K gets you a beefed 427. I think I'll settle for a $1400 set of aluminum heads. Eventually.

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Remove air horn, fill float bowls, close up, connect jumper cables, start engine, watch fuel pump leak. At least the carb seems okay. Back to B and B; replacement fuel pump in stock and cheap enough. Original AC pump looks rebuildable but no rebuild parts available; I'll clean it and tuck it in a plastic bag just in case. Bolt on new pump, jump-start: runs like a clock, as always. A very loud clock, given the big chunks of rust being blown out of the mufflers.

The chassis parts ordered from B and B have arrived; they bear the logo of Rare Parts, Inc. Look through the bits and parts; a complete new idler arm, not OEM design but maybe better. The lower control arm bushings - well, it turns out they're the same as a set of bushings in the PST kit I hadn't identified, so now I have two sets.

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More big boxes are arriving: I'd ordered a batch of used parts from a Hemmings advertiser known variously as Classic Ford Sales and McIntyre Auctions. They'd claimed that most were in 'excellent' condition - alas, their standards aren't my standards. Some parts were, indeed, very nice, but their 'excellent' front fender and tailgate trims had a succession of dents. Repairable, yes, but hardly 'excellent'.

After a lot of thought, I elect to keep most of it, though I'm still not quite sure why.

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