I am attempting my first restomod. I have done some correct Cougars, time to have some fun and do what we did when we were kids. I need a little advise or ideas. First off, I had planned on a Crown Vic front? Buy the Merc is 62 and a Crown is 67 width. Fix with off set wheels or after market narrow front $$$?
 Rear suspension is leaf spring. At first I was all about 4 link. But leafs with QA coilovers? My first thoughts for paint was two tone since the car is already split with trim piece. But I have seen Starliners one color that look really nice. Blue pearl. White interior with blue accents.
 Car will be my Back to the Fifties cruiser. I had never seen one of these, before this one. So I figured i needed it. It was a barn find, last driven in 1974. But she was driven on Iowa gravel roads. She is not cherry, I think half of it is laying on the shop floor.

 My usual routine with a fresh engine is to put in straight water just in case there is an internal leak. After a short run add antifreeze and stop leak. After returning from MCACN I noticed a leak. Dang, looked like the back plate of the water pump. I had this happen once before. Cussing myself while taking this freshly painted and detailed engine apart
Well, turns out it was not the back plate but the little pipe between pump and manifold. Noticed excessive rust around hoses and other areas. I think I should rethink my routine of using straight water on start up.
 What would be a better routine? What should I add to the coolant to prevent rust? Also when I install another short pipe, what should I use for sealant. I haven't been doing much engine work lately and not up on the latest and greatest sealants.

 Owner says he sold car off block for 95K

 Kansas City sale has a Q code Galaxie. Lot S121.

 Sad to say we lost a member to Covid last Wednesday. Dan Speicher, aka cattleFEeder, From New Hampton, Iowa. Dan was a true Ford fan, many nice cars, one you may know here would be his 63 an half Galaxie. He was a hard working Iowa farm boy with a large cattle feeding operation. Neighbors got together and finished his beans yesterday, and will start on the corn after the funeral. Always looked forward to cruise night at the A&W, to see which car Dan and Carol would bring. He had a lot of good choices, the Dan Gurney being my favorite. I had hoped we could do some shows in the future, if we could get him away from his cattle. He will be missed.
 

 Your Nebraska weather would be similar to ours in Iowa. Below zero last night. So I would highly recommend in floor heat. Hear it all the time from people that are so glad they did. No sweating, easy to heat, comfortable, dry, snow melts and evaporates. Percent of people that use in floor in their new houses/garages/shops is over 80%, the rest wish they would have. Now that is with a second source of heat. But once you have the floor warm the rest is a matter of adjusting to comfort.
 If nothing else at least insulate your slab. 1-2" blue board. Besides insulation it cushions your concrete minimizing cracking.  When I say warm I don't mean more than 70 Degrees that is to warm, your feet don't like warm. But you can kick it up for painting. My shop heats with just a little overhead heater. Steel building 6" studs R19 and sheetrock.  Good Luck.

 The National Galaxie Show will be in Cedar Rapids Iowa. August 23 24th. I have a lot of irons in the fire, but I think I will have to make the effort to drag my 65 out from under boxes and car parts stored on her. Haven't driven her in many years. (to many projects) They talked about maybe 200 cars, just in a few days I have come up with 6 going with me. I bet there will be 200 from Iowa alone. The show will be downtown, (basically right under interstate 380) C R is a real easy city to get around. 380 goes right over the middle.
 Gosh, I can't think of anything more cool.

 Been trying to buy a part from down under. we have a discrepancy over what the exchange rate should be. We agreed on 1500 dollars US. I sent the money paypal, which he refunded, saying it was 160 short. After some research I see paypal skims two and a half percent. But that is only 37.50. After some checking around on different methods of transfer. I think paypal may still be the best as all them skim a percentage. We disagree on what the rate of exchange is. I got mine from Goggle which on Friday was 1.42, the highest it has been, which is 2130 Aus. He claims the rate if he was to send 1500 US here would cost him 2232 Aus., or .67. I don't know where he is getting his info. Trade goes on with Australia all the time. Where do we find the official rate of exchange that we both can agree on? Thanks in advance.    Stephen.