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Hey everyone. I just wanted to show you all my 1954 Clipper Deluxe Sportster. I picked her up around April, but I've been busy and haven't done a lot. The seats are in excellent condition, along with the headliner and most of the interior except the floors which are rotted out. As far as I can tell it's complete. I even found the original license plate! The engine is seized and there are no keys, but she's mine I am working on redoing the power brakes (the pedal is stuck to the floor) and getting the engine running. I am debating on whether I should drop the oil pan and pull the engine apart myself, or send it to the local mechanic. Here are some pictures.

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If you have the talent and time doing it yourself is certainly cheaper. If the rings have rusted to the bore though a machinist might have some tricks to avoid any problems. If rings have rusted penetrating oil might help but it could also require some time and maybe even brute force.

The old standby concoction of 50-50 acetone and trans fluid has saved many engines and it is about the cheapest penetrating fluid mix. Some here have had good luck and it seems to come out fairly well in tests against other commercial products but others say don't bother. Guess it all comes down to what you are familiar with and have had good luck using.

Best of luck on the engine and finding some sheet metal.

Thanks, and yeah I tried that mix but the engine is stubborn! The PO leaks down to the block from the pistons in all except 1 or 2, does this mean those rings are rusted to the wall?

I'd say that is a good possibility. You might have had a coolant leak or perhaps a valve was open enough to allow moist air free access to the cylinder while it sat.

You might get a short length of 2x4 and trim the edges so it sort of fits the bore. Tap on the wood while you rotate it around the piston and keep the percussion on the outer edges of the piston and away from the center. Don't use heavy blows or you might damage the ring grooves. Just hard enough to jar the rings a bit. You won't be able to do much in moving things because the crank is still attached but it might help the oil work down and start doing something. If the rings have rusted tight then it probably will need a machine shop anyway.

Ok thanks. I am out of town right now but I will keep you guys updated when I get back!

Also, I don't know if you can see it in the pics, but when I took the head off I found lots of dirt/gravel in there. Good thing the engine was seized so I didn't run it with that in there!

Sounds like the car had a helper with the gravel. Plugs out and small fingers can do wonderful things with small holes on old engines when "fixing" them. I remember "fixing" my dads gas tank with something -- probably rocks. I also remember how happy he was. I only did it once. Maybe you should also pull the pan and see if anything down there was "fixed".

Haha will do. I will be home tomorrow and I'm planning on getting lots of work done.

So last week I took the rear seats out to clean up all of the dirt and mice nests, and found some more rust spots I am also trying to decide what color shes going to be. It looks like she was originally Orchard Green (firewall). The interior is dark blue so I am gonna stick with something that goes with blue. I was thinking of maybe Metallic Bikini Blue like BigKev, but I don't know about the roof. Here are some pictures, please post any suggestions!

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See if by some chance the original paint and trim code is still adhering. On most 54s there was an adhesive label or tag attached somewhere around the glove drawer. Many times it was adhered to one side of the drawer but on others it was on the back.

Also feel gently above the drawer on the metal cover and see if luck has the original build paper still taped up there. That would be a very brittle strip of telex paper a couple of inches wide and maybe 8-10" long.