UNDER THE HOOD

Whitewall Classic

Story and photos by Felicia Frazar

Donald Carley has an affinity for classic cars and fixing them up. He prefers those that haven’t been worked on before he gets his hands on them.

“I’ve worked on cars all of my life, and I’ve never had a car that somebody else had worked on before me,” he said. “It’s an adventure because you don’t know what they could have done, might have done, maybe shouldn’t have done until it jumps up in front of you and you have to address each thing as it comes along.”

For the past year, Carley has worked to get his 1954 Ford Country Sedan up and running smoothly and safely. He purchased the car after his daughter M’Kenzi Carley found it on the internet.

When it came in from Midland, Donald said it was drivable, but not reliable.

“It had a whole lot of issues,” he said. “I’ve been working on it pretty much ever since then.”

From a faulty gas gauge to a wobbly steering column, an untrustworthy transmission, a leaky airbag suspension system and various other issues, Donald had his work cut out for him.

“I’ve just been trying to get it to where I can enjoy it a little bit,” he said. “I replaced everything but the bags on the air system. The engine compartment was ugly; it had bad wiring under the hood. I replaced a lot of that. I put in a different distributor, a different transmission, new valve covers, spark plugs, dressed up the engine compartment some.”

The sedan sports an ’84 Ford 351 Windsor motor, ’67 C4 Transmission, ’58 Ford 9-inch rear end, and airbag suspension. It hosts ’56 Oldsmobile taillights and a ’53 Mercury front bumper. The blue paint is original, just buffed and shined.

“When I got the car, it had a lot of dead paint; it was real chalky,” he said. “So, I buffed on it for about a week, and I got all of the dead paint off, and it still didn’t have a nice shine.”

Donald used a tried and true technique to shine up his car. However, he’s tight-lipped about what he does to give his car a natural shine.

The sedan sports an ’84 Ford 351 Windsor motor, ’67 C4 Transmission, ’58 Ford 9-inch rear end, and airbag suspension. It hosts ’56 Oldsmobile taillights and a ’53 Mercury front bumper.

He chooses not to repaint the classic wagon, giving it a patina look that is pretty popular among restoration enthusiasts, Donald said.

“That is something I had to get used to,” he said.

A feature that sticks out to him is the wide whitewall tires and steel wheels his car sports. It’s a nod to the classic ‘50s style.

“When I grew up, I used to see ‘50s cars with the wide whitewalls,” he said. “Back then, there were very few cars that had mag wheels or anything. You might see one with chrome steel wheels, but not anything fancy. The wide whitewalls and the steel wheels, trim rings was all stuff I used to see when I was growing up, and I liked that stuff.”

The airbag suspension system is a more modern aspect on the Country Sedan. The white interior was given a little bit of love and has a little more to go, but Donald said that would come in due time.

The ‘50s era classics are favorites of Donald’s, and this one, in particular, has a unique look that is becoming rarer to find.

“It’s got a neat look. You don’t see that many station wagons,” he said. “I love ‘50s cars. They’re probably my favorite. I like that look. This is a classic cruiser. The whole car has an appearance to it.”