The following is somewhat in order of occurrence...

Brakes

Since I got the car, the brake lights would come on when the car was warmed up (without even driving it). The pedal would become hard while driving and after some hard driving the brakes would lock up! After checking typical items, I replaced the master cylinder and all is well. This fixed the brake light issue because 64 1/2s have a pressure switch in the master.

Breather

The one item that was not part of the restoration was the engine. Since it ran and sounded fine  it was decided to leave it alone for now. One down-side is that the oil breather cap on the valve cover emits smoke. When time permits I'll replace the value seals, but for now I got a closed cap and vent the smoke to the ground.

Radiator

While the car has the original radiator, it was professionally flushed and re-painted. However, there is still a leak somewhere. After some investigation, it seems the fluid is coming out the overflow. I've rigged up an overflow bottle for driving and it seems to be getting me by for now.

Fuel Pump

Showing off the car one day, I noticed smoke around the fuel pump. Turns out gas vapor was coming out the vent hole and going directly towards the exhaust manifold! That was remedied quickly after a couple rounds with the parts supplier.

Engine Leak

Another down-side of not having the engine rebuilt, is a leak that causes oil to collect on top of the water pump. After trying the normal things, I replaced the distributor seal. This seemed to slow down leak, but not cure it. And since I was there, I adjusted the timing and got a little more pep out of her. Not too long after that, engine oil started to show up on the passenger side of the engine compartment; more on that later...

Front end

The car always seemed to have a shake just after I got it. I had the tires rebalanced and the vibration improved slightly. Driving around one day, after putting on hundreds of miles, the front end started to squeak & moan. I pulled into the driveway, not many miles later, and heard a big SNAP! After that the steering wheel was off 90 degrees. One of the upper control arm shaft mounting bolts snapped. No one has ever heard of one breaking before; just my luck I guess. The current theory is that one of the alignment shins came out and it was a matter of time as more shins fell off and the stress got too great (I found shims laying on the frame rail). After getting a bolt, I disassembled the front suspension only to find out it was a special bolt. Ugh! Luckily, my restorer help me out with getting a replacement. I put it together and took her to a show the next day. Of course, there was still a slight vibration as I'm sure I missed a shim or to.

Paint

Around July 2006, a wrinkle started to show up in the driver's door. In August I went to have it looked at and a wrinkle was found on another panel. Since the car was rust free and damage free, there was no bondo to explain the issue. Analysis showed an issue with the clear. Since there were concerns for future shrinkage, some chips to repair, and minor imperfections from the original paint job; it was decided to strip back to primer and start over. The car came back December 2006 and this paint job looks fantastic!

Mechanical Rebuilds

While at the shop for the re-paint, I ask them to look into the engine leak. It was determined that the water pump gasket blew out and was causing the oil on the passenger side. The leak at the top was determined to be the intake manifold gasket. While the intake was off, it was decided to change the lifters, since they were noisy; but one would not come out as it was rounded off at the cam. It was decided to not hold off the engine rebuild any longer. Good thing, as a 5" crack was found in one of the water jackets (one hope is this will solve the radiator overflow issue). That was repaired, the cylinders were bored 0.30 and the crank 0.10. Now I have a 293! I had a hi-po cam put in, for good measure. Of course, since the engine was out, I did the smart thing and had the transmission rebuilt as well. I only had a couple hours of good weather when the car returned, so I haven't been able to opener up; but it sounds and runs great! It shifts smooth and no more breather smoke!!!

While they were at it, they had the front end re-aligned at a Ford dealer. It was expensive but well worth it, as there is no more vibration in the front end!

And since some leaf spring clips were loose and the read end was a little low, we went ahead and replaced the leaf springs.

As I said, winter came a few hours after I got the car back, so I barely had time to clean it enough to put the cover on it. So now it sits tucked away waiting for Spring 2007, when I can enjoy my 'new' car!!!