THIS RESTORED 1953 FORD CUSTOMLINE CLUB COUPE HOUSES OVERDRIVE AND A FORD FLATHEAD V-8
The story of this coupe begins with that of a sedan: A four-door 1953 Ford with a 101-hp 215-cu.in. "Mileage Maker" OHV six-cylinder and Ford-o-matic automatic transmission. Like this coupe, that sedan was green—probably Seafoam Green. Seafoam was one of four green shades offered by Ford for the 1953 model year, the others were Timberline Green Poly, Fern Mist Green, and Cascade Green—the latter of which replaced Fern Mist for the spring selling season.
That Seafoam Green, six-cylinder, automatic sedan was just an average used car in the spring of 1960 when Michael Cescon of Mint Hill, North Carolina, was about to graduate from high school. His parents spotted the car and for reasons now lost to time, selected it to be their son’s first.
“It was a surprise,” Michael recalls today. “I don’t know why they picked it, but I was excited to get any car.” Still, he says, “I wasn’t thrilled about the fact that it was a six-cylinder four-door,” so he and a friend removed the factory-installed engine and transmission, replacing them with the optional 239-cu.in., 110-hp "Strato-Star" flathead V-8 and standard three-speed manual transmission. That still didn’t disguise the fact that the would-be teenage cruiser had two too many doors to be cool in that era, but a repaint in black at least replaced the somewhat whimsical ’50s color with some gravitas.
Like most first cars, that ’53 sedan is long gone some 64 years later, but in 2021, Michael went looking for another ’53 Ford - and found this one in Albuquerque, New Mexico, via the Early Ford V-8 Club classifieds. He had stayed familiar with flathead-era Ford products in the interim, already owning a 1935 Ford that he still has. The trouble with the ’35, though, was that as a prewar car with an 85-hp, 221-cu.in. V-8, no overdrive, bulb-and-reflector headlamps, and non-self-energizing mechanical brakes, it just wasn’t quite as capable of dealing with modern roads. The ’53, as he well recalled, was a thoroughly more modern car - the high-tech sendoff for the flathead, which would be replaced domestically by a 130-hp, 239-cu.in. OHV Y-block V-8 for 1954. The 1953 Ford, Ford Motor Company’s 50th Anniversary model, is a perfect snapshot of the company in transition.
Henry Ford died the day after Easter, 1947, less than four years after his only son, Edsel, and only 18 months after ceding control of his eponymous company to his grandson, Henry Ford II. Ford Motor Company was in shambles - wracked by internal gangsterism and virtually nonexistent bookkeeping practices. On January 18, 1956, Ford Motor Company stock went on sale to the public for the first time; and started trading on the New York Stock Exchange that March. To get from the chaos of 1947 to the IPO of 1956 required a complete overhaul of the company and its products, starting with the introduction of some ex-General Motors executives and a team of World War II Army Air Forces officers known as the “Whiz Kids.”
Under this leadership, the most important changes were to company culture and manufacturing practices, but the product decisions would have long-term consequences as well. One proposal made by the ex-GM folks was to eliminate Ford’s antiquated side-valve V-8 in favor of the new OHV six-cylinder planned for 1952 (Lincoln and Mercury, meanwhile, would likely have shared Lincoln’s new OHV Y-block V-8 and the ball-joint front suspension of the so-called “road-race” Lincolns of 1952-’55). It made sense on paper: That would have made for a lighter-built, cheaper-to-produce Ford, more akin to Chevrolet’s product and with equivalent profit margins.
It was a Whiz Kid-adjacent junior executive, Chase Morsey, Jr., who argued that the V-8 and Ford were synonymous to the public, and that going to a six-cylinder-only powertrain would leave the Ford car indistinct and uninspiring against Chevrolet. His arguments prevailed and the 1952-’53 Ford would essentially continue with the 1949-’51 chassis and optional flathead V-8. The new OHV six was the standard engine for most models, but in the heavier chassis suited to the V-8. Ford engineers made the flathead take what advantage it could of the new high-octane gasolines coming on the market in the ’50s, boosting its compression from 6.8:1 for the 100-hp 1950 engine to 7.0:1 for 1951’s 110-hp engine and finally to 7.2:1 for 1952-’53. The final bump in compression did nothing to the rated horsepower, but increased torque from 170 lb-ft to 211.
The holdover chassis design leads to another feature in its last year on 1953 Fords: kingpin-based front suspension. For 1953, Ford and Mercury cars still used the independent front suspension setup that debuted for the 1949 model year (replacing a notoriously outdated I-beam front axle). The 1954 models, while similarly styled to this 1953 and its 1952 predecessors, would have a new chassis with ball-joint-based IFS that would see use through 1959.
The V-8 may have been old-fashioned, but if Ford had withdrawn its V-8 just as the first postwar horsepower race was hitting its stride, its questionable if the sporty ’55 Thunderbird would have been built, if Total Performance marketing campaign of 1962 would have occurred, and certainly as to whether the vaunted Mustang line would have come to be. The old flathead’s new Strato-Star moniker was at least a name appropriate to the styling of what Ford called its “Crestmark” body.
That’s one aspect of the ’53 that Michael is particularly fond of. “One thing I tell people is that in the early Fifties, it was the beginning of the Jet Age, and the stylists included a lot of hints toward jets, like the afterburner taillamps and the nose cone in the center of the grille.” The taillamp design would spawn a longstanding Ford motif, seen regularly through the mid-1960s.
As an Antique Automobile Club of America and Early Ford V-8 Club member, Michael eschews non-factory equipment on the ’53 as much as he does his ’35. Yet there’s no need for fancy period accessories here like mechanical-advance distributors, multiple carburetors, and high-compression cylinder heads. “It’s a comfortable drive,” he says. “There’s no trouble keeping up with traffic because of the stick shift. I normally stay off interstates around Charlotte, the drivers can be a little nutty, but in the early summer of 2022, I drove it to Nashville for the Early Ford V-8 Club National Meet. It was 400-plus miles each way and it did really well on the trip. With overdrive, the car had no problems maintaining 70 to 75 miles per hour.” After-the-fact calculations also revealed that the 69-year-old car knocked down over 21 miles per gallon along the way.
The chassis and brakes are equally satisfactory, Michael says, although he admits that if it weren’t for the judging guidelines docking points for radials, he would probably switch to more modern tires from the original-style 6.70 x 15 bias-plies. Regardless, he drives the car a lot, especially on back country roads, exercising it “several times a week” in the March-through-November driving season. “I go to a lot of cruises and car shows.”
It helps, of course, that this ’53 received a considerable restoration, including an engine and transmission rebuild, at the hands of the previous owner, now deceased, from whose son Michael purchased the car. The only deviation from as built is the paint color. Ironically given how Michael got rid of the Seafoam Green on his first ’53, the restorer of this car selected the brighter hue shown here (including the addition of what appears to be a Sungate Ivory roof—the upper color originally offered by Ford in a two-tone combination with Fern Mist Green) from another, more muted, green shade.
Inside, the ’53 came with an unrestored interior, and Michael enlisted the help of Peterson’s Auto Trim Shop in Matthews, North Carolina. The original green-and-white Crestweave upholstery was still in fine shape, but other elements had suffered beyond rehabilitation. The original black-rubber floor covering in front was replaced, as were the headliner, windlace, kick panels, and package tray. Additionally, the sunvisors and assist straps were re-covered using headliner material. To bolster the driving experience without compromising the visuals, the original six-tube deluxe radio was converted to receive the FM band as well as AM. Michael’s only planned further changes from the ’53’s present state are to repaint the frame and possibly to convert it to dual exhaust—a non-factory, but certainly period-perfect modification.