Thanks for doing this. I just picked up a 59 bird as well. Nice to see what's ahead and what I'm looking at getting into. Have you found any decent place to find parts.
Awesome man! It's going to be an enjoyable ride. I've gotten several suggestions from subscribers on here, but the best one I've found so far has been the Bird Nest or tbirdparts.com. They don't have everything your looking for but a very large selection of parts you'll need. I've found that I get a lot of parts from ebay and amazon as well.
Looks like you're using the original heads, won't feel the difference with high compression heads/stock manifolds, low octane more important. On non performance engines the umbrella seals do a proper job. Do NOT restrict the rocker shafts even for high volume oil pump and make sure the rocker shafts are clocked correctly. Some gasket brands overlap ports. Bead blast after hot tank? Not me, I just have them hot tanked and chase the threads. Have your balancer rebuilt, may be long lead time. Solve grooved/pitted front crank seal area with a seal sleeve. Last step before engine start borrow an air pressure oil priming tank, far better than spinning the oil pump. Prime until oil exits rocker shafts. Did you find one different length head bolt each head? They are important in correct holes.
Great advice as always! Thank you. I haven't looked at the head bolt just yet, been too busy with all the other stuff but I'm getting there. I'm pretty sure they are all there.
