It’s been a little bit since we checked in on our buddy Jim and the 1959 Edsel four-door sedan that he was preparing for the LeMons Hell On Wheels Rally that will tour the American Southwest later this summer. Starting and ending in Monterey, California, right about the same time the Monterey Car Show week begins, the Hell On Wheels Rally will tour Death Valley and Las Vegas in a big loop. While cheap and unique is always the name of the game when it comes to LeMons, Jim knows that making a trip in a car that is old enough to get weekly calls from AARP requires work and testing in order to make sure that he isn’t stranded somewhere in Bat Country between The Strip and Pebble Beach. He’s been digging in the 292ci Y-block, giving it a weekend rebuild in order to bring it to live, he fixed the transmission, and he’s added some snazzy new features that will make the car a little more comfortable and a lot more stylish as he cruises with the other Misfit Toys:

Did you expect a Southwestern car to have solid door panels? The body might be okay, but the interior was roasted. Not to worry…a little bit of trailer wall surfacing material from about 1971 should do the trick. Wood in cars is always in style…have you seen how much teak Rolls-Royce jams into their drop-tops?

That is a Thermador window-mounted swamp cooler. When was the last time you saw one of these that actually was being put to good use?

There were ups and downs to using a Chevelle gas tank. On the upside, it fit excellent and works. On the downside, the fuel gauge needed a slight modification…

Jim has been testing the car out on the southern Arizona highways, netting 14 miles per gallon with a happily cool engine. Next time you see this car, we will have a report on how well the Edsel performed on the trip!

BangShift Project File: That Fresh LeMon Scent – 1959 Edsel