Moses Ludel's Classic & Muscle Car Shop

The MosesLudel.Com Classic & Muscle Car Shop

The MosesLudel.Com Shop specializes in "blueprint" caliber rebuilding of classic and muscle car engines (inline and V-types), manual and overdrive gearboxes, vintage iron-case and aluminum automatic transmissions, torque converter restoration plus rebuilding of Gemmer, Ross, Chrysler, Ford and G.M. Saginaw manual and power steering gears. Our service customers include owners of classic American automobiles—brass through muscle car era—plus vintage trucks and tractors. Shop projects have included:

♦Dynaflow and Hydramatic transmissions for 'Triple Crown' cars (1953 Buick Skylark, Cadillac El Dorado and Oldsmobile Fiesta), iron Torqueflites for a '58 Plymouth Fury and '57 Chrysler New Yorker convertible, Packard Ultramatic transmissions from several collectible '48-'56 Packard cars, Fordomatic and manual transmissions for '55-'57 Thunderbirds (including supercharged F-models)...Studebaker 2- and 3-band Borg-Warner automatics, muscle car automatic and manual 3- and 4-speed transmissions...T-10 and other Borg-Warner manual transmissions for full-size Ford, Falcon Sprint, GT Mustangs and other applications...Saginaw, B-W, Muncie and New Process four-speed restoration for all muscle cars and vintage Corvettes! We also service vintage axle and differential assemblies, and projects have included a 1949 Cunningham Silverstone Healey's early Ford banjo axle assembly with inboard brakes.

Dynaflow transmission from a '53 Buick Skylark convertible, a 'Triple Crown' car, had been "overhauled" haphazardly by four other shops since 1989! The Dynaflow, available from 1948-63 in Buick cars and a number of '53 Cadillacs and Oldsmobiles, requires rebuilding expertise and thoroughness. Each unit restored at the MosesLudel.Com Shop receives the same level of attention as this transmission. Our level of detail is highly regarded by vintage Buick and Packard owners—and many collectors. The unit shown shipped from the East Coast to our Nevada shop.

♦Vintage Ross, Saginaw, Ford and Gemmer steering gears, manual and power types...Saginaw Offset and Inline power steering gears for collectible 1952-59 G.M. cars...Chrysler Coaxial and Constant Control power steering gears for a '58 Plymouth Fury, a '57 Chrysler New Yorker and several Chrysler 300 models...Ford and Gemmer steering gears for vintage F-trucks, '55-'57 Thunderbirds, vintage Mustangs and other Ford Family cars plus a Gemmer steering gear for a former White House-owned 1940 Packard...Ross steering gears for vintage Studebaker cars, Jeep® 4WDs and various special interest vehicles—including a 1931 Reo Speedwagon steering gear and a mid-'50s Ross gear for an I-H fire truck—plus a long list of manual and power steering gears, power steering pumps and control valves for pre- and postwar cars!

The MosesLudel.Com Shop specializes in manual and automatic transmission and steering gear rebuilding. Top two photos depict a 1940 Packard-Gemmer steering gear shipped to us by a reputable shop assigned the restoration of a former White House car. Lower row is a Saginaw Inline gear from a Canadian customer's 1956 Pontiac Chieftain. The parts illustration (lower right) is a genuine Saginaw ball nut retaining screw (right side) next to a generic aftermarket screw (left). The generic screw is incorrect for this vintage gear. Use of the correct parts, installed and adjusted properly, is critical to the safe function of steering gear mechanisms. Our shop uses factory manuals, period service data and factory parts and service specifications to assure proper function and safety of every restored steering gear.

♦Custom engine rebuilding and restoration—A '58 polyspherical head 318 Plymouth Fury V-8 engine, a Ford 428 Cobra Jet Shelby GT Mustang V-8, 5- and 9-main bearing Packard straight eight engines, a '57 Chrysler 392 'Hemi' V-8 for a New Yorker convertible and a variety of other classic and muscle car engines have been assignments at our shop. We accept engine projects on a select basis. Our work is highly detailed and intended for vehicles that require blueprint level craftsmanship.

At top is a '68 Shelby GT500KR with the engine removed. A "registry car," the engine sports a 391 TE medium-duty truck block bored 0.140" oversize! Our shop found the appropriate 428 block and restored this engine package to "blueprint" factory standards—increasing the car's value an estimated $28-$30,000. Bottom row (left) is a valuable Packard engine that had recently been rebuilt by another shop. That rebuild lasted four hours, as the critical valve stem-to-lifter clearances were never addressed...Cylinders and valves showed heat and fuel-washing damage that mimicked a high-mileage engine! We build Packard and all other engines to "blueprint" factory standards, striving to add value to each customer's vehicle. At lower right photo is the 9-main bearing engine after our top-to-bottom restorative rebuild, now ready to provide as-new service.

►Ignition distributor rebuilding and restoration is available, including strobe calibration and custom advance curve work—projects have included '57 Ford Thunderbird and vintage Corvette mechanical tach-drive distributor rebuilds, restoration of Autolite, Motorcraft, Prestolite and Delco-Remy distributors plus advance curve calibration for all classic and muscle car distributors...Select carburetor rebuilding is available for classic and muscle car applications that require blueprint-level restoration and performance calibration, including Rochester, Carter and Holley four-barrel and all dual four-barrel and tri-power applications.

This is a tach-drive distributor from a '57 Thunderbird 312 Y-block V-8. A rare, one-model-year-only Ford-Autolite distributor, the alloy housings are delicate and vulnerable to damage if mishandled. Our shop restores all breaker point ignition distributors from the classic and muscle car eras. Few shops have the tooling, distributor strobe machine or data library to perform ignition work properly. Period tools, precision instruments and great care at removing and fitting bushings makes us the 'go-to' shop for authentic restoration.

►We repair and restore damaged iron and aluminum castings, housings, shafts and obsolete gears! Would you like to see the complete cast iron repair on this damaged mid-'50s Saginaw power steering gear housing? Click here.

►Shipping on larger projects like a Packard or Buick straight eight, or an Ultramatic or Dynaflow automatic transmission restoration, shipping should not be an issue or deterrent—If your car's value will benefit from the level of expertise and craftsmanship available at the MosesLudel.Com Shop, we can suggest cost-effective ways to ship and handle your project.

This '55 Packard Twin-Ultramatic, thoroughly restored by Moses Ludel, is near ready for truck shipping to the Southeastern U.S. Our staff can help find the right shipper for your project, enabling safe, affordable transportation to our shop. When you consider our level of craftsmanship, attention to detail, use of authentic parts and large library of factory service data, shipping your project to our shop becomes an incidental expense! Our customer base is global...

As Moses Ludel says, "Nostalgia ends at the auction block...A sound investment is our expertise and shop services..."

If you need a facility that knows and values factory service procedures, a shop capable of performing detailed, authentic mechanical restoration work, then make the MosesLudel.Com Shop your source! Contact us for details.

For more information about Moses Ludel, click here.