Last night’s tv viewing, 60’s Andy Griffith show, a car is disassembled (outside) and reassembled inside a building. Why? It’s a sit-com! … lol … anyway, I got wondering if a person were to try that, what would be the heaviest part you’d have to lift? What would be the largest, most awkward part to fit through the door? Car appeared to be an early 50’s Ford 2 door coupe. Presumably body on frame design.
I was thinking the engine would be the heaviest, and the rear axle the largest.
Engine for sure. The engine can shed a lot of that weight pretty quickly … accessories, manifolds, water pump, heads. Transmission a close second if it was a cast iron case automatic. Rear axle assembly 3rd.
car frame? 
I’d think the car body would be the largest on a 50’s coupe. You could remove the fenders, doors and the decklid, but there’s still a lot of steel in what’s left of the body.
Might qualify for heaviest part too. As for transmissions, I’ve seen a lot of old automatic transmissions, but never saw one with a cast iron case. They were all aluminum.
I will have to disagree on that my first and only attempt to rebuild a automatic transmission was a 53 chevy and it was cast iron.
"George_San_Jose a car is disassembled (outside) and reassembled inside a building. Why? It’s a sit-com!
The majic of HOLLYWOOD is far cry from real life. 
My 61 Galaxy automatic transmission was also cast iron. Part of the cast iron case broke inside so reverse wouldn’t work. Tried brazing it back on but it didn’t hold.
I’ll have to concede that, I never worked on any '53 Chevys. didn’t touch many old Ford transmissions either. But the only iron transmissions I ever did see were manuals.
I was just guessing on it being an early 50’s Ford coup. Not a complete guess, that show was hosted by Ford Corp and many of the cars shown were Ford. Their police car was a Ford Galaxy I think. The one taken apart did however look a lot like the car in your photo, so maybe it was a Rambler.
The episode was “The Andy Griffith Show” – Goober Takes a Car Apart
Here is an excerpt…
And here are some photos of the car in question and I believe that the Frame would be not only the most cumbersome to handle, it would be the heaviest…
Yup!
It was indeed a Rambler.
Think about it… If you were supplying cars to that show, would you want one of your products used in a situation that made it seem “less than reliable”? Hence, the use of a non-Ford vehicle for that sequence.
Yup, that was a Rambler and Ford was not concerned that it was featured as it was not shown is favorable light as Gomer had to take the car apart several times to get it running right…
As for Mayberry’s Squad Car, the show would almost always feature Andy driving around in Mayberry’s police car. Since the show was sponsored by Ford, a new squad car was provided for every season, there were about ten different Ford Galaxies used throughout the run of the series.
… and they were always coated with something to remove the gloss from the paint, undoubtedly to spare the cameras from glare.
1950 Ford Deluxe Coupe for comparison
Interesting tidbit. The outdoor scenes for that show were filmed at the same location where Hogan’s Heroes outdoor scenes were filmed. The two film-crews were only separated by a small hill and some trees. When Barney was doing his antics on one side of the hill, Shultz was doing his, on the other. I did a Google drive-by of the location a while ago, and now it is a parking lot and office buildings. Some of the trees remain.
Remove the grill paint it primer gray and add overdrive that would be my first car that cost me 40 $ or 6 months work to get it.
I like the styling. A simpler grill area would only improve the appearance.
I can believe that. I guess it’s like many actors who wear glasses on TV, they really do not need them or they are wearing contacts and the frames do not have even have clear lens in them to prevent the glare from the lenses… Most notable, on “Big Bang Theory” due to the studio’s lighting, Lennard’s, Amy’s, and Bernadette’s glasses were all fake with no lenses…
I clicked on the link for the “1950 Ford Deluxe Custom 2 Door Sedan” looked at the photos and the one of the engine has me curious. The Radiator hoses both seem to feed into the top of the radiator. I’m guessing the radiator is a cross-flow, but it would seem the most practical application would have the return hose at the top, and the pick-up hose on the bottom fo the radiator, where there would always be an adequate supply of coolant…
If I’m not mistaken the engine doesn’t have any crossover at the top (dry intake manifold, coolant not gas) and so you have the 2 top hoses, but the water pump still has the one lower rad hose…
