Can use this word as a metaphor?

[okok]

Can I use the verb to Ford metaphorically if I don't intend to be innovative, for some abstract difficulty that has to be overcome in order to reach some goal, or will that sound too strange to a native English speaker?

I ran a few searches for this word, and my impression was, first, that it is a relatively rare word (most of what I found was about the Ford corporation), and that when used as a verb, it is used literally, for fording rivers.

[Tdol]

It's not very common, but we do ford rivers and obstacles. In a fairly formal context, it would be fine.

[okok]

Thanks.

I tried to google 'ford' with 'obstacle', in different ways, but could find almost nothing. Mainly a quotation by Henry Ford on obstacles...

[Tdol]

Play safe and use `overcome`.