1955 Ford Mainline Makeover

This is a 1955 Ford Mainline. My great-grandparents bought it new in 1955. They used it until 1967 when it was parked in the garage at their farm. As a kid I used to see the car all the time when we were out there on weekends taking care of cattle or repairing fence. I think this is probably where my thing for cars started. In addition to the Ford, there was also a mid-50's 5 window GMC farm truck and a late 40's Ford farm truck that sat there. I can remember daydreaming about fixing them all up. In 2006 my parents finally gave in and let me pull the Mainline out to restore it. Guess what convinced them.......pictures of the 66 Sundial bus I restored (http://www.sanborn7.com/VW/DD/). Anyway, we pulled it out, I drug it home to ABQ and gutted it so I could get rid of the dead mice and all the %$@# that had moved into it over 40 years. I hadn't touched it since then (Oct 2006). The deal with parents is that my dad wants the car to drive around for a few years and he wants to drive it in their annual home-town parade in August. When he's done with driving it, the car comes back to me.

It dawned on me a few weeks ago that my dad is now 76 and that at his age, I can no longer let this thing sit on the back-burner of my list of projects. I decided to use Spring Break to get serious on this thing since Cherie had almost two full weeks off of work. My goal is to have this car DONE by July and surprise my dad with it the morning of that parade in early August. I also hope to have the 21 done also and drive it behind him in that parade.

Now for the pics....

As it sat in the garage for 40 years:




My parents the day we loaded it up:


Cleaning it out:
Engine compartment/Mouse Apartment complex:



Interior:









Bird poo washing

 

Spring Break 2009 - Ford's Gone Wild!!


















There you have it - as of today the front fenders, hood, roof, and front valance are all roughed in. Rear quarters, trunk, and passenger door left to go. More pics as I get further along.

I also picked a set of body trim from a 1956 Crown Vic so I can two-tone this cheap sucker!

 

Finished painting up some engine compartment. It's just a driver so nothing too much - just cleaned up. Got the grill polished up too.






The Jetson style speedo pod was full of dirt. Only way to clean it was to take it apart. I decided to pull the dash since I needed to be sure I had all the mouse "stuff" cleaned out of there anyway. Good thing i did cuz I found not only more poo but a dead furry friend as well!

Dash pulled loose:


Mouse mess:


The furry culprit laying in the dash tray:


Dirt Inside the speedo:


Another dead friend:


Dirty:


OG Miles:


This looks better:


Dash back in and buffed a little:


Love that 50's stylin'!


Put back together and ready to go!


I bought the paint to redo the rest of the interior trim - it's too ruff to leave. I also Por15'd some floors sections and the insides of the doors and some body cavities. I'll get picks of that later.

Clock is ticking.......

More bodywork done:

Roof is smoothed out:




Passenger quarter panel wasn't too bad:


Rocker was pretty hammered:

 

On top of the original lead work




Headliner and Carpet are on the way!









Interior is underway!

Making new cards for the door panels. The material is still pretty nice - but the backer board is shot. Welcome to Sanborn's Japolstry chop.




Freaking $90 Windlace installed:


Headliner is hung - stretch and glue tonight:

 

Nice work and a great story! My vote is to leave off that fancy chrome and be true to the original car, it would look just like what your parents drove.

Perfect color too!

 

looking good..........keep us posted....................john

 

Wow thats great, I have a '55 Country Sedan that spent about 10 years under a tree and was covered with sap and other crap, but mine was a cream puff compared to yours, I admire your dedication. I love my wagon and slowly it is coming along, this winter I will go through the engine and trans. right now I am to busy driving it, the only major change I've made so far is to 12volt, and that makes it so much more pleasent to drive, starts every time even after sitting for a couple of weeks, also added period seat belts. good luck to you and be sure to post pics from the parade..
I have a book that can explain your body tag numbers if you would like..

 

Thanks guys! My dad always talked about doing the car like a crown vic - red and white. He also said: "Do it how you would want it." I can't bring myself to do the red and white. I was thinking about keeping the seafoam green above the trim and doing shoebox white below. It would retain it's original interior and yet still get a bit of the "upgrade" he talked about. Like Ken's without all the bling:

 

holy crap....thats lookin awesome.

 

I have to tell you I have always taken the chrome or stainless trim off my cars but I really like the side trim on the wagon and the Vicky it is even repeted on the inside of the doors, I may takes some of the badges off if I repaint it but I will leave the big piece down the side

 

Any info you can give me would be greatly appreciated!

 

I forgot the link to the engine running:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fa45-zZRmRc

 

WOW nice solid car. That thing would be considered a real cream puff in the Midwest

 

Looks good! Great progress. I like the threads that are detailed like this. Good job!

 

Very nice work!!!

 

I've always wanted to find a good '55 Mainline and paint and letter it like a vintage NASCAR stock car. To me the absence of side chrome just begs for that treatment. Do you need the radio delete cover? I've got one I'll be glad to send you.

 

I have it - it's back in now. I used it to get the paint for the window trim. Thanks for the offer! If you have any NOS seat covers laying around I'm looking for those!

 

Wow...it has been a LONG time since Ive seen a Five Spot that nice! Great story, and keep up the good work. Really like the '56 stainless on it too...my bud did the same with his, and swapped in a '56 dash while it was apart.
The before pic. of the headliner is a good example of what happens when a car is stored with the visors up. Always pull them down, even if it is only going to sit for a few weeks. Mice LOVE to sit on them while they chew holes in the headliner to make a place to get to a new nest.

 

Looks nice, I like the side trim (I reworked a set and put it on my '53 Mainline) and I like the idea of seafoam and white. I did the same with the door panels in my '55 Dodge, making new boards but reusing the vinyl, turned out real nice.

Your headliner looks really good, that's the one interior item that always scares me. Any tips on installing it to get it nice and tight?

 

Yes, hire a professional! I wasn't willing to do that myself. My buddy does it for a living - he charged me $200 for the install - I supplied the headliner. He cussed about the "chitty' Ford tack strips the whole time.

 

Nice car, gives me inspiration.

 

Great progress man, you're dad is gonna love driving it!

Oh yeah, headliners suck! Next time I'm paying someone else to do it.

 

Nice job man. That looks great, and sounds really good. I like the plain Jane look too, but I can see what you are envisioning ,and I think it will look super.

 

Here’s what I have from your patent plate:
Serial #
A – 6cyl. 223 cu
5 - model year 1955
D- Built in Dallas
G – Mainline
127806 – unit number

70A – Body Mainline, Tudor (not Business Model)
G A - Body color, my book does not show this info
3A – Trim Code , book does not show
KL3006B – Production Code
This is odd the Prod. Code should be 2 numbers then a letter then 2 or 3 numbers
Mine is 14, day it was built then E month built, then 2218 sequence built ,
My car was built in San Jose on May 14, 1955, I will check around the net too see if I can figure out your Prod. Code or maybe one of these old Ford guys can help us.
Any way that’s what I have for now, oh yeah the base price on your car was $1,945.03 plus what ever options you have and prod. was 76,698 units
talk to you later.

 

Nice job. Engine sounds ok. Been a few years since i saw a clear float bowl but it should make setting the float level a bit easier.

 

Thanks! My great-grandfather was apparently a very "frugal" man. The car has absolutely NO options on it. It appears he ordered it that way. The area code for Dalhart where he lived is written on the firewall (engine side) in grease pen. My dad says that when his grandfather bought it the salesman tried to convince him to get an overdrive. He asked the salesman if they sold replacement parts for the overdrive. Salesman said yes. My great-grandfather then says, "Nope - don't want it. If they sell parts to fix it then it's just something that's going to break."

The G A color code I know the G part is for Sea Sprite Green - but I wasn't sure what the A part was for. Thanks again for the info!!

http://www.lovefords.org/tech/Vin/paint/ford/55_f.htm
http://www.tcpglobal.com/aclchip.aspx?image=1955-ford-pg01.jpg
http://www.tcpglobal.com/aclchip.aspx?image=1955-ford-pg02.jpg

 

Just noticed the unit number contains an 806. Do all of these cars have a number marked on the firewall??

 

Nice work! Im amazed by how fast a lot of HAMBers get shit done. These threads are inspirational.

 

This thread is awesome! Really great work. The simple stuff pays off, like cleaning things and reinstalling them. I love how thorough you are with this rebuild. Your family is very pleased, I'm sure.