Very clean and slick! Did you have to trim the old grill trim chrome? How's it mounted? Sounds like a tech thread.
I've seen a few like that lately. Bo Huffs,for one. The other one was at Mooneyes BBQ. I've got pic's if you want to see them. Really looks great,Tuck...
There is NOTHING better on a 57-59 ford than a 57 desoto grille. That thing looks perfect. Anything would be better than a stock 59 grille IMHO, but seriously...perfect. I bought a really decent 57 Plymouth front bumper at an estate sale a couple of weeks back...to bad it wasnt a Desoto. I still havent figured out what the rear bumper is that I bought with it.
Here's an old photo of a 58 Ranchero with DeSoto bumper installed. Yes thats snow, we had to drive them in the winter. TwoChops
KUSTOMS RULE... I found lots of examples in the little books of 57 and 58 fords with that bumper, like the TIAGO for example(bitchen)... just hadn't seen any 59 rancheros. I did find a couple 59 ford cars- one had a custom made pan on the bottom that was painted body color- it had an expanded metal grill- but they didn't use the top bar- For you guys asking what all had to be done... Lots of mock ups with piles of hockey pucks... haha. I had to cut the lower fenders off, remove the front valance/grill... and I trimmed that chrome till it fit- I got another set of rust free Texas fenders from Bob Owens and plan on doing this again- I wanted to sacrifice these fenders and chrome first cuzz they were bad even though they don't look it. That drivers side front fender was smashed pretty good-(you can see in one of the pics below) and the front bumper was tweaked from one of the previous owners... so I didn't mind cutting the worst part of the smashed fender off and dropping the tweaked OEM Ford bumper. I put in on, pulled it off too many times to count while trimming... I used Honda scissor jacks- 3 of them... the middle one I tack welded to the license plate bracket because It kept sliding out. Once I got it trimmed pretty close I could just push the car back, trim, and move it forward again... I made brackets from the ford and desoto brackets- I had to trim about 2" off the front frame horns... and the brackets look like big T's with an angle reinforcement on each side. There are two more mounts on the DES bumper I'm going to string in to the frame mount- but I'll do that the next time it comes apart. I made the brackets adjustable up and down, side to side, forward and aft... I still need to go back and do some detail work- I need a lip from a desoto fender I want to graft into the ford fender and it'll look like it was made for it... This lil ranch is gonna come together... I'm so happy... heres some more pics-----> one of what it looked like when I got it... minus the hay bails... haha. and after I dropped it with chrome reverse swaped motors and we rebuilt the brakes and suspension... and another after I put new lower quarters and rockers and re-did the box and more front end alignment work and new shocks... the latest edition was new porter exhaust last fall put on at west end welding in Mound Mn...
That is by far the best single modification to ANYTHING I've seen in quite some time. Perfect, perfect, perfect.
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