Projects 1955 and 1956 Ford cars

Actually Chris, I was replying to the OP, scotts52. However, here's a few within driving distance to you.………...
https://sacramento.craigslist.org/cto/d/corning-1955-ford-2-door-ranch-wagon/6797684721.html
https://seattle.craigslist.org/see/cto/d/renton-1958-ford-ranch-wagon/6799410837.html
https://salem.craigslist.org/cto/d/salem-1958-ford-ranch-wagon-fs-ft/6803797205.html
https://oregoncoast.craigslist.org/cto/d/gold-beach-classic-ford/6792930819.html
https://boise.craigslist.org/cto/d/cascade-1957-ford-station-wagion/6800887412.html

 

when i was in the Air Force in 1965-1969, I had a cheap 2 door hardtop, 292 police intercepter I pulled from a wrecked '56. I put the factory 2x4 intake and mallory dual point distributor init. whith the 3-speed overdrive it would easily pass '57 chevys with powrpack 283"s.

 

Yep the "Other Tri Fives"

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Had this in the early '60s. 312 with 3-spd OD.

Got this together in 2010; 351 with AOD. It's a '56 Victoria with '55 grille and side trim. Now lives in Australia.

 

Here’s mine I’ve had had this since 2003.

 

It was pretty far gone. loaded full of parts ,intakes and transmissions ect. setting in the dirt no tires couldn't tell if it had any driveline. It sold at a estate auction Jan 1st. lots of stuff there. I bought a 60 Pontiac catalina & a 390 T bird engine & a 316 GMC(Pontiac) engine & trans.

 

I have had a '55 Crown Vic, 390 3 speed, and a '56 Mainline with a 302 C4. Both fun cars, and both were 40 plus years ago.

 

Ya'll don't need to help Chris. We know he just has to think about what type car of car he wants and they start popping up all around him!

 

Here is mine, currently in upholstery jail.

 

The one I posted is for sale, it's in upstate new York and is pretty solid aside from the drivers side door which has some repair i can give you the owners number if your interested I think he wanted around 1,500

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My summer daily.

 

Most of the 55 to 57 Fords, rusted out sitting on the showroom floor when new. Very good looking design

 

Here is mine, and its for sale......

 

$1500 isn't a bad price. If it was a 55 chevy it would sell fast at twice the price.

 

I love this car. It's my favorite '55-'56 of the last few years. It's exactly one of the ones I had in mind.

 

I had a decent Fairlane tudor sedan for a few months. Usual cancer in the front crossmember. Traded it for something else, probably a handful of twenties. I always thought it was odd that Ford went to the expense to tool up the four door hardtop in '56 and then drop the whole line for the new '57 design. Anyways; there always seems to be one or two 55-56 Fords for sale in the tri-state area.

 

Thanks. I was quite proud of how it looked.

 

Low and behold. Was out looking at some rip rap this morning and ran across this.

 

It was somebodies' pride and joy once. Damn long time ago from the condition.

 

I remember when I was a kid my dad was hauling scrap metal and I remember helping him.cut up a 55 ford convertible with a double bit ax .that has been a low point in my memory ever since

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Many years ago (early '80s IIRC) I owned a '56 Club Sedan that I bought from the original owner, which had been parked due to a rusted-out front crossmember (which turned out to be the only serious rust on the whole car). I repaired the crossmember, then had it realigned. Had a bit of trouble finding an alignment shop that would work on it, but finally got referred to a old guy that said 'no problem!'. Turns out he was a semi-retired ex-Ford dealer front end guy. We were BSing about '55-56 Fords while he worked on it and he told me several interesting things about the cars...

When I remarked that you didn't see these around much anymore, he says 'that's because a lot of them went to Puerto Rico'. Seems the taxi companies there discovered that the '55-56 Ford front suspension would take the beating from their roads far better than the GM or Chrysler products or even the newer Fords. In the '60s they would buy good used cars and send them down there for taxi service. He added that 'more than a few Ford dealers had open purchase orders from the taxi companies for any nice ones that came in on trade. 2-drs, 4-drs, wagons, they didn't care. We even shipped a Crown Vic down'. He then laughed and said 'of course, the crossmember issue wasn't known yet'.

He then went on to add that Ford lost thousands of dollars on the lack of sales for replacement parts. He said that 'even if you only greased the front end at every fourth or fifth oil change, they literally wouldn't wear out. The only bad point was the idler arm on the power steering cars (pointing at mine, which was loose) as they used a rubber bushing. MOOG used to make an 'improved' idler arm which if you can find it is what you want'. Never did find one by the way...

This made me curious, so I split a well-used ball joint I had (I know the car it came off of had over 200K miles on it) to see. It literally had not worn the original machining marks off either the ball or the socket.

Whether the taxi business is true or not, I can't say, but if you can find 'period' Puerto Rico pics from the era, '55-56 Ford taxis seemed to be fairly common...

 

Tim Allen has a really nice sleeper 55 coupe

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Back in the day the parents of the baby boomers as soon as a car was paid off they bought another brand new one. Many dealers like the Lambrech guy who sold chevys. wouldn't sell used cars. A ford dealer at black rock ar. parked a lot of trade ins out at his farm. the trees grew up around them. When scrap got high they crushed them. In the early sixties there where many folks here that would drive vehicles that consumed oil. They poured rerefined oil in them cost 6 cents a quart. And the fords with worn out Y blocks the blow fumes would seep out the steering collum. You would meet a Y block ford and the blow by from the road draft was visible from a pretty far distance. Dirt would get packed in the front crossmember and rot it out and when they failed most where never fixed. There was a guy named Willum who had a 430 Mel. And he was a stock car driver. and he used the 55 & 56 ford bodys. he bought every one he could find. And he was fearless and totaled a great number. Won a lot of races too.

 

The 57 ford was years ahead of the Chevy

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2 dr HTP I would fetch it home. There are a lot ofgood parts still on it.

 

I didn't care much for the 57 chevy and even less for the 57 ford. Those bulging eyeball headlights are horrible.

 

That's an easy fix you put 56 ford f100 headlight bezels on them and they have a frenched look

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I'm really thinking about it. It's over one hill, across the railroad tracks and down another hill. Thinking they all mustvmu been placed there many years ago with a crane.

Kinda thinking I might be able to drive down the tracks, drag it up on the tracks and then possibly out to the road and load it. Going to have to put some thought into it.

Any idea how much the body might weigh? No frame.