So, I'm on for building a family car, and we ended up with a '56 Customline. It's solid, but it's totally in the realm of the hillbilly hot rod. She runs and drives, but if there was a shortcut to take, it was taken. I swear the accelerator pedal was created from a aluminum replacement window and a 10 speed brake cable. But she's mostly there and needs love, and I'll get her sorted. Her biggest problem right now is no brakes. As of now, I've just put the Wilwood (remember my wife is going to drive) disk kit up front, and am re-pluming all the hard lines. Adding a power master and hope that's it for the brakes. She has a ~66 289 in her mated to a 3 speed. I'm planning on replacing the 3 speed with a C4 (again, think wife and small child). In doing my research, looks like the best option is a period auto column for shifting, Aerostar springs up front, maybe blocks in the rear, then get her on the road and start sorting. All you experts let me know if I'm missing something obvious (besides the normal), and thanks for your help. I'll keep a thread going, finishing with my happy wife doing burnouts!
They are great family cars... When we had our 2nd daughter I bought this 56 and we have been driving it everywhere ever since. Yours looks way more solid than ours.....nice car!!!! It is small block ford powered with a c4 using a 60s ford mustang floor shifter.
Keep them coming... Every where I go guys are glad to see a 1956 brand F instead of brand C .. Aerostar fronts and stock in back. dual quad Y under the hood.
so, what master cylinder going to run? are rear shoes & drums in real good condition? don't forget residual/proportioning valves - seat belts/ 3 point if possible - shocks good? - all wiring good? etc clean looking ride
So some progress, she has brakes now. Wow I forgot how much I hate re-plumbing lines. All new hard and soft lines, Wilwood disks up front, new wheel cylinders, and shoes in the back. Oh yea, and run out at 7PM for wheel cylinders and shoes wondering why the rear drums are 10 inches, instead of 11. Do some quick figuring and guess someone swapped the rear axle to a 1967ish Mustang. Go to store filthy with drums, shoes and wheel cylinder and try to convince the pimply faced kid to look up a 1967 Mustang and see if the parts look correct. He capitulates, and they do, and pimply face kid is amazed, as if I just performed some type of magic trick. Measure lines, carefully flare each line, re-flare on suspect flares, tighten everything, loosen, reseat, tighten, cross your fingers... and she leaks like the Titanic. Realize in your stupor of working 18 hours straight you forget to tighten a few connections, fix; all seems good. Go to bleed brakes, rears going well... then done, move to front, and wonder why the rear reservoir is emptying, check to see a flood coming from the passenger rear wheel cylinder, realize the quality "made in China" wheel cylinder just failed. Go get a new one from not the same store (likely still made in China, but it's the principal), install and start over again on the rears. Done, move to fronts, proportion valve not cooperating, sort that out, get back to bleeding, looks good, invisible leak on drivers side. Check everything, clean all the brake fluid off of everything for the thousandth time, assume it's just residual brake fluid (trying to be optimistic) stand on the brakes, all seems well. Go around the block, pull back in drivers front is for sure leaking. Clean everything AGAIN, look for leak, find that I didn't quite crank down the soft line to the caliper, fix that, brake fluid all over again, clean up again, bleed the caliper again, clean everything up, stand on the brakes, drive around the block, pull back in, all seems well... That is a soul crushing job, but they work like a charm, and do look pretty...
Speaking of a 1967ish Mustang rear axle; besides the 56 rear end failing at some point, any advantages/reasons for doing a swap? Just curious as to if it was just laying around (the way most of this car seems to be built) or if it was an intentional swap. Thanks!
'56 was the last year for that design rear axle, so parts aren't as easily available. Limited ratios too, with most factory ratios being fairly low (3.31 was the 'freeway' gear! Typical was 3.5 or 3.7 ratios). Probably an intentional swap.
Nice 57. Why not start your own thread and show more of it. Take a look at the 52-59 Ford social group also.
Yessir, she needs A LOT of work, now she stops, time to get things sorted. Number two on the list is the mystical electrical system. The current wiring seems to be based entirely on some mythical system of "atmospheric" electrical connections. The car will run currently, but if you gaze at the wiring, it will stop immediately and not run again until you you don't need it to. Next step, rewire the entire car.
So she was sitting at an angle up front, I figured likely due to bad shocks and mismatched spring cutdowns. Followed the advice of Fairlane Dave (thank you sir!) and replaced the original cut up springs with the Aerostar springs, and KYB KG4503s up front. Leveled her out and gives a perfect ride height. Someone had gone at the passenger side with a drill and grinder and taken out all but 2 of the 6 rivets, and only replaced a couple with questionable bolts. I took the other two out, and replaced everything with grade 5 hardware. After getting some experience with the two left on the passenger side, I simply used a 90º drill on the drivers side to drill out the rivets. Three progressively larger bits, a little oil, and it was quick work to take out the 6 rivets. This is my suggestion to anyone needing access to the front springs.
So still a long way to go to get her on the road and really get to sorting. She stops and runs, took her out for a quick run and she was puking coolant everywhere. So time to rebuild the cooling system...
Looking like a great start. I wired my '59 Ford completely using a harness kit, it was not that bad, easier than what you endured with the brakes.
Sweet car! Too late now but I would have put a new timing chain in it while you were doing the water pump, unless you know more about the condition of the engine. Looks like another 56 with a poor hood/grille fit. Seen more than a few lately.
Thanks! Didn't think about the timing chain, good point for future reference. I've likely been too intent on just getting her on the road to see what's what. Speaking of grill fit, I was going to tackle that this week. Any recommendations to help alleviate the droop? I was planning on pulling it all apart and see if I can shim, or bend things back...
Great to know! The brakes on this car was easily the worst job I've ever tackled I've been dreading rewiring it. You just gave me hope!
So rather than disconnecting from the spindle you compress the spring, lock it off, lower that triangular pan, remove spring, install new spring by compressing pan, and then bolt in place? Or am I confused again?
Yes, In a nutshell, I put the car on jack stands up front, took out a rivet then replaced with a bolt. Once all the rivets are out, I chained the spring for safety, put a jack under the A arm pan, unbolted everything, and let the jack down. Spring just falls out.
Anyone have a good header choice for a 289/302 in a 1956? Looks tight headed back, I'm thinking I need something pretty tight to clear the starter and steering box, not to mention the frame rails up front. Currently she has the stock 289 manifolds on and they shoot straight back.
When I was putting together the engine in my 55 I think I remember reading somewhere that early mustang shorty headers will work, I never bought a set to try as I was on a time crunch to have the car running/driving and now I'm pulling the 302 to replace it with a Y-Block
Now that I finally got the car running, it's time to tear out the entire electrical system. The removal wasn't that hard . Nor was setting up the new instrument cluster. I'll check back in as I start the rewiring process...
I'm enjoying your thread. I may have to look into your spring ideas. I have already torched out my springs. It may be easier to just unhook the A-arm at this point. Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
So, welcome to day 1 in the rewiring department. I thought it would go a little more quickly, but then again (we all know) a true hot rod/custom (sourced from many parts) is awesome, but puts a world of hurt on complications. I spent an inordinate amount of time reading and planning (measure twice, cut once), and more importantly trying to outsmart and "un-hillbilly" (no offense meant) this car. There is so much nonsense going on with the wiring, I'm amazed that the car ever ran. And any of you that have had to un-nonsense the nonsense know what I mean. But it's easier work than the brakes, just more cerebral. So I'm taking my time and working hard to get it right
So after 3 days of solid work, I'm still not done with the wiring harness. It is easier work than the brakes, but it's also more cerebral, and with the mess that this car is, it's all taking 10 times as long. For example, the car has a 1 wire alternator, but the remote voltage regulator is still all connected, so which part is wrong, and what's the right way to do things going forward. Another example, the car is still running points, but no ballast resistor is installed; bottom line, to do things right from scratch, I must evaluate and sort out each and every wire. Hopefully be done this week...
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