F O R D vs Fairlane

I've been looking at 1958 Rancheros for quite a while - just bought one - and I have yet to figure out why some have F O R D above the grille and other have Fairlane. Can anyone explain. Thanks.

 

I believe the 'FORD' would just be the stripped down Custom version.

 

hes right

 

No, look at the Custom 300s and you'll see that most of them have F O R D above the grille, too.

 

The Ranchero Trim levels for 58 were Standard and Custom. I just looked a t factory 58 Brochure and there was no Fairlane Ranchero option. I think what you have seen are trucks that were modified with a Fairlane upper apron, possibly due to crash damage.
Some people say (and the ever wrong Wiki) that there were ones sold with Fairlane badging, but no Ford Literature I've seen seems to bear this out

By the way, in Canada they were Meteor Ranchero's

 

We had a '59 Ford that had badges saying Ford Fairlane Meteor Rideau 500, depending on which corner you were looking at.

 

"We had a '59 Ford that had badges saying Ford Fairlane Meteor Rideau 500, depending on which corner you were looking at."

Well that has it covered just about completely.
<!-- / message -->

 

well yes that would be correct because a custom 300 is not a fairlane

 

My guess someone replaced the front clip.

 

The cheeper 300 models had just FORD on the front valance below the hood. The 500 model was the deluxe longer wheel base model and the only Fairlane of said year.
The Wizzard

 

I believe all of the Rancheros from 1957-1959 had 116 in wheelbase. The custom sedan had the shorter wheelbase.

 

Ranchero's were built on a Ranch wagon (2 door wagon) platform and are the shorter or 300 wheelbase.

 

All 57-59 customs including the ranchero had 116" wheelbase fairlane 118".

 

I know that Ford used the "FORD" letters on the 1958 Ford Skyliner which was the top vehicle in the 1958 line. I have a '58 Sunliner and three '58 Two door hardtop Fairlane 500s and all of these use the Fairlane script on the nose - so go figure.....