Projects 1956 Sunliner Continuous Upgrades

that is a beautiful car.

 

I would take the car for a drive and check the fluid level hot. It might be over full.

 

Following very closely on the brakes and stance of the car. Please post pics of it up and running with the new front end in it.

 

REALLY NICE CAR!

I am going to be in the distinct minority on two counts:

(1) My first car was a 1956 Ford, but not a Vicky, and I wished the entire time I owned the car that it had the Continental kit. Really would hate to see one lost on that pretty a car.

(2) The original "haystack Holley" from 1956 will fit a 1956 4-barrel intake, and will work with the original distributor. For more eye candy (and CFM), the factory 2 x 4 set-up will also work with the original distributor.

The haystack Holley gets a lot of bad press, most of it undeserved! As a 13 year-old, I rebuild the haystack Holley on my 1956 Ford (first carb I ever did), and the engine ran flawlessly until it wore the rings so badly it was burning almost as much oil as fuel. If a 13-year old doing his first carb can get that kind of result, how bad can the carb be. One does need to periodically check the secondary vents to make sure they are clean (every 3 months or so). In 1959, we drove on more dirt than paved roads, and had no problems with the vents. Clogged vents can cause the secondaries to not close when the driver wants them to close.

Not criticizing, but not sure while you would go for disc brakes unless you frequently drive through water, or pull a camping trailer in the mountains.

But your car, your choice, and it really is nice!

Jon

 

I’m following this thread since it’s a ‘56 Ford and a beautiful one at that. A comment on the brakes, my Town Sedan’s brakes overheat going down hill on the road that I use to go from my house to the main road. It’s only about two miles but they fade so bad that I almost can’t stop completely by the time I reach the bottom. It has the automatic and so I’m on the brakes entire time unless I shift it into low. I’m interested in switching to disc brakes for this reason but I don’t like the look of the modern vacuum booster. My car is a 31k mile original and I don’t want something like that under the hood. I have an NOS brake booster that I would use with the disc brakes if I was going to make the switch.
I have a ‘57 B manifold with a ‘57 Autolite 4100 carb that I used very little. I switched back to the original carb and manifold because I thought I had an exhaust leak. It turned out the vacuum lines from the fuel pump got switched and made the sound. Anyway I didn’t really noticed much of a performance difference between the two to want to go back to the B manifold and 4100 carb. The carb was professionally rebuilt and I replaced the heat tube in the manifold thinking it was the source of the leak. PM me if you’d be interested in it.
Enough of my side track. I want to read more about this beautiful Sunliner

 

This is under my hood as I don’t like the vacuum can either and their 4 piston calipers are on 11” discs. Pedal pressure is less than original but not power. The rears are now from a F-150 which are the same 11” as original but 1/2” wider. Rear wheel cylinders are correct for non-power brakes.
For those watching and wanting to upgrade to better brakes no matter what car it is not a place you want to go cheap or a system that was not planned or engineered. Eric16 is obviously familiar for the system he purchased but there is a lot of advertised ones on sites which may or may not be what you want.

 

nice car love rag tops

 

That's a gorgeous car...and I have to agree on losing the continental kit. I could never understand why FoMoCo kits had the full bumper extension panel and all that extra acreage. I hate to say it, but GM had a "Better Idea"

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Another vote here for the carb for simplicity sake. And they're hamb friendly!

seriously though...

My experience with Snipers is they are hot garbage... Tons of issues. Seen them go dead multiple times. I have a customer car that will be having its sniper system removed.(I did not install it.) I repeat... HOT GARBAGE...

Coincidentally this is now the name of my 34 pickup build.

 

I agree. THROTTLE BODY INJECTION and FEEDBACK CARBS were the industries attempt to stay away from the more expensive to build MPI SYSTEM(s).

There may be better fuel monitoring but it is still a wet manifold design retaining the problems of a carburetor system.

 

Nice, always felt 55 & 56 were good lookers. Please, as a family driver, get some seat belts & check late converts for some kind of shoulder belts. Lot of nuts on the roads

 

Got the Sunliner out for a little drive. Initially I was excited to see the trans leak slowed way down, but the next weekend I took it out, it was back to a steady stream of trans fluid out of the inspection hole on the bell housing while it was at idle. Been working with a local shop to get a quote on a rebuilt AOD.

The disc brake conversion dropped the front 1.5 inches, and I'm very happy now that the car is sitting basically level.

 

Very nice Eric and great work!Congrats on a beautiful ride!

 

Thank you for the update. Keep posting on the thread.

 

I think those have one of the nicest bodies of the mid fifties cars. Yours looks great!

 

That color combination reminds me of Laverne & Shirley for some reason, love it!

 

Another quick update. I had installed a c****at anchor in the Victoria (1st picture), and took it out when I sold it. Unfortunatley, the convertible brace got in the way, and I cannot use it on the Sunline. So I started building a new set. First step was to use paper and a coat hangar to quickly come up with a rough shape to put in medal (2nd picture).

 

Here's a picture of the anchor installed in the Victoria.

 

Use larger (fender) washers on the seat belt mount. And for what it`s worth. Leave the continental kit.

 

The absolutely best thing for the appearance of your beautiful convertible would be to paint the headlight bezels your two-tone. The Ford factory was too cheap to do it. Look at the cars that have done it -- they look right!

 

Bite your tongue Jim…Ford got it right.

 

Count me in the minority of those who like the continental kit. I think it adds some needed length to the car and I don't think the tail light treatment of the stock 56 is so interesting that a continental kit is superfluous. But then again, I'm a custom guy, so I'd be wanting to nose, deck, shave and lower that thing too.

I'd also be in the group against the Holley sniper. Not because it's a bad unit at all. But the extra complication of EFI sort of defeats the purpose of having an old car, especially when a better or more common 4 bbl will also achieve your ends of improving performance and reliability. Stick an Edelbrock 500 cfm on there with vacuum secondaries and forget it.

Nice job with the car seat mount. Mine is old enough now to be front facing as opposed to rear, so a basic lap belt works fine for holding her in place. Although, I did whip a corner in my 55 and the car seat toppled over with her buckled in it. I hear a little voice over the exhaust, "Daddy, I tipped over" hahaha.

If you want to long haul that thing, the best move you can make is to swap that FOM for an AOD. That fixes your trans leak too.

Awesome car man. REALLY nice ride.

 

The TU-TONE SCHEME shown on the FAIRLANE is correct, HDL DOORS painted to bottom color.

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The CUSTOMLINE TU-TONE had the HDL DOORS matched to the upper color.

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The Customline and Fairlane chose to paint the headlight doors to work with the trim and color choices… in both instances they got it correct. To me splitting the color would not be right. They were not painted on the car originally but were waiting on the shelf after the headlights were aligned.

 

... wait a minute ...

You are describing splitting the color on the FAIRLANE TU-TONE treatment on the HDL DOORS?

For a custom paint job I see your point. Sorry about that ...

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Below from thread - https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/images-of-tri-five-fords.1210072/page-80#post-14700954

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You're correct (IMO) but it all depends on whether it is a dedicated resto or driver.

 

Gorgeous car!

keep the updates coming.

 

What if you got the headlight bezels chromed?..or would that be considered tacky?

 

To me yes. On the modified 55-56 page of Facebook you can find them if you want to look.

All this BS links to the 55 when the stainless trim did not extent on to the headlight door and the two-tone cars doors were the fender color. The 56 did the same, and “Stan-back” who doesn’t own one wants us all to do what he likes. Fords were economical by staying with what they had. Remember these were ***embly line cars and the headlight doors were the last thing on after the headlight adjustment and the cars were 99% complete. Most other cars had chrome or stainless rings like earlier models.

 

After the holidays, I have an AOD lined up to get rebuilt and swapped! Can't wait to see what it does on the highway!

 

If you do an AOD swap please do***ent it with photos!

I have a nice AOD in my shed that I would love to put behind the y block in my wagon!