Hey all, new member here. Thanks for the invite, found alot of cool stuff already!!! A little info on me: I grew up in a Ford family (tho ironically my dad worked for chrysler for 30 years!!) and on a family vacation in 1979 in Knoxville, TN my folks bought an all black '55 Crown Victoria. Many fond memories were made riding in that Crown with my Dad, then in 1989 he decided to sell it to finance his '40 Ford Deluxe Coupe......I hated to see the 55 go but at least I got to drive it once before it sold. Many years of going to car shows looking at every 50's Ford reminded me of those times in the Crown, I ***umed one day we'd run across it again as it was sold to a "collector" in Southern Ohio and we lived in NW Ohio but it never happened. Dad and I built his all-ford powered 40 and he had the car of his dreams, driving it every chance he gets, so I was happy for him but still wanted the Crown back, hoping someday I could find another to replace it. Many swap meets and car corrals later of looking, I'd pretty much given up looking for another 55 to replace the Crown.....then on a trip to Oklahoma to visit friends, I stumbled across an ad in a trader mag that read simply: For sale- three 1955 Ford's, projects and parts cars, package deal only $1500.00 followed by a phone number. My buddy and I went to look and found 3 two-door post cars (one Town Sedan-Victoria style trim, a plain-jane Customline, and the third was another partially dismantled Town Sedan). The owner was moving and to make his move easier he wanted to sell the package of the three.....one was partially restored, one untouched and the third was an actual parts car. My buddy and I agreed that he'd take the two town Sedan's and I'd get the Customline. The Customline I ended up with turned out to be a 46,000 original mile car that the family had taken away from their Grandma when she backed into the tree in front of the house, wrinkling the drivers side rear 1//4 panel. In the glove box I found a small notebook with EVERY gas fill up, oil change, wiper blade, spark plug, tire, quart of oil, etc purchase with the date and mileage verifying it's current odometer reading. It even still has the FoMoCo script muffler under it and had Ford script plug wires on it when I tuned it up. I've now owned "Miss Peach" as she's become to be known (actual color is Buckskin) for about 9 years but with moving from Ohio to Oklahoma, a new home purchase, new career, etc, it's been on the back burner waiting for some much needed TLC....well, I'm hoping this summer I'll finally get to work on it and put many of the parts I've collected to good use and hopefully actually DRIVE IT!!!! Below is a picture of the day I got it home (from Ok to Oh.....we're now back in OK LOL) and tuned it up.....fresh battery, plugs, wires, cap/rotor, etc and it fired right up!!!! I managed to drive it around the block a couple times then the brakes failed coming back into the driveway and thats when I decided to do an upgrade, trying to move up to front disks eventually. Oh, BTW, it's the 223 I-6 and 3 on the tree with no radio car!!! Hopefully this post wasn't too long (or boring) and Thanks for reading it. As a side note, about 6 years ago, we stumbled across the Crown again in Carlisle, PA and my folks bought it back and promise it'll be part of my inheritance, so, eventually I'll have a pair of 55's to mess with sitting in my garage. Again, Thanks for reading!!!!! RAY
Welcome from Flintville TN. Enjoyed the story. Amazing the Crown Vic was found, but Carlisle would be the place to find it!
Thanks everyone for the welcoming words. I hope to be fairly active around here, and I'll apologize now for the questions I may ask down the road!! LOL My hope is to make the Customline drivable this spring then save up for some body work it needs. It'll probably be flat black with orange and white pinstriping if all goes according to plans this summer.
Thanks all for the welcomes!!! Yeah, all I was concerned with when I found it was a decent body to build on then figured out the mileage was original. I have a split manifold and polished aluminum valve cover for the I-6 but also have a Y-Block in the corner of the garage that I've considered dropping in it too. Here's a pic of it's current actual mileage....
Welcome! I don't know how close they are to you, but have been buying parts from these folks for quite a while: http://www.cl***icautoparts.com/
Yeah, Cl***ic is in Oklahoma City and I'm just outside of Tulsa.....we are about a 1.5 hour drive away from the store. I've been there several times buying things for other projects and just to browse too.
Thanks!!! Where are you in OK? If your needing any parts (and not too far away) the Tulsa Swap Meet at the Kellyville Fairgrounds is coming up pretty soon!! It'll be April 19 to 21st, I'll probably be set up out there with some friends......come buy some of my junk!!! LOL Also, you may want to try and make it to Dewey for the Stray Kat 500, May 3rd thru the 5th!!! It's a great show geared towards Kustoms and rods.....always a great time!!!!