Technical Bumper swapping. A 57 ford for a 55-56 bumper ?

I know I was asking about custom bumper ideas for my 57 ranchero. After searching lots and lots of pics, I see most of the 57s retained there org bumpers the gaurds on or off. I have this one car I found in a older R&C, I think its a 56 bumper with desoto grill and the grill cavity shaped around the grill. The car also has rounded hood corners. I like the whole package. Its a small change but the bumper looks thinner for 56 than 57. In my opion the 57 bumper is too wide. Has anybody done this swap? Any advice would be greatly appreciated

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Have never had a 57 Ford myself, but by looking at that photo and some stock 56 and 57 Fords, besides the bumper the 56 lower splash pan/gravel shield would be a good thing to have as well. Might have to take the 56 and 57 pieces and mold them together to get it to flow properly. As far as brackets, you might be able to modify the 57s to work or modify 56 brackets. On our 56 Chevy with its 59 impala bumpers they used the impala bumper brackets and made them bolt to the frame.

 

Isn't a 57 Ford wider than a 56?

 

I'm just not sure about the width. The bumper seems to be a good fit in the picture. Yes definitely need the bumper filler, I would think mould it in and modify the bumper brackets. Just need to find the parts now

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Also note the frenched headlights in that pic... I've always felt the Ford designers left them a little bug-eyed like they had thyroid issues.

 

Yes the french lights are a must. I have that modification already

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It’s 56 ford truck headlight pieces, done alot

 

And easy

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Frenched doesn’t look anything like 56 pickup rings...best thing anyone can do for a 57..

 

How would it look with your stock bumper flipped upside down - or swap front and rear bars/ flip?

 

I'm trying to ascertain what it is that you have issue with concerning the 57 Ford bumper. You said that you feel as though it is too wide, but is what you're saying that you think the bumper is too tall? If you're saying that you feel it's too wide (side to side), then my thought would be simply to narrow the bumper to fit your preference, which would also include shortening the brackets to the side. If you think the bumper is too tall (top to bottom), that's a more difficult situation to rectify. I'd still say that if that's your complaint, then you'd be best served sectioning the bumper to thin it out to your liking. Yes, that's a lot of work. But I think it's the right way to go about doing what you're trying to accomplish.

I don't think the 55/56 Ford bumper is a proper substitute for the 57 bumper, nor is it an improvement over the factory bumper. It would be a change for the sake of change. The biggest issue with the 55/56 bumper is that the shape of the bumper doesn't correspond to the 57 valence, so the only way I could see it perhaps working is if you were able to use the 55/56 bumper, and customize the valence by grafting the front of the 55/56 valence to the rear of the 57 valence where it bolts to the fenders and grill surround, essentially making a hybrid valence the pulls together the fitment of the 57 to the body and the styling of the 55/56 bumper.

 

Don't rule out the 52-54 Ford passenger car front bumper, they too are very similar.

What ever you use you will need the splash apron designed for that particular front bumper, from experience I learned the 53 Ford front bumper is very similar to the '54 but the splash apron n has a different contour. HRP

 

I remember reading a "little book" article from maybe 1961 that said the same thing. It outlined how to "french" the headlights.