This past weekend, my son made the deal and bought a 56 Town Victoria from a friend of ours in Rocky Mountain House, Terry McCaw. I can post better pictures later, but it was an adventure! Terry was gracious enough to let my wife and I take his gorgeous 57 Meteor hardtop for a spin! Anyhow, the 56 my son bought has something interesting about the VIN, maybe some of you could help? I attempted to decode the VIN with my 1955-1957 Body Parts manual, as well as looked online. Everything seems to check out except for the "F" in the beginning. Allegedly, "F" was for a Victoria in general, however a Town Victoria should have had a "V"? Also, as a side note, the car has factory seat belts. BUT no padded dash or padded visors. It was a 312, PS car, built in San Jose. Terry bought it in 2005 at the Portland Swap Meet from the daughter of the original owner. It has a license plate surround and keychain from Salem, Oregon. There's no engine, but the trunk is full of 312 engine parts, including a 4 barrel intake. The PS (I know, power ***ist, haha!) is still complete. I love the fact the floorboard still has white paint on it, no rust, and pretty solid. RF fender is junk, but hey, that's why we have parts cars! My son has so many plans, and actually pulled the front sheetmetal off already to paint the firewall and go over the suspension. Hopefully will post more pictures soon!
Congrats on the buy! She looks pretty solid and the paint on the body has killer patina/age to it. I'd clean it up and rock like that. What's the plans? You guys sticking with a Yblock or going with a 289/302 route? Looking forward to seeing build pics!
Those four door Victoria's are about the only model of four door car that look like a 2 door. Take the back handles off and most wouldn't even notice the extra set of doors. Cool cars. Looking forward to seeing what you son has in mind for it.
Thanks for the kind words! As of right now, my son has plans for putting in his snotty 302 from his 68 Ford Custom he recently transplanted. It has a lumpy camshaft and bored .40 over. I also have an AOD trans laying around. Unfortunately the Victoria didn't come with an engine block or anything. My son would have loved to had a 312 to put back in, but for right now, the 302 is the way he's going. He was planning on running the car as is-no paint for the foreseeable future!!
Thanks, appreciate it! I always wanted a four-door Victoria myself, and now my son bought one! He was even eying up the custom grilles I have hanging from the roof in the garage and thinking about making a custom out of it. I know I heard the weatherstripping and roof seals are impossible to find, but since they used the 55 Vicky roof on these, I told my son we can try to find 55 Victoria seals and they should work.
My son did a little more work to the 56. The front end was pulled, and he's cleaned up the frame and prepped it with some kind of converter for rust. I'm super happy how nice the grille and parklights are. The car still has white paint on the floorboards; no rust holes anywhere. The body mounts are all solid, and the trunk floor is as well. We've been making a list of what he needs, and I found a line on a much better rear bumper. This rear bumper is strangely rusty compared to the front. His firewall is very interesting. In two spots, there is "L E S" stamped into the metal. I kind of figured it was a previous owner, but also noticed it is written in a grease pencil on the firewall in the recess behind where the engine goes?? Also, I started looking for new weatherstripping above the windows on the roof edge. I think looking up a Town Victoria is pointless, due to the scarcity. However, am I wrong in thinking a 55 Victoria set would work? Even that seems impossible to find!
"LES" corresponds with the body color code on the data plate (LE) with the "S" indicating "Styletone" two-tone. Often times body paint codes were applied to bare metal areas that would be hidden with a dye marker to give paint line workers a "heads up" for the paint colors to be applied. The dye often bled through the paint.
If you didn't know make sure to carefully inspect the front crossmember under the radiator, the lower control arms also attach to this crossmember. It is a very rust prone part, hope you get lucky. As far as the rear bumper I had a Mercury that was parked in a shed with no door for a couple decades with the rear exposed to the elements. The rear of the car was very weathered but the rest was amazingly good. Might explain your bumper.
Good thought, I wonder if this 56 had been parked nose first somewhere for all those years? We had it on a hoist in my buddies shop before bringing it home, and the crossmember and body mounts all look unbelievably solid. I'm very surprised. I still look in awe at the white paint covering the floorboard; no rust holes to be found!
There are 2 Woodlands. Calif and Washington. The car was ***embled in San Jose which fed both places. I’m betting your car never saw any salt so the frame would be very sound but it could have minimal cancer in the typical spots. It also was ***embled on the 2nd of August and with the high numbers I guessing right at the end of production. Seat belts ran out early and if the mounts are there to show original they would be pretty rare at the end of the year run. I have a book showing a Town Victoria in 56 as a ‘F’ after the R in the first 4 at the top left. The same book shows the 57A in for a 57-59 Ford ‘500’ Fairlane 4 door Victoria. Since this car was so late in the run they may have started the “body” designation early. Anyway a good start! Have fun
Thanks very much for the info! I admit, I'd never thought about there being two Woodlands, and the California one is the only one I really had heard of! Very cool about the seat belts! I'll try to take some pictures this weekend, but I had been curious about them, as one old timer around here insisted "Ford never let you split up the big 3 safety options (belts, padded dash, and padded visors.) As this one is a late production like you said, possibly it was a very unique storyline to be had! We did notice a couple of rust spots, nothing major, that may require attention at some point. Comparatively speaking, I remember way back in 2001 I looked at a 56 Town Victoria that was for sale from the west coast, in Canada, around the lower mainland. That car was so rusty you couldn't tell the rear view mirror had been chrome! It was a red/white/ and rust colored one, for only $1500, but it needed a crossmember, body mounts, etc. I had to pick up the door to close it because it was a bit thin! My son and I are so glad this one is much better!
Not much progress lately...but went and dug through my parts stash to see about a replacement RF fender. Here in Alberta, it's more often than not we find fenders that are rusted around the headlights, and almost always at the bottom. Believe it or not, I hung onto this find from the 60's.....a rust free 56 Meteor fender. I almost forgot I had it. My dad had found it at the dump locally when a wrecking yard closed in the late 60's. The inner brace is missing, and it might need a few tweaks, but I don't have to do any rust repairs!! I'll use the brace from my son's fender, and weld up a few Meteor trim holes. Crazy this is even still here! Next up is the engine mount kit, and I will probably start on the brakes in the next few weeks.
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