Hot Rods My 55 Ford

Exhaust on your car, headers or cast iron manifolds?

 

Looks just right with the new stance!

 

Dont know if you did it but you should of been able to jack the frame up and let the rear diff hang then pry bar the shackles forward and up while someone slowly lets the jack back down. and done
Very sharp car!

 

I'll be following this as the 55-56 are two of my all time favourite Fords . Dropping the ride height is a huge improvement on looks and probably handling .

 

I noticed it has the Duraspark distributor and if the new timing chain does not help as much as you might want hook the distributor up to full vacumn,I have a 351-W in my 55 sunliner and the dipshit that built the motor for me installed the wrong cam so I have been tinkering with it to see if I can help it off idle and going to full vacumn helped and also helped the gas mileage some. I am going to change the cam even though I have been planning on it for over 5 years and still have not gotten around to it,I know Ford retarded the cam timing for emissions on the big blocks and also heard they did the same for the smallblocks so when my mid 80s 351 comes apart its going to get a 69 or 70 timing chain set just in case they did do it.

 

knock out car, the 55 is my fave. Congrats

 

Very nice, flipping the rear shackles sure did the trick.

 

It had a 180 in it, but I still changed it to a new Stant 180.

Manifolds right now.

Yes I already put a hand vac pump to check the vac advance. It's working and is hooked to the correct port to get full vacuum on the Carb.

I was told the motor was a early '70's....... I dropped the starter to get the block numbers.
It's a '83 out of a LTD...This is the timing set I bought.
https://www.summitracing.com/parts/clo-c-3057x

 

Added some lights to get peoples attention. seeing as how my new truck got rear ended a few months ago.
The vid really doesn't do it justice.



There is a bunch of work in it...... The license plate frame was drilled and tapped to fit the car, afterall.....It fits on a hinge to uncover the gas cap.

I wanted to leave the Top screw holes in the frame available for a back up camera.

tomorrow it gets a no load adjustable flasher and Plasma LED's in taillights and front parking lights.

 

I would still add a third brake light in the back window, people are so used to that now since everything built since 1986 has them, reduces the risk of getting rear-ended. I used a third brake light from something at our local self-service salvage yard. It was an import, probably a Nissan or Toyota, one with a nondescript, unobtrusive, black plastic housing that mounts to the package tray. Nobody notices it unless they're behind me and my foot is on the brakes, which is when I want them to see it.

 

Nice.. My first car was a 55 ford. Green one like yours. My dad had a 55 Crown Vic the same color as yours at the time as well. Your car brings back some good memories.

 

Are those led bulbs that replace the 1157?

 

Looks good, but did you know the license plate lights flash with the left turn signal? 55 is my favorite of the 55 and 56. I have a 55 gasser but am in the process of selling it. Would like to have 55 for daily driver. Yours looks great. Love those colors.

 

I like the 56 back up light housings. There's a fellow who advertises a kit to illuminate the reflectors in the FOMOCO Times of the Crown Victora Owner Association ( you don't need a CV to join) It's a plug in to the factory wiring which gives another set of stop/turn lights and doesn't change the reflectors. I put the halogen bulbs in the back my 56 and they really help. Looks good.

 

Like the "Blue dots" had them in my first on the road car a 55 but it was a more door sadly.

 

It's there.....it's 7in long...Kinda small.



As I said the Vid was hard to make for me and doesn't do it justice.

The flashing was due to me operating the turn signals when Vid was made.

Not yet....... The Plasama LED's are going in today.
I just got the No Load Flasher yesterday.

 

It appears to be a little hard to see, but the video probably doesn't do it justice. Maybe add a second one? Love the car!

 

That's a real Beauty I Had one back in the Day sold it to a Friend

one thing I wanted to say I would put in a Stock Timing Chane
because when something go's wrong in the Engine you don't wipe
the Whole Engine.!

Just My 3.5 cents
or when the Cows
come Home.!

 

Nice looking '55. I have a '59 Ford and I had the CC850 springs in it... too short for the '59. Moog's CC851 springs are a better choice for my car. But I cleaned the stock ones up and took a coil out of them, sits and rides nice.

Nice to start with a complete car and not a basket case like I did.

 

Beautiful '55 Ford. I dig the red/white.....
I read that you've got your AOD "stack shifting" problem squared away.
If you really wanna wake up your drive train, you might consider changing your 8" rear to a 3:55 gear- you'll still have the advantage of low RPM cruise in OD but gain a bit more performance accelerating.
Ford 8" rear parts are relatively cheap and plentiful and they're easy to build.
If you're not comfortable doing it yourself, there are vendors who sell complete units.
I run a 3:55 or a 3:80 (depending on my mood and the season) behind a built AOD in a 63 Falcon.
Fun to drive and it works very well.

 

Ford performance sells a complete (less brakes) 8.8 housing and all in a lot of ratios. I got one for my OT Mustang in 3:55 and it must have been pretty cheap because of my small budget at the time.

 

Yep 3:55's or 3:70's is what I was thinking.
It's the Vid on the 3rd Stop light.... Bottom line the Vid Sucks. LOL

I put the Plasma LED's and the No load adjustable flasher.

I couldn't get anything out of it. Back to the schematic and a test light.
The wiring is less than desirable.... Bubble Gum , Twist and tape.

Anyway making 2 jumper's so that I could swap the way the prongs plug in and that fixed it.

Are the lights really that much brighter.... I don't know?

They were when I vied the Youtube Vid of the guy that redoes Cougars.


This is what actually sold me on them to begin with.
I do a LOT of boat wiring. So I'm compassionate about the stuff being right.
With that comes boat trailers. I Always put more lights on the trailers than the factory ever did. Their bean counters.... I want the sucker lite UP!

So this moves me on to the next subject and something I've been thinking about.
Changing the whole dash to a '56.

Like the '66 Mustang, it had a much better gauge package than a '65 with the idiot lights.

Several things lead me to this idea.
I like the ease and availability of a full gauge package.
I want to put a nice A/C setup in it and I'm not real keen on using the 55's controls as a retrofit. This is a restomod....
And when I ran the car last weekend on the interstate to 80MPH for the 1st time the speedo started bouncing and making noise.

I read up on that a little and took the speedo out of the car and trying to lube it, the ten's wheel just broke in half..... I was very carefull to only spray clean and lube the gears, but it also had the 2nd gear from the speedo cable was trying to slip and lock up. That's where the real problem was.

So the speedo is junk now. $100 + for another used head unit and it's something I just don't really care for.

I have considered building a mold and do a modified insert out of fiberglass for a gauge package, but the '56 dash would fix several things.

Input?

 

I dunno a thing about 55-56 dashes but I can recommend the Speedhut Revolution series GPS driven speedometer: you can choose the font, bezel style, face color and backlight color and they look pretty "traditional ".
Added bonus: no pesky speedo gear changes in the trans when you change your rear ratio.



Posted with an IBM Selectric