Customs Needed like a hole in my head: '55 Ford Mainline

We all know the feeling. It's been a few years.... it's time to buy another project car. Even if you haven't totally finished the project cars you already have. You get that itch.

A few months ago I sold my O/T BMW (thank God) and the place has been looking a little sparse. I've been wanting something else to kick around, so I've been keeping an eye out with no real urgency. My father-in-law, who is like the third base coach waving you home regardless of whether it's safe or not, sent me a FB marketplace post of a somewhat local 55 Ford Mainline 2 door sedan. In the pictures, it looked like a lot of car and a pretty good value. Then I realized that I knew the seller, and made a call. 24 hours later, I hand him cash, he hands me keys and title, and I drive the car 60 miles home.






This car is the antithesis to my Oldsmobiles, that have every imaginable power option. This one has nothing, which is exactly what I wanted. Originally an I6 car, it now has a rebuilt and very strong .030" over 289 supposedly out of a '66 Fairlane, and a Toploader behind it. While the old, sun-burned paint is nothing to write home about, after a very close inspection of the car on the lift, this is without question the most solid car I have ever owned. There isn't a single patch panel anywhere as far as I can tell, nor does it appear to need any, even in places these typically go like in the lower front fenders, rear wheel arches, and tail pan. Mechanically it's pretty clear someone took a lot of time and effort to do the job properly. Headers, a full MSD ignition, new 4 barrel, Edelbrock water pump and fuel pump, aluminum radiator, a full rewire with a modern fuse block, and a Wilwood disc brake kit with a manual dual master... it's a really excellent running and driving car.

So what are my plans for it? Honestly, I have no idea. For the time being, I'm just having fun driving it. It's the first old car I've bought with a manual trans in almost 20 years, so it's been fun pounding some gears. There are only a couple things that the car actually NEEDS. It has an awful fuel leak when the tank is full, that appears to be coming out of the sender, and the (aftermarket) gauge is somehow backwards, full when on E, empty when on full. Though the pipes off of the headers and into the X frame are fine, the exhaust from basically the trans back is terrible and needs to be replaced. It's basically just some mufflers canted to fit and pipes run straight under the axle. It could also use a tach since the speedometer is missing the cable. I also need to put some seatbelts in it so the family can tag along when I have this one out.

So we'll see where this one goes. Maybe I'll do a lot. Maybe I'll do nothing. We'll play it by ear.

 

Looks like a fun car...but I could be biased...

 

Nice car!!
Looks like a fun one to putter on.

 

A buddy of mine said to leave it alone, since it kind of looks like what Bob Falfa's car would have been if it was a Ford. I don't disagree, but it goes against every fiber of my being to not customize it. It's been the first one I've had that isn't nosed and decked in 20 years. It's an adjustment, and we'll see how long that lasts.

 

Man, that is one nice mainline, Congratulations.

Years ago when I was in my teens they called nice cars like that a cream puff!, drive it and enjoy it! HRP

 

Start with simple things you would have done as a kid, remove the hood ornament and front bumper, a poor kids hot rod! HRP

 

Just enjoy the running and driving aspect. And, as Danny mentions, maybe keep projects minimal to keep it going. I sort of treated my daily thunderbird that way...had to keep it going if I wanted to get to work every day.

 

Nice!

 

Drove it home to boot.....looks like gasser material...

 

Lets see some photo's of the car outside. HRP

 

It definitely has that look. But I'm still of the opinion that if it can't outrun my mother-in-law's daily driver, the "gasser" is really a poser. I'd rather just keep it a nice driver and not concern myself with "performance", so to speak. Especially since I don't want to abuse it or break anything screwing around.

 

Probably a GM spec gauge with a Ford sender. GM sender is 30 ohms full-0 empty(pre-'65) or 90-0('65-later). Fords(pre '87 and most Mopar) are 10 ohms full-73 ohms empty.

 

I'll be sure to snap a few soon. Of course it poured on the way home from picking it up, which explains why the car is soaked in the pics here.

I'm probably going to attack the exhaust and the gas tank towards the end of the month. I have an important exam for work on 9/20, so I've been studying for that. Once that's finished, I can get back out in the garage.

 

That's a really good hypothesis. It looks like he used a factory sender with an aftermarket gauge, but it all looks pretty budget. It would be nice to put a decent set of matching gauges in the car.

 

Nice looking cream puff (thanks for reminding me of that phrase HRP).
Nose and deck it, just a touch of rake, and chrome reversed wheels, and voilà, it's 1966 all over again!

 

Just do a week or two of daydreaming, like a hice-cool dude in study hall, of ways to personalize it. No big projects......
maybe some Smitty mufflers, and/or rear fender skirts, splash on a couple of square inches of pinstriping. That's plenty for starters.

 

Forgot to mention, and you may have already looked it over, but I've heard that '55/'56's have had issues with rust through on the front crossmembers. No personal experience, but worth taking a look.

 

First place I looked. Rock solid. You're absolutely right, though. That is a major point of failure on these. Even the 57s can have issues with the front, especially under the rad support.

 

So how is the hole in the head working out?
Cool ride that I would not mind having in my driveway!

 

We drove one like that around when we were 16-17 yrs old. Painted it flat black too. Ran pretty good. Still had the 3 speed on the column. Don’t know if the engine was original to the car. It too was a four door.

 

Nice Mainline. The fuel gauge issue is probably the sender. Ford did use 10-73 ohm senders pre-87, except for one year (either 55 or 56) in which they used a variable ohm sender.
If it still has the original Ford rear axle, keep an eye on the gear oil level.

 

Looks very cool. Love that it's a 4 speed top loader. Would certainly keep that and upgrade to a 292/312. That's about all I'd change, and to fix the stock gauges. Personally I'd rather a twin carb duel exhaust six and 3 speed column shift than a Windsor.

 

You must like going slow then. The Windsor is ugly as hell IMHO but to say that an I6 or Y block is an upgrade over one is patently false. Even Ford didn't think the Y block was any kind of superior motor since it was usurped by the FE only 4 years into production, and out of cars entirely after only 8. The Windsor enjoyed over 30 years of primary usage in cars and trucks with a rich history of reliability and performance. And considering the Windsor made its debut in 1962, it IS as HAMB relevant, even if I think it's unsightly.

 

You are showing your ignorance about the y-block. It dominated nasca in 56-57.
It has many inbuilt performance features that the Windsor simply does not have.
Such as. Solid lifters
Rocker shafts
High swirl combustion chambers
Air gap inlet manifold.
All y-block con'rods are more than 6.2" long.
Deep skirt block.
Everyone a side oiler.
It takes very little to get very strong dependable performance from them.
The reason Ford brought in the FE was that the y-block could not increase the bore size much more. The Windsor was designed for compact family economy cars like the falcon.
As for the 6cyl it would be way more cool than a Windsor. The fastest car is not necessarily the coolest.

 

I've yet to buy a project that could be driven home much less 60 miles! Cool car, great score.

 

Awesome car! Great engine, I love Windsors, I really dig the stance. I had a 55 Customline that I foolishly sold, then found you guys a couple of months later. I have always liked the look of the Liquor Haulers from the south and that one would be a great candidate.

 

If showing my ignorance is not basing my opinion of an engine family based on a 65 year old manufacturer championship (where the Y blocks were supercharged and everyone else was NA, but we won't talk about that), then I'll gladly own that.

 

The 55 fords (and other years) used King Seeley gauges. They only work as matched pairs from the same year. At that, they don’t necessarily work very well. You’ll find some info by using Google (they were used in makes other than Ford). In 20 years I’ve never heard of a mix/match/adaptor solution that worked. Keep that in mind when you deal with the leaking sender. Might be time to just fit a replacement to work with the aftermarket gauge.

Nice car, enjoy driving it.

 

Great car…and a Ford in a Ford to boot…those can go either way…are those Haldibrant wheels on there now? Maybe a nice cruiser…