1952-59 Ford rust around the headlight 55/56 ford

i hear that there are issues about rust around or below the headlight on 55 fords, our car is in good shape, so can you help me out and explain the issues and maybe post a few pic's , so we could desgin a patch panel

thanks the ems guy-- alexander

 

They rust out around the headlight in the northern cars but not in the south. I am ***uming that is because snow and salt gets packed up in there and rusts away every winter. I am from Canada originally and my dad had a 56 before I was born, it is still at the farm and severely rusted in that area. My 56 is from Tx and in the south we have different rust issues. They are usually in the cowl and roof of all places. What happens here is leaves pile up and stay wet causing rust on the top side of the car.

 

ems

Same rust problem in the earlier ford headlight areas. 52-54. There are no known patch panels for these fenders either.

 

pic's??

 

cowl lower section??? and how does it effect the door hinge

 

This is the area that rusts out on the belowthe headlight doors on the 52-54 fords, probably the same on later models

 

On my dads it was rusted above the light as well.

 

Here are pictures of my 56 when I got it.





You can see how much was replaced.

 

By the time the rust gets to be like the above posted pictures, the inner fenders are rusted out around the light as well.
i couldn't find a decent set of inner splash panels in Canada, and ended up getting some from Texas. They were better but still had signs of rust. it just appears to have been a good place for all the road grime, dirt and moisture to collect.

 

Years ago Ford made complete headlight surround, 'eyebrow' and fender patch panels for the '55-'56s but discontinued them probably in the mid/late 60s, I don't recollect if they had them for the '52-'54s. My parts book doesn't show the earlier ones, only '57-'59. Perhaps an old Motors or Chilton crash book will show them.

Here is what's in my Ford book for the later cars; the '55-'56 covered similar areas:

​

 

ok great stuff so far!!!! using the photo from gergk the patch should be from the grill and move high to the center of the h-light. and go from the center of the light to the hood. (include hood flange if possible/needed)

or

the lower 1/2 around the h-light but not wrap into the hood flange or go to far into the side of the fender

there is a limit of reasonabilty of the patch. or 58 fords got complicated and very very expensive.

advise please

 

i have a set of complete headlight surrounds. i don't know why they stopped making them and are only selling them in halves.. not sure who made my metal. i have all the pieces to redo the fenders on my girlfriends wagon..i'm holding out though waiting to see if a decent pair of fenders show up somewhere so i wont have to do all that welding.

 

I did a little search and found these.

http://www.vintagepartsclub.com/ser...n-1955-dsh-56-cln-Ford-1955-dsh-56/Categories



Here is the best one.

http://www.vintagepartsclub.com/servlet/the-615/Ford-Headlight-Panel-Full/Detail