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By theprof739 - 8 Years Ago
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Hi there, I'm theprof739 and this thread will serve as my introduction and that for my car/project. I'm a 27 year old college attendee, and I caught the car bug from my grandfather. I'm not very experienced in automotive work, aside from routine maintenance work, unfortunately my grandfather passed before I could learn much from him. I have spent much of my time reading and learning what I can myself, and I'll be here and on a few other forums asking for questions and advice as I go along. So now on to the thing you guys really care about, the Car!
According to the Patent Plate (assuming I'm decoding it correctly,) our story starts here, in a shopping center, not far from where I and a couple friends roomed in college.
Well more correctly here;
in the Ford assembly plant in Somerville Massachusetts on the 17th of June 1954 (or 55 but that seems rather late in the year to me.) When a black and white 1955 Ford Fairlane Crown Victoria, with the Skyliner plexiglass transparent top rolled off the line, and promptly disappeared for roughly 15 years.
This particular glasstop Vicky doesn't turn up in my documents until November 1969, when she is purchased by an Airman serving with the 604th. Military Airlift Support Squadron, at Clark AFB in the Philippines!
 
Vicky on tour!
That waterfall today (via Google) for comparison
And that sign too:
It is thanks to our airman that the car is here today, I'm sure, and his keeping of so much or his documents that I have this history of the car to tell. I feel for this guys as I have several letter of his to companies with him searching for various parts for the car and replies saying "Sorry, we haven't got what you are looking for." Makes me glad for the power of a Google search.
 
  
In mid 1970, our Vicky appears under a different name when a Seargent ships her from the Philippines to Dover AFB in Delaware, but by August it's back in the hands of our airman and in Massachusetts.
 
Seems that he had a buddy ship it home for him, literally, Vicky having gone halfway round the world she back within 10 miles of the her, now defunct, birthplace. Documents and receipts show our airman working on her through 1971.
The first signs of a change of ownership is this check for a car rental by Warner Brother's Studios... Vicky's a movie star?
Well I don't know for sure it the check even is for Vicky aside from it being in the folder with every other document pertaining to her. So I've sent an email to Warner Bros. perhaps they know, even if they don't know about the check, they can at least tell me what they were working on in September of 1973 so I can narrow my search. Vicky's new owner Louis didn't keep much in the way of records though since he next appears on the bill of sale to Vicky's next owner.
Much the same can be said for Charles who gets the car in '76 He was still working on the car in 1988 when Vicky was bought by my grandfather.
My grandfather was a bit of a packrat and Vicky was just one of many classic cars he'd collected. When he passed in 2001 he had almost 30 cars from a '31 Model A to a '74 Monte Carlo, including a 52 Hudson, 41 Caddilac, 37 Packard, 69 Pontiac Firebird, 2 Mustangs, and one of each Tri-Five scruby. He was knee-deep in a 65 Impala ragtop when cancer took him and never got around to Vicky aside from collecting some boxes of parts. My grandmother parted with most of the cars but didn't want the Vicky touched until this year when she had thoughts of selling it. I offered/threatened to sell one of my kidneys to buy it off her, and she agreed to keep it and finally let me get to work.
 
So my plan is to restore her to a running reflection of how she was new. So it's back to black and white, as pretty as he current colors are. Otherwise no major changes, perhaps swapping to 12 volts and converting her to a srcew on oil filter. She's a solid car and in good condition, being garaged for the past 40 years and only 160 miles on the odometer since '76. She needs a lot of attention in many different places, but nothing too serious. I hope that when she's running I can take her back to Assembly Square a little homecoming parade. I don't think I'll make it by this June 17th, but perhaps next year.
Some evidence of her color change, the based of the steering column is still black, along with the previously covered steering wheel, and a sliver above the trim near the glove box:
  
Her metric speedometer, useful on Philippine roads:
Based on the discussion of the strange rods under her hoods, the suggestion of them being "Export Braces"
seems more and more likely. They look like they were fabricated professionally and not by a later owner:
   
As you may have noticed She has the original 272 Y-block with 2 barrel Intake, though someone put finned Thunderbird valve covers on. She has power steering, but otherwise is lacking in optional equipment, plexiglass top excluded. She's got the 3 speed Manual with overdrive, though, it looks like someone removed the original overdrive controls and put a push-button on instead.
And lastly for your enjoyment, a few other relics of this car's long life:
I will post more about her and her condition going forward, but I wanted to introduce myself, the car, and my project to you all. some photos that I haven't included here can be found in this album: http://imgur.com/a/NltVc if you wish to look further.
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By ian57tbird - 8 Years Ago
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A great story. I'm sure you'll do your grandparents proud with the restoration. Just make sure you check anyone out thoroughly before you let them do any work on it. What was the original colour? The white on the firewall looks factory in the photos.
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By carl - 8 Years Ago
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The cross braces under the hood were used on the 56 Ford 4 door hardtop cars,i have never seen them a crown vic. Carl
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By theprof739 - 8 Years Ago
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ian57tbird (6/4/2016)
What was the original colour? The white on the firewall looks factory in the photos.
Honestly I think the white is the factory original color, and Red was sprayed over the original black.
carl (6/4/2016)
The cross braces under the hood were used on the 56 Ford 4 door hardtop cars,i have never seen them a crown vic.
Interesting, I'd love to see pictures of that, to compare them.
Edit: This '56 Victoria has them as well in the pictures, and they look the same as mine so they must have been a factory item, but why some have them and some don't I don't know. http://www.hemmings.com/magazine/hcc/2008/06/1955-1956-Ford-Fairlane-Victoria/1641989.html
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By carl - 8 Years Ago
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The door panels and arm rest on the car
are not original to a crown vic Carl
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By theprof739 - 8 Years Ago
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carl (6/4/2016)
The door panels and arm rest on the car are not original to a crown vic Carl
yeah the whole interior needs to be replaced, it's pretty beat up
as you can see. all the vinyl in the interior matches so was probably done all at once sometime in the past, but the headliner dosen't match, so it was done either before or after the rest, it doesn't look original to me.
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By miker - 8 Years Ago
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Welcome. Great car and great history. Us old guys really appreciate young guys taking an interest. Keep us posted, and ask away. There's great resources here, and "this and that" often provides better answers than dedicated Ford sites.
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By Ted - 8 Years Ago
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Great introduction. Thanks for sharing the history on this Crown as it indeed does have a history. This would make a great article for the Y-Block Magazine so please consider doing that when the time comes.
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By Meandean - 8 Years Ago
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Love the story and the history. Knowing the vehicle history really brings them to life for me! And the uniqueness of the metric speedo and the import braces are really cool.
Don't set a date for the car to be done and expect to meet it if you intend to do it right. It leads to disappointment and/or cutting corners (JMHO).
And I'm especially jealous of your 3-speed OD. Wish my '55 Fairlane had that instead of the FOM. My father was a huge fan of the 3 speed OD. Had it on his '56 custom, his '65 custom that he special ordered and even on his '66 F100. I also had that in my '57 custom in the 70's. I have considered changing out the tranny on the '55 but also like to keep things as originally equipped, so never made any move to do it.
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By Lord Gaga - 8 Years Ago
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Prof,
Thanks for sharing your car's history and photos. Very cool! Hope you're able to uncover the missing fifteen years of the car's existence.
I highly recommend that you get a genuine Ford factory workshop manual for 1955 and the '49 to '59 Ford parts books of which there are two, a text volume and an illustrations volume. You will find them invaluable!
I would seriously consider keeping the six volt system. There's nothing inherently wrong with it and you'll save yourself the grief and expense of a twelve volt change over. Changing the overdrive system to 12v is expensive. Please make it operate the way it was designed to, you won't regret it! Sometimes getting the system to work is as simple as cleaning and adjusting the contact points in the relay, solenoid or governor. There are six volt halogen headlight bulbs available that are nice and bright if you intend to do any night driving.
I think that those front fender braces are a an excellent addition. I don't know about a '55. but the entire front clip on my '57 is held on by only seven bolts (if memory serves) with one being in the front center and three on the rear of each fender. With our crumbling infrastructure's pockmarked and damaged streets and roads, my fenders shake when driving on the worst of them. I am now considering fabricating a pair for my car!
Best wishes and please keep us posted,
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By Talkwrench - 8 Years Ago
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By Lou - 8 Years Ago
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Good luck restoring you Crown Victoria, my every first collector car and restoration was a black and white 55 solid top crown built in Summerville, Mass. One piece of advise do not convert it to 12 volts, you will cause more problems than you will fix, plus if you ever had to sell it the 12 volt convertion will keep the true collectors from buying it.
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By theprof739 - 8 Years Ago
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Thanks for all the great replies and encouragement, it's really appreciated. I mean to do a post about the general status of the car, going over things area by area, but a combination of being busy and disorganized, has pushed that back. I think I'll just post about areas as I get to work on them.
Ted (6/5/2016)
Great introduction. Thanks for sharing the history on this Crown as it indeed does have a history. This would make a great article for the Y-Block Magazine so please consider doing that when the time comes.
Wow, Ted, I'm a bit overwhelmed. I'd love to share the cars story with people I think it's fascinating, and it was stories as much as the cars them selves that got me so hooked on the hobby. I don't think I could write my way out of a paper, bag, but I'd definitely consider writing an article, especially if I get replies to the various feelers I have out there looking to find out more about here for the blank areas.
More to come shortly, so I'll just leave you all with this teaser photo:
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