Welcome to the site! Enjoy your Customline and have some fun

Regards,

Rono

Hi Gary welcome to the site im in geelong ive got a 58 star customline & 59 star mainline

There's a wealth of knowledghe here and a few of us are from Australia.

Cheers

Warren

I think you're right on most of what you have written.  We used (Imported) Canadian cars. 56 was the last model that was the same as the American models. 57-59 was a sort of change over period where Ford Australia was being set up to build locally produced Falcons. From what I understand 57 and later were 56 bodies the 57 the same as 56. Our 58-59 were as you pointed out used Canadian Meteors front clip.

There are some differences our 56-57 uses a US style 55 dash. I'm not sure of the front suspension but we followed suit and 57-59 got 9" rears like US and Canada.

Mainlines in Australia are Utes and are a Australia only body. Ford Australia was making Utes from the 30's. In 57 the Yanks got a ute called a Ranchero based on their body styling.

Cheers

Warren 

Generally were copied from 55 and 56 meteors, star in grill was vastly downsized.

yyy

And this is the 55 meteor.

yyy

Canadian Hot Rodder (7/28/2011)

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Welcome Gary,from the Great White North, you are correct about the Aussie models being produced from Canadian Meteor parts. It is always good to have another Aussie on board, makes up for that "One Bad Apple" in your bunch!  I will mention no names of course!!!     LOL

Thats you LON!  

At least the other Aussies that came over with the "OLD Crusty One" were respectable representatives of Australia!

Mark, you,re right, most of our 57,58,59 customlines were a mixture of left over 55.56 parts, workshop manuals and parts books specifically for 58,59 star models are rare to non existant. Over here we dont have the details you seem to have relating to manufacture, production and sales nubers etc. there is some local old newspaper/mag adds for them but real details are scarce as i said.  Ford motor co here at one time would send from their archives advertising posters for a small fee. There were glove box user guide hand books, but most repair books were 56 local only. I have most reference books but no real 58 specific w/s manuals. The dealers had microfisch files with parts, these were obviously US/ Canadian parts etc.. I worked at 2 ford dealers and never forget when they had regular shelf cleanup in parts section, all the unclaimed back ordered anddead stock was put in big wooden crates to be sold off to smaller dealers, we were offered anything for $1.00 a peice. 56 grill halves, parking lights, side trim,etc only problem was we were paid small amount and i,d be 2 months pay booked up in parts.  

YYY

I agree that the right side of the engine is very busy. I'm yet to go down the dual exhaust/header road but I can see a lot of issues. It would be interesting to see if the Jerry Christenson or new Mummert headers work with a floorshift.

Snowcone, I guess it depends on what your planning. If you're just going to enjoy your car as it is or restore it, or modify it in some way. The information is out there. It's good to join a club. This forum is an excellent source of information but not necessarily focused on your particular car but great for general info and problem solving.

The great thing is you have your car and you can go from there.

Cheers