All the 55 Fords I've owned got hot if left idling to long, but none over heated. Also if you removed the splash pans this could be part of the problem as the pans act as a shroud.  

My water pump pulley on a 272 55 ford fairlane takes a 1/2 inch wide belt and the after market pulleys mentioned in this thread are for smaller belts are you folks running a smaller width belt ? 

Thats good to know, thanks. THe temp sender is in a weird spot and I havent let the car idle very long to see if it got hot. I got a mr gasket pulley in but its a tad small for the belt to fit. Hopefully I cant start the process next week of testing the cooling system on the car and go from their.