Rebuilding a 1955 Ford Fairlane

B

Blue Moon

Junior Member
Has anyone used this kit to rebuild the front end on a 1955-1956 Ford Fairlane.
 

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Who makes those? Got to watch out for the off-shore items that are all over eBay. I got a set of tie rods from a local parts distributor, made in India. The castle nuts were an odd assortment and I reused some of my old ones. My drag-link rebuild kit, the cotter pin was way off center. Had to bore it out with a carbide end mill.

Look at PST, I hear good things about them.

http://catalog.p-s-t.com/index.php?...akeID=54&vehicleID=32682&engineconfigID=15260
 
That's great but it's unlikely to translate to US made rubber parts for decades old cars. The market is just too small to tool up here with the cost of doing bidniz in the good old US of A...
 
In the past year Jeff. I posted on the HAMB 52-59 group about receiving a couple of bad pieces and Kanter replacing them immediately.
 
The ones that I posted are from eBay, I really would like to buy from a company that makes parts in America and uses quality materials. I saw the post from the HAMB, that some of the parts from Kantar were from China.
 
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I was helping a buddy do some work on his boat, some parts were clearly marked made in America and China, the china parts fit and looked better, i know it's crazy.
 
I believe I bought mine from Restoration Specialties on Ebay.
I think good quality as far as the eye can tell. Seem OK
 
A SIGN OF THE TIMES!We would all love Moog,trw,etc parts but sometimes it's just not possible.I went with kanter
 
Seems odd that people complain about the quality of frontend parts being sold, but when I listed the NOS 52-53 Ford frontend parts on ebay there was no interest. Stopped relisting them after several months and they are now buried in one of the boxes on the shelves. After that I was under the impression that the repop parts were of good quality. Just venting alittle as posts on quality of what is out there from vendors really irritate me when I have listed quality parts at a reasonable price and have them not sell. May dig them back out later this spring while digging out more to list. Rod
 
I have purchased plenty of nos parts for different classic cars over the years but I would often shy away from any rubber parts (bushings , etc) that were 50-60 years old. Not quite sure how they would hold up or what rubber would be like if it was that old, but then again I didn't do well in chemistry! :)
 
The main thing to worry about is front end control arm bushings. If those don't last, it's a big job to replace them all over again.
Watch out for the lower diver side bushing. It gets blasted with the oil fumes from the crankcase ventilator which tends to soften up the rubber. Before you know it, the rubber is working its way out of the bushing housings. I put an old sock over my vent tube attached with a zip tie to help curb some of that oil blowing back.
What I have noticed is that the modern tie rod robber grease seals don't last long at all before they are completely falling apart. Luckily, I have always kept my factory original grease seals and just re-used those. Those things are indestructible.
 
Daves55Sedan said:
The main thing to worry about is front end control arm bushings. If those don't last, it's a big job to replace them all over again.
Watch out for the lower diver side bushing. It gets blasted with the oil fumes from the crankcase ventilator which tends to soften up the rubber. Before you know it, the rubber is working its way out of the bushing housings. I put an old sock over my vent tube attached with a zip tie to help curb some of that oil blowing back.
What I have noticed is that the modern tie rod robber grease seals don't last long at all before they are completely falling apart. Luckily, I have always kept my factory original grease seals and just re-used those. Those things are indestructible.
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Thank you for the response, I'm rebuilding the motor and while I have it out, I figured I'd replace the suspension parts.
 
Like Blue Moon, I have the motor and ****** out of my 55 for a rebuild, and thought it would be a great time to replace all the front end bushings. Never done it before. Any guidance would be appreciated. What special tools are needed? Thanks!
 
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