1955, 1956 Ford Fairlane Books

don's 37

don's 37

Senior Member
Hello. I am a Early Ford V8 guy but I wanted to jump over to you guy's and ask you what are the best books to buy if you want to learn anything about the 1955-56 Ford Fairlanes? I'm thinking maybe next year selling off my '37 and getting something a bit more "modern". The 1955 would be my first choice. Have a great weekend! Don
 
The 54, 55, and 56 share the same chassis. When stock, or mildly lowered, the ride is very good. With better front brakes, and a HD sway bar, the 55 will handle nearly as good as a new car. The Y block is a very reliable engine. Enjoy the ride!
 
Ole Don said:
The 54, 55, and 56 share the same chassis. When stock, or mildly lowered, the ride is very good. With better front brakes, and a HD sway bar, the 55 will handle nearly as good as a new car. The Y block is a very reliable engine. Enjoy the ride!
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Hey Don, where do you get those HD sway bars? I need one for my '54 badly!
 
Ole Don said:
The 54, 55, and 56 share the same chassis. When stock, or mildly lowered, the ride is very good. With better front brakes, and a HD sway bar, the 55 will handle nearly as good as a new car. The Y block is a very reliable engine. Enjoy the ride!
Click to expand...

To add to what Don said, get some KYB Gas-A-Just Shocks or similar shocks for all four corners. Improves handling and takes out the "wallow".
 
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Yes to the KYB shocks, they came from PSI. The sway bar came from Thunderbird Ranch. Both should be easy to find on Google. My car has Granadas brake in front, and an 89 Ranger rear axle and brakes.
 
Let's see... Books you ask. Not too many that I am aware of.

James Eickman's Ford Y-Block is not too bad to familiarize yourself to the Y-Block. I've heard that the quality of the latest edition isn't very good though.

The Resurrection of Vicky is a book by Cars and Parts Magazine. Step by step restoration of a 1955 Crown Victoria.

The Nifty Fifties Fords is a nice coffee table book about different models and options for Fords of the fifties.

These are all older books, I don't think there are any recent books on '55-56 Fords. I think they are still available on Amazon.

I have all three of these books and have enjoyed them. I can't think of any others at the moment.

And you can get reprints of the Ford repair manuals.
 
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Books I would recommend are .....1955 Ford shop manual.....1954-1957 Ford passenger cars illustrations and reference manual....1955 Ford chassis parts and accessories catalog.......J in CT
 
zoegrant said:
Books I would recommend are .....1955 Ford shop manual.....1954-1957 Ford passenger cars illustrations and reference manual....1955 Ford chassis parts and accessories catalog.......J in CT
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^^I agree with these suggestions. All illustrated and accurate. :)
Lots of small upgrades to improve the engine and driving if you want to throw money at it if you have it but, Henry did pretty well with them as is. My 55 tbird is heavily modified but I still like and appreciate original stock cars just as well-but for different reasons.

Good luck on your search.
 
There is a new engine book, just recently released. Title "Ford Y Block Engines - How to Rebuild and Modify" author Charles Morris. A good read and maybe a little more accurate and certainly more up to date than the Eichmann book.
Parts manuals are available as PDF's and a member on the HAMB who Jeff suggested has a good deal.
Y Blocks may not be the cheapest engines to rebuild but it is good to confuse the uninformed when you lift the bonnet. 55-6 Fords are great, strong and smooth riding cars.
 
Well, when I was age 16 (in 1972), I had the only 1955 Ford in the high school parking lot. But there was another guy in school who drove a '56 Town Sedan and he had the original '56 Ford car shop manual. Two years later, his car was in the local junkyard and I bought the shop manual from him for ten bucks.
I still have my car and that old shop manual to this day. I have used it as reference to do body-off-frame refresh of my car in the past and in later years did a complete body-off-frame restoration of a '55 Ford Courier Sedan Delivery wagon.
You cannot use the '56 Shop manual for electrical work on the '55 model because '56 was the first year for 12 volt electrical system, but the wiring harness color codes on the '55 and '56's are nearly identical. Anyway, bear in mind that if you do decide upon a '55 or earlier model, you will be dealing with a 6volt electrical system. However, you can convert 6 to 12 volts using 1956 electrical components and light bulbs and if your original wiring is still decent, you dont need to replace it. The lower the voltage is, the greater the amperage is. So upgrading to 12 volts lowers the amperage by 50 percent, thus your '55 wiring is more than capable of carrying 1/2 the load than it formerly did with 6 volts.
 
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