55 ford crossmember

Driving the car with a known bad front cross member could leave you along side a road with an A arm laying on the roadbed. Someone with a good ability to remove and weld should be given the job. They are available new now, but I would attempt to build my own.
 
Though the above suggestions are valid if you want to build your own, I would invest the money on a unit from Goodell Fabfrications. I can vouch personally for the quality.
As for fitting, you need the front clip off the car to give you access, as well as the lower A arms.
It is a job you can do for yourself, so long as you are a competent welder, either mig, tig or stick.
The crossmember is butt welded into where you remove the old one.
Just be aware that when you reassemble the front clip you may have to adjust the packers on the front to get the gaps right.
I have done a couple of these and love their quality - was well worth the postage to Australia.
 
I would not drive a '55 or '56 with a rusted front cross member if it is very bad. It could lead to a nasty result. By all means, invest in a manufactured unit. To put one in, remove the front clip, the core support and lower A-frame to cross member attaching bolts. You are going to have to control the springs while these bolts are out. Weld braces in place on top and bottom of the frame horns to assure that things do not move around and then remove the old cross member. This is some pretty hard work. Once the old one is out and the attaching points are nice and clean, install the A-frame bolts into the new cross member and then weld the new unit in. this is going to call for some vertical and over head welding. Remove the braces that were welded in to support the frame. After the whole thing is smoothed out with a grinder, paint it matte black. Be sure to drill drain holes in the new cross member so you don't end up with a rusted mess like you just replaced in the future.

A less than desireable alternative would be to fish plate the existing rusted metal. This has been done, but it is not a good fix. Imagine welding to rusty metal and trying to get a good weld and having a reliable piece; not very likely. Ain't gonna look too good neither.

Good luck.
 
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I fixed a couple up that weren't gone to bad it depends.i cut them open and removed all the crap inside closed them up and put a few patches where needed.they will last for years if done right and you had something to work with.it depends on how fussy you are.
 
Remember when we did mine Rick and you kicked the spanner on the front pivot pin and it was rusted so bad it all moved instead of the nut coming off.. Imagine that when driving !!
 
back in 67 I had a 56 meteor which already had been patched poorly.i came to a stop sign and when I breaked it started to pull so I hit the brakes and ended up on the other side of the road.the whole thing let go and broke the arm in two.
 
The reason these crossmembers rust out is that ford in their wisdom drilled two holes in the original above the lower arm pins. Then they put a radiator overflow that always put water onto the top of the crossmember. They didn't drill holes in the bottom. If you are going to drill holes drill them in the bottom not the top. This is also why the pins are always rusted. The rear pins have no drain holes and are almost always perfect.
 
as rick said a couple of drain holes would have solved the problem.what make it worse was as it rusted inside all this rust and crap laid on the bottom when I cut one open it was an inch thick this held the dampness compounding the problem.when you lived in an area of snow and salt as I do its much worse.most lasted 10 or 12 years.a lot of these cars went to the scrap around here as they were rusty to begin with and when the crossmember gave out they weren't worth fixing.
 
Before I installed my new crossmember back in 1981, I attempted to seal the metal in the interior side of the unit by dumping a can of marine primer thru it. After that dried, I tried spraying a gloss black overcoat inside there as best I could. After primer and painting the outside with Rust-oleum black, I smashed a glob of "duxseal" over the two weepholes on the top plate to keep water from running thru there. I avoided painting about an inch from the edges prior to installing for my welding bead.
Here more than 30 years later, my unit is still solid even though it has been on the road nearly every day since then.
If I had to do it over again, I would use self etching primer on the inside, then overcoat that as well as doing same on the outside.
One thing I haven't heard anyone mention is that if you do use a factory duplicate part like I did, they come with the "tabs" at the edges just like the original part had.
When removing your old part it is necessary to un-bend those tabs on the old part to pull it out of the frame. To accomplish this, it is necessary to put a straight jack behind the crossmember to spread the frame side rails apart about an inch. Leave that jack in to facilitate installing your new crossmember and guide the "tabs" into the slots in the frame side rails on both sides as you loosen your jack. One the jack is remove, you can now use a hammer to bend those tabs over flat against the frame rail. Now you are ready to weld.
Don't forget that it is necessary to remove the radiator and it's support channel to complete this operation, since the support channel has studs that will interfere with sliding the new crossmember into the frame.
 
darrell said:
most lasted 10 or 12 years.a lot of these cars went to the scrap around here as they were rusty to begin with and when the crossmember gave out they weren't worth fixing.
Click to expand...

Of all the many dozens of '55 & '56 Fords I've seen at salvage yards since the early '70's, only two had any collision damage.
These cars fell by the wayside because they were notorious rust buckets.
And yes, these cars were designed to have a life expectancy of ten years. After all, car companies are in the business of selling new cars. If cars lasted forever, they wouldn't sell any new ones.
 
There is a guy in NC that makes them also. I bought one and installed on my 56 vicky. Very simple and easy to do. Fit right in. I found him in hemmingway classifields believe his name is John Roberts.
 
that's the trouble with these 50s fords most of us love.these cars were built to rust if the metal had not been so thick you wouldn't have got 5 years out of them.so much chrome and all of it second class.interiors,the list goes on.it adds up to a lot of money.
 
re: that's the trouble with these 50s fords...

Yup, it's a different world now than in the 50s. Who that was alive in those days hasn't heard the term "planned obsolescence"? We were told about it in school in the 60s. It was a way of life and economics back in those days; stuff wasn't made to last but instead to wear out - or as it seemed. And competition usually only consisted of the Big 4 - or Big 3 (not including AMC) at that time, all being domestic. Times have changed. Imagine, if ANY manufacturer built cars today while using such mentality as that which prevailed in the 50s and much of the 60s?
 
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