56 tbird

R

richard crow

Well-known member
i am working on a 56 t bird in our shop . on the lift i noticed these plates running the length of the chassis. the reason it caught my eye is because of the poor fit & welding. not like a factory would do. i am told that ford did this on the 56 t birds to reduce chassis flexing because of the cont. kit. i have a 56 t bird & it does not have these. was this a mid year mod. or are all t birds should have these.
 
Early production '56 'Birds had the straps welded onto the frame; later frames were beefed-up in material thickness and didn't require the "Band-Aid" fix. There is a date range when the change was made to the heavier frame that I do not have committed to memory - that's why I wrote two books on them.
 
alt63bird said:
Early production '56 'Birds had the straps welded onto the frame; later frames were beefed-up in material thickness and didn't require the "Band-Aid" fix. There is a date range when the change was made to the heavier frame that I do not have committed to memory - that's why I wrote two books on them.
Click to expand...
Alan, I sent you a PM. Thanks.
 
I have a '56 Bird that has the flat-bar straps welded to the bottom of the chassis. I am the second owner of the car, have had it since about 1981..
When I took position of the car, I had known the original owner since she got the car as a birthday present in 1956. I took the car to a well known T-Bird Expert in Sante Springs, CA for a complete survey. I asked about the frame re-enforcement.. I was told that the car had an export frame. Reputedly Ford offered the export frame in 1955 on the Birds, discontinued the option in '56. Too use up the export frames in stock Ford randomly fed them into production on the '56 Birds.
I personally knew Alex Tremulus, a very famous auto designer that worked for Ford on the redesign of the Birds. Alex redesigned the '55-56 Bird to eliminate the rear end "lift" under speed. The continential kit added much needed weight to the rear of the car to improve stability at speeds in excess of 105 mph.
Alex redesigned the car for '57, changing the rear fender "fins" lengthened the trunk and reconfigured the fins to an air-spoiler/damn, which kept the air flow on the trunk and thereby created a downward flow increasing rear axle weight in lieu of lift like the '55-56 had.
If the steel bar was added to stop frame flexing due to the heavy rear mounted spare, the bar would have been added to the rear portion of the frame, in lieu of being on the front portion.
 
To add to my earlier post: 1956s to March 1956 will have flat straps welded to bottom of frame for reinforcing to support spare wheel carrier.
 
And so does my '55 Fairlane Victoria 2-door hardtop. Typically, Ford's hardtop full-size cars of the early-mid '50s got the straps rather than using a convertible frame with the center X-member in order to reduce flexing due to the lack of a B-pillar in the body. I want to think the '51 Victoria used a convertible frame, and that the welded strap trick started for '52 and ended after '56 Victorias, but I'm going off of memory and don't have parts books or back issues of CVA's "FoMoCo Times" for immediate reference in front of me right now.

The '55 T-bird didn't get the straps, but the '56s through March '56 did due to the addition of the exterior spare wheel carrier for that year.
 
All 1955 and 56 Ford hardtops and the Sunliner convertible had the heavy steel plates welded on the bottom of the frame near the middle of the car to help stiffen the frame rails due to the hardtop and convertible body structure not having as much rigidity as sedan model body structures. It appears to me that there was a concern that moving over imperfect roads might cause the doors to pop open without the additional stiffeners.
I suspect the frame for the "T-Birds" was treated the same way for the same reason. Just a wild guess.
 
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