You know, one advantage of harboring a barn find is that you get to use its horizontal surfaces to store stuff. Perhaps not ideal, but I know I’ve done it, and so has the owner of this 1955 Ford Customline Fordor Sedan. I mean, where else are you going to park your helmet, paddle, weed-wacker extension, and blue canvas bag? The seller sez it has been sitting for 30 years and it’s a two-owner car, but that’s about it for commentary. Jim A. found this barn-bound Ford for us; it’s located in Riley Township, Michigan, and is available here on Facebook Marketplace for $2,900.
Ford’s Customline was introduced in 1952 and was kept in the lineup through 1956. For ’55, it was positioned between the Fairlane and the Mainline and offered as either a two or four-door sedan. There was a station wagon variant too, known as the Country Sedan. Ford and Chevrolet battled it out in ’55 with Ford putting up a 1.45 M body count to Chevrolet’s 1.70 M. As for the Customline, 472K copies left various Ford assembly lines that year – a pretty impressive volume! Little is said about our subject car other than, “It has some rust. Back tires hold air, front tires will hold air to roll out. Yes, it will roll.” There are no images of the back end, and what’s visible in the only two listing images isn’t very informative. There is quite a bit of noted surface rust bleed-through, so it’s a safe guess this Ford spent a lot of outdoor time before it commenced its big sleep.
“No, I do not know if it runs,” is all that’s said about this sedan’s mechanicals. We know it’s V8-powered, so it should be a 162 gross HP, 272 CI powerplant, as that was Ford’s only game for this model in ’55. It would be nice to know if it’s at least stuck, but I suppose the seller isn’t concerned with such details. The mileage recording is 64K miles, but as is usually the case, there’s no authentication of that reading. A Ford-O-Matic automatic transmission makes the rear wheel connection.
Inside appears to be untouched and seems to be in reasonably good condition. The woven bench seat fabric isn’t shredded or split; it’s just dusty and dirty – same goes for the backseat. No cracked dashpad to worry about, this Ford, like many cars of this era, has a steel-topped dash as padding wasn’t yet required.
Well, it’s cheap enough, and the seller says he’ll consider offers in person. There’s a lot of unknowns here, and I still contend the extra set of doors is a holdback. That said, I’m sure someone will step up and wanna make a deal. Does anyone out there have an interest?
May as well be reading an ad in the used car section of the news paper, about as much info! The seller is son or nephew, the owner was a car guy (going by the copy of Old Cars Weekly on the back seat) and like many with the best of intentions bought it as a project that never happened. All that is speculation, but it looks like a neat project and if you showed up with $2500 and a rollback it could be yours.
Too late…..long gone….
Ford customline was offered well into the 60s it did not end in 1956 they just where called custom in 1957 and 1958 their was a custom and a custom 300
Agreed the model slot in the lineup didn’t, but the specific name “Customline” did.
JO
Exactly.” Customline” through ‘56. “Custom” later. Just like the author said.
My dad traded in our 49 Ford for a base 55 2-door. No radio, clock, side trim, auto trans, etc. It was the cheapest one you could get, but oddly, it was a 272 V8. I was about 6 years old, and when he bought it, and as I looked out my bedroom window, I thought that was the prettiest car ever. I don’t remember what happened to it, but it served us well after our 62 Bel Air 4-door came along.
That is worth while, and parts are still available.
Got the wife a 55 Country Sedan last year. Same car she learned to drive in.
Soak the cylinders with some MMO.
Make it: stop, go, legal; you will have some fun.
The price is reasonable.
See if it has the overdrive under the gas pedal; Open hwy you can get 30 MPG.
Says it sold already.. Not surprised the price was fair for what you are getting it’s the exact type of barn finds I like to try and snag get them home and see if I can get it running again I think buyer got a pretty good deal
272 was not the only Ferd v 8 in 55. Once upon a time my dad bought a junky 55 wagon. This had a 292 automatic
It was in the Customline sedan. Perhaps your junky ’55 Ferd was a Country Squire.
JO
NO JUST A PLAIN JANE STOCK STANDARD 55 FORD WAGON