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Shiny Vicky: 1956 Ford Fairlane

1956 Ford Fairlane Victoria

Clearly this Fairlane isn’t original, someone started building it into a hot rod, but the seller claims the paint is original. I’ve worked with Ford paint before and can attest to how well it responds to being buffed, polished and waxed, but this car’s paint looks to perfect to be original. Doesn’t it? I see lots of dried polish all over the car, so perhaps the paint just cleaned up this well! I have a feeling there is more going on here than meets the eye though! Take a closer look at this Vicky here on eBay in Saint Marys, Ohio with a current bid of $8k.

1956 Ford Fairlane Fender

I’ve been polishing a lot of paint lately (the Dart is looking really good by the way) and I’ve been catching myself looking at the rockers of cars much more carefully than I use too. The hard areas to get to can tell you a lot about what has been done to a car. So let’s look at this car’s hard to reach places and see if we can figure out it’s story! At some point, attempts were made to repair some rust that was working through the paint, primarily on the driver’s side. I’d guess they used Bondo to make the repairs, as is commonly the case. Looking at the color of the repair, it looks like they just painted over the area, rather than sanding the whole panel down and repainting it. You can clearly see the streaks left by a paint brush. It’s close enough of a match that from a distance, you would never notice that it isn’t right. This still doesn’t tell us whether the majority of the paint is original though, so let’s take a closer look at the door jambs!

1956 Ford Fairlane Interior

The interior doesn’t look too bad. It looks original to me, but needs a good cleaning and lots of detailing. Now let’s take that look at the door jamb. I see a few spots I’d want to have a closer look at in person, namely the spots where the turquoise paint meets the white. The tape lines just don’t look right to me for a factory paint job. Perhaps this jamb was touched up at some point, maybe the entire body half was repainted, or maybe they didn’t tape the door jambs that well when they painted these cars at the factory?

1956 Ford Fairlane Engine

looking the rest of the car over, I see plenty of clues that would suggest the paint is original. I would really want to have a closer look at this car in person before bidding. If the paint really is original, this seems like the kind of find many of us dream of! I’m a little worried that the seller doesn’t know whether the engine is a 312 or a 292, but I’m sure one of you Ford experts can clarify that for us. I really do like the looks of this car, although it’s going to take a lot of work to clean all the dried polish off, and wouldn’t mind having it. As I stated earlier, I’d want to take a closer look at it before buying but if you aren’t worried about having original paint or engine, happy bidding! So what do you think, is this paint original or a respray?

Comments

  1. Avatar JW454

    For many years, one like this was third on my bucket list just behind it’s two siblings, the Crown Victoria and the Sunliner convertible. Times have changed and the list has been reordered but, It’s still a favorite. This ones only 65 miles away however, in all my travels I don’t recall seeing it at a show etc.

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  2. Avatar Clarence

    No factory original 1956 Ford 312 V8s out there.

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  3. Avatar Jim Bob

    I had a white 1956 Ford 4 door That I bought for $75 in 1973. It was from the original owner and had the 312 V 8 with automatic transmission. The V 8 badge on the front fender said “Thunderbird”, which indicated it was a 312 with 4 barrel carb. I still have the badge, the frame rotted away after about 6 months and it was not fixable. I pulled the motor and sold it to a local who was restoring a ’56 sedan delivery. I put the front seat in a ’62 F 100 because the upholstery was perfect, only had 50k miles on the car. It was fun while it lasted. NY salt eats everything metal.

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  4. Avatar Michael Whitley

    There were indeed 312’s in 1956. And if I remember correctly, a “P” at the end of the serial number denoted a 312, and an “M” denoted a 292ci

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  5. Avatar Al K

    It is very hard to tell a 312 from a 292, main bearing caps or an aspirin sized dot on the rear of the crank are the only external ways to tell. Or measure the stroke. The Thunderbird emblem only denoted having a 4bbl carb. Michael is correct about the M and the P in the VIN No.

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  6. Avatar Bobby

    What Al said :) The aspirin size DOT on the Crankshaft on flywheel end. :) http://yblockguy.com/identify_y-block.htm

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