Several years ago I bought my truck. It is a 1955 Farm Truck that used to live in Montana. It had a 239 Y-Block with a 4 speed manual. It came to me after a neighbors father passed away and he brought it to Spring Valley, CA (think San Diego, CA) and sold it to me. That is when I discovered this board where I have and continue to learn tons. I have taken a LOT from the members, so I decided to give back a sample with my build. Hopefully somebody finds some of the value or enjoyment in this thread that I have gotten reading so many others.

My plan was to use the truck as a therapy truck. Work on it a little bit at a time and fix it up over time. You know, take my mind off of things and just tinker. Make it a great driver that is comfortable and safe and enjoy it. The body is in pretty good shape and having a show truck is not what I want. As if you guys didn’t know already, a 55 going down the road gets enough attention already. :-)

After getting her running and driving her for a couple of years, saving some money, and figuring out my plan of where I wanted to take her (a misstep and some wasted $ on a CV front end took me to find a post from Axracer that helped me find my way). I was getting ready to say goodbye to driving her for a couple of years and do little bits as I could find slices of time. Well I got lucky and my lovely bride reminded me that I was already over committed in life and should probably have someone do some work so I could get it back and start enjoying the truck as soon as possible.

So the plan changed a bit and I went in search of a place or places to get the work done in San Diego. I lucked into a place in Spring Valley called Rose Automotive Repair. Turns out the guys over there are as passionate about my truck as I am. With their experience and my dreams we worked out a plan that included a 302, AOD tranny, 8.8 out of an 2000 Explorer, parabolic springs from TCI. I wanted disk brakes all the way around, new wiring, radiator, blah, blah, blah. What I am getting out of this experience are some new friends, an auto shop to go hang out at and tell manly stories, and a REALLY cool truck.

I also wanted a Mustang II in it and found a place to do that as well. My experience with the vendor I picked for the Mustang II install was no where near as positive as the experience with the guys at Rose Auto Repair. I like the product they put in (Full Tilt) and the quality of the job they did, but their communication and delivery were not at all what I thought I was going to get. But at the end of the day, I got my Mustang II in, got the truck back to Rose and things have been going like gangbusters.

So with that here are some pictures and some fluff to go along with the photos.


This is when I got my truck. She had a carburetor problem so she needed to be towed to her new home.













After I rebuilt the carb, I switched her over to 12 Volt and then got into a routine of Sunday drives at under 45 miles per hour with the nostalgic smell of a gas burning.

 

After almost falling out when the door opened up on me going around a turn, I learned about Altman latches and installed them. If you ever want to get your heart going, try shifting, holding on to the steering wheel for dear life, and reaching out to close the door doing 7-8 mph making a turn. This was a therapy truck not a physical therapy causing truck. The star latches had to go!!!! So in went the Altman latches. I really like them except for the part where you CANNOT lock the truck from the inside.














The scary part was cutting perfectly good steel.

 

So when you do a Mustang II you need to yank the engine out. Learned that on the board. :-) Since I was going to put in a 302 and AOD that wasn't a big deal. One of the things I really like is the character of my truck. The stickers under the hood and on the firewall are part of that character and I wanted them untouched. The 239 and the 4 speed came out. I had takers for them, got them yanked out and then delivered her to the suspension shop. Unfortunately she sat there for 6 weeks longer than she should have. But the install turned out nice.

One of the things I really went back and forth on was whether to use regular or drop spindles. I went with the 2 inch drop spindles and like the way the front end sits. My only worry is that she is down a little to low. Once them engine and tranny got mounted it dropped her front bumper down to about 4 1/2 inches off the ground.





Engine compartment emptied out.








Waiting for her turn.








Straight axle out





Full Tilt Mustang II with 2 inch drop spindles in








After the Mustang II from Full Tilt was installed.

 

One of the threads I came across was on the California license plate program. For my birthday the wife and kids got me custom black license plates. Can't wait to get them on the truck when she is finished.





Amazing what can be said with 7 spaces.

 

The truck moved back to Rose Automotive Repair where the engine and tranny had come in. Everyday the guys would send me pictures of what got done that day or just something interesting in the progress train on the truck. I decided to have the block painted red. I am not a purist on color. :-) But it is a Ford in a Ford. I hear the darkside has cookies but the force was strong on the distributor in the front. :-)

So you can see in the pictures below that the engine and tranny are remanufactured by Jasper. The engine will be putting out 315 Horsepower and is originally out of a 1985 Mustang GT. The cam gives it a little lope, and she sounds AWESOME!

 

nice job. That engine and trans looks sweet.

 

Looks like you have a good start on your project, should be a very reliable/drivable truck when your done. I live just down the street from the auto repair complex on Marshall where your truck pictured. Admiral Glass in El Cajon will give you a good price on a rear window should you want to replace that slider.

 

Nice build you have going, you're going to enjoy it very much.

 

Thanks for the tip on the back window Charlie. It is on the list to have replaced one of these days.

 

Here are some more pictures of the build. This is the mockup stage to really see what is going to fit and what is missing.





Engine and Tranny bolted together and ready for test fit four thousand two hundred and three. Maybe a little exaggeration, but you get the idea. They never just go in.





Sitting on the motor mounts.





The tranny crossmember needed a notch cut out to make sure the brake booster didn't clip anything.





Motor is in. Setting things to see how much space is needed or left.





Tranny and cross member mocked in for fitting.

 

Very nice build and nice that you stayed true blue! Thank you for sharing.

 

While waiting for parts to come in the parabolic spring kit from TCI came in. It is supposed to drop the rear end down by 4 inches. Basically you are moving the mounts up on the frame to get part of the drop and getting a softer spring. Anyway I like the way it went in and the way it looks.

At the same time the 8.8 from a 2000 Explorer came out of the pick and pull, got cleaned up and went in. I wanted disc brakes all the way around. As a kid I learned the value of stopping in straight line with predictability. It has 3:73 gears with posi in it. I know I don't need posi, but it just sounds cool saying it. The 3:73's with the AOD should let me run around town and feel some torque and get on the freeway in Southern California and not get run over.

It also meant I was going to have to get new wheels. I didn't have those yet so the guys at the shop took some off of a Mustang they had sitting around so they could roll it around the shop. They looked cool but were not going to fit with the bed on.





Original rear end and springs coming out.





Parabolic spring kit ready to go in.





Everything set, but not welded in. The welding can't happen until the engine and tranny are in so the pinion angle can be set.





View from the back with the roller wheels on.





Springs all in.

 

Next came the the brakes. Brakes are really kind of un interesting until you need them. Then they become really interesting! :-) The power booster master cylinder and new brake pedal came in. They got mounted with no issue except the tranny cross member needed a little notch to make sure there was never a problem. Later, all new lines got run and the system bled.

 

I don't know about you guys, but for me the wheel decision is one of the most stressful things about the whole process. Wheel size, stance, backspace, offset, tub or no tub, wider fenders or stock. Then the whole look part is a bit much. So I punted instead of going for it.

With the Mustang II I went with the 2 inch drop spindle, I am still debating this decision. It will probably get un-done. It plays heavily into the wheels and tires.

What I ended up doing is going back to my plan. Since day one of owning the truck I have always been conflicted on look. I like the old truck look with steelies, beauty rings and center caps. I also love a cool chrome rim. If I hit the power ball I will end up with 2 sets of rims and tires. But that hasn't happened and the beautiful bride does have her limits on how many dollars I can use to make myself happy.

Knowing I had a decent set of tires on the truck wheels, I went the steelie route. I got some of the relatively cheap powder coated wheel vintique series 12's from Summit and the stainless caps for a 48 Ford. I am using the beauty rings that were on it when I got it. The wheels are the variety that have 10 holes. 5 holes are for the Ford 5x4.5 and the other 5 are for chevy. They are the 15x7 with a 4 inch backspace. These fit the tires that I have. They clear the calipers on the disc brakes in the front and back. They painted up Ford Red really nice and look great on the truck.