Any Aussie Ford Fans Out There?

[MrObsessive]

I know this is probably a long shot...........but does anyone out there have pics of a '55 Ford with right hand drive? Did such a beast exist....ie: was Ford exporting to Australia back then?

Would love to have photos of the dash and particularly the engine bay as I need to see how the carb linkage would run for a right hand drive car.

Yes, I have some wacky ideas in mind for the '55 I'm building!

[Luis Ayala]

I know this is probably a long shot...........but does anyone out there have pics of a '55 Ford with right hand drive? Did such a beast exist....ie: was Ford exporting to Australia back then?

Would love to have photos of the dash and particularly the engine bay as I need to see how the carb linkage would run for a right hand drive car.

Yes, I have some wacky ideas in mind for the '55 I'm building!

Hi Bill, Try this link to see if you can find something usefull.

http://www.toqinc.org/fords_downunder/

[MrObsessive]

Thanks for the link Luis!

That's what I was thinking about the RHD Aussie '55 Fairlanes..............They used the gaudier Canadian side trim and grille unlike the cleaner US versions. Those Canadian Meteors were nice, but I'm not that crazy about the side trim.

I've already finished the side trim on the one I'm doing though.

I think some of those pics may be typos...........calling the '56 body style a '57, or a '55 a '58? And the '59 body style a '61??

I think someone blind can definitely see (feel?) the difference between a '56 and '57..........and a '59 to a '61!

Just the same, I think I'll stick to what my original plan was------leave it a LHD car.........I got a lot of work ahead of me anyway!

[MrObsessive]

Yeah, as far as body stampings and interiors go.............but the side trim and grilles were different weren't they? They were renamed too right? Meteor and Rideau (sp?)

Or did Ford of Canada go the flashier route for the '56 cars?

[James W]

Hey Bill, could it be that the year info at the website were not typos but that the production years were different? Maybe they shipped off the dies from Dearborn to produce the next years Aussie cars?

[MrObsessive]

Yeah I was thinking that might be the case. Australia was not that big of a market car wise back in those days-------what a great way for Ford to amortize the cost of the tooling!

[dub]

If you had a Canadian and U.S. '55 Ford parked beside each other it would be pretty hard to tell them apart without looking up the numbers to see whitch side of the border it was made at,,

Not to be a smart alleck, but no one ever remembers to look at the speedometer. North of the border uses clicks(KMH) instead of MPH.

just $.02

I don't think Bill needs to tackle that with a down under build 'cause it's too small to matter!

[lordairgtar]

Yeah, as far as body stampings and interiors go.............but the side trim and grilles were different weren't they? They were renamed too right? Meteor and Rideau (sp?)

Or did Ford of Canada go the flashier route for the '56 cars?

Fords in canada had the same trim as the US cars. Meteors were models in addition to the Fords. Very much like Chevy sold Chevelles in Canada, but there was a separate Beaumont make using the Chevelle body, but with different grille and taillights.

In Australia, the 58 Ford did indeed use the 55 body with Canadian style trim (car was imported from Canada with RHD) Some 61 Fords in Oz were based on 58 bodies but there were 57s as 57s as well as 58s as 58s...very confusing. Also, some Fords imported from the US and Canada in the years 57 and 58 used Edsel dashes in the RHD models. I know, confusing isn't it?

Edited October 27, 2007 by lordairgtar

[dub]

Nope,, sorry,, we didn't switch to metric until the '70's. Canadian cars didn't have kilometers on the speedo until '74 IIRC.

Wow, you mean to tell me that you guys actually chose to be weird!? Did not know that! I remember in grade school in the '80's they taught us the metric system. When we asked why, they told us that some day we'd be using it in America. (HA!) When I did a stint in electronics school they taught us again and it stuck that time. It actually comes in handy now at work. Germans love the metric system and I sell VW parts.

Thanks for the info! I will definitely file that one away for future use.

[Frank]

OK, now that's wierd. I see the car I remember seeing at Luis's link ,, looks like a '55 Meteor but it's labled as a '58 ??

This is an Aussie 58 Customline (nick-named a Star model) Ford Australia didn't start to use the U.S style 57+ body until 59 & dropped the large U.S bodies

in 61 with the introduction of the Falcon.

Aussie 55 & 56 fords were exactly the same as the U.S models, the only differece was that the steering wheel was on the other side

We didn't get the Fairlane and Victoria 2 doors.

I owned a 58 Mainline Ute for a while, but had to sell it when the family started to increase

[MrObsessive]

Thanks for all the info guys! I was a little in the dark as far as what was offered between the US, Canada, and Australia.

Aussie 55 & 56 fords were exactly the same as the U.S models, the only differece was that the steering wheel was on the other side

We didn't get the Fairlane and Victoria 2 doors.

Well, in that case I'll stick to what my original plan was.................Leave it the way it is!

[lonewolf]

Steve,

I believe you're right about the time frame for the speedometer change-over. I can remember you could actually get a set of peel & stick numbers to place on the speedometer because a lot of people had a hard time with converting mph to kmh ( my father being one of them ) .