Unusual extra side trim on 1956 Ford Fairlane Fordor Victoria.

[Herman Munster]

Originally Posted by mercman from oz

Herman Munster is correct. This is a fully imported model converted to RHD.
This is an illustration for the Australian 1957 Ford Customline Fordor Sedan.

What I'd really like to see is how the converted Fordor Victoria looks like under the hood, especially at the firewall. That would be hard to switch over from an Aussie sedan.

[mercman from oz]

This is they only shot I could find of this car with its hood open.

[Herman Munster]

Yeah, can't really see the firewall too well.

[mercman from oz]

Australian 1958 Ford Customline RHD Dash. Not sure if the Converter used one of these RHD Dashes that were used in the 1958 Ford Customlines, or whether he converted the original USA LHD Dash to RHD?

[mercman from oz]

Factory RHD Dash in Australian 1958 Ford.

[mercman from oz]

Sponsored Links (Register now to hide all advertisements)

Factory USA 1956 Ford LHD Dash.

[mercman from oz]

After studying the Australian 1958 Ford Dashes and the Converted RHD Dash on the Blue Fordor Victoria, it is obvious that the owner Converted the original 1956 Dash to RHD. If you look closely and compare the Factory Australian 1958 RHD Dash with the USA 1956 Dash, you will see that the "roll under" is different. This Dash is the 1956 USA Dash converted to Right Hand Drive.

[Daves55Sedan]

It appears that Australia used a mirror image of the USA '55 Ford dashboard, but created their own cutout and instrument cluster for the RHD for several years after '55. Looks like they also used USA Mainline series dash bezels instead of the notched chrome dash bezels the '55 Customline/Fairlane series cars had. Very interesting.
Noticed also that the converted '56 USA dash doesn't have padding and they omitted the speaker grille, as well as having a custom arrangement for the PRNDL.

[KULTULZ]

They say BEAUTY IS ONLY SKIN DEEP but the reality is UGLY GOES TO THE BONE.

[Y-Blockhead]

Originally Posted by Daves55Sedan

It appears that Australia used a mirror image of the USA '55 Ford dashboard, but created their own cutout and instrument cluster for the RHD for several years after '55. Looks like they also used USA Mainline series dash bezels instead of the notched chrome dash bezels the '55 Customline/Fairlane series cars had. Very interesting.
Noticed also that the converted '56 USA dash doesn't have padding and they omitted the speaker grille, as well as having a custom arrangement for the PRNDL.

I don't think Autralia used the '55 Dash, USA '55 dash had the round radio and clock.

[Daves55Sedan]

"I don't think Australia used the '55 Dash, USA '55 dash had the round radio and clock."

So what. The steel stamp of the dashboard is the same. The Aussies just had different cutouts for instrument cluster (RHD), clock, radio etc. No big deal to make different cutouts in a prototype steel stamp. They just don't use the cutout jigs that USA did. They made their own cutout jigs.
But I am taking my original statement back. It doesn't need to be a mirror image. the '55 dash is perfectly symmetrical. They could have used a duplicate of the USA stamp for "55 dash.
Look at mercmans 9-17-2021, 03:54 PM post. That is an Aussie '58 Ford. And that dash is identical to the USA '55 Ford dash steel stamp. Yes the holes are different. Yes the instrument cluster is different, but the punchouts can be set up in a jig once to be used to stamp out thousands of dashboards.
The Aussies used the USA '55 dash stamp for many years after '55. They just created their own instrument cluster and used different clock, radio, etc.

[mercman from oz]

Australian 1956 Ford Mainline Ute RHD Dash

[mercman from oz]

Australian 1955 Ford RHD Dash - from the original Sales Brochure.

[mercman from oz]

Australian 1956 Ford RHD Dash - from the Original Sales Brochure

[Y-Blockhead]

Originally Posted by Daves55Sedan

"I don't think Australia used the '55 Dash, USA '55 dash had the round radio and clock."

So what. The steel stamp of the dashboard is the same.

No need to get nasty... I see they did use the round clock and radio along with the '55 speedo cluster (see below).

Originally Posted by mercman from oz

Australian 1956 Ford Mainline Ute RHD Dash

I stand corrected... Thanks Mercman.

[down-the-road]

Similar trim lines to what is in the original post, found on a Ford from Brazil. One source identified this as a 1960 F100 8 passenger wagon.


https://carrosantigos.wordpress.com/...pes-no-brasil/
Right click on the Portugese text and translate to English for additional discussion and photos.
The following statement is in that text:
Note that there are images made in Ford's own parking lot at the Ipiranga factory, suggesting that she was the one who made these vehicles …

[mercman from oz]

Close up shot of added Trim on 1956 Ford Fairlane Victoria