1956 Ford Parklane

Family Hot Rod

General Information

To get the family more involved and to have a car that could do a west cost Hot Rod Power Tour – we wanted to build a wagon. So the search began and we were fortunate enough to find a 1956 Ford Parklane – a one-year only car made to compete with the Chevy Nomad.

Engine

292 Y-Block
Throttle Body EFI

Transmission

Ford AOD (1989 Mustang)

Colour

Interior: Mainly Stock with Tan Leather
Exterior: Two-Tone 2005 Thunderbird Bronze and 1955 Chevy India Ivory

Options

Power Disc Brakes
Power Tilt Steering
Navigation

Build Details

One of our friends in Sacramento is very big into long roofs – and going way back, one of our first hot rods was a 1957 Chev Delivery. So on a recent visit to our friend and seeing his 1960 Brookwood two-door wagon – it was decided that the next family hot rod would be a wagon.

The search began and a couple years ago we were fortunate enough to come across a rare bird. A 1956 Ford Parklane which was only made for one year. A Parklane was basically a Ranch Wagon with the Fairlane trim and a unique interior. Its purpose was to compete with the 1955 Nomad that Chevy released a year prior. However, due to costs Ford decided it was not worth it to have such an expensive two-door wagon in their lineup and it was not continued in 1957.

The Parklane was in started by the previous owner and left in storage. The project was stopped for personal reasons that we will not share publicly. Let’s just say… life happens. The owner decided it was time to pass the project on and we jumped all over the chance.

It was originally a Texas car with registration stickers on the windshield dating back to 1972. Therefore, it was a pretty solid example. As stated the project had already started and the car showed up in pieces and boxes. A bit of a mess, but given the rarity of the car it was worth the time and effort into making it great again.

The build is currently underway. For this one we wanted to do something unique with the car and have both IFS and IRS so it had more of a modern sports wagon concept.

We also wanted to blend the old and the new to make something that looks close to stock, but has a lot of modern mechanical and creature comforts.

In our research, we came across Nerd Rods in Texas. Our original plan was to use a front clip from Fat Man then get a rear Corvette IRS cradle from Nerd Rods to graft into the original frame. After a long conversation with Russell at Nerd Rods, we decided the safer route was a full frame and we could look at front and rear suspension from a Corvette C4.

After many measurements, we discovered that the rear track width is narrower than the front on the Parklane and the body width is narrower than a Tri-Five Chevy. So we started to venture into the world of radical custom… currently we have a plan and are in the final design phases of the new chassis prior to CNC cutting of the components.

As for the engine, it is currently at the machine shop. Initial cleaning and inspection has shown that we have a solid block with no cracks. Score. We were also able to source some ECZ-G heads locally giving us an opportunity to bore out 0.0600, increase the valve sizes, run a decent cam, and likely get into our target HP rating of 250-300hp.

The Ford AOD has already been rebuilt and the rear end was inspected and serviced – since it was recently rebuilt we only installed new seals. All of the rest of the suspension and brake components have already been rebuilt, but we are likely going to need to do some custom changes to the stock suspension components before all is said and done.

The stock interior design is so cool that we want to leave much of it original but we will add shoulder belts, headrests, and it will be a single tan leather instead of the two-tone they originally had. In addition it will have air conditioning, cup holders, USB charging points, and GPS navigation added along with push start, tilt steering, custom gauges, and cruise control.

We are currently waiting on the final chassis components to be cut and shipped so we can start welding it together. We are also waiting on the machine shop so we can start the assembly of the 292.

With our luck – it will show up all at the same time!