The Ford line of

cars A car, or an automobile, is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of cars state that they run primarily on roads, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport people rather than cargo. There are around one billio ...

was again refreshed for 1952, although remaining similar to the all-new

1949 Ford The 1949 Ford is a line of cars produced by Ford from the 1949 to 1951 model years. The successor to the prewar 1941 Ford, the model line was the first full-size Ford designed after World War II, becoming the first Ford car line released after ...

s. This time, curved one-piece windshield glass joined a new "Mileage Maker"

straight-6 A straight-six engine (also referred to as an inline-six engine; abbreviated I6 or L6) is a piston engine with six cylinders arranged in a straight line along the crankshaft. A straight-six engine has perfect primary and secondary engine balanc ...

engine with 101 hp. The 226 CID (3.7 L) ''

L-head A flathead engine, also known as a sidevalve engine''American Rodder'', 6/94, pp.45 & 93. or valve-in-block engine, is an internal combustion engine with its poppet valves contained within the Cam-in-block, engine block, instead of in the cyl ...

was replaced by an

overhead valve An overhead valve engine, abbreviated (OHV) and sometimes called a pushrod engine, is a piston engine whose valves are located in the cylinder head above the combustion chamber. This contrasts with flathead (or "sidevalve") engines, where the v ...

215 CID (3.5 L) '' Mileage Maker'' with 101 hp (75 kW), while the old 239 CID (3.9 L) '' Flathead'' V8 remained with 110 hp (82 kW). This design would continue through the 1954 model year, with an updated design offered in

1955 Events January * January 3 – José Ramón Guizado becomes president of Panama. * January 17 – , the first nuclear-powered submarine, puts to sea for the first time, from Groton, Connecticut. * January 18– 20 – Battle of Yijian ...

1952

The model lines were again reshuffled, with the base model now called " Mainline" and mid-level called " Customline". The top " Crestline" included the "Sunliner"

convertible A convertible or cabriolet () is a Car, passenger car that can be driven with or without a roof in place. The methods of retracting and storing the roof vary across eras and manufacturers. A convertible car's design allows an open-air drivin ...

, and the "Victoria"

hardtop A hardtop is a rigid form of automobile roof, typically metal, and integral to the vehicle's design, strength, and style. The term typically applies to a pillarless hardtop, a car body style without a B-pillar. The term "pillared hardtop" was ...

, a tradition going back to 1932 with the Ford Victoria 2-door coupe. The

station wagon A station wagon (American English, US, also wagon) or estate car (British English, UK, also estate) is an automotive Car body style, body-style variant of a Sedan (automobile), sedan with its roof extended rearward over a shared passenger/cargo ...

continued with the "Country Squire". Inside was a "flight-style" control panel and new pedals suspended from below the dashboard. A voltmeter, gas gauge, temp. gauge, and oil pressure were standard. The clock and radio were in the center of the dash. The grille sported a single center "bullet" surrounded by a chrome ring as well as "jet intake" corner markers. New trunk hinges were used that would not crush the contents of the trunk. Wheelbase was . In these years, an overdrive transmission option was available and they didn't have a voltmeter but had an ammeter. File:1952 Ford 76B Crestline Sunliner Convertible Coupe KHO996.jpg, 1952 Ford Crestline Sunliner File:'52 Meteor Customline V8 (Centropolis Laval '10).jpg, 1952

Meteor A meteor, known colloquially as a shooting star, is a glowing streak of a small body (usually meteoroid) going through Earth's atmosphere, after being heated to incandescence by collisions with air molecules in the upper atmosphere, creating a ...

Customline V8, (Canada) File:1952 Ford Courier Delivery.jpg, 1952 Ford Courier Custom Delivery

1953

1953 was Ford's 50th anniversary. The big news for 1953 was the availability of power-assisted brakes and steering, which had previously been limited to the Mercury and

Lincoln Lincoln most commonly refers to: * Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865), the 16th president of the United States * Lincoln, England, cathedral city and county town of Lincolnshire, England * Lincoln, Nebraska, the capital of Nebraska, U.S. * Lincoln (na ...

lines. The center grill bullet lost its ring and was now flanked by vertical black stripes, while the corner markers were plain rectangular lights rather than the circular "intakes". All 1953 Fords featured commemorative steering wheels marking the company's 50th anniversary. Mechanical changes included two-inch wider tread, and a k-bar frame with five cross-members. William Clay Ford paced the

Indianapolis 500 The Indianapolis 500, formally known as the Indianapolis 500-Mile Race, and commonly shortened to Indy 500, is an annual automobile race held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana, United States, an enclave suburb of Indian ...

in a Sunliner convertible with a dummy

Continental tire Continental AG, commonly known as Continental and colloquially as Conti, is a German multinational Automotive industry, automotive parts manufacturing company. Headquartered in Hanover, Lower Saxony, it is the world's third-List of the largest ...

kit (Coronado kit). This was also the last year for real wood trim on the Country Squire wagon. Toward the end of the year, Ford added "Master-Guide" power steering as an option on cars with V8s. Full instrumentation was still used. An unusual service provided by Ford was that the radio preset buttons would already be set to local stations by the dealer. The heater was $74.

1954

The long-lived flathead

V8 engine A V8 engine is an eight- cylinder piston engine in which two banks of four cylinders share a common crankshaft and are arranged in a V configuration. Origins The first known V8 was the Antoinette, designed by Léon Levavasseur, a ...

was replaced for 1954 by a 239 cubic inch

'' Y-block'' unit, marking the end of an era. This engine produced 130 hp (97 kW) with a two-barrel

carburetor A carburetor (also spelled carburettor or carburetter) is a device used by a gasoline internal combustion engine to control and mix air and fuel entering the engine. The primary method of adding fuel to the intake air is through the Ventu ...

. An impressive 160 hp (119 kW) 256 CI version with a Holley four-barrel was available in the official-use-only law enforcement model. The six-cylinder was up to and now produced 115 hp. Another new addition was the " Crestline Skyliner" two-door

, which featured an

acrylic glass Poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) is a synthetic polymer derived from methyl methacrylate. It is a transparent thermoplastic, used as an engineering plastic. PMMA is also known as acrylic, acrylic glass, as well as by the trade names and bran ...

panel over the front half of the roof. Also added was the new "Astra-Dial Control Panel" speedometer, which has a clear, plastic covering on the top, which let sunlight illuminate it in the day-time. New power accessories included a four-way power front seat. The "woody" Country Squire wagon now used artificial

fiberglass Fiberglass (American English) or fibreglass (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English) is a common type of fibre-reinforced plastic, fiber-reinforced plastic using glass fiber. The fibers may be randomly arranged, flattened i ...

panels but remained the most expensive Ford.

Australian production

The 1952 Ford was also produced by

Ford Australia Ford Motor Company of Australia Limited (known by its trading name Ford Australia) is the Australian subsidiary of Automotive industry in the United States, United States–based automaker Ford Motor Company. It was founded in 1925 as an Austral ...

from October 1952 to 1955. A four-door sedan was offered as the V8 Customline and a two-door

coupe utility A coupe or coupé (, ) is a passenger car with a sloping or truncated rear roofline and typically with two doors. The term ''coupé'' was first applied to horse-drawn carriages for two passengers without rear-facing seats. It comes from the Fr ...

was marketed as the V8 Mainline Utility. Along with the general improvements for all 1952 Fords, the Australian-assembled model also got increased ground clearance to better cope with Australian road conditions. The Utility was developed by Ford Australia using the chassis of the US Ford two-door convertible. Both models were updated in 1953 and 1954 along the lines of the US Fords and were powered by a iteration of the 3.9 litre Flathead V8 which went into Australian production in 1952. The Australian 1954s (arriving in June 1954) retained the flathead V8 rather than the new overhead-valve unit used in the United States, but received some visual alterations mostly consisting of additional chrome. The bumpers were deeper, wraparound units, while the taillights were redesigned, a full-length chrome strip was fitted along the side, and an airplane-shaped bonnet ornament was fitted. The interior was now available in either Vynex or leather. File:1952 Ford Mainline Coupe Utility.jpg, 1952 Ford V8 Mainline Coupe Utility File:1954 Customline.jpg, 1954 Ford V8 Customline File:1954 Ford V8 Mainline Coupe Utility.JPG, 1954 Ford V8 Mainline Coupe Utility

Sources

External links

*
North American Ford brochures
{{Ford full-size timeline

1952 Events January–February * January 26 – Cairo Fire, Black Saturday in Kingdom of Egypt, Egypt: Rioters burn Cairo's central business district, targeting British and upper-class Egyptian businesses. * February 6 ** Princess Elizabeth, ...