Quote:
Originally Posted by L5wolvesf
This got me wondering . . . can a 55 be updated to the 56 latch mechanism?
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You can swap out a '55 door latch mechanism for a '56, as long as you use the '56 striker plate with it. The '56 cars had added safety features such as these door latches. The '55 and earlier models had problems with doors popping open in a crash. '56 was also the first year seat belts were offered as an option (but there were very few takers). The deep-dish '56 steering wheel was alleged to be a collapsible wheel in case of a crash. Seems to me that the three spoke wheel with deep-dish spokes would be a lot stronger than the '55 and earlier flat-type two spoke wheels.
In '57, they went further by having the backwards opening hood on all the full-size cars (like the T-Birds had). They claimed this was a safety feature.
That's odd. I saw several '57/58/59 Fords in junkyards back in the '70's that had major front end collisions where the hood went through the windshield, but earlier models the hood buckled in the middle because the hinges stopped the hood from encroaching upon the windshield.