We already liked the look of this truck when we spotted it in the Summit Racing Retail Store parking lot near Akron, Ohio a while back, but we were even more excited to see the badge on the hood—denoting one of the F-100s equipped with Ford’s relatively new three-speed automatic transmission.
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The Blue Oval unveiled its Fordomatic transmission in 1951, and gradually introduced it across its passenger car model lineup. When the Ford F-Series truck entered its second generation in 1953, the Fordomatic option came with it.
After a series of mechanical updates, the Fordomatic (AKA “Ford-O-Matic”) name was dropped in the late 1950s as Ford began using the “Cruise-O-Matic” name in its marketing literature. The Cruise-O-Matic would continue to evolve over the years and ultimately begat the familiar Ford AOD transmission.
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While the venerable Flathead V8 carried over for the first year of the second-gen. F-100, the trusty overhead valve Ford Y-block V8 entered the party in 1954.
1956 was the final year of the second-gen. F-100, and the truck continued evolving with—gasp—the introduction of electric windshield wipers too. (Anyone who’s dealt with vacuum-powered wipers in a vehicle struggling uphill during a rain shower knows how big of a deal that changeover was.)
Combine that OHV Y-block with electric wipers and a newfangled automatic transmission, and whoever ordered this F-100 back in 1956 got a lot of hi-tech features in their humble pickup truck.
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But here’s what’s curious about this particular truck—an “Air Conditioned” badge under the driver’s window.
While we’re not vintage Ford truck experts around here, we’re pretty sure that A/C wasn’t originally available on these early F-Series models. The Blue Oval had just recently introduced air conditioning as an upscale (read: pricey) option on its Ford/Lincoln/Mercury passenger cars a few years prior, so it’d be a surprise to see it offered on what was then considered a utilitarian truck. But again, we’re not 100% sure on that.
We’re guessing that emblem denotes a retrofit with something like a Vintage Air setup—alas, we couldn’t track down the truck’s owner to confirm, so if you have any insight, let us know about it in the comments section below.
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In addition to its gorgeous authentic patina, this 1956 Ford F-100 also has some subtle custom touches, like flush-mount taillights in the rear fenders and a nice suspension rake, so we’re calling this a restomod regardless of the A/C anyway.
The chrome grille up front is a factory option too, as a substitute for a painted grille offered on base models.
All together, this classic 1956 Ford F-100 combines a lot of slick, discreet upgrades and a mix of some interesting factory features—making for one cool retro hauler.
That’s why it had to be one of our regular Lot Shots features.
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