Although most 57 Fords I have seen have 3 seperate dash trim pieces for the heater controls, radio, and clock, I have seen, and did own, a single trim panel that housed all 3 items in a single panel. Also, unlike the individual pieces, which have fine,vertical ribs in each piece, the one piece unit used horizontal ribs, that were spaced a bit further apart. Does anybody know what the criteria was for a car to come with the 1 piece trim. I have seen numerous fully loaded converts and retractables that still had the 3 smaller pieces, so if they didnt get the 1 piece trim, what cars did. I have also seen them with regular AM radios, as well as with the 2 rectangular holes to accept the Town & Country radio.
Thats a good question and have always wondered about that. I've never seen the one piece for a TC radio but would love to have one..
Quote from: hiball3985 on 2017-10-20 05:29
Thats a good question and have always wondered about that. I've never seen the one piece for a TC radio but would love to have one..
I had one for a T&C radio..........sold it about 2 years ago. They do exist.
I have a TC Radio one-piece plate as well. It's in a Fairlane 500 fordoor sedan, D code, auto, with power seat. I've had several one-piece for regular radio as well.
My 63A car was the 3794 car off the San Jose assembly line for the 1957 model year. Built on Sept 27,1956. It had a T/C radio with 3 separate bezel plates. My rear view mirrors both inside and out were different as well as the ash tray and power steering cylinder. I suspect the one piece dash bezel didn't come out until after December of 1956 when they quit using 1956 parts. I don't know for sure but early cars had the three piece bezel.
The general consensus is that the one piece was on earlier cars. rumor has it that they went to the 3 piece because of access to heater controls, radio and clock without having to remove all to access one of those??????????????????
The one piece units were limited to cars with FACTORY heater/radio/clock. There are two, with and without T&C.
One of my Skyliners has a one piece and it was built in April 57.
Interestingly Ford sold a kit to install SelectAir that included all parts needed to duplicate the factory install, even the little
outside door emblem. Three different radios and two different heaters were available. The clock was std on Fairlane 500's and
optional on Customs. There must have been a lot of dash plate swapping going on in 57!
Some dealers ordered cars w/o heaters and radios as they could make a few extra dollars and some shop labor
installing them locally. Same with mirrors, spotlights, skirts and cont. kits.
Conversely if a car had a radio and the customer wanted a T&C the regular radio would go to parts dept. to be installed in another car
w/o a radio and as the dashes changed every year back then no one wanted a pile of leftover radios at the end of the model year.
Ron.
I've seen that one piece trim on 58 ford