Regards

Lon

I sent an EMAIL to the Kiwi site and this is the response I received. Chuck

Hey Guys,Thanks for the feedback on the website, much appreciated,

I have added a link to your Y Blocks forever site on the links page so our locals can find your site.

Have checked out your members cars and have to say there are some very nice vehicles there,

Had a read of your paper Lon on the Australian Customlines and have seen many of these in the flesh

as I lived in Western Australia for 9 years. Our Kiwi assembled cars are the American version

rather than the Canadian styles that Aussie had. We also followed the body style of the year that

the USA had also. Almost all Kiwi assembled Customlines were 272 Y block powered with a manual

transmission, single exhaust with crossover pipe and single barrel stromberg or holley carb

through 55-59. These were assembled in Lower Hutt at the Petone plant. We didnt get the Y block

until a year after the USA our 54 vehicles were still Flatty powered. Most of our Full size fords

were 4 door Customs or Custom 300 there were very few Fairlane Variants, Plenty of Ranchwagons,

no Rancheros, but we did get the Aussie Mainlines 53 through to 56.There were some Fairlane and

Galaxie vehicles usually imported converted to RHD and these were government or embassy cars and

the like, or the wealthier folk. I guess there are probably more Y block era Fords on the road here

now than there has been in the last 20 years, There has been a recent influx of USA built classic

and muscle cars being imported at a rate of about 2000 cars annually for the last 3 or 4 years,

its great for the local car scene and the cars are being rebuilt to there former glory and gracing

our Kiwi roads. Many of thes imports have been 50's Fords, many being models that we never had down

here in the era, eg Skyliners, Sunliners, Crown Victorias, Rancheros, T Birds, Tudors,etc. Keep up

the good work, its great to hear from you guys, and Chuck I would fancy a trip to the Y block shoot

out one day, that sounds like a lot of fun. Regards, John  Gillman  www.1957ford.co.nz

Curiosity killed the cat and I am now a registered member of your group. I am an avid fan of the old Y block and intend on keeping my hardtops Y in its place. I guess the easiest way to explain why there are a lot of repowers of our Y block era cars in our little ol country is that there ain't a lot of Y blocks thick on the ground over here when one gets sick. During there hey day the US sourced Fords also competed alongside the British sourced inline  6 cylinder Zephyr and Zodiac models, the US cars were the Lincoln of Kiwi land, hence we never generated a lot of spares for our Y blocks. Although not accurately or proportionally portrayed on my site there are still a lot of Y Block powered vehicles down here. Particularly 55, 56, 57. Unfortunately their owners havent submitted there cars for the site to date but its early days yet.

Now if one of you guys comes across an E or F code 57 engine I may be able to assist in finding a home for it here in NZ...............

Cheers for now

JG

I shot you an e-mail last night and as soon as you can send me a banner, I'll get linked to your site too.  Great to have another site online, the more, the merrier!

Rob