Hot Rods Let's have our own 84th anniversary event for the 40 ford...

That was in reference to 50frauds car, not the red channeled one. The red one looks to have '40 trim on it. I could check his build thread, there should be clearer photos.

 

Thanks! Yes, it's '39 trim, but it's mounted slightly higher on the body side than stock. The trim is just barely below the reveal line on the body side. The quarter trim is actually another hood side trim, mounted on the opposite side of the car and turned backwards. This was necessary because of the raised rear fenders; there isn't enough quarter panel left to run the whole stock quarter trim. (Whaaaat?)

 

Nice. So many subtle little touches on your car.

 

Can't wait to see it finished Tony, I know you can't either.

 

@50Fraud Do you have any more info or photos of these phantoms?
I'm thinking about shortening the passenger compartment on my 40 purely to improve the top..... I really struggle with roof line on these convertibles, stock or chopped.

 

Thank you. I'm inclined to agree, but I like this one a lot, too:

Both of these were shot by Don Dillard shortly before the GNRS in January. I think the overcast lighting is really flattering to the car's shape.

Thank you very much. I'm very fortunate that Don is absolutely on the same page with me, and has the patience to execute all those little nits and lice.

Boy, that's the truth! Don's making good progress on the structure for the top now, and that's exciting for me to watch. With apologies to 39Guy, I'd like to wait until there's something a little more photogenic, and then post some progress pictures on how the top structure went together.

 

tomkelly88, At the risk of butting in on your question to 50 Fraud the gold car I would say is a Wescott Fiberglass 39 convertible body with 40 trim. The trunk lid is done the same as my glass 39.


I am not as certain about this one I am guessing (again) that this a 39 body with rumble seat and 40 deluxe trim.
Both are great looking cars IMHOP! Did you ever get your top bows sorted out on your convertible?

 

I felt that the convertible was the one body style that could be improved (among all the '40 styles), and that was what lead to my convertible project. For a while, I thought about doing one of the short-top versions myself.

More pictures. Again, this is Chris Unger's car, and it took him a '39 convertible and a '40 deluxe donor to do it:

He had it for sale a few years ago with a six-figure price, but it must have been an expensive car to build, too.

 

I think 39guy is probably correct about the gold car being a Wescott body. They offer their '39 convertible body with a '40-style trunk lid, which is just what that car appears to be. I've never seen it in person; I found these pictures somewhere on the web:

For you to achieve this style on your car without starting over, I think you'd have to cover over the back seat with sheet metal, essentially replicating the tulip panel of a '39 body. I imagine that it would be possible to do that as a removable panel, so you could have a '39 style top up when the panel is in place, or remove both for a top-down convertible with a back seat. Good luck!

 

Here's one more '39/40 hybrid (I think) that I found on the web. I like most of this car, but I'm not crazy about his top profile:

 

The Chris Unger car is beautiful!
Yes of course they're 39 bodys, makes perfect sense now that I look at the photos again. Forgive me it was about 4:00am when i posted!

I never did trackdown top irons for the car, I'm 80% decided on a padded top and a really mild chop.
Tony I was having similar thoughts, I'd love to keep the rear seats to use when its topless so a removable parade boot could work. The leading edge of my tulip panel has been knocked around, folded back under itself and needs rebuilding so I have the perfect excuse to change it a little!

Your convertible is outstanding by the way, your really knocking it out of the park!
39 Guy. Butt in any time the more voices and ideas the better, I always appreciate the help. Keep up the progress on the coupe, I'm itching to see it all together.
I've been following both your threads closely.

 

Heres the Chrisman built blown flathead in Chris Unger's car, might help explain his price.

 

Thanks!

 

Ugly cars if you ask me, never liked em. Here's mine ($42.5K)

 

Part of the gathering at Des Moines Good Guys today. I heard there were 40 Forties there.

 

Bit hard to tell in the photos, are those '39 door handles as well? Thats one area where I keep waffling back and forth on my convert, I have considered no handles, Lincoln buttons, '40 handles, and the stock '39's, I keep coming back to the stock ones. Guess I already know...
Groucho, I REALLY like the interior in your car, very nice.

 

Hope you don't mind if we add a couple of pictures of the '40 Fords that we took from the Sky Glider Saturday afternoon.

 

No, they're just old '40 handles that came with the original coupe.

 

Had to use the 40 to get to work for a week, while I waited for my Daily driver to get fixed....No big problem

 

Here's one from the way back machine. Here I am taking turn 4 at the Charlotte motor speedway back in the early 90's.

 

From Steve Sanford's Facebook page:

 

Steve's awesome! He's done a few renderings for me......going back to around 1980.

 

Prices for 40 Fords seem to be going down at a pretty good rate. The nice 45K coupe of a few years ago seems to only get bids mid 20's to 30 thousand. First class convertibles were bumping 100K , and now they are much less. What do you think is the reason for the decrease?

 

Good question, Vonn Ditch, but I think the data is related to quality? Look at Lynn Pew's blog, several coupes and one convertible in the For Sale section, cheapest being 65K. Amelia Island had the Lowry coupe go for 66K and now dealer has it listed for over 100K (but he hasn't sold it). Yet Mecum Kansas City saw a nice flathead powered convertible, in non-stock black cherry, sell for mid-40s which I thought was resonable. And from some recent postings on the HAMB there are some good bargains out there for "builder 40s".
Maybe the fact that you can buy new tin now from Carpenter has made some change? Although a new body and chassis is in the 40K range by the time you get it to your garage without drivetrain, paint or upholstery. Myself I would rather have original Henry tin. But that's a personal statement as with steel deuces, hard to tell original and new tin these days. That is probably what prompted latest thread on HAMB about body numbers on '32 3W coupes. I have a title for mine with the Ford serial number on it from a mid-Atlantic state but last owner registered it as a Maine street rod and it got renumbered. When I registered it here in NH, the older lady at town hall took one look at number and said "that isn't a Ford serial number". Lot of mature smart Town clerks in NH. Lucky I had the paper trail to show how it came to have the present serial number. The towns still have dusty falling apart books back to the Model T era with book sales prices and they'll look it up!

 

I've seen a number of top shelf 40's sell in the $65-100 K range out here. Again, check Pewsplace.com for some of them. My guess is that 40's are desireable because of the room and comfort they offer, and 32 highboys are everywhere. If you find something in the 20-30 K range, it probably will need a complete redo.

 

Because I bought one to sell. BAWAAAH

 

Heres a couple of my ol more door and my buddies 2dr sedan............

 

from social media today, remember moon discs, white running boards, running without a hood to show off the carbs on your flathead?