Well I have never started a thread on here before, so I though I would try it out and show what I have been up to with my 34 ford 5 window. About 2 or 3 years ago I sold my 27 roadster to get a coupe that my brother (Loadpedal) had for sale. It was a "Big Boy" hot rod. You know the car you dream of, and know you wont have in tell you are old and retired. It was mine, a real 1934 ford 5 window coupe. The car was in great shape. Kris picked it up from a guy a couple years before I got it. He told him that he pulled the body out of a wash off the side of I-15 in southern Utah way back in the 70's. From what I was told it was a striped out body with no doors or frame sitting on its roof. So this guy collected some of the missing parts over the years and kind of repaired the roof. In the time Kris had the car he found a lot of parts for it. Stuff like front and rear 32 axles, spindles, springs, grill shell, window regulators, garnish moldings, steering box, and what not. So I had a great start for my new project. This is what all that stuff mocked up looked like when he turned it over to me. I started going to town on it. First thing was to get the body off and tahe a look at the frame. It had been hit in the left front and the frame was tweaked pretty good. I wanted to do it up with a early flathead and this Zephyr 3 speed with overdrive. This works out great for me, seeing how the 32 torque tube is to short for a toploader, now I will just need to shorten it up about 2 or 3" and notch the crossmember for the overdrive. Now its time to start working on the frame. I set up the frame table and thought I would see how bad it was.
Well after getting it all squared up on the table found the rails to be pushed to the passenger side about 2 1/2". So started pushing and pulling it in to shape.
Well Muffin, (we really should talk about a new screen name) I like the direction you are going. Judging by the pics, you're not new to this whole starting from scratch thing, are you? Any chance you can shrink the pics a smidge? I'm having to scroll all over the place to see everything.
I am one of those people that loves to look at pictures, but can't get myself to stop what I'm doing to take them. So I am missing a LOT of stuff that I did. So this picture is after I got the frame straitened and engine and trans mounted. Steering column in and working on master cylinder linkage. So now this is the chassis all mocked up
I guess I'm not the only one who's ultimate goal is a '34 5 window. That one looks to be in good hands. Rock on rocker!
We are going to really jump on the pictures I have. Whats not shown is I took apart the chassis and just put a quick coat of black on everything then went through the trans, brakes and what not then bolted the body on. One night over at the shop talking with my dad about what to do with the engine we got this great idea to put the rotating assembly out of a 53 merc into my 37 21 stud block. My dad is a mechanist and will let Kris and I talk him into doing some fun stuff on the mill. So he went to town on the motor for me. The motor I had gotten from one of our friends was a rebuild from back in the day and had a sleeve in every cylinder. So dad came up with a holding fixture for the block and cut the steel sleeves out. We ordered up some new cast sleeves and he found that it would interfere with the bottom row of studs. So he just moved the bore up about .020" or so to get the clearance we needed for the new sleeve. Let me tell you that my dad is a perfectionist and this project didn't happen over night. After getting the cylinders cut all the way out he was ready to install the new sleeves. With the block machined to a press fit he needed to shrink the sleeves to get them to go in. He tried to just put the sleeves into the freezer over night and that just got a about .001" . So tried rubbing alcohol and dry ice. This seamed to work good but just made a big slushy (rubbing alcohol is part water). So he found some pure 100% alcohol and put some dry ice in that and was able to get it down to a temp around -70 F ! that got him about .004 in about 10 min. That was the ticket. I think I am rambling on now, to make a long story short put the sleeves in had to cut off the end of the crankshaft, and grind the mains to fit the block. LOTS OF WORK THERE!
The late model pistons have a dome so clearance was needed on the cylinder heads. Motor in the car. Had the famous Max Musgrove do some 97's for me. He is the shit when it comes to 97's ! Kris cast up some bitchen shocks for my car.
You better have a big plan for fathers day. You dad did some incredible work on the engine. The details like carbs and shocks really add to the whole package. Please keep posting pics, you are off and running. chuck
So the only other pictures I have is of last weekend when we took it out for a shake down run. I have some bugs to work out, but it runs great and drives nice on the freeway with the overdrive. Just want to put out a big thanks on here to my dad, brothers, and all my friends that put a lot of time into this car for me. This car makes me happy. Oh and I can't forget my wife that put up with the spending.
Congratulations! What a beautiful car. Great job on the build. Really impressive. Best of luck to you Sir.
That is one seriously cool '34 5-Window, wow. I think the proportions and patina are just perfect. Lots of people have been using the 17's lately and they look just right on this car. Awesome!
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