Here re a few pics of the progress of my 1951 Ford wagon build. It had the typical shoebox rust issues - the rockers, floors, and lower portions of the front fenders.
I decided to go with an S10 front clip. I know that will raise the hackles of some on here, but at $100 delivered to my garage I figured it was for me. I leveled the car then layed-out the swap from an old post on here marking all critical points with plumb lines and measurements on the garage floor. I "z-ed" the attachment point to lower the car a couple of inches, tacked the S10 clip and left the finish welding for later. With the S10 front steering box I had to fab a new core support. I cut-up the old core support to get the front sheet metal lined-up.
I'm using a 4.8l out of a 2002 Chevy truck. My friend Eddy (Eddy's Chop Shop) made a 6 x 2 manifold to run carbs as throttle bodies. I'll post pics of that later.
Fabed some body mounts out of rectangular tubing and welded in some braces before pulling the body off the frame. I also got a little head start on the trans tunnel.
Subscribed .If this turns out half as good as your hupp, it will be one very fine wagon. should drive like a modern car with that motor and the clip.
Boy does this bring back memories. Looks a lot like my '50 Woodie. Good luck, you may get some ideas from my build pictures on Hub Garage. Keep the pictures coming. Subscribed.
I've also been fooling around with the tailgate. I'm going for something similar to what I did with the back of my Hupmobile. I'm using 36 Ford tire covers - need part of a second ring to complete the circle. I cut out the center of a 49/50 Ford wheel for the center of the cover in order to use 49/50 hub caps as I will use the same on the wheels. Had to do a little rust repair on the bottom of the tailgate.
Thanks for the encouragement. As for the wood - I'm using a kit from WoodNCarr for the maple and mahogany inserts from Rick Mack.
It's occurred to me that I should explain the timing of this build. I've been working on it for several years, but just decided now to post the progress. There was a major interruption a couple of years ago when I had a heart attack and had to have 8-way bypass. I started back on the project slowly about a year and a half ago. Ok, enough of the back story. I rigged some attachments above my lift and removed the body bolts that rust had not removed for me. I ran the car up on the lift attached the body with some stout straps and lowered the chassis down with the lift. I stripped everything off the frame and had it sand blasted.
Looks pretty good actually, rockers & some floor panels is all. I'm from the Midwest originally and you just don't find woodie bodies this solid out there anymore. I glad you ticker back in shape. Please keep the Photo's coming.
Not a common build even in the shoebox world. Keep the pics comming. Reminds me of one i had years ago
Pictures look a lot better than it was. I had to replace inner and outer rockers and floor from in front of second seat to toe boards.
With the frame clean, I set it up on my lift as on a frame table with a bunch of clamps and a couple of bottle jacks to keep everything square for the finish welds. I added a lot more plating and boxed all the open areas. In the rear is added plating and did a mini notch. I also moved the back shackle hanger up into the frame and added plate around it all. I'm using 4" de-arched rear springs from Jamco, the relocated rear shackle and 2" blocks I made. I also took a couple of leaves out. Total rear lowering should exceed 7". I fabed some mounts for air bags. So, the rear will be air over leafs. The front will also be air bags.
here are 2 more pics to go with the last update. it appears I can only include 3 pics of this size with each post.
Your spare tire carrier continental kit thing is very cool. That'll have the other woodie guys scratchin' their heads. I really enjoy watching somebody with original ideas and skill carry out the plan. Nice work!
I bought repo rockers and rocker extensions (woodie-only, pretty pricey), but opted to make my own inner rockers. I used rectangular tubing to replace the stamped inner rockers. I think it gives me a better foundation for the floors.
I cut-back the nastiest parts of the lower A and B pillars and added extensions to tie to the inner rockers.
With the inner rockers in place I lowered the body back onto the chassis and made-up the rest of the body mounts. I tied the central body mounts together with some square tubing forming something like a sub-rail system. I tacked-on the outer rockers and rocker extensions.
I much prefer a brake master cylinder on the firewall to one below the floor. However, I wanted to retain the fresh-air vents and a vacuum booster would have blocked the air vent on the driver's side. I decided to use a hydro-boost system. It should provide great brakes without sacrificing the air vent. Hydro-boost is used on many trucks and SUVs and takes some pressure from the power steering system for the boost. I'm using a unit off a Chevy Astro van - master cylinder, inside mount, pedal and all. I made a mount with 1/8" plate as well as a bracket to connect the pedal mount to the lower dash rail. I would caution against just mounting any brake master cylinder to a firewall without some strengthening.
With the new floors and inner rockers in place I put the body on a rotisserie so I could finish all the welding on the outer rockers as well as a few small filler pieces on the floors and the firewall.
The Jalopy Journal
