pictures of my 41 chevy sedan project

I shouldn't have to explain this to anyone reading this board, but I am obsessed with doing projects. I live in a project house and I drive a project car. My latest car project is a 41 chevy sedan. Style-wise, it's going to be a lowered mostly stock car with the right stance. Chassis will be more resto-rod than traditional: 350, 700R4, CE M2, 55-57 rear.

Pictures tell the story.

 

well let see it

 

my pics are too big. I'm resizing

 

well i'll finish it tomorrow

 

OK. I'm gonna try this again.



Last year I sold a 54 chevy truck. I liked the truck, but I already had another truck and really how many trucks does a guy need? Well.. a lot.. but one seems like enough from a functional point of view anyway. I wanted the money so I could buy a family cruiser. Something with a huge backseat for my three kids. After a few months of looking I found a 41 chevy sedan up in Long Island... worked out a deal and had it delivered to the house. The pic above is the shipper backing the sedan out of his trailer. Side note: had I not purchased this car, it would likely have been flooded during Katrina.

 

Damn good looking car!

 

Holy crap was this thing a terrible driver. It was all you could do to go down the street without hitting parked cars. Worn out steering, clunky shifting, a sticky throttle. At least the brakes were good.

For about ten minutes I thought about rebuilding the front end. Then I realized for the same money I could install a Chassis Engineering M2 kit. I already had a rebuilt 350 taking up space in the garage, so the plan made more sense.

 

Last shot before I tore it apart. I have a bad habit of buying nice cars and then turning them into a pile of parts.

 

One day later the front sheetmetal was removed and the drivetrain was on the hoist. All of the original drivetrain was sold on Craigslist to a guy who planned to install it into a Model A pickup.

 

The interior isn't as nice as the exterior. Hopefully later this year I can have it reupholstered.

 

The car was in nice shape already, so the "restoration" was a pretty small affair. I cleaned the chassis and firewall down to bare metal and coated them in semi-gloss black. The truck floor has some small rust holes, so I need to patch that at some point.

 

The lower cowl has a rust hole on either side where the fender meets the body. For now they've been doused in POR15. At some point I will cut and patch. I'll probably just deal with it until the paint gets tired.

 

Questionably interesting picture of paint drying. Those are Chassis Engineering goodies.

 

Here's another picture that might make you wonder what else is going on the HAMB. These are powdercoated 49 chevy rims.

 

You wouldn't believe how long it took to drill the 4,345,126,621,763,123 holes for all the bolts that hold this thing together. That is, until I bought a cobalt drill bit. Then I was drilling holes like I was on some kind of tv hot rod show where it looks too easy.

 

By the way. That motorcycle in the background is for sale. If that's your kind of thing, I'm selling that kind of thing.

 

I would recommend against buying this particular brake pedal assembly, mainly because it did not fit. The lesson here is that if you own a 1941 chevy, you should just buy chassis engineering's shit and not try to cheap out.

 

Man that looks cool.Would you recommend buying a chassis engineering kit and are they just bolt in or do you still have to modify stuff to make it work.Also will it sit low enough ?

 

Man that was exactly what I thought when I drove my 41 after I bought it, the steering didn't tighten up until you were in a long curve,the rest of the time you were sawing at the wheel to keep it straight. I used C.E. stuff in mine also, you will happy with how it turns out. No need for drop spindles, it will sit very low with the spring adjusters backed out. Had the same problem with the brake pedal/booster setup you have, had to modify the pedal arm and make a new hole in the floor for it to work correctly. That is a great looking car, and when you're done it will be a great driver.

 

Nice! One of my favorite body styles.

 

Hey Mickey Moon,

Thanks for following my thread. Are you working on a 41-48 chevy?

The CE stuff was a pretty easy install. Time consuming, but easy. It gets the car about as low as you can get before doing major surgery to the car. To get any lower, you'd need to c-notch the rear, hack up the rear seat area, and raise the trans tunnel. With the CE stuff, the car sits just above scrubline and looks pretty driveable. I'll let you know how it goes when I get there.


ed

 

Almost forgot. Here's a picture of this weekends progress. Got the front suspension finished up, installed the engine &trans, and mocked up the rear. I still need to get the rear into final location and weld the brackets on. The steering shaft and exhaust look like they want to live in the same place, so I'll have to get creative with the steering shaft layout.

 

Hey man I've got a 41 coupe that I'm working on at the moment just looking at the front ends .I have series 2 jag front under my 51 chev pickup it sits good just a bit too wide with the Firestones on it.Keep posting the pics man and if you can give me a height with your clearances from the chassis that would be cool cheers.

 

So Mickey, are you looking at Jag for the 41?

 

Possibly man, doing some measurements at the moment to see how low I can get it without bags.

 

Unfortunately I am in the middle of a move so the Chevy is going into storage for a while. Here are some pictures with the fenders and hood back on. Right now the car has 3" blocks and the front spring adjusters are almost bottomed out. I have a set of '49 caps and rings that will go on the car when it comes out of storage.

 

Dang!!! Lots of attitude added there!! I dig it nice job!!

 

Subscribed and waiting on the edge of my seat.

 

Great post .i just picked up 41 coupe.Stock was first thought ,that lasted about 5 min.Drives just as yours did.thanks for Picts. I live close may see u on road or show.Thanks

 

I have one question ,did u have to cut firewall to install 350 and what trans r u running.Thanks in advance.