Well after selling my 49 4-5 years or so ago, I got a 29 Tudor, modified stocker..., finding out I could not get it to go as fast as I wanted, I bought a 27 "T" ... It was a sweet build, strong runner, fast as hell, only to find out it don't like tall people I sold both of them and went on a quest... Looked at cars on the HAMB, on EBay and Craigslist.. finally found a 50 Ford Coupe.. 302 Ford roller motor, believed to be a Jasper motor, real strong... backed up by a TCI -C4 Trans with as 2300 converter. feeding a 8" Mustang rear. Insides done... Like any other purchase, I will be making some changes to "make it mine"... I'm thinking of Chrome wheels with 1 1/2" white walls, circa 60's look... switching out the shifter...and maybe the air cleaner to get back to that period a bit more.. I graduated HS in 64... and want to stay in the period, if I can. Ya. reliving my youth...why the hell not!!! "American Graffiti" here I come... Tierod...
tierod GREAT score - I'm soooo jealous - gotta love them shoeboxes - your plans for it are dead on - have a great time with it - hope to see you soon.
I know this car very well, my friend in our car club owned this. What a nice car, I was surprised he sold it.
Cool coupe! I agree different wheels and shifter and you're good to go. And be sure you go, as my avatar says " Drive' em.
Thanks all for the kind words. Further investigation and driving finds the front springs were "heated" to lower... and it bounces hard and bottoms easy..so the plan is to install Aerostar front coils (MOOG cc850 ) from the posts I read here, and (Monroe 5821) shocks and new bump stops. I'll look at the sway bar then too. Trying to decide on chrome wheels with small white walls or black wheels with small white walls and trim rings and dog dish. I'm thinking for that 60's look the chrome is closer...( I think) I have a collection of 60's Hot Rod mags I am going to dig out and start reviewing again, that should help on to "Look". I' like to go to a column shifter, I wonder if the fordamatic column would attach to the C-4? or take the smart choice of a floor shifter? I also found out that the current wheels are 4 1/2" wide in front ,...way to skinny... would there be any concern in running those on a long trip.? I am actually considering driving this car from Indy to Massachusetts to visit family... It shifts good, runs good, no rattles, its a bit loud at low speed...stops OK. Speaking of stopping. the Seller installed a Dual Master Cylinder. It still has drums from and rear. Do I need a Proportioning valve? It has one, and I wonder if that affect stopping ability, and it seems to take more foot pressure that my 49 did? As much as I absolutely loved the 29 (and 27) I'm glad I'm back in a Shoe... Tierod....
Congrats, Great looking Shoe Box. I like everything on the Car except the shifter, Your idea of going to a column shift would look perfect with the interior. Enjoy it!
Re: brakes - get on shoeboxford.com ---- Butch and a few other guys on there are loaded with info. You might want to put disc on the front and Butch has a great set up. Column shifter - wow - consider a floor shifter from early Mustangs - there small and hardly noticeable. Hit those Hot Rod mags hard on wheel/tire choices, and remember the Aerostars drops your front 2-3". Go 3" blocks in the rear and if you need another inch swap the rear shackles with '51 ford - not many guys knows about that one. Most of all have fun with it. See ya.
Bludice: Thanks, I'll pop over there and look for him... On my second tank of gas...Review: Runs good...might be a bit too loud...especially when i fire it up here ( I live in a retirement community...) They heated the front springs to lower, so it rides like shit ..front end bounces like a lowrider... Plan is Aerostar springs and new shocks, should take care of that. Motor strong, shifts good. need to swap out the shifter, too much muscle car look, Seller claims to be a 302 "gt 40" build roller motor from jasper. I called jasper, they told me where to look for a tag on the motor to confirm. Need to crawl under and find. It has a TCI C-4 3sp trans with a 2300 stall. manually shifting makes it much better. Seat is a bit weak in the spring area,,,may have a fellow hamber rebuild this winter. It defiantly likes the interstate, but the spedo is off, so its hard to tell how fast. but clocking with my son-in-law, coming back from Rochester, IN., tack showed 2500 was about 62 and 2800 was about 65... It has a bit of bubbling by the rear wheel wells, but its ok, its a good running car. still looks good. It has a dual master with a prop valve? not sure it's needed, what's your thought? When I remove the shifter, I'll get rid of the line lock...I'm not going to drag race anyway. Upholstery is good shape, gray vinyl... Monster elec fan, no fan blade...but stays cool...therm controlled with a override. I'll switch out the wheels and tires, it has 4 1/2 rims on the front, with small tires, after 1 hour of cruising last night, the front tires were hot... Also lose the big rectangular exhaust tips, again, too muscle car look. as with the wheels and shifter. I also want to tone down the engine dept... I want a 60's look.. TIEROD....
UPDATE: Been driving the heck out of it, trying to get a feel of the car. Runs hard, shifts great. Bottoms out hard on bumps, so I bought some Areostar springs and new shocks that need to be put in. Also in the process of installing a 2 sp Electric Wiper motor. Wanders bad, so need to work on the steering box too. I must admit, it does sound great. Went to the Ducktail Rod Run car show in Gas City, IN, (Great show by the way) and on the way home on the interstate, went over a overpass with a big rise, and when the can settled, I heard a "Bang" and suddenly started to vibrate. Well, I pulled right over, crawled all over the car, Temp OK, Oil OK, belts and stuff OK. Car idled fine??? Well back on the road again, but the vibration was still there. Vibrated all the time, and in neutral. it was not tires. Diags finally: jacked it up, propped on jack stands at my good friend "MEYER" house. We found the left motor mount bolts have snapped off in the block. When the motor was put in, they kept the stock Flathead biscuits and bracket and put a triangle shaped plate horizontally, from the biscuits to the 2 bolts in the motor, like a cantilever of about 4-5 inches. Way too much stress on the bolts. So I am now on a quest for a shop that can fix it. MEYER just had a 27RPU build at Culbertson.Hot Rods in Speedway, so I'm headed down there next week to see if he would repair it. I'm thinking the motor has to come out. :-( I'll keep you updated.... Thanks for reading...
Sounds like your on the right track. Since your bring up the same things repeatedly I'll adress them directly. 1: aero star spring anf shock swap. Good call. That'll make your life better if you drive it a lot. 2: there are shifter set ups that use a lot of the stock pieces to put it on the column such as lime works however! Make sure whatever you purchase a detention system built in as most transmissions defends won't keep all of thy contraption from pulling it in and out of gear. I'd go with a short floor shifter, throw a four speed knob on it and move on 3: proportioning valve. Weather it's needed or not depends on more variable than listed. Are they stock brakes front and back? Where is the master mounted? However! None of it means it needs removed. What a proportioning valve does when you turn that knob is cut off/ reduce pressure to the rear brakes. For optimum stop you want the brakes to be front biased and this helps some set ups achieve this. Most set ups will have you tune it by doing something similar to this: open the valve all the way so it doesn't do anything at all take it to 25 and lock them up. If the backs grab first crawl under and turn the knob a bit and do it again. When the backs don't lock first try it at 35 and then 45 repeating the process at each speed. No need to be flooring it to speed be nice to the car so your not adding any brake fade to the equations T dealing with more heat than neccisary If it acts best all the way open like its niy even there then just leave it open and you don't have to bother taking it off. If you upgrade brakes later and need it there it will be! 4: 4 1/2 wheels up front. Shouldn't be an issue. I've driven s car that weight close to Yours thousands and thousands of miles at slow to too fast speeds and have had zero issues. If your rubber is warm it's because the street is warm, your car is warm, and everything involved creates friction. It's normal. If it's the wheel it self that seems awefully warm then I'd start looking at your brakes. The road isn't going to make your wheel hot the brakes will. 5: it wandering a little on the road. This could also have to do with the alignment. If they heated the could there's a good chance that the alignment was done before applying heat or because of the degrading nature of heated coils it could simply not be te correct alignment for where it sits now. Couldn't hurt checking the balance of the wheels while your messing with it. Hopefully that was helpful
Good looking car,I have a soft spot for '50 Ford coupes and I agree with you on the wheels and shiftier,,have fun making the changes. HRP
Grate car, glad your having fun with it. Your on the right track with a 51 column shifter if you like the more Old School look. You and I are in the same age group and when I was in high school none of the guys were running floor shifts on automatic's. I had a 50 back then and have built/owned 5 since than. My current/avitar driver has a 700-R-4 in it and is hooked to my stock 51 column shifter. P is park, N is neutral L is first gear in that trans. That took a little work but it was worth it. Back then we didn't molest the dash and I wanted to stay true to my ways. My 51 has many up grades and at a walk around look none of them show. Just the way I like it. The sound system will shake the windows and when I turn on the Stock radio people are shocked and ask who built the Radio. I just say it's a stock one, and it is. It's just that the sound isn't coming from that Radio. The Wizzard
Tim: thanks for the input. after I get the motor mount issue TCO, and the Coils, I'll start on the Brakes. I believe the fronts are stock and the rears are from the Mustang\Fairlane 8" rear. I have a very hard pedal, but the car stops OK. I have not tried locking them up to see what grabs first. It has a Dual Master on the cowl now. Pist-n-Broke: Love the 51, the white green is bitchin.. I like the idea of going back to column shift. I have a stock (non-funct) radio in stock, it has a after market in it now. There is a mish-mash of knobs and toggle switches on the dash, and I'll slowly go through and see what I can do to match them up. Clean up the dash. I did look at a short LOKAR Shifter at Goodguys...with the "8 Ball" knob. But I will investigate "Lime Works" as TIM mentioned.
Im not a big shoebox lover but thats a nice looking ride!!!! what brand are your wheels you have on it?
rusty rocket: Thanks for the compliment, sorry, don't know, they were on it when I bought it. I looked through the paperwork folder, no mention of brand.. it looks like a -m- symbol on the cap.
Google search "hard brake pedal" and you should find a few sheets of trouble shooting advice. Most things like that are more of a tuning issue that a parts replacement issue. I'll see if I can find one. As far as the motor mount you should be able to leave it were it is and replace the motor mount. No real need to pull it if the engine will end up in the same Place it already is. Other wise if you move the engine your trans and everything else will need dicked with
Ok looks like a hamb search in this case is better than a Google search lol. Go do one of those for a broader discussion but most of them point to either the pedal ratio being off of the firewall not being braced adequately. The pedal will take some measuring but the bracing is easy, look under the dash and see if there is a brace from the mc mounting area to the dash. There should be. A good way to test that idea is to have someone push hard on the pedal while you watch the master and see if the firewall is flexing
Dash clean up is a good plan. I love a stock 49 - 51 dash. Extra gauges and switches are generally a short cut or so they think. My factory gauges all work and are correct with a s.b.c. under the hood. You can do it too if you want. The Wizzard
Looks like the cheap chinese halibrand knock off wheels. fairly nice looking though, you should be able to sell them off easily enough.
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