Amazing how many folks missed the boat on this one.I had a Ford Skyliner with a clear plexiglass hood and a bunch of Point of Sale advertising materials in the trunk.I shopped it around locally,no interest.I sold it at the Barrett Jackson in the late 80s and it went to a good home.Maybe the Ford Museum might pull their craniums out of their rectums and buy this wonderful piece of history.Based on what rare prototypes bring down in Scottsdale,I know where I'd be taking it
What sane person wouldn't love to own that piece of history,I don't have a doubt in my mind this chassis wasn't displayed in one or multiple dealerships throughout the United States and had to be built by Ford Motor Company. HRP
Way cool. I went to a trade school for high school and took auto mechanics. There was a cut away 59ab on an engine stand that looks like a match for this frame. Same color, very well done. Last time I inquired, it still existed and was in the possession of a former student! Tim
That is incredible! And what an intriguing mystery. Sure hope someone has some real information regarding it's heritage. Fascinating story.
Neat-O-Mosquito. Not only a killer piece of 1940 Ford history, but an overall great educational tool for understanding Flathead basics, Carb, Transmission, etc... Looking forward to seeing it in person.
Years ago I purchased a chrome front wishbone from a guy in Parkerford Pa. for my 40 I owned at the time the wishbone was done in show chrome. I asked the guy where it came from because at the time I couldn't imagine anyone going to the trouble of chroming a wshbone to this level of quality he said he came off a cut awaycar he had purchased from a guy over in north Jersey who told him that it was a Worlds Fair car for the Ford display.. The guy I purchased the wishbone told me that every part of the car was cut in half he stipped the car for any good parts and scrapped the rest. That head looks similar to what I saw hanging on his wall.
Over here, technical collages/trade school, where you go to get your education as Mechanic/welder/carpenter/bicycle repair guy etc. Don't know what you call it, but I went there, and they had one of a English build ford on a frame, that could be turned over and you could see the inside/underside of everything, and half of the gearbox and differential was in clear plastic, so we could see it. And it was custom the local driving school has access to it after hour, because it was part of the material for standard driving tests, up till mid-60s, you would pull a card, and explain one item in full, let's say transmission, rear end, brakes, karb, ignition, and point out five misc items. Then a fifteen-twenty questions of traffic signs. And the you past driving theory in oral (no Pun intended). The army got multiple set-up for the most popular vehicles, dodge power wagon, Willys jeeps, nimbus motorcycle, Mercedes unimog and verios parts for the deuce and half Chevy/jimmy trucks. This is stupid to some and monster cool to some. I'm on the second team here, and you can put as the people who likes it, wants one and don't know a damn thing about this one. Maybe a dealers thing, for internal Sevice school Sorry, can't help you on that ones story.
I feel that timwhit is on the right track. I took auto mechanics in high-school,and we had a complete chassis that was painted and had cut-aways on various parts as a teaching tool.
I bet the Early Ford V8 Foundation Museum in Auburn Indiana would give it a permanent home. What a great piece.
I love cutaways. It takes an insane amount of work to make them look that nice. And the over restoration of that one is OK in my books. Likely it wasn't chromed up that much originally. Very cool.
I agree that it is likely Ford built...Ford always made spectacular cutaways, at least back into the early thirties, that made production parts look like jewelry. I can remember looking at a sliced, diced, and generously chromed 427 (I think it had the 7,000 RPM kit with the funny lifters!) around 1964, and there were lots of other cutaways around. Some kind of new model intro show in DC area...I think my Father connected me and a friend into a slightly pre-intro flap of some kind for local dealers! Like all car nuts, I found it beautiful but mourned the death of a neat engine I would have swapped most of my body parts for... Like Iceman, my first thought on this was the '39-40 NY world's fair. There was a huge Ford exhibit with many cutaways...all useless to Ford after Fair shut down and 1941 cars came in. Donating to a university with an engineering program would have made a lot of sense. Thinking about routes to research...there is a lot around on that fair. And Ford produced a lot of paper about it.
my first thought when reading this, was the '39 worlds fair also. if so there must be pictures. probably hidden behind one of G.M.'s futureliners.
I went to ISU in the late 80's/early 90's and remember that chassis well. I myself tried to buy it (and had Loren Muench as a professor) but couldn't find anyone that had any authority to sell it. It was never used in any of my classes and was just a dusty relic in an old storage section of the Industrial Tech department. Besides the chassis, there was also a cutaway of a 40's-50's Chevy 6 engine and some transmissions. All of these items certainly were from the factory because they were way too detailed with chromed parts that a college class couldn't afford to do. I always wondered what became of the chassis since the building it was stored in has since been torn down. Good to see it's still alive and wasn't parted out.
Way cool yes! But, what about the B17 "fly over" photo at the bottom? What's the story on that pic??????? Got it posted up as my desk top now.
I remember my little bro (Corn Fed) taking me into that dark back room at ISU to show me this chassis. He was an Industrial Engineering student and I was across campus in the Design College. I was blown away that ISU had it, and were keeping it in basically a barn stall. I always wondered what happened to it and heard at a swap meet in Boone, Iowa a few years after that it had been bought from the university. I don't recall exactly, but it might have been for sale at that time (maybe a pic in somebody's booth)? Anyway, I didn't have the $$ to buy it at that time. I love that it has been restored rather than parted out or trashed. .
Here's a pic of a T roadster that was taken at ISU in the late 50's. It is supposedly of a professor and one of his students. I believe that it is in front of the same building where the chassis was stored when I saw it. I can only imagine that the professor and student used the chassis just behind that wall.
Speedy Bill's museum has a bitchn cutaway of a blown Hemi. This would look good at their place in Lincoln, Neb.
That thing is amazing. My dad made this one back in the 60's. He used it to teach me about the 4 strokes. Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
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