Hot Rods A 40 Ford Coupe for Uncle Mike Build Thread

Just a fantastic 40.

 

How tall are the front and rear tires?

 

Great job and loved following your build-very nice 40 !!!!

 

Thank you all for the kind words! It means a lot to me. And thank you all for following along and participating to the project by commenting as we travel along. There will be many more posts as it is far from finished.

falcongeorge the tires are Toyo's from Diamond Back. Fronts are 20560R15 24.7" high 6.5 inch tread width 8.3" section width. Rears 225/70R15 28.3" High 5.8" tread width 8.7" Cross section. The are mounted on Wheel Vintiques Gennie wheels. Fronts are 15x6 with 3.75 back spacing Rears are 15x7 with 4" back spacing

 

I'm doing 6.00x15 on the front, which are almost exactly an 1" taller, so I should probably mock it up without a reversed spring, and then decide from there.
The black one with the starfire caps that was at the East/West Reliability Run sits EXACTLY how I was visualizing mine sitting. Its PERFECT. I flipped when I saw Chris' side on shot of it.

 

You have good taste my friend.... I saw this car at a distance but didn't get to it in time to drool on it. I also like the stance and the hub caps!

 

LOVE the stance. See bud, you NEED them '56 Starfire caps! I'd never thought of putting them on chrome wheels, really looks sharp.
check out the colour on the car below, bluish purple, or purplish blue, depending on who you ask. I've had this pic in my stash since long before I even found my car...

 

The purple coupe is mine, it was reported painted in the early 50's by a local (watsonville) Studebaker dealer. Some of the purple still remains on the door jams, etc. It is the coupe in my Avatar, and its been off the road since 1957.

 

Yes, I remember pm'ing you about what paint colour was on it a couple years ago. I want to attempt to get as close as I can to that colour on my convert. Beautiful car. Do you plan to try to repaint your car in that colour?

 

Hey b-bob I was wondering if you has been watching this build thread. I am glad you like the car enough to put it up as a background.

Those wide whites and black wheels do kind of put the car in the 50's early 60's time frame. I think I will leave it that way for awhile.

Do you still have your 39? I have been watching for either of your coupes at GG Puyallup but have not seen them.

 

Congratulations on your first trip and a fantastic build and very enjoyable thread. If you keep posting ,I'll follow along. Enjoy!

 

EXCELLENT BUILD THREAD AND SUCCESS!!!!!

 

Wow really looks good. Can't wait to see it in person this weekend. I'm thinking a set of baby moons would really put into the era you want.

 

b-bob, I'd like to see a pic of your '39? I have a '39 convert.

 

Thank you gents, glad you like the coupe. Uncle Mike (The inspiration for the build) came over this weekend and we put some miles with smiles on the coupe! He said something like" it still sounds and drives like he remembers it when he bought it so many years ago in Montana". Well it still is a flathead with column shift and we did capture the old Ford feel I was hoping for.

falcongeorge in case b-bob doesn't reply here is the address to his build thread.
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/39-ford-deluxe-coupe.608590/

 

Thanks for the link, I'll check it out!

 

Congratulations on a successful project. Looking good!
Glenn

 

original 40 Standard, no right tail light

 

yup, good eye.

 

Hi, yes I still have the 39. I kind of 'burned out' building it in such a short time. I have been playing with the A for the last year and a half. I spent the first 6 months cleaning it up as a stocker to just play with. A year ago August I got tired of begging for parts and built a new frame with the usual susp. and affordable sbc auto. In the last few weeks I thought I had better put some miles on the 39 and started using it again, it only has 1400 miles on it. If they sit too long, things start going bad. I missed Puyallup this year because it interfered with some work I had on my back on the Thursday, the year before I was there as a spectator, but that's another long story.

 

Thanks Glenn!
B-Bob I really like your A coupe too. It's good to hear you finally putting some miles on the 39! I am sorry to hear your back is still giving you problems. Mine back is also problematic and seems to go into spasm at the most inopportune times. I have missed several car show and run opportunities in the last tbecause of it.

Here is another project:
In the mad rush to get the car together we had a casualty. Don's brother suffered a scalp gash about two inches long that required 6 staples! We thought the trunk spring was a little weak but it was holding the trunk lid up so we moved on to installing the bumper while the lid was still up....... While shaking the car around to install the bumper the trunk lid came down hard on Dan's head.

So not wanting a repeat of this problem and not wanting to install the air shock kit I bought I went back to my saved threads and found one that 19Fordy wrote on modifying the stock trunk spring mechanism.

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/...ing-40-ford-trunk-hinges.152557/#post-1691239
Of course I wouldn't be a Hot Rodder if I didn't make some modifications to his idea.........


To start out you cut a piece of 1/8" thick steel 1/2" wide x 1 7/8" long and bend it 45 degrees at the 1/2" mark. I drilled a 1/4" hole for a plug weld . 1940 bolted his on with a 1/4" x28 thread bolt.

The tricky part was pulling the spring back so that the extension could be positioned for welding.

I clamped the extension in place and welded it on.


A long lever made it easy to pull the spring back but getting it to stay there without another set of hands was challenging. I think I rigged it different each time I stretched the spring.

You can see the difference between the stock spring on the right and the modified spring on the left. The modification adds tension to the spring by tightening the spring wrap.

Finished!

The modification is doing it's job. Some people have said that Bob Drake or Dennis Carpenter have come up with a stiffer spring for the aftermarket trunk hinges they are selling so you may not run into this problem. But just in case you do it's nice to know that you can do this modification with simple tools and a couple of hours of your time. You may be able to just modify your original trunk hinge and save a few bucks too.

NOTE see post 463 for another modification that was made to the trunk hinges a few days later. I recommend doing the post 463 modification before doing the spring modification.

 

Simple for you

 

Spent the day sorting out a few things. The overdrive was not working in the first test drives so I checked the linkage and discovered the OD cable was not pushing the overdrive lever on the transmission far enough to engage the OD function.

We also had been having trouble with the transmission getting locked in 1 st gear. We turned the top link arm upside down from the illustrations we had been using for assembly and put a compound bend in it. That solved that problem.

So we took it out for a test drive and the OD drive function worked GREAT! The small button we installed in the shift lever did it's job too. The engine turns 1900 to 2000 in third over at 60 MPH. So I guess the 3.89 rear end is perfect for this combination.

The shifter works much better also. No more 1st gear lock up! We also adjusted the emergency brake cables for the third time. The Lokar cables must be stretching. I hope to have the car pass the NSRA 23 point safety check this next weekend.

All in all a good day in the shop!

 

I wish I had an OD for my car. I just know it'll take less than a week for me to decide the 3.78's are too tall around town and it needs 4.11's.

 

Going back a week or two I had to modify my third brake light to make it fit my application.

I found piece of aluminum and rough cut it with the saws all.

After a lot of measuring and using the angle finder I found that a 45 degree angle would level out the third brake light.I drew this out and started cutting and filing with sawsall and files.

Basic tools and patience.


I decided to mount the big chunk on a flat flange that would allow me to use the 40's window garnish mounting hole. The one on the right.

The bottom hole requires a new hole in the garnish molding.


I drilled and counter sunk the bottom plate for some some size 6 screws and and then drilled and tapped the angled adapter for the screws.


There was room under the garnish to use a nut on the bottom side of the garnish . I used a button head stainless steel screw in the bottom hole.


After some more filing, sanding and paint the unit was installed.


The angle came out pretty good. This is a Hoffman product. It is supposed to work as a third brake light and also as a turn signal light. We found that since we are using the LED tail lights and that fancy turn signal system that the turn signals would not work when my foot was on the brake. So Don disconnected the turn signal wires for now. We will look for a diode that will stop the feedback problem and give it another try

I don't think I included a picture of the finished back wall. It is pretty busy. The stereo location is far from optimal. I did not want it to show so I hid it back here. I had hoped the remote signal would be able to penetrate the seat fabric or the wood cover. It doesn't ..... but if I point the remote between the seat cushions it will deliver the signal to the radio. I intend to run the stereo with an I Pod Nano anyway. Perhaps it will even work with the blue tooth function of the radio.The bottom line is that when you put the seat in there all of this stuff is hidden but accessible.

Just another shot of the trunk wiring. Don spent a couple of afternoons in there.

 

39 guy, I have followed you thread from the beginning. I should have made some positive comments regarding the both the quality of your build and the posts detailing your progress, but I didn't. Sorry. Coming to the end of your build and the interesting and informative posts is like getting to the last chapter of a really good book. You want to see the finish, but don't want it to end.

 

Thanks Spitbucket! I liked your book analogie . I have followed several builds on the HAMB and have shared that same feeling. I am happy that you enjoyed this thread that much!

 

I put my handy new LED Snap On flood light in the car and it really lit it up nice for a photo so I took a couple of shots. I rough cut some insulation an put it on the floor. It has foil on both sides. I will use some two sided carpet tape to hold it in place for now. I made some temporary 1/8" plywood panels for the doors, kick panels and 1/4 panels. It appears that this stuff is used to protect veneered plywood panels for shipping. Don gave me the panels awhile back.

The seat is pretty comfortable as is and the color is a good match but it will be reupholstered in traditional black and white tuck and roll.




The glass had initially been installed without any sealer so we took a step back yesterday and applied some sealer.

Don...." Your are going to take a picture of this?" Yes... we put sealer on the inside of the 1/4 windows and along the inner edge as shown in the previous picture.

I was finishing up and decided I should take a picture of the preparations. I was glad I took the time to protect paint. Being a rookie at this stuff I made a mess.

I cut some shop paper towels into four pieces and soaked a little paint thinner on each piece before wiping up the excess caulk. That yellow trim tool came in handy for picking the seal flange off of the body before inserting the caulking tube tip.

I went down to the local car glass shop and asked the installer what he used to seal flat glass. He recommended this DOW BETA Seal U 418 Urethane sealer. He also recommended buying this heavy duty caulking gun from Lowes 9about $15.00. His second recommendation was to warm the stuff up before trying to use it. I warmed it up in my little toaster oven to around 100 degrees.

In retrospect I would probably take the car to the glass shop to get the windows sealed. That stuff was hard to get out of the tube and once unleashed was hard to clean up...... The glass guy has a $500 electric caulking gun to squeeze it out of the tube and would hopefully control the application resulting in less clean up. The job came out alright though. It says it takes about 13 hours for this stuff to cure well enough to drive the car.

I applied sealant between the overlapping center flaps on the front window and my wife helped me install the stainless divider. That was the easiest part of this project. I hope it all is watertight now as I seem to end up in downpours at least twice year going to and from shows across the Cascade mountains.

 

Beautiful car, I just wanted to put my 2 cents on the clutch switch, these cars set a lot between start ups. When you depress the clutch you load the thrust on the crank, thus starting up the engine with little or no oil on the thrust bearing surface, this wear on the thrust varies on the amount of pressure plate spring rating.
I doubt you will ever drive this 40 enough to wear out the thrust, but.
Nice build!