Projects 39customs, Kustom

I came across a rendering of a 1940 Ford coupe front blended with a Lincoln Zephyr- ish rear. I scaled off the picture and realized it was drawn with longer doors, sedan length and the proportions looked perfect.

With that in mind I started looking for a two door sedan and a lot of cutting discs.

I came across a complete but rough 1939 Deluxe sedan body complete with hood and fenders. The price was right and the project has began.

 

I have been working on it for a few summers now and it is starting to take shape. I fabricated the chassis from scratch and have a good chunk of the body work done. The coupe portion will appear after I post some of the earlier work.

 

Subscribing to this one. Cool rendering. It should be interesting to see where you take this project.


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More please!


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Wow, nothing like an easy build

 

I kicked the rear frame up about 5 inches from stock and started to fab some inner fender wells. They will be kind of a mini tub when complete. I will be looking for a Ford 8in or 9in rear end that will be the right width for these cars. There is plenty of great information on the H.A.M.B for that type of stuff.

 

Watching.

 

Wowsa! Subscribed!


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This is something I have wanted to do for some time now, and with a '39 deluxe, not a '40 because I like the dash better, and like the idea of the crank out windshield.

I definitely like the Zephyr influence, and I really look forward to your progress.

Here are some pictures of a a 1940 that was built and featured in Street Rodder in the early 2000's for reference on one of the better stock height roof shapes I have seen.

 

Subscribed! Sounds interesting!

 

Apart from the stupid windshield, that was the only 3W phantom body job I've ever seen that looked good, i.e. factory.

 

Interesting. I'm looking forward to seeing more on this.

 

I thought I would clad the rear frame rails and drop the trunk center section down about 1 1/4" to give it a better look than just going straight across.

Little did I know that I would need every bit of that room underneath, when I got the rear end in position.

 

Picked up some T Bird seats and a steering wheel from a 53 Ford Meteor ( it features three gold maple leafs on the horn button ) also a 47 Ford steering column and shifter.
Sectioned an inch out of the cowl and raised the rear fender wells about 3 inches.



Started on the bottom of the doors and the piece between the door and the rear fender.
The bottom 3-4 inches of the car was totally gone but that's what gets chopped off if i'm following the rendering.

 

That yellow 3w I remember reading about as a 15 year old in 90s. Nice to see it is still around.

 

I like the one that steel3window posted except for the front windshield. They kept the drip rail for a more factory look.
I've kept the drip rail on mine plus i'm going to be using the rear portion of the sedan rear side window. More on that later when I sort out all of my photos.

 

Now working on the rear fenders. They are quite badly rusted and the flange that joins to the body was completely gone.

I added a 3 inch piece right around both fenders and then was able to temporarily bolt them in place.
It took a while to estimate the right amount to lengthen them and to get two the same.

The drivers side one still needs some shaping, but i'm happy with the overall look especially the inside concave curve.

 

Subscribed. Looking very interesting so far.

 

I am loving this project so far, looking forward to seeing more! This is exactly the kind of stuff I come to the HAMB to read about. Fab work looks great so far, I like the rendering (a solid planning ahead like this always helps) and the saving of what was an extremely rough car to begin with make it all the better. Great stuff.

 

When I first saw the rendering I could see that the sedan could be used for more than the long doors. If I could cut out the center section of the roof and bring the rear section forward I could get the right profile. At first I cut the rear portion of the rear side windows out for later use as the rear of the front doors.



Then chopped the A pillar and front door frame with a Porta-band saw and removed 3". I found a drawing on the web on how to chop a 40 coupe and where to make the cuts and followed that.



I cut off the front section of the roof at about the middle of the door and welded that piece back on.

 

Great pics and awesome to see how it's done. Keep it coming man.

 

At the point now of figuring out how much of the rear portion of the roof will be needed to make the coupe roof. Lots of putting it on taking it off standing back etc etc.
After slicing the rear roof section into three pieces and taking over 40" out of the center and with more (putting it on taking it off standing back etc etc) I managed to get the drip rails to look more like a continuous curve as I want to keep them for a more factory look.

 

Nice work

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Great work sir. I love how you utilized the rear section of the roof in order to get the proper curve on the back end. I also like the way you chopped it, very cool . Good luck with the rest of the build.


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WOW! I really dig that! The profile is really taking shape. Nice work. Definitely subscribed.

 

B-pillar looking very 38-39 Zephyrish if that's a word? Pretty sure that's a word I can use on the H.A.M.B. Looking very


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Loving this, looking forward to more.

 

I'm really enjoying your ideas and how well you put them into metal. I really look forward to following your progress.


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During all this time I was trying to figure out what to do about a trunk lid. I wanted it to be like the rendering flat-ish at the top, more rounded at the bottom. I thought I could make one from scratch if my wheeling skills advanced enough. As luck would have it I found a candidate locally ( within 10 minutes of my house) its from a 1939 Cadillac Lasalle. Flat at the top, rounded at the bottom. Who knew!



Proceeded to position that many (many) times to try and get the right look.



Was able to buy some 39 coupe side trim to help with the profile. Not that, that did much. I will probably have to make my own side trim and I will try and use the original trim as part of the upholstery if I can.
Then made a few attempts at filling the gap between the trunk lid and the fender. The last two were kind of 36 Ford looking but I couldn't figure out how to tie that in with the (future) welded on fender.


Formed a trunk lid channel and built a piece to go across the back of the car to mount the channel and probably the trunk hinges.

 

Beautiful work!