Projects BChrismer's Beater '40 Ford Panel Project

I think I am about as excited as you are being I am following up right behind you with the same truck. How cool is it that you can watch someone else go through steps that you are headed for and feel their excitement knowing you are on the same trip next. The battery was kind of a shocker to me though. In the pictures that battery looks just like my Harley battery. If it doesn't put out more amps than the Harley battery, I don't think I would be comfortable with it. I do like the space saving aspect.

 

I don't know why the pictures came up like a file you have to click on to have to see. I couldn't get the upload file to give me a choice of thumbnail or full size and only submitted one picture but this is what came up when I submitted it. Sorry.

 

Ok...NOW I am understanding your excitement. Get that thing going and let's plan a '40/41 panel introduction in Fort Scott. That seems about half way between here and Emporia. ;-)

I was pretty curious about the cranking ability of this thing. What I can tell ya is that it has a kick to rival Chuck Norris. Just glad I changed out the starter bendix, as it'd break a stock flatty spring in a heartbeat. Take a look at this page that @Nostrebor posted http://www.stealth316.com/2-dynabatt.htm

If you are swapping the rear end, I would suggest something that is 60" wide, as my "perfect 40 Ford width" 58" wide Granada rear end proved to be about 2" too narrow and I had to use the spacers.

So...what's your driveline plan on your 41 panel?

 

I am not sure yet about the rear end. This thing has been sitting just as it was parked by a Shell gas station owner back in the 50's. It is in great unmessed with condition for sitting so long. The flathead in it was stuck pretty solid so I bought a running flathead to put in it and have been buying needed parts like power master 12volt generator/alternator, a good clean gas tank from a running 40 pick up, a full set of nice 40 wheels with new Coker tires, new brakes and a lot more than I can think of off the top of my head. I am going to try to recondition the origional transmission back to the rear end to see if those will work but I am a lot like you when it comes to wheels and other components and may put some chrome 15" wheels that I have with early 5.5 centers and pattern to fit the original running gear if that works out. The rear chrome wheels are 8" wide and fit and filled the wheel wells really nice with sport truck tires. If the origional driveline doesn't pan out, All options are on the table and the flathead will probably be replaced with 60's style v8, muncie,Hurst 4 speed, 9" and 60's wheels. Cragar SS, Halibrand Champs, ETlll's ? All my favorites. We will see as things progress. I don't know what is going on in Fort Scott or when but I don't expect this thing to get done too soon. I have a lot to get done but am plugging away at a slow steady pace. I would like to get it going this year but to soon to know how all these variables pan out. I have told you before that I have my mother and a brother living in Springfield and would like to come see you next time I am visiting them. I don't know when that will be but I am excited to meet you in person. It would definitely be cool to get together with these panels at an event. I have a 40 Standard coupe in progress too but the panel will probably get done first.

 

Awesome. If that rear end doesn't work out, I have the one from my truck sitting out at Mike's shop, and the one out of my coupe down at Doug's shop. Whether it's 20 miles north or south, I've got one. LOL

When I knocked some teeth off of the stock transmission in the truck, I just did a guts replacement from a good 40-48 passenger transmission. Fairly straightforward swap, but plan on smelling gear oil for the next week or so. Heck, I have a pair of shorts that I was wearing that I got some of the gear oil on that still have some faint gear oil odor to them a year and a half and several washings later!

 

Yeah, that and it is also nice to have it where we won't have to drag it around with the tractor and chain to get it into the shop

 

I would keep and wear those shorts proudly . They will weed out the people that will come up to you to start a conversation . Once they get past the smell, you know they are a real hotrodder and you won't have to waste time in a conversation about other things that don't matter !

 

Awesome! Reminicent of my first crank and drive, and then many subsequesnt windshield-less cruises around the block.

On another note, you talk about clutch adjustment, mine on my 40 needed to be adjusted a half to one turn as well, but the new owner said he did 2 or three turns. I told him that was probably too much and it would slip. Fast forward to now, the guy that has it now says he loves the car (connected with him on FB) but he said it needs a new clutch... gee I wonder why. I hope they didn't warp that brand new flywheel.

 

Well, nuts! This whole COVID-19 thing has the next month of plans kinda up in the air now. The City of Springfield has issued a 30 day "Shelter in place" order that lasts until April 24 that has a $1000 fine and up to 180 days in jail attached to it. It does have provisions for "essential services" and going out for food, etc, but I'm trying to figure out how to classify working on my junk as "essential". LOL

In the meantime, however, I can sit and plan and rest in knowing that I at least got to take a ride in it!

 

Pretty sure working on this junk is essential for our sanity?

 

I read the stay in place order for our area, and it has a lot of exceptions if you read the fine print. We are allowed to go check on relatives, etc. So maybe you need to go check on poor old man Meeker?

 

Just take Mike donuts (he prefers St. George's) in the morning and IF you were to get stopped you could just say you ran out to get breakfast. And then on the way home stop and pickup dinner that way IF you got pulled over you can say you were just out getting dinner or lunch depending on how late or early you guys go. That way in either situation you were not lying.

 

If you are adding St Georges donuts to the mix, also post the time you are showing up, as I may have something essential to do at Mike's that morning as well.

 

LOL. You guys aren't helping with my propensity to defy authority.

Yesterday, I talked my wife into riding with me up to Buffalo to go to the Mennonite meat market/deli. I figured it would be an excuse to enjoy some beautiful weather, and I could get some more of their jalapeno/chedder summer sausage and other goodies before we go into our "shelter at home" status at midnight. Since Meeker's shop is on the way, I detoured over so she could see the panel truck. No, I didn't start it and back it out for her, mainly because the lawn mower gas can was at the house and I have the battery disconnected.

Now, up to this point, she had not seen it in person, just the pictures I had posted on FB. I knew I was taking a risk with this, not knowing if I would be heading directly to divorce court or living with more "you are such an idiot for buying that hunk of junk". Surprisingly, she told Mike that she is wanting me to get the sides lettered with the Bret Chrismer's Mustache Wax logo that @gbrown created for me. (attached for those unfamiliar with the logo that has been mentioned a few times in the thread)



So...since it is my "company vehicle", I may just have to head north to Mike's to work on it.

 

Seems "legit" to me considering it is essential that you work on your "company vehicle" so you can continue making a fortune with the mustache wax. Still happy I knew you before all this fame and fortune goes to your head.

 

I didn't know about your mustache wax. I qualify for a business trip up to see you ! And if pulled over, I have proof on my face.

 

Man, this "Shelter in Home" mandate is really interrupting progress on my project, since it is out at Mike's shop instead of my house.

On the positive side, I got a call from Doug letting me know that he removed the Drake tank from his pickup that he is putting the EFI into. I will be making a run down to his shop to gather some parts and pick up the tank from him. Once we are to a point when we can work on it again, we'll have fuel lines and a tank to install, and all the rest of the crap that needs done. LOL

 

I've been going nuts, wishing that the past few Saturdays I was out at Mike's, working on the panel instead of being at home.

I've been gathering up all the stuff to set the new fuel tank into the truck, run fuel lines, and make it more road ready. I have the new transmission tunnel that will have to get some real modifications to work with the shifter, I have some windshield glass from @okiedokie to install, and I'm ready to get back after it.

I have a deal cooking with one of you guys for a '40 seat, but out of boredom and a plan to have it on the road prior to the HAMB Drags weekend, I went ahead and went junk yarding yesterday and picked up a set of PT Cruiser buckets that have removable headrests. We'll get them temporarily mounted where they sit low enough to do the trick, and since I won't have any side windows for a little while, I'm going to go ahead and wire up the seat heaters. LOL



I talked to Mike, yesterday, and he gave me the green light for next weekend! WOO HOO

 

Ok, I'm gonna cross post in my own thread. While trying to come up with an idea for how to mount the rear of the army PT Cruiser seats, I ran across this post here on the hamb:

<snip>
CruZer
Member
from Windsor,Ma. da 'Boonies
OK,I told this one on here before but it's too funny not to tell it again. :
A friend of mine bought some used PT Cruiser seats to put in his old pick up and he had them on his work bench testing the wiring to see which wire actiavted which seat postion when he put power to the yellow wire. PT Cruiser seats have air bags in them. The airbag went off with enough force that it knocked him on his ass and made his ears ring for an hour. But the best part...... his dog,Harley, was in the shop and poor Harley shit all over the floor when the bag went off. After my buddy picked himself up off the floor....yup he stepped right in it !!!
Neither him nor the dog have been "right " since.

<end snip>

Yeah, I laughed pretty hard, too.

 

Note to self. PT Cruiser seats......BAD

 

The air bag wires are in a yellow clip on the ones I have. They will be avoided, for sure.

 

Wow, this week's been especially tough. Since last Saturday, when Mike said I could come back out to the shop and work on the panel, I've been chomping at the bit!

Not knowing the status of what all he has in the shop (if the lift is open to use), has me wondering if we can put the gas tank in and run lines and stuff like that.

What I'm hoping to accomplish is the following:

- Gas tank and fuel lines
- Finish up floors
- Install seats
- Remove running boards so we can clean and paint them
- Re-bleed brakes

If we can't work on the lift, I'll probably work on getting the gauge cluster out and running some wiring.

BTW...after messing around with the seats in the garage, I decided that a 2x4 steel pipe would work fantastic for my rear seat risers. I reached out to a few buddies to see if they had any in their scrap bins, and Steve Rohlman hooked me up with 4 pieces that are 3" long, and even sweetened the pot by laser cutting 8 end caps so we can cap them, if we choose to. We'll see how all this goes tomorrow.

 

So the fuel tank install took quite a bit longer than planned due to reproduction tanks tend to vary from stock tanks. This Drake tank seems to have the fuel filler neck about 1/4" further rearward than a stock one.

The good news is that the fuel tank is in and the fuel lines are ran with an auxiliary electric pump.

While I worked on the tank install, Mike modified the transmission cover to make room for the shifter and bolted the 2x4 blocks to the rear of the seats.

We did bolt the fronts to the floor. The 2x4s are slightly too short but will work for now.

I did try to remove running board bolts, but will have to grind the heads off of them, because the nuts are rusted and a wrench will not grab.

 

Today's tasks were to seal the seams on the floor and paint it. Mike had some imron paint that he decided he wanted to use on the floors, so who am I to argue. LOL

While we were watching paint dry, we worked on the door latches on both front doors. The linkages were pretty crusty, and the passenger side door seemed to have an issue with trying to open it from the outside. After removing the latch, we discovered that the broken lock cylinder in the door wasn't in the lock cam, and the cam was rotated into the lock position.

Now the door latches work nicely. The "main" rear door is going to need to have the internal linkage removed and some bushings installed. The linkage is extremely sloppy, but does work, sort of.

Here's the pictures of the painted floor.

Next week, we ARE removing the running boards, blasting them, and painting them black. Mike said he wanted to work on the passenger side of the cowl to fix some damage in it, so we can start thinking about bolting on the front fenders and grille. He also mentioned working on figuring out how and where to install the '41 Ford tail lamp assemblies, too, but we'll get to that in due time.

 

Oooh... shiny!

 

Floor looks too good to cover it up!

 

From the pictures it would appear that the shifter level may be too far forward to be comfortable. Easy fix as I believe it is a bolt on handle. Have you sat in the truck in drivers position yet? Wondering if it is camera angle distortion

 

was your test drive on hiway 5 north of lebanon? cool project luv the old school approach Tom

 

Yeah, I may swap shifters again, once we can get it back up on the lift. Unfortunately, this shifter handle is a permanent mount on the shifter, so I have to swap the whole mechanism. One of these would be much more preferred:



It's 15" tall, lays back 5", and is offset by about 4". I just don't want to spend the $175 for a new one.

 

That looks like one for a 68-72 Chevelle