Projects ‘34 Ford Coupe Race Car

The winds of Fate are blowing your way. Quick start to what promises to be a helluva car.

 

I posted a pic of the coupe on Instagram and a fellow hot rodder, in California, messaged me and said he had a perfect original deck lid that he would sell me for 500 bucks, but....he had no way to ship it to TN.

I first thought of Fastenal. Throw it on a pallet and drop it at his local Fastenal store. I have shipped things through Fastenal before and they do a great job and cheap too. Checking into it I find out Fastenal doesn’t ship all the way across the country. They kind of ship from the coast to the center of the country, but not coast to coast. So that option was out.

I decide to just build a box to protect a deck lid. I had some heavy duty double wall cardboard...a giant sheet. I had the seller measure the deck lid. I set about building a giant box. I lined the box with some two inch thick foam I had. Even put a roll of box tape inside for the guy to tape it back. So now I need to ship a giant box on UPS. From Tennessee to California. My buddy owns a small business and gets a 40 percent discount with UPS. He made me a shipping label. It cost me 160.00 just to ship the empty box to the seller. The little woman told me I was crazy. I replied “ a little “.

The seller got the box, slid the deck lid in and took it to his local UPS store. Return shipping cost me 300 bucks.




The seller felt sorry for me having so much shipping in the deal so he only charged me 100 bucks for the deck lid. What a stand up guy! So I ended up with 560.00 in a perfect original 34 deck lid.



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The box with the deck lid made it back safe and sound. I spent about a day with a hammer and dolly and a porta power. Got the rear quarters good enough to lay the deck lid on it. They still need a lot of work, but it’s starting to look like a car now...from the backside anyway. The repro lower panel came with the coupe when I bought it originally.
With the cost of the deck lid and shipping, I’m up to 5,730.00 bucks in the whole deal. Stay tuned....

 

Funny I sold my 34 Coupe last fall for $10K and it was decent. The guy drove from New York to Maine to put it into a pickup truck. I had at least 10 into it but I didn't need 2 5 windows.

 

Great find! Love the $$$$ tally

 

This is an awesome thread/project and I love how you are keeping track of the cost and posting it.
I hope you keep scoring deals like you have. Good luck!

I see you have a 33/34 tudor in the background. What the plan for that?

 

The sedan is a super rough car too. It looks better than it is. One odd thing about it... I bought it from Morgan Wallen’s grand dad. Yeah the country star Morgan Wallen. Turns out his grand dad lives about 40 minutes from my house.

Not sure what I’m going to do with it. Just enjoying looking at it right now.


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having a 32 - 34 anything is money in the bank these days

 

Really like the way this is going.

 

Awsome ! I bought a complete 34 rolling chassis , got the 21 stud running and didnt have a frame for the 31 Chevrolet 3 window I was working on so I married the 31 Chevrolet 3 window to a 34 ford frame . Flathead came out a year ago for a rebuild which is now complete but the 283 sbc is running and too many other projects. Good luck
Gary MacDonald

 

Dedicated to the build and it's coming together great.
My friend here in the rust belt of New York recently picked up an incredibly nice car from a widower, he had known the family and about the car for a couple decades but they never wanted to sell, until he got the call one day.
It was taken apart around 1958 to hot rod with a nailhead, most parts were stored inside the building but the frame and engine were left outside and didn't fair to well. It was bought for an even lower price than yours, by a couple of grand if you can believe it, it's a hot rod build with a bit of power under the hood in the form of a tunnel rammed BBC, it's coming together rather nicely.
Good luck on yours.

 

Your friend’s car is in waaaay better shape than mine. Great find! Thanks for posting and for following along on my build.


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The cowl vent was rotted on the race car so I bought this old cowl from a guy in Iowa. That gives me a good cowl assembly and I’ll probably get a few patch panels out of it too. Only cost me 175 bucks plus 200 bucks shipping through Fastenal. So my new total on the whole build is 6,105.00. Oh and it came with an early Moon tank prototype.

 

don't tell dean that!!

 

Fenders or no fenders I'm watching.

 

'34 Ford coupes look great with or without fenders.

 

‘34 coupes do look great with or without fenders. This one won’t have any tho. The real question is stock grill or track nose?

 

I would suggest the stock grille. The '34 grill is one of the most distinctive grilles ever made and I think they look awesome.

My 2 cents...

 

Looking good

 

I'd always go stock grille on a '33 or '34 Ford myself. I think they're one of the best designed grilles of any '30's car.

 

A track nose can restrict air flow so I vote '34 grille

 

Calling @old school coupe to the front desk!???

 

Any updates? Great project!

 

Nice project!