1940 ford convertible coupe revival?????

after 20 plus years trying to buy this 40, the man finally let go,,maybe to late,, for the car n me,, need your input please,,, ill try to post some pics later, my junk computer doesnt seem to want to co-op erate, so the car is about 2ft away from the crusher,,cant do that,,so, i aquired a 40 2dr. sedan body, s.dakota,,rust free,, plans r to mount the sedan on my 40 conv. frame w/mounting kit,,and start cuttin,,n,, fittin??????? first question,, i want to use the cowl from the dakota body,, still intact to the rockers n floorpan,, ,good shape, need to use the top portion from the converible cowl,, looks like its 2 pc,, n spot welded ?? any suggestions? on seperating the 2 pc. cowl,,,its about one inch closer to the crusher,,,,,,someone hep me, hep me!

 

Congratulations, hope you can make it work and save a 40 convertible. Mine came out of Minnesota about 5 years ago, body all painted black, but missing a lot of convertible parts.
Good luck with it and also hope you can post pictures.

 

Couple pics for ya

 

Wow Don, you have your work cut out for you... Good luck.

 

Lots of work ahead of you but this should be interesting. The cowl is two piece and is both spot welded and bolted. They are not hard to take apart but require patience and several spot weld removals (firewall). All the welds are not obvious so keep looking when you think you have them all. The convertible cowls are scarce.

 

Do it, it's worth it. Unless you have a cold and clloused heart.

 

A neighbor of mine brought one like yours back from the brink several years ago. He also had to buy a Tudor to repair his car. It turns out that the Tudor doors, and rear quarter panels, are exactly the same length as the Convertibles. It took him several years, but the car turned out fantastic. Take a real close look at the Convertible cowl; I believe they are a bit different from closed cars where they attach to the frame.

If all else fails, it would make one hell of a "yard art" car.

Best of luck,

 

I don't know how much difference there is in the cowl area but the windshield structures are entirely different.

I have seen worse brought back to life. HRP

 

thanks for the imput u guys,, mike,, i hope to have ready for the spinout????haha,,so tonite we drilled out lots of spot welds, removed a couple bolts,,then on the inside of the cowl there is a bracket,on either side,,and rite along those brakets there is a parting line, where the top portion of the cowl meets the bottom section,,more spot welds,,we looked it over n time was late so didnt go any further,, scott to post pics

 

you can do it!

 

This is what mine looked like when i got it. With a good 2 door you can do it. Like the other man said is you got a lot of the convertible parts and that's the hard part to find. I haven't started on mine other than building an engine and gathering up all the missing or bad conv parts. Good Luck!

 

Look at Carpenter for the floors, rocker rails etc. He has most of those 40 parts. I used these on my 38 Cabriolet with some modifications and worked great. Good luck

 

i think it has a tri 55,rearend,would like to run 16in. ford whls, adapters mite make the whls to stick out to far to suit me, hate to change rearend,, may have to go to 8in. or 9in.,, waiting my turn to get this in the shop for the floorpan,cowl,swap, using the 40 2dr. s dakota body,, stitched together, i hope

 

The cowl is two piece and is both spot welded and bolted.

 

Here's a pic of the new cowl. Plan is to separate the windshield frame from the firewall and weld to the sedan firewall.

 

Looks as though it was an early '60's rod, judging by the '58-'60 Corvette t-lights in the mounted fenders. (A mod. I almost did on my '36 at the time).

What does the p.o. know of its history, and what's his feeble excuse for not at least putting it under cover!
Good luck with the project.

 

the car sat in a field 4 close to 20 yrs. he lost his storage ,never covered it up,,,so i talked to the man who is going to do the frankenstein work on this heap, n he says , about another 1-2wks before he can get it in his shop, cant wait to see this thru,,the car was once like a candy red???????? the vette tailites were leaded in,,had a white fire wall, 283,, 3 spd,, thats all i know, if anyone has info on the car let me k- no, the car i believe is from northern ohio,, maybe cleveland area,,,, ............do what he say! do what he say!

 

You should be able to save that. If it didn't break apart moving it then its solid enough to save.

 

I think you have a solid plan with the use of the donor car. Get the body mated together in one piece and doors and trunklid fitting before you tear into the actual build of the car. It's rough but this car is well worth the effort. I look forward to seeing updates on this one.

 

i am presently lookin for some parts, yesterday a friend of mine sold me a decent set of runnin boards,,got the top bows workin, the motors r there but, probably will need work, i appreciate all the encouragement on this heap, " he's all mine,, so stay out of the way"

 

Brought the donor tudor body home today. some quick mock up work and it looks like a hotrod already

 

fri. afternoon we took the conv. out to lordstown to this guys shop,, same day picked up the donor, buddy of mine said the sedan is to nice to cut,,build it instead of the convertible,, hang it in the rafters ,do it some other day,, ?????????? i think ill stick to the plan,,hate to have it carved up,, but, its gettin late to come bac to.

'' you sounded a little taller on radio''

 

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh,now this IS going to be fun.
Good luck.Have fun.Be safe.
Leo

 

B.S.
I have a very nice '40 sedan but you can find one anytime! Build the 'vert'. I'd kill for one and do a body change.

Larry

 

You can get 16" wheels for the rear end from Wheelsmith.

 

I have the twin to your project and also a very nice sedan to cut up. I decided not to use the sedan stuff when Drake/Carpenter made the 40 coupe. you can get floors, rear quarters, lower cowl pieces from Carpenter or drake. The tudor floors are way different in the trunk area. I would keep the doors of the sedan to fix the convert doors. I would use the convert cowl and repair it; there are many key differences from closed car cowls.

 

the sedan is solid, i agree theres more of those available than the conv. not to mention ive wanted this car 20 yrs ago,, got ta do it, or at least try.

'' ive been in high speed pursuit for over 700 miluuuues''

 

Looks like a real fun project-----best of luck. My dream car.

 

"Much Luck" on ya !!

 

My fauxvertible project is well documented elsewhere on the HAMB (http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=661072), and it's way too far along to turn back, but I'm curious about your comment above. We have used the coupe cowl, and modified the windshield frame to closely replicate a postwar convertible, but how else does the '40 convert cowl differ from the coupe?