Projects 48 ford sedan to business coupe

Are the passenger and driver wing window regulators the same? PM if you could. Thanks Chris.

 

No, they are a mirror image of each other. Drivers side on the left (sold it), two passenger sides on the right

 

It sounds like you have a good plan in the works! Trust me , I liked mine unchopped and thought about leaving it...probably would have been driving it for a few years now if I had left the damn body stock! The drip rails on mine looked ok, but were bad deep inside , not required for a custom , but definitely required if unchopped! I think you did great on purchase price , especially the coupe! You don't have to build a trunk lid from 3 at least! You will be surprised how quickly this swap can be mocked up. How solid is the bottom half of the sedan?


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Koolkemp, the sedan is really solid except for the rockers. They are actually salvageable but I am going with the 4x1 rockers as you did. I am going to use as much of the sedan body as patch panels as I can. Trust me....the trunk lid will be a challenge. It's missing the bottom 2-3 inches inside. I'm going to use my sedan trunk lid as a donor for pieces. I have sorry of a plan in my head for the drip rails. I'm going to use the sedan roof sides with the good rails till the roof line changes. I have to keep the header from the sedan as the coupe was completely shot. After where the short doors end, I'm going to cut the roof skin off and make the rest of the drip rails out of bent and sliced open brake/fuel line. Hard to explain. I will take pictures and accept the criticism as it comes. Then put the roof back on and spot weld it inside along where all three pieces lay on top of each other (lower body, drip rail and roof). Hopefully it all works out. I'm trying to find out what body code the coupe would be so I can order a weatherstripping kit. I already have the trunk metal cut and just have to bead roll it and it's ready. It's not a basket case but I am putting all new metal in it. Other than that the whole floor is actually really nice besides a spot here and there. I have really nice fenders all around and a decent hood. I have a welder, sheet metal brake, shrinker/stretcher and bead roller so I think I can do this. The lower part of the coupe body is a little crusty but workable. I'm at the mercy of the northeast weather due to no heat in the garage. Plus, I'm trying to get my dad's 62 comet painted and back together also. and here is the coupe as I found it and another side project for my brother....a RUPP mini GOJOE . Thanks for reading. BART

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I know I asked this already but I'm still stumped. The green mercury coupe I'm using for the swap, what would be the body code reference when ordering weatherstripping? I've looked at Kanter and they have body number designations for their kits. I'm a falcon guy and know that 63d is hardtop and 76d is convertible. Any help would be appreciated. I don't want to get the wrong flip out window gaskets or the likes. Thanks. BART.

 

Loving this project and loving the process you're using. A Mercury business coupe has to be a pretty rare bird!

I agree about the blast-last policy. A big pack of 80 grit DA sander disks takes a big percentage of rust and old paint and shit off, then it makes the sandblasting a lot easier and less risk of warpage. I think I would only use rust converter on some inside pieces that don't otherwise have any good access.

I'll be following along with this one, be sure to post progress pics.

 

Thanks Squablow. Would have really liked to have kept both cars as they were but the mercury was completely shot as stated earlier so what better thing to do with it than reincarnate it as a hybrid 48 business coupe. I really love the short door body lines and I especially love them unchopped. I wish the front sheetmetal and grille were with the mercury but the fenders were junk and the grille was long gone so it will get all of my 48 ford stuff out front. Still thinking of putting mercury tail lights in it but don't want to get too carried away mixing and matching. But I do really like the mercury triangular tail lights with stainless trim compared to the oval 48 ford ones. I have nice 48 ford ones so I may just stick with them. My biggest concern is with pulling off the 58 ford dash. This my first project like this so it is a fly by the seat of my pants thing. It may also get a 58 tbird console and seats if I can swing getting the parts car that I have my eye on. Other than that, it should look pretty much like the mercury coupe from the outside except for the front clip. Thanks for following along. Dash pictures should be coming soon even though it's in it's infancy stages yet. Had to add to the left side of the dash to line up steering column, section out of the middle and shorten overall so a lot had to happen to make it happy in the car. Plus, graft the upper part of the 48 dash to it to mount in back to below the windshield. BART.

 

As I promised....dash pictures. Be kind everyone. This is my first attempt at this kind of modification.

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You can see by the radio opening and speaker opening how much was taken out. Have to work a little on the gap left of the instrument panel opening. The picture makes it look worse than what it is but still needs work nonetheless. Thanks again for looking. BART.

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I also have a question....is there a need or want for the banjo rears and transmissions out of the 42-48 fords. I am replacing mine with a parallel leaf setup with 8.8 ford so I'll have the one out of my sedan and the other out of the coupe chassis. And both 3 speed transmissions. These cars aren't that popular around where I live so I don't want to scrap something that's usable. I don't usually junk stuff but don't have alot of storage room either. Once again....thanks for reading. BART.

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Yes. They are both worth saving in my opinion.

 

Dash work looks good so far. The transmissions are known as "side shift" and the internals fit into the more popular "top shift" cases so they have some value. The rears do as well. Not big bucks but certainly worth saving, offer them on craigslist or the classifieds here, someone will buy them or trade you something useful.

 

And so it begins.....

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Boy that looks familiar! You don't have enough rust though! Looking great, keep posting pics please. Wish I was there to help you for a day or two .


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Thanks Koolkemp....i hope I can pull it off. Plan is to keep it unchopped and put the rain gutters back on.

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Day two. As you can see somewhat from the pictures, I used the rear fender bolt holes to bolt together the new rear clip and the existing chassis. I cut the sedan roof off on the outside of the rear fender bolt holes and the business coupe rear clip on the inside of the bolt holes so I could bolt the two together and hopefully be pretty close with everything else. Now I will slice down between the two and weld them together. So far so good. The doors even lined up really well. A little shaking around and some final welds will be put into place. Thanks for looking.

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Keep going. I love this stuff

 

Thanks manyolcars. I really hope it turns out. I would really be ahead if I could find a trunk lid reasonable and somewhat locally. If not, ill have to go the koolkemp route and make a franken trunklid between the sedan and the really really crap coupe one.

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I wish you could come down also koolkemp. Could use some pointers. I'm going the more original look with a decent drivetrain and not a custom like you did. It will definitely be lowered by a couple inches.

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Looks like you thought it out before cutting ....that's looks amazing.....

 

Thanks choptop40. There is some rust issues I have to address and I have cut in the front section of the roof due to the header was completely gone on the coupe. It probably isn't the approach most would take but so far it's working for me. I'm going to cut and flange the roof above the doors and windshield. Thanks for watching. And.... by the way, I'm an IT computer guy and not a body man.

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Try hard to find a half decent one, that trunklid might have more hours than the chop! You are gonna have this all welded up before you know it.


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I was a photocopier tech who got dragged into IT when digital printing invaded the industry, I would rather work with the screwdriver than laptop any day that's for sure.


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The only saving grace for me is that I used to be a Ford mechanic at a dealership 30 years ago. I've always tinkered with cars so the mechanical part isn't what scares me. My son went to VOTECH for 3 years for auto collision and auto body so he gives me pointers but due to him being in an accident halfway through high school which broke his back and other injuries he just stuck it out pretty much knowing he couldn't do it for a lifelong occupation.

 

WOW!! Great start.. Keep it up...

 

Now that all of you see the body I'm dealing with, could someone tell me what body code it is so I can get a headstart on ordering weatherstripping for this thing including for stainless trimmed rear glass and flip out windows. Thanks.

 

Ok guys....... be kind. The wheels aren't staying..... just for mock up. I had to see it with some other sheet metal on it and lowered a little. So out came the front and rear springs. Going to reverse eye the front spring and go parallel leaf out of my junk 58 ford frame with a ford explorer rear. I wish someone would post or private message me a backyard parallel leaf setup. Once again..... thanks for watching. BART.

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looking good!!

 

Can't wait to get my sheet metal brake, shrinker/ stretcher and brad roller out to the garage. Then it's time to make panels.

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Man that dash looks rad!