Projects trying to save an oval track 1940 Ford Jalopy

To all the "your cutting up history" guys. If the car he started with looked like that Hudson posted above, Then I would agree with you.

This car is no where near that. It has no traceable history or provenance other than its an old race car. I'd rather see the clear safety issues it has in the frame and other areas fixed. He does want to drive it, so why shouldn't it be safe?

Not to mention there is another ongoing thread on a '33 that started out life as a racer , was rebuilt and made street legal as such, BUT is slowly being transformed to a traditional looking rod (way more rod than racer now in my opinion) and no one is really giving that guy crap about it.

Not everything has to stay "patina" and as found...one thing my wife was actually right about. There are some things I would do differently too, but I don't believe he is killing what the car is.

Of course this is just my opinion.

Looking good Mike. Keep up the great work resurrecting the old car, and making it into something that could be enjoyed by driving it.

https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/33-5w-jalopy-rebuild.1044709/

 

Onward & upward. You are doing good work and working hard at saving an old car that could easily have passed into history. You are giving the car another run at life so no matter what your final build looks like you have given it life. Many HAMBERS have taken old cars that were melting into a field or gathered up salvage to piece together a good car. That's as traditional as it gets. Thumbs up !

 

I think some people should go back to the start of this thread. Mike said at that time he wanted to build a circle track style car from the 50's 60's era that he could drive on the street. Unless he has changed his mind I think that's still his goal. I follow the 33- 5w thread and that is amazing job. Its very cool and ambitious but isn't the same kind of build at all other than they both started with ex racecars. Good luck with # 4or14. I hope you paint it on the door.

 

Mike's plodding along thru rust, neglect, and poor workmanship by the POBs. (previously owners & butchers) He's cut terminally rusted and badly welded 'mods' off, patched holes, and renovated rusted-thru slabs of frame, and cross member fellows.
I doubt he's going down the path of 'goodguise' and 'street rodders', this will be a street driven car with obvious marks of its 'race car' heritage. Racecar. Spell it backwards. Hey!
It's still RACECAR. See? He hasn't wrecked anything.

 

There was a thread on here earlier and the question was "What part of this hobby to hate the most???"...mine is tearing stuff apart....grinding torching hammering grinding torching hammering breaking drill bits rounding off nuts...all this tearing stuff apart drives me crazy... I would rather buy something all tore apart than spend hours and days grinding torching hammering breaking stuff off...
I had the day off...so I spent it doing what I hate most....grinding torching hammering...
I did get the frame torque box taken out and prepped for a new and improved torque box coming from "40ragtopdown" on here....I love the whole "righty tighty" much more that I do the whole "lefty loosey"...also ordered some parts from Pete and Jakes...shocks and springs and such...so not a bad day really...just I wore out 4 grinding discs and burned through a bunch oxy-acetylene getting stuff pulled out...oh yeah...bought another 3 speed...this one seems more complete than the first "free one"...

Oh yeah..I can move this frame all by myself...well with a little help from a refrigerator dolly....

MikeC

 

Mike, your doing good!...torching and cutting and grinding is all part of the journey,I firmly believe that the journey is more fun than the destination!...and as much as I LOVE restored and period correct hotrod 40 FORDs I love vintage racecars as well. A vintage 3/4 ton quickchange rear with a differential in and any gear ratio you can imagine would be TITS in your car!

 

Like the thread title change, LOL

Looking great Mike. I look forward as it progresses.

 

Never dealt with this but this doesnt seem like the rite answer???
So what are you doing here? buying new or different ones?

 

What Corn Fed said......and you can look up Don Garlits history on his Ford coupe tow car......but guess your building a resto mod dirt tracker....my dit track 32 frame was a sweet view on historical built early track cars.......

 

I love this build. As a teenagers we would go to Middletown New York to the races on Saturday night. It was wild. Cars going end over end the noise, dust and stopping at the Red Apple rest on the way home.Do you think the guy that built that car thought somebody would be working on 50 years later What great memories.

 

Will Cagle used a Sam Browne harness late into his career. Maybe his whole career. Not the safest thing but I saw him using one as late as 1985.
Full floaters were the hot ticket at many tracks, dirt or asphalt. Bread step-vans were good choices since they were narrower than other trucks at the time. Racers made their own wheels and ran the 8-lug rears as is, maybe only welded up the spiders. Crawl under a potential donor, decode the tag and find the ratio you were after.

 

I saw a modified go over the fence on Wisner Avenue (turns 1 & 2) and come back later in the race.

 

Love the way you are going with this! Make it safe and street able. Would look great with circle track bumpers on the front and sides, screen in front of the grill...

 

I hope you can keep the 40 spring in front set up. There are a couple of ways to handle splitting the wishbones. Instead of bending the whole arm like yours was you can just heat and bend the spring mount. That's how it was done on my car.

 

That car is just like the old days. Awesome build style.

 

Here was my old roundy round from Fresno

 

I've seen a few of those old dirt track/roundy cars rebuilt to replicate their glory days. I have to admit, that even the guys who built them originally, threw out the roll bars, the arc welded suspension components, & Other torch cut pieces, because they wanted to maintain the heritage, but, they also didn't want to die driving it. I'd say, build it the way you want. It's a 40 ford after all.

 

Hey low budget...just trying to take things apart..I found out this morning the correct way to take these things apart is with a press...which at the present time I don't have one...so I find someone online who can sell me these parts already apart...makes it was easier from my perspective...
MikeC

 

I got mine apart with a torch, two pipe wrenches, and a BFH. I don't know why but that style of perch pin is very hard to come by and $$$. But you don't need if you make a different lower shock mount.

 

I spent the whole day Friday in the beating down sun with torches and big hammers and all kinds of other stuff...finally I gave in...sometimes writing a check for parts that already apart...makes it go back together quicker...

So I was out staring at the heap and figured out since the transmission I am planning on using foiir it was juts sitting there why no try to mount the shifter on to it and at least make it seem like I got something done this weekend... this one even came with a shifter too...
All I have been told is it came out of a Chevy car or maybe a light duty truck from the 1960's...not really period correct but my first race car I ran was a 6 cylinder 3 speed (1967 Chevy Camaro) and so this old heap will be too...Sixes have such a cool sound to them when you wind them up....

 

More time in the garage...
I keep forgetting where this old hot rod came from...my last 4 builds have all come from California or New Mexico...this old heap is either PA or Southern NY...lots of moisture...lots of salt...so we soldier on...found some really thin areas in the inner frame area where it kicks up the back....
old crusty stuff coming out....I gotta say old Henry Ford made some tough cars...as thin as this stuff was the rivets were holding everything tight...
New stuff all tacked in place....
All better now...once the heap is up on its feet again I will weld the top side on it...
So I could not figure out why the 3 speed was locking in 2 and 3 at once....called the fellow who dropped off all those 3 speed parts... Above picture is how NOT hook up 2nd and 3rd gear...
All better...this is how it is supposed to look....cleaned up the bell housing too...took hours of scraping...I have never seen Chevy blue on a bell housing before but I will take it...
baby steps...
MikeC

 

its his car! everybody needs to ease back in their barcaloungers and take a breath lol. i love history, i love the preservation of history, mostly i love driving old cars though. i totally dig where hes going with his build, not that how i feel matters. letting crap keep rusting in the yard isnt preserving history its letting it die, just my 2 cents. if it was mine those split windows would be going in and id be sourcing everything to take it almost back to stock/period rod. its not mine. i appreciate the hell outta the direction of the build

 

That's really funny. I too ran a 67 Camaro stock car but with a 307 and a 3 speed. In fact the rear end under my roadster is from that car.

 

I love how the this thread title has evolved!

 

A little inspiration for you.....

 

neat find and I like the direction you're going.

About 20 years ago I was in Mt Orab, OH to deliver a Model A gas tank to a guy, and out back he had a dozen or more jalopy race cars...all early 30s coupes and as rough as OP's car or worse. I got tunnel vision for a Challenger parts car he had for sale and to this day I still kick myself for not looking more closely at the other cars. Sold him a $75 tank and spent $500 on the car...

Some folks on here may know the place - just off Route 68. I couldn't find him again if I tried LOL.

Thanks also for the Timken axle tech. Side note - does anyone know of any good reference sites or books for 1960s and earlier circle track chassis design? I've looked for years and all I seem to find are vague references to "stock car hubs" and "taxi brakes".

 

Had a 2 hour window....and Mr. Postman left me a note...so I scooted down to the post office...and picked up this...
then 2 hours later...we went from this...
to this...

So the old roundy round frame is so out of square but now this ole bomb has at least one part that is straight and tight...this beautiful piece in the above picture...thanks 40ragtopdown...the workmanship is top notch...

Oh shoot....I almost forgot...the big brown Santa Claus dropped off some goodies from Peculiar MO....

Starting laying out rear hangers...wish me luck....
they shorted me a part but they told me they would put it in the mail today...

I am still not sure if this old heap is a girl or a boy...it has not driven me off the deep end yet....still thinking about it...

MikeC

 

Round here we call it the Brown Clown.

 

I don't know if this is really true or not but I remember old guys back in the early 60's talking about building jalopy cars saying that they used to take these frames and run one corner of them into a brick wall ( I think maybe the rear right) to twist the frame on purpose? I doubt if you would want that on the street thou lol.

 

That one is rough, but totally saveable!