Hot Rods A '46 Ford Coupe joins the flock

At least they didn't sand it off before painting it, nice find.

 

...that car is about perfect in my book, don't get too carried away on it,...try to buff down to those firewall pinstripes if you can...cool car.

 

A time capsule... drive it and fix it up as you go, then decide what you want to do. Paint will be a tall pole since it is badly cracked. The body seems to be amazingly straight.

 

I love the way the car sits...either way really, but probably prefer the smaller tires up front. I really like the way the rear tires fill the fender...what size are the rear tires? Thanks!

 

BZNRAT- Rear tires are L78-15

bobss396-That's the plan, to do a little at a time. Just a big chunk right now while waiting for the radiator. I know I would have been less likely to deal with the interior while it's drivable, so doing that now. There are other items on the list. I need to figure out a parking/e-brake system. The exhaust is kinda hodge podge, but it works for now. The rear radius arms hit the frame under full compression. I have a set of '36 ford radius rods and adapter plates to solve that. I don't think any of those changes are out of line. The only real visual change may be a 4 barrel carb and batwing aircleaner. I am also thinking about the 48-51 Hudson Pacemaker lights I have laying around.

 

Updates! So the radiator top decided it didn't like to hold pressure on my first real drive. That was in late September. It was an original one for a flathead that was modded for the Hemi and repaired along it's life. I figured it was best to retire it and went with a new one. I wanted Walker but just couldn't take the plunge. I went with a custom Afco aluminum one that took an eternity to get. After install, I found that the carbon seal on the water pump was gone! Another weird turn of events. Ordered a Desoto Hemi pump on the auction site. The bolt spacing was smaller than what I have. So I sent my core to 73RR for a swap out. It turns out the snout on my original was way long and all the pulleys were spaced out to work with that pump. Luckily I just removed the spacers and all is good there WHEW! On to updates I plunge.
Battery is hard mounted for the first time ever I think. I see no signs of a previous hard mount., and the 36/37 rear radius rods mounted. YES I cut the spring perches off. they were badly damaged and will work for this. Now the generator is overcharging the battery and another domino falls... Powergen is on order. Oh and the rear wheels are old chrome painted black.

 

Nice coupe. Love the interior very clean nicely done.
Great pics. Thanks for sharing!

 

Haven't updated this in a long while. After I got the cooling system back up and running, I dove into the electrical. It's getting A full harness. The original stuff was just too far deteriorated to safely keep in there. I had it back up and running, but it started smoking pretty heavily on the passenger side. Pulled the heads and found pitting in the #2 piston bore. So, the engine's gotta come out for a rebuild. Like any other Hot Rodder, of course I am not going to put it back stock. This just got a little more expensive than I thought it was going to be. But that's hot rodding. I also updated the ignition to an MSD distributor and I hid the box. There is a HotHeads 4 barrel intake and 500CFM carb for new induction. I loosely mocked that up for clearance checks before the heads came off. Digging into the original build I have found the Desoto to 39 Ford trans adapter is a Cragar part. The flywheel is aluminum, and the front engine mounts are Hurst. Once the engine comes out for the rebuild. I'll clean all of that up as well as anything else that needs attention in the engine bay. Does anyone have experience with the Sanderson tight fit headers on these Desoto Hemi engines? The steering box is a little close, and I am hoping they might tuck in there. Wow this thing snowballed on me.

 

Finally took the time to pull the engine. Finding interesting stuff. One of the lifters was not like the other 15 and shorter to boot. Not only is the flywheel aluminum but so is the clutch, both Sheiffer brand. Something let loose in the bell housing sometime in the past. I would love to know the story. I am thinking the 291 it currently has is a drop in replacement and it had something with a bit more power. Either that, or the adapters and clutch were on a race car and swapped into the '46... Fun stuff digging in and finding this stuff. Hopefully the clutch is still good and the flywheel insert is re-surfacable. The disc should be standard flathead ford replacement, so.. Now I gotta tear into the bottom end and send it off to the machine shop.

 

Been a while for an update. WHEW. Stupid COVID shutdown isn't helping with speed on this. Regardless. One sleeve in the block. All 8 punched .060 over, and other boring engine details happening. Ross pistons showed up last week. They are domed for 10:1. Waiting on piston rings now. A step or two closer to engine reassembly.