Projects modern greenhorn’s ‘28 Coupe build

id fix it

 

@nunattax thanks - that’s what I’m up to

a bit of light sanding and a quick coat primer - looks sooo much better as a healthy rim again - will work more on the trim bands and in future color coord the wheel to a final car color



still more fiddling and see what I will / can do with the pitted chrome ring and centre plastic - currently in a tub of paint thinner -

I may ‘mix and match with another wheel like the merc to the left ... it has far less cracking or damage and is next in line to restore



it’s chrome ring is much nicer and fits into the ‘46 wheel interestingly too -



or I might try without any horn ring at all - we will see - any opinions welcome



lots of learning and considering continues in the background for the full build - more to come - cheers

 

Ok ... I know ... this is not a steering wheel thread - working slowly on planning for the real efforts and trying to meet and connect with good guys in the area for advice and assistance in finding some parts to rebuild my ‘28 as ‘traditionally’ as I can

if any of you are in the Vancouver / Maple Ridge BC areas and are willing to reach out with a bit of guidance or some spare parts for sale please do - I’d love to meet more of you in the community

back to the first wheel restoration - the ‘46 super deluxe center button was too far gone to restore ‘as new’ so for now I’ve primered it like the wheel - to maybe receive paint as main body color or trim down the road



the pitted chrome ring is growing on me but I’ve been told there is a shop in area that can clean that up - will give them a call

now to get on to the ‘49 Mercury Meteor wheel and this week likely start my gas tank restore, gauges rebuild and maybe work some on the coupe doors - more of the ‘little’ or secondary ‘to-dos’ as I sort out chassis and body major efforts

 

Wow - six months since I was fiddling with my steering wheels

just adding an entry to keep some momentum up and to track my build albeit it is still pretty slow

I have befriended a chap here who has been incredibly helpful teaching me and helping me with some parts and advice for my traditional build

I have picked up a tardel 32 k member, F1 shock mounts and F1 column, an original 30 coupe seat with adjustable slider (didn’t know if it would fit in my 28 coupe but as you can see from the pictures I was very happy to find that it did ) a 39 shifter and so far on two attempts 39 tower tops but as of yet not the right larger shifter fork inside - and some other bits

also picked up some beanie or Baldy ‘type hubs’ - i’ve never come across originals and if I did I am pretty sure they would be quite pricey – I don’t know what these are but for now they look cool and I got lucky in that they have the same outside diameter as Ford hubs and sit right over top of The ford caps – I am thinking of cutting the bottom flange off those caps and mounting these to them for now - The guy I pick them up off of said they are very old and came off of his 50s dodge trailer - Nice thick steel and chromed too

hopefully getting some nicer replacement original doors as all though mine are not too bad - someone over the years did a pretty large lap weld along the bottoms and welded the top rails on too – so I will try and improve on that

have removed many of the items off of the frame and then some inventory on where minimal bodywork will be needed - inner wheel wells and bottom edge rear quarters - and although likely not necessary – I am going to try and get all of the sub rails at front and back replaced or repaired better

keeping at it ‘behind the scenes’ and enjoying every minute of it and all of the learning that goes along with

here are some pictures – as always any comments and opinions welcome please and thanks

 

Another minor update - still collecting parts behind the scenes

finally found a proper larger shifter fork after opening up three ‘39 top loaders only to find ground out forks

picked up body blocks and a top wood kit (still need the front wood header - it was missing)

also got the front metal header and an original top window hinge in better shape than mine (someone had chopped mine to put a larger wiper motor in)

decided to go back and re-evaluate my doors - I was considering finding replacements as mine had lap weld bottom patches and a boat load of as yet unworked bondo - the doors are really solid so I took it as an opportunity to learn a bit about blocking and bodywork - spent some time starting to sand down / remove the excessive filler - I think I can get them very nice with a bit of guidance and lots of elbow grease and patience

There are two large indents in driver door belt line - will need to pull those out and lead or fill

also need to grind / break a couple of welds on door top rail and then drill recap for proper fastening from tops again

planning on disassembling the whole body to work on all the panels - and put on new subrails properly - will also allow me to investigate the chassis and begin all the work needed to get it and running gear corrected / changed to the way I want it

baby steps ... but steps all the same

 

with that much to sand in the center of the door you should probably invest in a "Long board" (google them) and watch some youtubes on the best way to use them.

 

@loudbang

thanks loudbang - and yes I am looking into dura-block products - was thinking of going with their 24” block - not sure if I need a longer one - but proving a bit challenging finding anyone who carries the long strips of sandpaper to go with locally

 

Bought my long block and rolls of paper on Amazon.

 

@Aaron D. - thanks Aaron – I will look that up - I wish I could make progress like you – your threads and videos were so inspiring and are excellent and very helpful by the way I keep going back to them over and over

so much to learn – but I will get there eventually

 

Enjoying the updates.
Just like eating an elephant, little bites will get it done.

 

My advice on the doors would be to just reskin them. I would get rid of that lap weld and all that mud.

Also, on the dents in the beltline. I just had to get out a pretty good crease out of my drivers door. If you can get a dollie behind it. You can pull it right up.




Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

Thanks Man, I appreciate the kind comment.

 

Ok - a bit more progress AND an exciting dilemma I need some opinions on

slowly dismantling my coupe to right some wrongs - every nut, bolt or fastener is a battle to remove!

took forever to simply get my trunk deck off - but success, and when I did I realized that two curious dings on its top edge were from ... previous owner using a 30’ 31’ top gutter rail and crap metal screws instead of the ‘28 ‘29 proper rail and fasteners

I also realized he had used an inner lower trunk insert for a rumble set up - my ‘go to’ parts buddy had the proper lower insert (but I believe I am missing a top right angle inner trim) so I’m figuring how that goes in correctly

and although my front cowl setup was pretty solid - as with the rest of the car, the sub rails are a mess - or what’s left of them and the front bracket brace pairs ... so I also picked up a beautiful original and complete cowl assembly to swap in

We set aside a ‘27 t rear spring to help lower my car - he said can help drop rear by 3-4”, And another f1 box to compare w the one I have

so bit by bit

and as for the ‘exciting dilemma’ - locally a Facebook ad post offered up a ‘49? ‘51? Flathead - possibly Mercury? And it’s bits and pieces - Earlier in this thread I believe I had shown the clean ‘34 engine I had intended to use - which I love the look of and the fact it’s not like ‘every other’ flathead (aka maybe a bit less common) ... but now I am torn ... which should I go with?!? Unique early look or more evolved / improved design, with more hp and speed part options? And along w that ... stay w ‘39 top load and closed torque tube, or the later side load trans and open drive shaft? Thoughts and opinions please!?

 

Working through some more stuff today - was trying to sort out if a Borg Warner overdrive will mate to the 8cm if I go that route?

would like to use the gears from the grey trans - very clean - and put them in the red case w overdrive? But not sure yet if I can do a straight swap and everything will play nice – any comments or advice welcomed as usual! Not sure what the Id is of either and if they are interchangeable ?



Here is the overdrive and the two side by side







my buddy also passed me a nice vintage pair of aluminum headlight mounts ! - I spent a few minutes on one to see how nice they will look when polished properly -

 

If for no other purpose than to keep this documented for myself down the road, adding a bit of an update here which a few others might find entertaining again.

After the last post I spent a fair bit of time trying to determine if the 51 flathead I acquired was a Ford or Mercury. For a clueless rookie like myself that was a great exercise, and some posts on Facebook, just like the feedback I get here were very helpful as I stumbled along. It turns out that it appears the engine is a Ford with Mercury heads for some reason? With the heads off there did not seem to be any visibly noticeable cracks to the block, and as my budget won’t allow for it the next step is simply to get the motor Cleaned up and sealed back up properly and fired up with fingers crossed- as it was turning over nicely and everything inside looks pretty good. At some point in the past it had been bored over 0.60.

The oil pan has been removed and cleaned, along with the inner oil filter and I am just putting a new gasket set up in before I button the bottom side - question – is there anything special to do when putting in the gaskets around the oil pan?

I also got some schooling on different rims – and was able to find some 4 inch 40 forde and another pair of wider ones ... hoping the rear ones I have on my car currently are also 4 inch 40s - fronts are currently 15 inch which are also a nice option to keep.

During this time I had a line on a McCulloch vs57 supercharger - but when it arrived it was missing some of the main bits, which I know can be quite pricey, so I have decided to not go down that path. I am still on the fence about running the Borg Warner overdrive unit or not. I would like to stick with the Top-loader - I’m not sure I can mate the two? I did find the bell housing adaptor for the 8ba to earlier transmission however.

And today was a very big day for me in the scheme of my very simple and slowish (compared to others amazing work) build as my buddy helped me trailer my chassis and the remainder of my body which I haven’t dismantled yet, out to his barn where I will be able to work on it properly (I have been removing as many parts as I could so they were easier to work on and transport to sandblaster etc. etc.)

Also below are a few pictures of some other random goodies I have picked up here and there for inspiration or that might end up on the build - A beautiful chrome horn ring for the first steering wheel I was restoring, and another ‘classic’ hot rod wheel, with a later 50s nice translucent ivory centre button I am thinking of using along with it - and two sets of matching paired ‘50s license plates for here in British Columbia - my two favourite colours schemes of plates for that decade.

At any rate, I am truly enjoying learning as I go and appreciating the process of each step… Slowly but surely!

 

Good start. Good luck.

 

What are you missing for the VS57? I recently saw that someone has just cast the brackets and fabricated the tensioner, pulley, and spring assembly for the VS57 to be setup on a flathead.

What's the story with the horn button for the 40 Ford steering wheel? Looks cool.

 

Vs57 was missing the tensioner arm and main pulley - and may have likely also needed a rebuild so $$$ - I will go back to high-rise manifold of some sort as that was the original goal

as for the horn button - I really don’t know what it would have come off of but I believe it to be early 50s “new logo’ for Ford - I seem to recall it might’ve been from a Canadian issue aftermarket wheel possibly? But not sure

At any rate I liked the look of it and at one point even considered may be putting a light behind it

 

Nice work on the steering wheel.

 

Thanks - not sure which one I will use yet or what colour it will eventually be - but good to have options

as I am new to all of this most of it is really daunting so doing a little projects at least feels like some progress and achievement along the way

 

Beautiful dropped ‘35 axle was waiting today