Projects 1939 Ford Convertible Sedan Resurrection

Thanks PatSurf it wasn't easy to bend and it was to long for my HF break to do the front piece that runds up to the floor so I made a separate piece (not pictured here) that will be fit and welded in later.

 

We decided we should replace the bottom section of the inner fenders before we could attache the new floor supports. Here are some sometimes random pictures of that process.

I don't think we will put this piece I am holding back on the car. It just looks like a place
to store mud and make rust.



Do you guys think they were using salt on the roads in New York in the 40's and 50's?
Sure looks like it from the rust damage I am seeing on this car.

The copper piece is made from smashed/flattened piece of 3/4 inch copper pipe. It
comes in handy for holding pieces , dissipating weld heat and when applied behind an
open hole a good backing for welding up that hole. The weld metal does not stick to it.

hand formed using the old piece as a form.

This corner just had a small hole to begin with but just evaporated when I touched it
with the welder so a patch had to be made. I find this to be a very common thing on
stamped panels like this. The metal must get stretched pretty thin when being formed.

I read something interesting on the HAMB about this particular blister on the drivers side.
Apparently it is there to allow room to remove and install the fuel tank when the body is still
on the car. I can remember fighting for quite awhile to remove the poly fuel tank from my coupe
years ago, and it did need that extra room provided by that blister to get the tank far enough to
one side to get it past the frame rail.

Little magnets come in handy for holding small pieces for tack welding. Just remember
to move them out of the way before welding. They tend to fragment or burst if you weld
too close to them.



We put the fenders on to make sure the patch was fitting correctly ans to hold the patch
in place while welding.

I didn't go crazy on metal finishing these pieces. They need to be solid , not beautiful .
They will receive a little bondo though when get to that painting stage of the project.

 

Mine was similar, no salt.


My solution is a little different. This pic is in progress/unfinished and will be a non original pan due to the custom nature of the project:

 

Your shop doesn't match the Tub, but it will make saving it a lot easier with all that room and organized tools. Bob

 

That does look familiar. You are way ahead of me on that section of the car. I will have to rebuild the bottom of the trunk lid also. I have already had some close calls on that sharp bottom edge corner . I think I will round that off also. I don't know why ford didn't make the bottom edge rounded off in the first place.... Sure would have looked better since the top corners of the CS trunk is already rounded off.

That's true Kid it doesn't match but it hasn't always been that way. We spent most of the summer remodeling and reorganizing what is called the south shop or work bay of the the 30 by 60 shop space I feel very fortunate to have.I acquired the shop just after I bought the CS Sedan project and moved into it before we actually moved into the house. it has been under heavy use ever since.

I converted the North side of the shop from a dirt floored shed to a deluxe man cave finished car storage over the last two years. Since the south (work bay) has been under continuous use building I couldn't fix it up so when we finished Don's car I decided i would take a building break and organize the work space for better work flow and install some better lighting so us old guys could see what we are doing without stand lights all around us.

So lets take a short break from the build and show off the shop a little. Like I say I feel very fortunate to have the shop and could not have afforded the changes without doing a lot of help from friends. I certainly could not have afforded contractors even if i could get them to come and look at the project.

Kind of messy, and the wooden bench was only partially covered with a steel top.

This bench area is now covered with 20 feet of 16 gauge steel counter top. reorganized the
wall mounted tool storage too. Much more efficient. I still find it hard to put the tools away
where they are supposed to be, but I try to put them away at the end of each work session.

I wish I had taken a picture of the mess that this wall was before the reorganization.
This is 200% better. than it was.

I took a sliding door out here when remodeling the North side of the shop 2 years ago.
I had never used the door and preferred to have a nice wall to stack parts and tools. So
this wall had to be finished this summer.

The old lighting was a mix of florescent and LED lights in a mixed arrangement.

Just starting to sort through stuff. Threw some out , sold some and still have more to
sell or give away.

This section of the 356 x 30 work space had old 1/8" paneling in a honey colored tone.
After replacing three of the panels and filling a lot of holes it was painted white. It took
several coats of primer and paint to soak up the dirt , seal and cover this old paneling.

I added about 28 inches to the top of my metal rack so I could store clamps on it and
better organize the sheet metal and various steel stock.

we have been enjoying this new configuration already.

My salvaged kitchen cabinets before painting and this half of the ceiling had sheet rock
on it that had never been painted or taped It was pretty rough. took three and sometimes
four coats of paint to cover the yellowed paper.I am thankful for the 4 days of work my
neighbor put into making this long put off part of the project happen.

Made some new drawers for the former sink area.

The new grey paint really improves the look of thesesold 1970's cabinets. I had the local steel
vendor bend the new steel top for this cabinet.

The new welding bench was made from the rear end stand/ rotisserie I build for working
on my 9 inch rear end during my 40 coupe project. and a steel tailgate off a friends utility
trailer .

The cord reals have been up there for years. There are four of them and they come in very handy.

A good shot of the lighting.We installed 22 LED lights purchased from COSTCO.
It's like working outside on a sunny day.


Old belt driven lathe form the mid 1920's I think. It works pretty good for as old as it is,
kind of like the operator.

One shot of the North Shop, from dirt floored shed to show area. I don't spend as much time
as i would like but enjoy it when I can It measures 30 x 26 and has a ceiling on one side of 12'6"
for the lift. Oh yeah and it has floor heat.

Well that's the tour of my play space. I am glad those big projects are behind me The North shop
took around two years to build. We worked on it sporadically in between don's Merc projects and
sorting out my 40's engine and transmission problems. I didn't show you this to brag but I am proud
of it enjoy sharing it with my car buddies when ever they come over. I'm livin the dream as some guys say.

 

Real inspiration, makes me want to hang a few more sheets of sheet rock in mine. That would require moving a 4x8 section of stuff under the area, maybe some time this winter. Bob

 

Looking forward to seeing more progress, a big project for sure. I’ve just been doing the rear quarters, tool box and pan on my Sedan. I used an EMS tool box, modified a lot for my sedan, and made inner fender repair panels and rear quarter repair panels. Just got those on yesterday.

 

Thanks Bob, having a nice comfortable place to work can really improve your desire to get out of the old lazy boy recliner and spend more time in the shop. Now if I could just remember where I relocated all of those tools and parts too

Wow , you are doing some nice work there. Thanks for posting your pictures. That wire form idea is new to me. I will have to give it a try.

 

A great shop for a guy doing great work, thanks for sharing.

 

Awesome!!! It’s really good to see you are back Sam!

Great shop you have there and what a challenging build! I wish you good luck and a shitload of determination. I’ll be checking out all your posts.

 

Great looking shop area, quality work abounds.

 

Reminds me of the Dean Jeffries Manta Ray build. Bob

 

Thanks okiedokie, We have been struggling with the great work part but the shop has been a pleasure to work in this month.

Thank you ctwigt! We are back and working but not posting much. I hope that changes soon.

Thanks i.rant, we are working on that quality part. Quantity is pretty low right now.

Neilswheels sure had good success with this method.He mentioned that this section of the car took him 5 months to do........ I hope it doesn't take us that long.

It's hard to believe it has been a month since I last posted on this project. We have been busy..... We have struggled with the complexity of the repairs needed on this rear quarter of the car. Besides being busy with other things I find it hard to write progress reports when it seems like we are taking one step forward and then 3/4 of a step backwards which actually equals a crawl.

So lets see if we can catch up with the little progress we have made.


We kept the body on it's C pillars for most of the repairs to the bottom of the inner fenders.





We bolted on the fenders to aid with placement and clamping of the new pieces.

This was a strange place for a rust hole but there it had to be addressed. The metal seemed
to be pretty thin in this area. I think it may be because of the amount of metal forming
needed to make these complex shapes in those huge presses at the Ford plant

Used a hole saw to cut out the rusty area.

I like to use magnets to hold my new pieces in place for tacking. If you use magnets for this
Make sure you do not touch them with the welder tip. They tend to explode.

Welded it with the mig.


While the body is sitting on it's C pillars we continued welding in patches

Metal finished.


Fuel fill tube replaced

With most of the bottom edge of the inner fenders patched we cut the trunk floor out.

With considerable effort I dug the old chassis out of it's dusty shed storage spot.


This frame has some structural rust damage but is good enough to build the body on.

It is a genuine convertible frame. Her there is not much difference between it and a closed car frame
but you can see the small brace located just behind the front part of the X member on bot sides They are located just behind the cowl are are intended to stiffen that area reducing cowl shake.I intend to sell this frame after the car is built and titled.

So it was time to start putting the new floor in. I had some trouble finding a trunk floor kit for this car.They don't make a kit for this convertible sedan body. After consultation with a tech guy at Absolute Sheet Metal I ordered a trunk floor kit #371060 for a 39 / 40 sedan.

I opened the box up and laid out the parts and spent hours looking at it trying to figure out how this kit could work in my Sedan Convertible. It turns out some of the parts would work and some not.

Typical Sedan Floor with spare tire mounted on the bulk head.

This is a typical sedan trunk which has a spare tire notch in it.


My car did not have the spare tire notch ( nice and flat as seen above) So I sent Absolute sheet (The new company making Bitchin Parts). them detailed email with some of the pictures posted here to see if I could order just a couple of parts from kit 371050 for 37/38 Ford Standard Sedan and Coupe to complete my floor. I ended having to keep all of the parts from the first kit 37160 but they worked with me and sent the parts I asked for from kit 371050. Had to pay for them of course, but I now think I have the right parts to make the flat floor I want and need.





That's enough for tonight. I already have hundreds of pictures for this project and have to sort through them and try to maintain some sort of order to the story. Hang in there and I will try to get better about reporting as we go.

 

Making some progress on your tub, looks good. JW

 

Looking good! I like following projects with clean metal, the neat shop with lots of room is another big plus. Bob

 

A proper Custom 39 tub chopped 3 in, nosed, decked, Carson Top, Desoto bumpers 16 in wheels tires and Ripple Disk hubcaps, lowered, radiused front fenders, painted truck running boards, Teardrop fender skirts. My first tub now owned by Tom Zinke. Some ideas for you to consider on your build, for me stock tubs don't make it, they just look funny like stock tops on 40 convertible coupes, way too much top. Chop Chop. JW

My current tub with 40 delux front end also Chopped

Suggesting things for your tub, Chop Chop. JW

 

Sam, I've put off ready this post till now. I knew it would be a good one after following your other builds and it is. I have a '40 Merc 4dr Sedan convert in very much the same condition of yours and have owned it since 2004.
I gave in to my curiosity decided to read about your project. Now I'm itching to get started on mine, but I need to finish my'40 coupe first. Hopefully following your progress will keep me working on the coupe so I can start on the convert in 2021.
Looking forward to following your progress.

Keith

 

Yep crawling ahead....

Thanks The37Kid ! I do like to work on clean stuff when I can. Keeping the shop clean and orderly just makes it more pleasant to work and the space has been wonderful. Don wants to bring his Jeep into the shop for some new brakes and other projects so some of that room is going to be lost for awhile. It will have to go when the paint booth goes back up though.

John Lee I really do like your Tubs I like the tail dragger look and skirts too. I am still leaning towards my original plan though, that could change as we proceed. I am not sure about the chopped top part though. I prefer the stock height. on the SC. I do have have a 39 convertible with a 2" chop though and really like the look it presents. I sit low enough in the car that vision is not problem in that one.

Kiith I hope you have all of the parts for your Merc. It has been hard enough finding parts for this Ford. I look forward to following your build thread on the Merc when you get to it. The anticipation was high to get started on this one after so many years of it's waiting while other projects were built. The key for me now is to not rush the project so it can be built well enough to be a pleasure to drive and share with others.


With the bottom of the inner fenders repaired we installed the trunk floor support
rails.





We used sheet metal screws to secure the side rails for now. The cross brace was installed and
tack welded temporarily to hold it in place. We used the stock ford rectangular pads under the
brace.

We were having trouble getting the body to center on the frame. We were planning to cut the
inner fender away for the wheel tubs anyway so we decided to remove a section on the pass. side
thinking we could get some more movement from the body.

We did. Too much flex I had to make
a temporary brace too take the sag out of the body.


When we were finally convinced we we had the body centered on the frame we installed the flat trunk floor
Sheet metal screws were used to secure this piece also.

As you can see by this time there was not much left of the back of the car.

We tried in the tool box section I had built . The plan was good but dimensions were
a little off though an I eventually decided it would be much easier to build a new box
after the rear corners and tail pan are installed. More later.

 

Good work!
A couple of you guys doing 39/40 Fords and Mercs have inspired me to think I should start a thread too. As has CadMad.
He and I both use those hex head screws to hold things. We call them tek screws here. (not the manufacturers, just people.)

 

Carry on, I had to make my "Custom Tub Pitch" to you, JW

 

You guys are doing good work. I hope you are test fitting the trunk lid as you reshape the rear end.

 

Please do start that thread X38. I always glean some good ideas from viewing others posts on thier projects here on the HAMB and there never seems to be enough 39-40 threads to satisfy my curiosity and desire for entertainment.

I appreciate your point of view John and like your cars. We will still try to entertain you with the build even though the outcome may not be exactly what would be your perfect Tub.

Hi alchemy, Yes we are considering the fit of the trunk throughout this process and I will cover more of that in the next few posts. The trunk as found fit very poorly and fixing that problem is a priority.

 

Done!

 

Been following your posts. What a great looking project. You are on your way to great looking car! I will be following along.
Lets move on to the rear corner project.

After considerable time and a lot of coffee we decided the trunk fit was not very good
. So we decided to cut the tail pan off .

This picture is out of sequence but it shows the turnbuckle that we installed to suck the rear of the car in to get and maintain the proper fit of the trunk during the tail pan and corners install. This picture also shows the 1 1/2 inch angle iron that was installed to span between the rear fenders. The tail pan was clamped to the angle also.

You can see the black line here . We determined the right edge of the trunk should be on this line.
We found the contours of the right side had been damaged in a wreck and the previous repair had
not addressed this problem. We marked off the quarter in segments We then did the same on the
left side.

Using the profile gauge we made cardboard profiles of the left side of the car so we could
duplicate those contours on the right side.

The profiles don't take too long to make and were actually very helpful while we reshaped the
quarter.



We eventually moved the metal around a little and are satisfied for now that the metal
finish out well .

Amazes me how flexible and flimsy these cars are when you cut tail pans out.

I tried to in the tool box and after several conversations we decided it would not work
with the new tail pan.

We borrowed a friends 40 Tudor so we could make some more profiles and compare
the angle and gaps between our new tail pan and the trunk lid. We kept the car a couple
of weeks. It was nice having the car in the shop to look at. Eventually we decided that
the sedan convertible profiles are not he same as the regular sedan.

We secured the trunk lid at the width we wanted with some sheet metal tabs that
we welded on. We will cover the the changes we had to make to the tail pan profile later.


Checking the gap.
With the tailpan in place we moved to the corners.

I had purchased this coupe tail pan at a swap meet years ago. As many of my swap meet
purchases go it turned out to not be a good one. It did not have the hump in the center
they should have. But it turned out it was useful on this project.

We cut the corners off of it. Don reshaped them to fit the sedan. I think he used every
metal shaping tool in the shop plus his leg to get the contours to fit the sedans profiles.

We installed the bumper using the brand new stainless brackets so we could make sure
the corners would be centered on them. I decided to cut up an old welding jacket and
tape the leather on the brackets for protection. Those dang brackets are expensive!

Each corner was made in three pieces. Don is checking fit of one of the flanges here.

I made some flat copper from a piece of 3/4 inch copper pipe so I could use it between the fender and the new
shield between the fender and the new corner and inner fender during welding. It worked well.


Don made these pieces mostly on the shrinker stretcher The bracket is just tacked on here.

The inside piece was temporarily attaches wit sheet metal screws.




We could only bend them so far with the shrinker stretcher so I had to do some cutting
wit the dremel tool and made some small pieces to weld in to fill the gaps.



After welding the inside of this corner piece the fender was removed and any voids left
in the weld were filled with weld metal and the corner metal finished. Then the fender was
reinstalled.

Well that's enough for one night. I will try to finish this corner stuff i the next post.

 

Does not surprise me.

I did the same.

My car had old collision damage from the B pillar that affected the quarter all the way to the trunk. ( drivers side, your passenger.) I found old tool marks and lead, but still it is affecting alignment and fit issues...just more work

You're doing a great job. Thanks for documenting it.

 

Looks like you boys are meeting the challenge with that rough/rusty body. Newly acquired skills are paying dividends; nice work.
Same goes for your shop; would give my right _ _ _ to have that kind of space!

 

Thank you 36 ROKIT The shop is a pleasure to work in and the old Ford is definitely entertaining.

Okay back to the reconstruction. We worked on both sides at the same time so some of
the pictures will appear out of order but none the less show the process we used.



You can barely see the copper I used behind the corner seam. The copper really helps
as a heat sink when welding wide seam on very this corners like this.



The corners were much more than degrees




We used a plumb bob to get the slot as straight as possible.

A few tacks to get the panel located.

Match marks helped align the panel at it's best fit.

The dremel tool was used to cut through both the sheet metal and the corner at the
same time. I thought this would give me a good small gap to weld but as I worked my
way from top to bottom of the seam the gap would close up and I had to recut the seam.

Panel after initial cut.I used a screw driver to hold the panel flush with the corner while
tack welding.

Each corner took about 5 hours to weld. I had to find other things to do while I let the
panel cool after a few tacks. The corners are not perfect but I think we can finish them off
well during the body work phase of the project. We still have to address the bottom of these
corners but we wait until it on the rotisserie to do that project.

Mig welds are far from pretty when you are just making small tacks but they do finish well and get good penetration. Those blue spots on the left are from using a shrinking tool.

I'll have to show a finished shot of this side later.

This section of the car has been a big challenge I hope the rest of the projects are not as difficult.

 

Whew! Think I will go clean the shop.

 

Okay okiedokie get er clean but be sure to mess it up again building something!


Lets take a look at the tail pan.

The tailpan that came on the car was probably not the original It looked pretty good
until you checked that fit of the trunk lid to it. It was pretty flat. Since it was so thoroughly
coated with tar and other things I decided to try buying a new one from EMS. When I
called EMS I ended up getting a guy on the phone from Hot Rods World Wide in Georgia.
He said that EMS runs their orders through him. So I bought part no. PN30 (39-40 Sedan tail pan)
from him for $235.00 It was shipped from Michigan though and took about a week to get here.

It's major contours were fairly close but the trunk seal area and the actual trunk contour was off
quite a bit.



So to get the pan contour to match the trunk contour we cut the seal flange off with the
dremel tool so we could use the shrinker stretcher to reshape the tail pan.


Once the tail pan matched Don stretched the seal flange and got the contour right the
first time. So I proceeded to weld it back on with about 100 tack welds.



I managed to weld it on without distorting the contour. Both top corners of the tail pan
will need some attention That is whole other project those as I intend to round the bottom
corners of the trunk off on a radius of about 1 1/2 inch. Not so much as a customizing touch
as I have a strong desire to not bang my head on those square corners on the bottom of the
trunk lid every time I want to access the trunk space. But that's another project we will attack soon.

 

While letting welds cool on other projects I decided to make this modification to the rear floor seat pan.

The corners of the original floor on the CS were rounded off . I checked the new seat
springs I bought many years ago . Sure enough the seat springs are rounded in the front
to match this curve. I can only assume they did this to increase foot room for ingress and
egress from the car. There is not much room to put your feet when getting in and out of
this car.

The new pan came with square corners. If one of you sedan owners would be interested
enough to check your seat pan and seat and see if the seat spring in your car is made
straight to match a pan like this or not. I am just curious.

So I marked off and cut enough metal away to allow me to copy the radius of the original
panel. Must have not taken a picture of it cut out.

Shaped some 16 gauge steel and welded it in. I will wait until the final fit of the floor
to fill in that little gap in the front corner.

The new panel didn't have the seat retainers with it so we cut the old ones off of the
old seat pan. and welded them on to this one.


One more job out of the way.