Projects BChrismer's Beater '40 Ford Panel Project

Well, nobody showed up with a suitcase full of Bennies, @Nostrebor, but I did have a handful of conversations this weekend. The most common conversation that was had was "I have been trying to catch you all day but you kept cruising around the fairgrounds and I kept losing track of you!" Then there was the one which involved a lot of picture taking and sending those to an "interested party" down in Louisiana, and a conversation with a hot rod builder from over in Tennessee who would like to look at it in a few weeks when he's over in my area.

I gotta say...cruising around in the panel is nice as the flatty idles so low and smooth, and runs cool, so I could putt around without having to clutch it very often and it didn't hop or buck, as the coupe and truck tend to do with the cams that are in them.

While stopped along the main drag in front of the expo center, I did have a conversation with a HAMBer who told me that he's enjoyed following my threads and thought it was really cool to see me out driving the panel that he watched go together on the HAMB. He even mentioned info from some of my other threads, like the 3 speed in the '40 coupe and the 283>350>283>350 swap thread for the stake truck. Talk about being flattered that he took the time to read about my misadventures in hot rodding! To be honest, that really made my day!

Another cool discussion was with a couple who wanted to ask me a ton of questions about running the flatty, specifically because other than swapping to a '42 style distributor with a Pertronix and running on 12v, the dang thing is bone stock. I was able to talk with them about putting the 4 speed behind it and some of the stuff involved with that, so I really enjoyed that discussion, too!

Who knows how long my fling with the beater Mustache Wax Panel Truck will last, but I'm sure having fun with it while I've got it.

 

I drove by the fairgrounds about a dozen times, but never saw your wax wagon. I have a family thing going on this weekend, so I didn't get to go to the show. Looked like a solid turnout!

 

Yeah, they had over 1300 registered and probably around 1100 actually in attendance. I figured it was better than expected with the whole rona thing and all. Weather turned out to be pretty nice for Friday and Saturday, other than crazy wind. I didn't make it out Sunday as I had a daughter's graduation ceremony to attend.

 

Well...the FB advertisement for the panel has had some interesting responses. My ad was written with tongue deeply inserted in cheek. https://www.facebook.com/groups/1499447543612223/permalink/2744974122392886/ I'm good either way, whether it sells or not.

Anyway, had a dude across town tell me he is interested so I jumped in and drove across town for him to see it. He said he'd take it, but I'm highly skeptical on whether he will actually jump on the deal or not. He said he was heading down to NW Arkansas to pick up a car that he bought and already sold, so we'll see if he calls me tomorrow when he has a pocket full of cash. If he doesn't buy, then I will go ahead and order the stuff to put the door glass in.

If he buys...I'll probably sit tight for a while longer before pulling the trigger on another '40, although I saw an ad for a pretty straight looking '40 standard sedan not too far from me that could be a candidate. LOL

 

The top won't go down on that sedan!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Been a great thread

 

Yeah, I know, but I dig '40 sedans, too, and this one has some cool old hot rod stuff about it. Hopefully it's sold and he just forgot to delete his ad or mark it sold. ;-)

 

Well...crap! He responded and said the '40 standard sedan was still available.

 

Whatever happens, it was meant to be!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Good luck!

 

Looks like it's meant for me to have the panel for a longer time. The guy who told me he was buying it called me back yesterday. He said he didn't want to insult me, but he only had $7k, he needs to sell a car he told me he had already bought and had sold, and a bunch of other stuff.

I'm good with that. Looks like I'm ordering door window parts next week after I finalize up the order for Midwest Forty Day shirts and get those ordered.

 

It’s all good. I like the panel!

 

I've had a '41 Ford Pnl since '71. Luv it. T-BIRD 5.0, AOD, 8" REAR, Discs in front, dual M/C. Stopped better with stock brakes. Now I think I need a booster.

Ray T

 

Due to lack of storage space at the house, and the need to get the coupe out to take to the Gathering at the Roc, last month, I dumped the panel truck off at Doug's old shop towards the end of October. In the meantime, though, I did wind up placing an order for the door glass channels. I stopped by the glass shop yesterday to drop off a glass panel to have them cut some new ones.

My next couple of weekends are booked providing the "old truck" for a local photographer's Christmas photo sessions, with the stake truck, so it looks to be a mid December project to install the door glass. That and doing some patch work on the rear floors should keep me busy for December.

 

Maybe Santa will bring you some goodies for the Panel !

 

Pretty sure Bret is Santa. That’s why we haven’t seen him much lately...

 

Forgive the messy garage reflected in the glass. I finally got a chance to run down to the shop to swap out '40 Fords. What I figured would be a couple days of fussin' & cussin' wound up being a couple hours in the afternoon popping out fuzz strips and setting in the door glass. The glass shop guy got a little overzealous rounding the top edge of the piece that I installed on the driver side, but it's better than the glass that was in there. ;-)

If any of you guys have some crusty old door latch handles and window crank handles, I am interested. I'd much prefer to have some crusty ones than buying new chromed handles that would look out of place in the panel.

 

Window glass! Geez going high end, now I’ll never be able to afford it lol

 

I might have some crusty handles and cranks, but I may have tossed them out before the move, I'll have to check. I do remember thinking "who in the world would want pitted and crusty old handles?". I guess now I know the answer.

 

Tossing crusty parts ! Sacrilege!

 

Ok, hack job here, but figured it was worth posting to provide you guys with entertainment.

I was getting sick and tired of having to pull out my phone and using it as a flashlight to find anything inside the back of the panel while it was in the garage or outside at night. I decided to do something about it.

After a few minutes digging around on Amazon, I found a 16" strip of waterproof LEDs with 3M adhesive backing. I figured I would wire them up to a switch and stuff them the space between the top of the body and where the rain gutters come together, so currently they are not stuck to anything, just resting in place.

The switch was one I had laying around in the garage, and I grabbed some lap wainscoting, put a hole in it, and screwed it to the wood rail behind the passenger seat.

Redneck as can be, but it works pretty dang good.

(The red wire below the switch that came "untucked" is the power lead to my heated seats! One good thing about junkyard donors)

 

Bright idea Bret!

 

Yuppy wannabe redneck maybe. No self respect'n redneck would be seen sitt'n on heated seats ! Jeez !

 

All my vehicles, except one motorcycle, has heated seats.

I am a New England Redneck.

 

After spending time lying in the floor of Jim Pike's '40 convertible swapping out his instrument cluster, I will say that it was REAL nice to have the heated seat on my sore lower back for the ride home.

After Christmas, I may spend some of my Christmas money on a new Maradyne 5000 series box heater for the panel truck. I put one of those in the coupe and it does a nice job. Probably should put some of the weatherstripping that I have around the doors, too, although I am sure there is more than enough draft coming up through the doors and out the window opening that it won't do much good.

 

Well, I spent my Christmas money, but it wasn't on something useful like a new Maradyne 5000 series box heater. Nope...I wound up blowing some money on some inexpensive Pioneer speakers and hooking up a stereo that I had sitting on the shelf in the garage.

I found a bluetooth adapter that would plug into the USB port and AUX port on the old stereo and allow me to listen to stuff on my phone. I used a plastic under dash enclosure off of Amazon and pop riveted it to the underside of the glove box. Not the most discrete install, but it does the job.




I set the head unit back as far as I could to try and keep it out of the direct line of sight.


Don't mind the "quick wire" job that still needs zip tied up and out of sight, but here's the enclosure that the old Pioneer head unit is installed in and showing the bluetooth adapter in it.
Finding a place to hide some 6x9s wasn't really a priority. I found a spot where I could stick them that seemed to work for what I wanted to do.
The driver's side and the spare piece of masonite in case I screwed up the kick panels.

I made some masonite kick panels using the kick panels from the stake truck as templates. They may or may not get covered in the future, but for now they do the job.
One of these days I will get around to doing a rubber floor mat, but for now, I'm still using the sponge rubber Harbor Freight mats.


Wednesday, I met with the city of Willard, MO, so we could make plans for the starting point of the SWMO Hot Rod Hundred. I drove the panel up there and wound up taking these two photos on the abandoned section of Hwy 160 by the water tower. I always laugh at the results as it only shows LARD on the tower.

 

Brett,
I found an old pickup bed mat in the ditch near my house to use for a rubber floor mat

 

Had a few errands to run and the daily driver "boogie van" was covered in ice. Figured I'd just take the Bret Chrismer's Mustache Wax panel instead. The light snow cover seemed to be a good setting for some cool photos and provided some fun with the obligatory intentional fishtails through the neighborhood. I figure with slick roads, that's about the only time I am gonna break the back tires loose on this thing with a stock '40 flathead and 3.0 rear gears. LOL

 

Damn .. that thing looks sooo' good !!!

 

Have to agree with @kidcampbell71. You have that setup just right - it looks great!