Customs 1942 ford custom with history found.

So, i came into ownership of this cool chopped 1942 ford coupe. The story goes like this: built in the 50s, showed as a dukes car for many years, through many changes. Wrecked in the late 80s and the parts were bought to fix it, but never was.i dont know what to do with it, but almost everything is there to put it back to a cool 50s sled.

 

Neat!

 

Build it back like it was. Would love to see more pictures of it outside the garage.

 

Said: 'don't know what to do with it' and 'everything there to put it back together'.

Seems to me you answered your own question in the same sentence...

Now as dad used to say, "GET. TO. WORK."

 

Jim just needs two long weekends to get this thing on the road!

 

Can someone rotate the pictures? My neck hurts!

 

Together by Thanksgiving, finished by Christmas?

And it's a custom, too. Very cool.

 

Mine too.

 

Who hijacked Jim’s log in?

 

This thing is way cool. This car really needs to be repaired to it's original configuration, saving as much of the original work and original paint and finishes as possible. Any "upgrades" would be a crime in my eyes. Looks like it's very much intact and preserve-able as well.

 

What i meant by not knowing what to do, is that the car is black, in the 70s it was green with very untastful flared fenders, and big ugly tail lights.in the 50s it was red. I like the early car look, but i like the black paint that is on it now. Also, the flathead and front axle are gone and it is set up for a small block and mustang 2. If i put it together, i would really like to put it back the way it was, but im not one to take steps backwards. These are my concerns , that is all.

 

Just go build hot rods all day and stack them like firewood.

 

put out a search here, and on other sites for stock frame, etc - maybe find a trade for frame you have, etc Black will be OK - just do it and get it back on the road

 

[QUOTE=" If i put it together, i would really like to put it back the way it was, but im not one to take steps backwards. These are my concerns , that is all.[/QUOTE]

Sometimes you have to go backward to go forward. Depends on if you're going to keep it or unload it. Unflair the fenders toss a stock front end under it (I like the idea of swapping frames) and run it as is for awhile. I agree w Squablow of preserving vintage stuff such as the drive in sticker.

 

No one will see the M2 unless they crawl under it... Put 'er together and go.

 

Congrats @JimSibley...that's a real sexy Custom and that club scene was priceless...Its nice to witness the allure of past excellence tugging a little at the heartstrings...It's certainly worthy of a return...your call of course...

 

Does it still have the flared fenders and ugly tail lights? If not, I'd keep the black paint. Even if it's much more recent, it's still part of the car's history. If you have to redo some of the paint to change some things back to how they were previously, and just blend in, that's still a step in the right direction.

As for the drivetrain and front suspension, you can buy a whole complete 46-48 axle with bones and the whole shit pretty cheaply if you decide to swap that back in, even a crossmember could be had if you needed one and for not a lot of money. Flathead would be cooler but an SBC can still be period correct at least.

I wouldn't blame you if you did leave some of that stuff alone though if it's already done. The most important part is that this car becomes a functional, complete car again. Doing that is better than doing nothing. You get extra points if you put it back to it's old configuration but just making it whole again and functional would be good enough for me.

 

Thankfully the green and flares are long gone. The black is in really good condition, except the front clip and decklid. At least black is easy to color match.

 

In that case I personally would just keep the black and start working on it from there. If it was already red and you wanted to change it to black I'd think differently.

 

I don’t know if you put a lot of effort into searching out these gems, or they just fall in your lap, but good on you. I am not a fan of green or flares, thankfully they are gone. The original looks like it didn’t have spots, won’t hurt my feelings if you lose them. The chop looks nicely proportioned, and the car sits nice and low. You have a great eye and even better skills, do us proud! Any chance the tophat drive in is still in existence, what a great name for a restaurant.

 

I really want to see it put back to an early style sled, preferably in black with white tuck n roll, but i have a full plate of projects. Im thinking of looking for the right guy and passing the deal onto someone that will do it right.

 

I may have photos of that car from 82 in my boxes of photos. I was at 3 of those runs with my 48 in 82 and might have taken my 51 Merc to Henry's Haulers.

 

That would be awesome! I have a pic somewhere of it in black, but i cant find it.

 

I’d drive it

 

That's too clean for you to work on anyway- you need a project like this

 

was running when parked

 

This , you do this to it .