Great score. I for one have always loved the 5 window coupe, or the 3 window ones. Have fun building that baby.
My walker radiator and so cal front x-member showed up so I had to mock it up to see where the cross member needs to sit since the holes were filled when the jag front was installed. Going to try and get my plasma home this week to hack out all the front jag stuff. Ordered weld on bushings to rubber mount the rear jag cross member since its currently solid mounted. Ordered a speedway front axle/split bones kit if it shows up, hope to have a roller by new year. Picked up a offy 2x2 intake and a set of engine brackets to mock up the flattery once the cross member is in as well. Still in search of a set of doors so hopefully I don't have to pick up a set of UP just to cut up.
Well I wish I had good news to post on the new year. Unfortunately my back gave out on the 23rd of December and is just starting to feel better. But not good enough to do much of anything in the garage. My front axle kit showed up today, along with a set of new united Pacific doors.. Unfortunately after unboxing there's a good dent in the driver's door and a more subtle one in the passenger, I almost left them in the packaging to keep them safe, but my gut told me to open them and see, glad I did so hopefully we can get it resolved... Speedway front axle kit looks really good though.
Continue the build it the way that the last person was working on it and who had collected the parts. Don't flip the parts because you cannot afford to complete the build. Every time a part or a car is flip it causes this hobby it just get's more expensive. Living a few years in IN, Peru and Indy, I find it hard to believe that there was only one bidder from IN. I feel that this was a high price buy and that you are selling the parts to recover the price of the vehicle. But at the end of the day, it was your money and now it is your vehicle, do with it as you want.
I'm glad you felt the need to put in your two cents. However I will not put it together the way the original owner was going with the build, he was building a street rod, not a hot rod. I want no part of IFS. I'm flipping parts to build the car the way I want and not have parts I don't want/need laying around to get in the way. I've already stated im keeping the pines, I'm selling the new chassis and possibly fenders. The new chassis from precision without a motor/trans/radiator was $20,600. I will keep the original owners spirit in the car with his interior, jag rear, and finely preserved car. If you must know I gave $30,000 for everything, new chassis, old chassis, body, pines, all spare parts, transmissions, everything. While that is a "high price buy" sit back and look what came with it, and consider I've had multiple low 5 figure offers on the pines from great members on here. What I'm doing is the epitome of hot rodding, buying, selling, trading for the desired end outcome to do it on as much of a budget as possibly allowed. Others may think I should hang fenders, and I'll make sure that the possibility is there in the future in case I change my mind, but I don't foresee myself anywhere in the near future wanting fenders. The united Pacific blue 5 window touches me in places I haven't felt in a long time, and that's the look im going for. While the original pictures of the car do make me happy to see, they do nothing for me as a hot rodder, and in all honesty looks out of proportion to myself. I apologize if this came off aggressive, and I understand people wanting to say how they'd build it, in fact I love varying opinions and myself go through every build thread and look at what id change on that particular build, but there's no point in throwing out anything about money, as very few of us are here to make money, were just trying to build the best hot rod in our eyes possible, with the lowest cost we can...that is traditional hot rodding at its finest.
Build the car how you want!!!! Glad to see another Indiana hot rodder!!! I'm in Washington, about an hour north of Evansville.
Agreed, you own it, you paid for it, it is your car. I say build it the way YOU want it. That is exactly what the previous owner did and that is exactly what you should do. If this car had 'history' because it was in a magazine in '59 (hypothetical example), then those who cry 'it should be saved, you are just its caretaker, return it to the condition it was in, in 1959' should have outbid you at the auction. Nice project
I agree completely! If this was a feature car , this thread would have a whole different tune, but this car was just a hot rod that a guy built the way he wanted, and that's exactly what it will be when I'm done as well. Although I'll proudly display pictures of it's former glory, that glory isn't my style.
"I agree completely! If this was a feature car , this thread would have a whole different tune, but this car was just a hot rod that a guy built the way he wanted". I think you missed my point What I said or meant to put across was this ... even if it was a 'feature car' or whatever at some point in the past, I honestly couldn't care less, it is now YOUR car to do as you see fit. If others are hurt by YOUR decision to do what YOU want to YOUR car by feeling that the car should be 'saved' or 'returned to the way it was', then THEY should have and could have stepped up and outbid you. This nonsense of being the 'caretaker' of a car just because it was in a magazine or won a trophy or was owned by a famous person, it all just makes me laugh ... I guess there are places for cars like that and that's fine if that is what the owner wants but that sure as hell ain't me.
Backs slowly starting to feel better, last weekend took it easy and started out by cleaning the grill insert up, they had used the pines surround and "spot welded" a mesh insert in, out came the dremel to clean up the spots, luckily they used what seemed like solder so I was able to use a sanding roll on the dremel and "melt" it away and not hurt the original finish then moved on to polishing out the old chrome spreader bars and the pines. Also slowly been hacking away at the jag front that was scabbed on, it was a mess, plates on the outside of the frame, tons of weld. But low and behold, thankfully whoever did it just cut the factory cross member and welded around it, so my locating holes are in the frame still! The downside is they are narrower than the socal crossmember, so I need to pull out frame dimensions and see which one is off. Picked up a heater as well, I was cruising eBay and kept telling myself when I saw the one that looked "right" I'd know, and not to hurry into one. I love this one, at first glance it appeared to replicate a deuce grill and insert. Plan is to rechrome the "doors" and probably paint the surround that was chrome the body color to make it appear like a grill shell. Progress is slower than hopeful, but still there. Trying to find a set of 40 ford 4" fronts and 4.5" rears so I can do a 7.50 rear 5.50 front.
Still sifting through some of the parts that came with the car. Scored a sweet spoon pedal that'll work great cleaned up, and a set of ansen swing pedals that'll be hitting the classifieds! Also found the front crossmember area squeezed in 3/4", I'd held off on cutting the crossmember that was added in that area assuming it was put in before cutting the original out to hold dimensions correct, apparently it was not.
Decided it was time to tackle the frame. Built myself a makeshift frame table from scraps I had around and went to work tonight. Going off the frame drawing I have, I labeled the body holes forward of the rear axle from 1-4, I'm very very close on rear dimensions and squareness from center holes measuring across and diaganol, until the firewall area, from there thinks get bad, fast. The front is pinched in 1.75" at the very front. I didn't get enough time tonight to figure out if they are both tweaked, or one worse than the other, but I'm guessing the right rail will end up getting sliced open if I was guessing. The rear of the frame is also higher on the left than the right, but is dimensionally square. I'm going to try to salvage this one with everything I've got, but those new rails keep popping up in all of my ads are getting very tempting. For anyone in the beginning discouraged of my choice of using the jag rear, you'll be happy to know I ordered a winters banjo with drums and am putting a factory rear x-member in to do a rear buggy spring. What spring should I use in the rear? There's so many options! Hopefully the next post is the frame is all squared up, welded and ready for suspension.
Only one choice, a Model A crossmember and spring. Unless you want to use a T spring, but an A would work better for your project.
Awesome! Thank you, who makes the best hangers and crossmember? The only one I saw was socals that takes a 40 spring
Printed out westcotts frame dimensions and took them to the local print shop to have them enlarged and laminated so I'm not trying to squint on the one I had!
Stock model A rear cross members are easy to come by, that’s what I’d use rather than aftermarket. Plus the aftermarket won’t have the outer flange.
Original parts are out there, and better quality than repro if they aren't too rusty. Check the HAMB classifieds or local swap meets. I keep a pile out back for just such an occasion. When buying hangers make sure to pay attention to the length. Some brands are shorter than Ford used and will require putting the crossmember in a different location.
Long time without an update. I'm sure some have given up. But I have a house remodel, a business, working on my pilots license and a few other money making projects that need attention as well. But we're back at it. I'm the end I decided that the original frame was to twisted to try and square without some sort of good solid foundation. So in came new ASC rails to start from (no worries stock rails are tucked away so once the new frame gets done I can use it to build a jig out of to get the old rails where they need to be). I squared everything up on my table I built, checked all my measurements, and started welding. Ordered my crossmember kit got it 7/8 of the way done, and thought, I should probably set the body on and check. My frame measurements were perfect, body holes line up great... Unfortunately I used the measurements supplied with the crossmember kit, adjusted about 2-3" to what felt/looked right and...... It's not going to work. In the picture of my frame diagram you can see roughly where I put my crossmember when I was laying it out. I sat the body on and realized quickly what had happened. So now I'm deciding whether to notch the floor for my legs of the crossmember, or cut it all out and move it forward. Where the factory k member sat just feels very far forward to me, so I'm unsure of which direction I'm heading to next. I'll probably end up cutting it all out bolting the body down and tacking it in forward of that. The other option I've played out is notching the legs on the x-member down roughly 2.5" to clear the floorboard and leaving them as they sit. Any constructive criticism is welcome! Once I get the frame 100% the body is coming back off so I can use the frame to make some jig plates on my frame table referencing the factory holes to straighten my OEM frame. Eventually the body will be swapped back to it's original frame, and I'll start searching a A roadster body for the "new" frame. But that's still years away!
99% of the guys building a hot rod 32 5-window will remove that short section of the floor under the seat that dips down. They replace it with flat steel or wood, and most any frame will fit underneath now. There are a few rivets and a spot weld or four to remove.
So far so good! That was a very miserable few months! That is exactly the answer I was looking for! I saw no reason to need it, but also felt bad hacking it out, if it's just a few rivets and spot welds I'll zip it out and get a body bolted on! I'd almost forgotten, picked up these pistons at a swap meet to pair with my mercury crank that I had found at our old local crank rebuilders, only to figure out they are for a 4.125" crank. So I'll either be stepping up the crank or getting a different set of pistons.
This is the same problem that I had with my current build. My chassis was built with a 36 style X-member and to suit a glass 32-5W body as my engineer was making noises about not accepting my other chassis. Anyway he finally did accept it so the chassis was spare. But when I went to drop the UPAC body ( my next build) on it the floor pan under the seat fouled so the pan had to go. Turns out son has a 32 Tudor and they have a wooden floor section under the seat so I now have that wooden floor under the seat. That pan was originally held in with screws same as the Tudor floor. Also you said that your trunk floor was crook but don't worry about that as it will need lots of mods to suit the A cross member and the Winters QC.
Yes nice project but related to other threads about high prices of projects and finished car and trucks here is one reason why . A pines front for $8,000 .
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