What would a hotrodded 48 Ford tudor looked like in 1953/54/55

as my dad said....that was the car that his great aunt drove.... still want one....

 

Here you go screwball

 

At least it was his great aunt not the bitchy on that flew the broom. OH wait for it......That wasnt your aunt it was your MOTHER!!!!!!!! OH YEAH ID still drive one.

 

Don't let the naysayers get you down. Nix the tricks outside. Paint it stock and be proud. Flames are for cars that people stop and stare at, 'cause they're parked. In the south those big babies were used for haulin' shine. You're on your way with the springs but most haulers looked bone stock, and used helper springs under the back. If they were hauling quantity there would be a big tank that took the place of the lower part of the back seat and extended into the trunk, or just in the trunk itself. A lot of hooch was hauled in jugs (and still is --- nowadays the jugs are plastic gallon containers, or the red plastic gas cans you see for sale in the hardware store --- up to five gallons). One thing those cars had was either a big ass Cadillac, or an Oldsmobile up front, and generally had the automatic transmission that came with the engine. Some used the open drive rear-ends out of 46-47 pickups. But, understand one thing, they may have looked like Uncle John and Aunt Mary's grocery getter, but those old cars would haul the mail when the time came to show John Law a little dust. Two door and more doors, with little kid borrowed for the occasion. A Southern Tradition.

 

Well i see im gonna have to more research and change quite few things but most are cosmetic.Looks like its gonna lean more to the custom side to fit into the mid 50s. Which is fine. Im tryin to get away from my normal mish mosh of styles.

 

Two more pics, mine all filthy next to it's cousin, CFish1950's '46 Tudor... both of us have a couple different things going on, not really period perfect. His has lace painting, and more of a taildragger stance, 5.60-15's all the way around and the original drivetrain. Mine is SBC'd... with smaller rear tires, mine would probably sit very close to where his is at (I think added longer shackles in the rear, mine is an SEC parallel leaf kit). Stance is everything on these, because chopping these usually doesn't improve the looks.

 

Great stuff Mike!

 

Being that I'm in my 60's I'll volunteer this: back in 1958-59 there were two brothers in my neighborhood. One had a '46 Ford tudor, the other had a '48 tudor. Both looked stock except for the red wheels, one had an early '50's Olds rocket engine, the other had an early '50's Cadillac engine. both had adapters to the Ford tranny's. I remember both cars were dark colored. The two brothers used me for a "gopher" and I learned my first hot rod knowledge from those two guys. I was entranced with the sound of thir steel packs! (So, yeah, guys did rod them back then!)

 

Id like to build my 48 in an early to mid 50's style but im not exactly shure what it should look like or be equipped with.

so how do you know that's how you want to build it?

 

I would think that for the time, there would be few Olds and Cadillac engines as they were on the market less than 5 years. No such thing as a SBC yet. My dad's first car was a '37 Ford convertible. Not everyone had A's & '32's. There would have been a lot of cheap cars on the used car lots that were between '46-'48.

As a hot rod, they would have used Merc flat heads with dual exhaust. Unless you were moving shine, you would have money for a newer engine. Flat heads ruled.

 

Dump the nose! Take off the flames. And leave the rest alone!!!!

 

Hey Mike, I kinda think it looks the part already. Are you just wanting a different look?

Tudor has a pretty bitchin sedan.
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=148033&highlight=sedan

 

I don't know for shure. I do know what i don't want and i believe the things that i dont want leave the car in that era.(hope that sounds right) So im askin to be shure.

 

1. Ditch the flames.
2. Drive it!

 

Im thinkin the flames, wheels and lake pipes kinda make it look like Greased Lighting(ie campy)and im gonna have to redo it so i want to do it right.I keep thinkin the flathead limits the cars timeframe and i love my flathead so its stayin(even though a cant keep up with anyone on the highway)

 

Found this on riksters site
Not a tudor but......

 

The one above was Foose built (Sam).
Chip comes by it naturally.

 

When I read the title to this post, this is the mental picture that popped into my weak brain. I was 10 or 11 so I was not building any REAL cars but this is what I saw on the street in the Wash DC. suburbs and suburban Philly in the summers. My older cousin did have a 46 coupe then and it looked like this. He did have the 3 foot short lakes pipes. ending at the rear fenders.

The magazine cars were state of the art hand selected examples of top of the line builds just like today's magazine cars and not seen on the streets of most suburban cities. At this time I was still playing with plastic cars and lowered, skirts and duals was a staple of a custom car that was not a magazine car. I couldn't build one then but I sure was paying attention. That is when my obsession started.

I love the look of this car. The wild customs were completely out of my realm of reality back then. Great for looking at and lusting after but not part of my reality.

 

Most of the Henry Gregor Felsen books describe the guys driving cars that sound alot like these except of course for the lone Deuce in a couple of them. Also, Al Drake has a good description of a cars like these in his books too.

 

My older brother bought a black 47 in about 57 in Oakland Ca. Nosed and decked it, lowered the front with long shackles and painted the dash purple (one of our high school colors). Punched 48 Merc rims in back with 8.20s.
He gave me the car in 1960. I was able to buy a loaded flathead that came out of an Oakland Roadster Show winning car and install it after painting the engine compartment red. Then ran it sans hood except for rainy days.

You should lower yours a little more in front with shackles. Easy to make. Then take off those ugly flames. The flathead is fine. If you want to change you can bolt in a Cad. or Old's using the Ford tranny.

 

Not a '48 but my generation fell in love with the Bob McCoy '40 Ford Sedan. Even the boss started a thread on it. I believe most of the pics start around 1953.

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=311827&highlight=bob+mccoy

If you want period correct follow Bob's lead including the smooth full hub caps, nerf bar and dump lakes pipes. It had littles on the front and bigs on the back, raked not a tail dragger style.

 

Heres some pics of my 48' Ford looked like in 2006 before I sold it. It was my high school car and I did it how I thought a kid my age would've done in the fifties. It had a bone stock 66,000 original mile 59A with dual carbs, acorn nuts on stock heads, fenton headers exiting through cut outs right under the front fenders. I nosed and decked it, and shaved all the fender chrome, put in chrome dash insert, blue dots, and added Merc 15'' steelies with bigs and littles. The guy I sold it to ended up painting it black primer with flames... now the cars in Texas somewhere. The only thing I would've liked to do but didn't was drop the front end and reverse the eyes, give it a better stance.

 

Rikster, as usual, has it on the button. Some of these answers are from guys that obviously weren't there. A guy in our club had one just like the one in rikster photo and that was 1957. You customized what you had. or inherited, or could afford. THey made nice customs and they had back seats. which came in handy.

 

Like THIS!!

 

San Diego, 1960, I was 13, guy across the street from where I lived had a '40 Ford coupe, White, flames, dumped in the front, rear end high, no hood, big ole Olds with 6 dueces, LOUD, he would work on it weekends and I used to sit in my front yard watching and listening to that coupe....LoVED it, in the back of my mind I have always wanted a car exactly like it....Kind of a Henry Gregor Felsen moment..if ya know what I mean

 

The nice ones around here were simple like the one that Rikster posted. A simple nose and deck job with a single color paint job and some lowering. then a decent roll and pleat interior and that's about it. Most guys who drove sedans then were on a tight budget and didn't go in for a lot of big changes on the cars. You went to the car lot and the sedan was about 2/3 the price of the coupe sitting next to it most of the times then.

 

If you look through the old magazines of the era you will see that all hot rods weren't T, A, and 32 Fords, especially in the "roader's Rods" columns of the rodding and custom books. People who were into cars used what they had available in their area to modify and enjoy. Sure, they lusted after those California zoomers but you run, and work on, what you brung.

 

Here is my "mom's grocery getter". I enjoy it none the less!

 

I'm with the guys saying to dump the nose and lose the flames.
I dig the car though.

 

I don't know about the 40s, but can tell you that in the 50s even in the itty - bitty town where I attended HS in E Wa....tudors were rod fodder for sure. Kay Hipp had a beautiful Metallic Emerald Green 47 with 58 Vette taillights, lowered in front, 9.50s in the rear - warmed over V8, sweet ride. There was a 48 Tudor from Lewiston with a Caddy V8 that ran like stink but was always "in between" colors. Nobody turned their noses up at anything back then. Norm something or the other from Lewiston had a Tudor of some vintage (46/48) with 54 Buick headlights - it was OK looking car.

So there's a town of 5250 with a couple of them running around. I know that we saw a couple more well-done Tudors in the Spokane area - one belonged to a Duke and I don't know where the other one was from.

That was mid to late 50s and very early 60s

dj