new project my 34 , 5window gets under way

Well after many years of building model A's, i've always hankered after a 34 ,5 window. Well trawling Craigs list one day getting rather bored i came across an advert for you guessed it a 5 window. So i email the guy to see if its still available thinking nothing will come of this and low and behold I get a responce . After a load of emails back and forth I get a load of pictures sent me and I decide to "pull the trigger" the problem is I am over 5000+ miles away !!! and i am sending all my savings to someone I have never met and don't really know anything about him except from the calls i have made to him. So the money gets paid into his account and I go on the hunt for someone to pick it up and get it shipped over here to good old blighty which didn't prove as difficult as I had thought and went really smoothly and better than I could have hoped for in hassle and price.

Well after a couple of months the call comes from the shippers that it has arrived so off I go and get a big van to load it into and drive to the place that I am going to pick it up from yee haa....

When i get there my first impression ( which is the one that counts ! ) is one of dissapointment to say the least Well to late now, I own it I think to myself. So I get everything in the van and to be fair there was a lot of bits that came with it that were good so at least thats one thing thats good.After getting it back to my place and unloading it I literally just slammed the garage door shut and had a beer to unwind from a long day. 2 days later I fly out to California on a vacation and put it to the back of my mind for a few weeks at least.

Some photos of what I picked up and got back to my garage

dont look to bad eh !


then again !!



Nice 33 dash though



and a pile of parts including the chassis which is very good a couple of spare doors,fenders 2sets running boards, grill and a very good hood aswell as a few repair panels (I think its going to need them )



Well the plans are flattie,3speed, 39 rear, wide 5's and a bad attitude. I will hope to update as and when I get something done, I have been at it for a few weeks now comprising of a couple of weekends and a few weekday nights and am now getting my teeth into it after the initial first viewing of it !!!.

Oh well it is a 34 and it is going to get saved. Bob.

 

Ah well..... I'm sure you'll lash it together like those half-assed Model-A's you've inflicted us with!
The reality is this will probably be a show winner by Christmas 2012.
Good luck with it dude, I'm interested to hear your plans for it?!?

 

Surprised...seems like you would of seen this stuff in the photos...good luck with the build.

 

Bob,
Having been in a similar situation when I bought my 35, love is blind, I did not discover the horrors that slowly revealed themselves until the shiny paint came off.
You can at least see what you have in one go which might be a bit more daunting.
It might take a while but judging by what I know of your work you can turn round your initial disapointment.
But it is a 34 with some good parts, got to be worth it, love your plan. I look forward to seeing it progress.
Good luck.

 

Thanks guys.

Larry , the guy i bought it from was in all honesty a great guy to deal with and this was his dream car that he had to let go. I did see plenty of pics that he sent me and I knew that it obviously needed work, its just a reality check when you see it up close for the first time. Anyways that is in the past and the only way is forward and i'm loving it at the moment. I have sent some pics to him of what i have done already as he is over the moon, and i will continue to do so, hopefully he will at last get to see it done. I think that i am the 3rd owner pretty sure he said the original owner got side swiped and parked it up in disgust then the guys son years later sold it to Larry , and Larry to me the car came out of El Cajon

 

Looks like a decant start to a cool hot rod


I got lucky one day my brother sent me a pic of a 34 and said one of his friend's just bought it. I called the guy to see if he wanted to sell it. At first he was going to trade me my cherry 29 coupe for it then backed out so I offed cash and the guy took the cash. I still cant believe I own a 34 5 window

Good luck keep us updated

 

Cool, I'll be watching!

 

Looks like a great project, and a 34 Ford coupe is always worth the time and effort! It will come together faster than you think.

 

This is exciting. Lots of cool Model 40's coming out of the woodwork lately. I have a '33 sitting in my garage that I'd like to get started on but I have some stuff to take care of in the mean time. While I'm doing that I'll be checking in and gaining motivation for it.


Love the plans. Sounds like a match made in heaven.

 

Small world, I live a few miles from El Cajon.
Ironically, my 34 5/w looked much the same as yours when I bought it; no firewall, floor, or rockers. Only thing holding the cowl to the rest of the body was the A posts. Any 34 coupe is well worth the effort to save.
Go for it!

 

looking forward to this thanks for sharing Bob , its going to be a belter

 

Bob,
It's a 34 so any condition, it's well worth saving. Mine had no floor or firewall or rear panel, just a bunch of angle-iron braces with some aluminium sheet pot-riveted to it.

Mine was also from El Cajon! Must be the home of Floorless 34's!

I'm subscribed

 

Agreed........any 33/34 saved and brought back to life is a good deed! Looks like you have your work cut out, but I have seen worse to start with. Seems like these types of resurrections are more intriguing, and are gonna help other owners to make the decision to go for it.
Good luck with her, she seems to be in good hands now!

Subscribed!!!

 

Very Cool!

 

Good luck with your project. If you finish yours before I finish mine I will be miffed. Have fun from another coupe owner!

 

Thanks for the well wishes and encouragement guys its appreciated


So the first job in hand was to fit a door so I could at least begin to see where the bottom of the car should be



and that proved tougher than I thought, jeez them hinge pins are strong and did not want to come out under any circumstance. So i ended up drilling each and every one out what a pain in the backside.So now i have the wrecked / rusty as hell doors off the car great the next step is to put he spare 4 door sedan doors on. Then it occurs to me the hinges are different ,no problem i'll just swap em around its at this point i realise that the top hinges are rivited on (as they all are and spot welded as well !!! )and if I do get them off at the top how the hell am I gonna re-attach without taking the outer door skin off . So i decided I am gonna use the tops of the coupe doors (rather than bend the sedan doors to shape ) and put the bottoms of the sedan doors on and take it from there.

If you look closely you can see what i mean


So now that the door is on it gives me a good start as to where to put the cowl panels etc etc



Happy with that I did the same on the other side at least its a start

Ha ha I think I will come back to this another day



Bob.

 

Off to a good start, I like your plans for it.

 

Good luck with it Bob..................I'm sure you'll make a great job of it!

Keep the updates coming

PS. If you want to feel better about your car, check this out:http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=595056

 

I am so excited and it isn't even my car!

My 34 was rough also, but what really helped out the most was a brand new set of subrails. The subrails locate pretty much the whole body and also locate the body to the frame. But, it looks like you have it figured out...

Nice work so far, -Abone.

 

I remember seeing that ride on craigslist. I am from the El Cajon area as well. I would of brought that car home in a second if I could! Im glad it went to a home that will fix her up and bring her back to life! Nothing is beyond saving..... especially a 33-34 5 window=)

 

You may like this if you've not already seen it:

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=220372

 

I'll watching this thread closely as I am doing a similar rough 34' coupe..Good luck with the build..All 33-34's are worth saving in my book!

 

Save it....

 

Well got some more done and starting to make progress. I wanted to buy some subrails so looked some up on the old internet. there are a few folk that make them and they all vary in price as you would expect so after firing off a few emails and getting some pretty strong shipping prices bumping up the overall cost I decided to have a go at making my own. After all it is a hot rod not a restored car. As luck would have it i had taken my wifes car for its mot and whilst there i spotted some sheet metal that had already been folded which measured 10" x 4" x 6' long and 16 gauge so I asked what it was for and the reply was you can have it if you want it its too thick for what we want, well go on then you've twisted my arm

so off we go

this is the stuff I brought back with me


so with the aid of these

i made these



and laid them out on the chassis


which should give me a start to attach the floor and the body too

 

Good job....save another one....

 

Dunno if this will help Bob but the way I did it was to screw the subrails to the chassis using sheet metal screws then laid the floor in place and welded it all up . Then bolted the completed floor pan to the frame and lowered the body onto the floor and repaired the bottom of the body as I went the super high tech adjustable body stands in the pic worked a treat.

 

I look forward to this build. I just did some work for a customer with a 1946 Studebaker and he has a 34 5-window in his backyard that was chopped once upon a time. He has the steel fenders and a set of fiberglass fender, 2-grilles, one hood and no motor or transmission. The front suspension is IFS and need to be tossed in the trash and that goes for the rearend as well. No glass or wiring. I may need to see what he wants for it because he said he in not going to build it.

 

Looks like a great project! Subscribed.

 

Neat job Bob,your not hanging about, are you.I`ll try and get over and take a look after new year.

We`ll have to start calling you Marcel Booth ,now, I guess.

 

Thanks folks

The body is now sat on a bit of a frame that enables me to pull it around to where i need it,I will post some later on. I'm really getting into it now and seem to have got the bit between my teeth.Have ordered some rear panels from SAR but thhey are out of stock and i wanted to get them done over the xmas break, oh well cant have it all i suppose...