Projects Tony Miller's Custom 40 Ford Convertible

I had a reproduction 39 Deluxe grill from "somewhere" that fit like crap. I looked on the internet and saw originals for $$$$$ and then saw the grille build on this thread and decided to try it myself. I started with the outside structure and that got the hood and fenders in the correct alignment. Then got the first bar in place and hand bent the rest of the 44 bars. I set up pins on my welding table to do the bending as each right and left bar is different than the others. The X member was removed after final fitting and welding. Careful measuring makes it very simple to remove and install the grill. I also made top, bottom, and side panels from stainless to seal against the radiator. I made templates of the perimeter structure just in case I have to make another grille.

 

Great! Glad it inspired you. Looks very nice.

 

What a great project and read, I really apreciate the effort you put into your thought process and overall goal. Well done. Im in the parts gathering for a full custom '39 coupe.
Hans

 

Wow! love this project.I'll be keeping an eye on this.

 

I've been following this thread since it began. Your vision and workmanship are outstanding. Great job.......Mike

 

beautiful

 

Finally got my grill installed and everything fits great! I had it powder coated instead of chromed because I'm building another grill in stainless and will polish it.

Thanks Tony for the inspiration your thread gave me!

 

Very nice. I'm happy you were inspired.


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Thanks to you guys at Hwy 99 Hot Rods for the best build thread on HAMB and for posting all these great pictures and descriptions. I'm sure you have given some great ideas out to the reader and followers like myself.

 

Updates??????????????????????????????????

 

Fuzzy, the stuff at the end of post #414 is about the last I've seen, except for this Darth Vaderish-looking engine:



Don has been assembling the front and rear ends, and should have a real rolling chassis before long. Maybe he'll have something to add soon.

 

A little sanding on those valve covers would make it look very nice. Bring out the ribs ya know.

 

That's already planned, as well as a stainless bolt kit.

 

New progress photo from Don this morning. Fuzzy, take note:



Note to traditionalists: The exterior of this car could have been built in the early '50s. Most of this chassis could have been done circa 1965.

 

That's very similar to mine Tony.

 

I like.
Great minds stink alike

 

Tony, I was rereading the begining of the convertible thread and picked up on using the longer sedan doors, which jogged my memory on this drawing I did a few years ago. Knowing how you enjoy Frauds, here's my 40' DeLuxe Club Coupe based on Bob Brown's killer flamed coupe...

Used the sedan doors, slid the quarter window rearward and thinned the the roof skin, NO choping of the windows here... Hope you guys find some merit in this concept. thanks Dave

 

Dyno Dave that is a cool concept. I wonder if anyone has tried it?

 

39 guy, Don't know if a Club Coupe has ever been done, be a different fraudulent Forty... Don't think the build would be to bad, move the B pillar rearward some 4" / 4 1/2" to fit the longer sedan doors, taper the shortened tulip panel into the trunk area and piecut the roof skin. I took a little of the hump out over the top the rear window and moved the front wheel openings forwarded a couple inches, thinking I should have put the vent windows in place, visually shorten the window opening and would complete the Fraud..Might be FUN...
dave

 

Verrry interesting, and it works!

Did you know that Sam Foose did a '40 coupe with Tudor doors some years ago? He didn't lengthen the top, he tilted the B pillars, and the result was that the car looks a lot like a '40 Nash!



Cool that you moved the front wheels on your phantom Club; I thought that made a useful difference on my '40 too.

 

You know I think I saw that car at a one of our rod runs a few years ago and I thought something was very different about it (the B pillar is obvious) but I obviously did not figure out the sedan doors which is very sneaky.... Very nice looking car.

50 Fraud, your convertible is coming along great! I have enjoyed watching the progress! Hope you don't mind this little detour in your build thread.

 

I'd forgotten about that '40 by Foose. Besides the tilted B' piller, look at the radically thinned roof skin & the dramatic angled quarter window. Sorry Sam, but I agree with 50 Fraud on this 40', it a has a strong Nash look about it..The yellow & the silver 40' Sedan deliveries that Foose did were stellar in both design & finish, this 40' in design not so much...

I'm with the 39 guy and hope you don't mind the detour, but I do so enjoy exchanges about SLICING & DICING 40's, theres so few that can deal with that...

For review; it was Henry's cheapest car on the market, that's why the upper trunk weren't rounded that the Mercury's, the gas filler neck that sticks out in the breeze and the piece of trim on the lower lip of the hood, it was there so you wouldn't see the gap between it and the top of the grille and who can explain the square trunk emblem mounted on a all rounded car...Overall outstanding design, lacks in the some of the details...IMHO, dyno dave

 

Naww, detours to discuss design are always fun. I especially enjoy speculating about why stuff was done in the design of early Fords; some of it seems very obvious, and some is hard to understand.

Example #1: I thought the design of the "hardtoppy" window frames on the '39-40 Merc coupes was innovative and forward looking. Then I read some styling history of Ford during the era and discovered that it was largely done to reduce the cost of tooling the doors (!)

Example #2: I read the biography of E.T. Gregorie that was based on interviews with him late in his life, and contained a lot of insight into his working relationship with Edsel and reasons that they did certain things. I looked forward to reading about the design of the '40, and discovered that Gregorie had quite a lot to say about the '39 DeLuxe, of which he was appropriately proud, but the book skips over the '40 WITHOUT A SINGLE WORD! I was amazed at that.

Dave, did you work as a designer, or is it just an interest of yours?

 

Funny you mention that because the 40 Ford book that came out a couple of years back struck me in a similar way. A lot of copy about the prior models - and background is fine - but I felt it lacked meat about the title subject.

 

Sam Foose also did a green '41 Ford coupe with mildly chopped and thinned roof. I think it was probably done around 1980. It really improved the look of the car!

 

No pictures hmm? It never happened !

 

This one, perhaps? (post #64)
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=447234&page=4

 

Further to this: in the Gregorie book, he discusses the design of the '41 Ford with great delight. It seemed that even when he was interviewed late in his life -- probably the 1990's -- he regarded the '41 as a huge improvement over '39-40. He was especially proud of the way the rear quarter on the '41 resolved the rear fender and trunk lid all together into one big round butt, rather than the separate fender and decklid forms of the '39-40. I think he was already headed in that direction with the design of the '39-40 Mercury, which is quite different from the Ford in that area. Different strokes, I guess.

 

Foose's is so so . But Winfield's is AWSOME!

 

Apples and Pineapples. That's a '41.