Hot Rods A 40 Ford Coupe for Uncle Mike Build Thread

Thanks guys! The coupe is sitting in the garage now and I still enjoy seeing it several times a day and still find it difficult to believe that the dream did com to fruition.

Flooding......guess I better check the news and see what is going on around here. Although we have had plenty of rain this last week around here I am miles from any rivers or creeks and my worst problem has been a little water leaking under the shop door.

I do have family in the Seattle area though and they are used to heavy rains this time of year and have chosen to own homes located on higher ground.

We have been diligently working on the Mercury and I have been taking pictures of the projects in preparation for a thread.I will start the thread after we get a little farther along.

Merry Christmas to you all!

 

Nice Job. Hours and Hours, I Know.

 

Thanks FOURTYDLX! The hours and hours were worth it!

 

You couldn't buy forty grillsin the war time,or rite after, some were floating around from Argentina, Also tin that were chromed, Looked like crap.

 

^^ huh ? ^^ I didn't say anything other then I love this build. Think I got quote hooked by mistake on that one. Meanwhile .... back at the ranch (of awesome) .... how about the Merc' thread upcoming ? You know you get a YAHOOOOooooo ( !!! ) or three out of me. Teach me some more ! Fav' of fav's here already.

 

Well that grille article was from a ways back Kid. I started the 54 Merc thread last week. It isn't getting all of that many looks so far. I kind of expected that. 54 Mercs don't have the following that 40 Fords have. I could use some encouragement! So take a look if you have rime.

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/...ury-custom-2-door-sedan-build-thread.1003685/

 

Man I'm there like underwear ! Glad that guy drunk texted me I guess ! haha '54 Merc' huh ? Excellent !! On it ...

 

Well it's time to go to the upholstery shop. I had dig this trailer out of the snow this week.
It has been home for my 39 convertible sedan project for several years now but the muck on the road led me to use it to transport the coupe the 10 miles to the upholstery shop.

 

waiting for pix of the finished interior.
PS I hope hot rods aren't like Harleys & trailers; once they learn to ride in trailers, it's hard to break them of it.

 

I would love to see pics of the convertible sedan?

 

Joel,The coupe is not going to be a trailer queen. Unless it is broken or being delivered mid winter for something like an interior it will not go in the trailer. As I was driving the truck and trailer today making the delivery I voiced to Don that I don't know why someone would want to drive a big old truck pulling one of these heavy trailers when he could drive his Hot Rod to an event? In saying that I don't want to get into to some great debate about this subject. I am just saying driving a Hot Rod is a lot more fun than driving a truck and trailer and I built this coupe to drive.

glendale I will PM you some pictures. The car is in pieces and has some OT stuff on it.

 

And it would be cheaper to drive the hotrod too,big truck along with big trailer with car in it equals sucking a bunch of gas.

 

I also inserted this edit into post 323 on page 11.

Edit Note: 1/31/16. During the fall shake down runs in October 2015 we found that the heater motor bearings were just too far gone. We eventually tried three different 6 volt motors but they all had a bad case of the wobbles. So I took Joel's advice and tried the NAPA 12 volt motor that V8 Bob recommended in post 324. The motor's NAPA # is BK 6551022. It cost about $35.00. The dimensions are very close and the motor fit right in the same mounting holes. I had to shorten the fan shaft about 1/2".

My main concern about this 12 volt swap was that the motor can only be wired to turn in one direction. The heater is designed to turn clockwise for cabin heat and counter clockwise for defrost. We did a bench test and discovered that the fan pushes plenty of air up the defrost hoses while turning clock wise. There is a switch available to make the motor reverse but we decided we won't need it.
From the Ford Barn by V8 Bob:
The 6551021 6V motor (along with the #6551022 12V version) can be reversed by simply switching polarity with a separate reversing switch, like the 30 amp pictured below, and is what I'm using on the 12 V heater in my '40 with the 6551022 motor.






So we took the 6 volt reducer out of the circuit and wired it to the 6 volt switch. I just did a short test in the car. The fan puts out much more air than the 6 volt motor did and is much more quiet than the 6 volt motor.

I was able to do this modification in the nice clean and warm upholstery shop while the coupes seat was out for upholstery. So far all he has done is take the seat apart but he says he will start building the wood panels this week.

 

I'm glad the heater works; maybe I'll dig mine out and rejuvenate it while I'm waiting for the body work fairy to visit me.

 

I made my third visit to the upholstery shop today. We went over a few details and made some decisions. Work has been slower than I anticipated as they are close to the time they said they would finished. But they seem to be doing very good work and a lot of little things appear to be getting done. I am anxious to see the final product.

I asked for a simple black panel under the package tray. It will not be seen much as the seat will cover it . I wasn't expecting the screws to be used to hold the panel but will let that slide.

They made these nice fiberglass side panels for the trunk. They were going to put the removable panels in directly under the trunk drip edge. They did a nice job on them but I asked them to extend them to white braces as I told them I wanted the removable panels to be attached to the braces. I want to be able to use as much of that spacious 40 trunk as possible.

Just noticed that nice curved edge will require modification to the tool storage covers......I will have to call and talk to them about that.

The door and quarter panels are foamed and cut. I like the pattern.

Kick panels.

Package tray will get some black and white treatment.

Fabric cut for the package tray. After some discussion they decided to put a french seam in the corners to match the seat.

The headliner arrived today. We discussed it's install. They say that I am missing some small bows that go in the corners just above the package tray..... I didn't know they had one there originally. I guess they will have to make them out of 1/8 steel rod.

That's all for now.

 

I like the pattern for the upholstery. The seperation panels behind the seat were mounted with oval head screws and finish washers originally in the 5W coupe and the business coupe had those panels covered with upholstery. It's going to look great when It's finished.

 

Thanks Joel, I spoke with the upholsterer this afternoon about the arm rests and the tool box covers. Looks like I will have to come up with some wimbleton white paint for the arm rests and visor mounts. I will probably have to make the tool cover mods also.

 

I paid another visit to the upholstery shop today. They have made some good progress and I am overall pretty happy with the results of their labors so far.

Kick panels with perforated speaker area.

Package tray and headliner . Jacob said that he stapled the headliner to the plywood base of the package tray instead of using the stock ford style tack strip.


Headliner with visors.

It is good that I was able to take these pictures of the door and quarter panels today because once the seat is installed it is hard to get a clear picture of them. Notice how Jacob made the wind lace match the trim. I think it is a nice detail.


They got the headliner nice and tight. Those little spots above the quarter windows just would not stretch out though. Notice the trim above the door. Jacob did not want to use the stock metal strip that is supposed to go there. He said it was too crooked and that he could stretch and attach the headliner better with this fabricated strip. I am happy with that.


Seat edge trim.

Seat backs and seat inserts.


Covering the seat back trim. If any of you guys know what this seat came out of I would like to know.

The arm rests are new 56 Chevrolet 210 type . They came black but we chose to cover them with the off white fabric and paint the bases to match.

That is all for today. I hope to get the car back in a coupe of weeks. They are starting to clean all of the sand off the roads around here and I am eager to put some more miles on this coupe.

 

Very nice and I also like the windlass treatment..very cool. It looks like an early spring here; maybe early for you too.

 

Looking great

 

A good illustration of why upholstery is so expensive today; tis VERY labor intensive!
Going to have a nice old school look to it.

 

Looking good, wind lace idea is another great detail on your coupe. Beautiful.

 

Thanks guys! It is great to have you all still following the thread. Jacob called me again Monday and wanted me to come out for a consult on the trunk layout and the a fit to see where the arm rest should go.

It is kind of hard to see in this photo but the pattern for the sides are drawn on the tape. The removable storage compartment door is also marked out on the plywood. The inserts will feature 2" white pleats.

The new seat foam has been cut and I gently sat my butt on the seat and checked for arm rest position. In the end the placement will be a compromise as there is not much usable space to place them as door handles, door panel pattern and steel structure of the door limits location possibilities.

After years of driving my 39 without arm rests I will be happy to have something to rest my arm on when it is too cold or wet to rest my arm on the door sill. I always noticed the absence of the arm rest more on those rare occasions that I was a passenger in the 39.

It appears that Jacob is concentrating on getting this project finished so I may get the car back in a week or so. It's like waiting for a first child to be born..........

 

Is that a stock front seat with the springs removed and replaced with foam? Should ride much better than springs.

 

I wish I knew more about the seat. It came with a full 39 Ford convertible interior I bought years ago. I am certain it is not a 40 Ford seat but I do not know what it is. I was guessing it might be a 46-48. All of the springs have been removed but the framework for the seat backs was and bottom were retained. I drove the coupe with this seat last fall and felt it was quite comfortable.

We decided to replace all of the foam though because the new upholstery was laid out differently. It was an expensive change to make as the new foam is pretty spendy. So I hope the ride quality is just as good as it was before.

 

WOW! It's beautiful! ... quality details are everywhere.

 

Thanks, I see primer on your avatar coupe. How about an update?

 

I'll add a few pics to my thread (I've hijacked yours too much already! )...
Just came in to say I was stuck on getting the front apron/fender support to work, so my first thought was how did you do it! And there was the answer! AGAIN! And then I saw your dashboard! Going to use those posts too!

This thread has been my '40 direction sheet! (...like I'm 12 again and looking at the '40 AMT coupe directions, but BIGGER!)

I'm mounting the sheet metal so I can do the final filler and block sanding. Hoping to have it Painted Folkstone gray by the end of the month...

 

Great job-been following along since you began-looks great!

 

Pat, as I have said before comments and questions like yours make the whole thread posting thing seem very worthwhile. I am looking forward to seeing some updates on your build thread. I like your color choice!