Bought in 1966 and fixed up in the back driveway working after school evenings and weekends. Rebuilt the brakes and put in new king-pins. It had a 52 Merc that always over-heated so I traded to get a 283 Power-pak. Fit in pretty easy with an adapter ring, mounts, truck clutch, pinion bearing, and electric fuel pump. Found some 15" Merc rims, drilled out the rivets and reversed the faces. Sanded it down and my Dad shot it with Caddy Silvermist Ember. Hasn't run since 72 and has followed me around all these years. And now I want my old hot-rod back.
Good deal get it out. Don’t know where you are in Va, I’m near Richmond. Reach out if you need a hand. Just got my 39 back on the road last fall, it had a very similar story.
It was the only way to get my 40 done! So the last couple of weeks I spent Tuesday in the garage straightening out. But today was serious. I intended to take off a fender, so jacked it up and took off the right front wheel. But found that to remove the fender, first I had to remove the old pull-hitch and bumper. But to remove those, I had to remove the radiator. And to remove that I had to hack off the radiator hoses.
By the way: thanks for the encouragement and offers of help. I'll need them! This time will be a lot more serious than my high school build. Back then I stuck the 283 on the old drive train. It was way too much for those old components. Eventually coming home from college I managed to break an axle at the top of Homestake Pass and coasted down the pass 6 miles into Butte. Fixed that but then I broke the transmission yoke mount on the old tranny. So, this time it gets a whole new drive-train which means I have to figure out how to lift the body off the frame in my home garage. Still not sure how I'm going to do that! Oh, I'm in northern VA, in Annandale in Fairfax County.
Looking forward to seeing how this comes along. Very cool that you still have it! Any more photos from before it’s long stint in the garage?
Mine hasn't been in the garage that long but no doubt long enough! Keep us posted.... pictures... we like pictures. lol Here's mine.
"Any more photos ...?" That's about the only one from when I first had it. My brother took it before or maybe between his fun tours to the southeast of Asia courtesy of the Army...
Nice thing about these cars, the whole driveline can be changed/upgraded without taking the body off. Sometimes that act will extend the project on too long. Chassis Engineering, Pete Jake's, and even some members in the Classifieds sell bolt-on parts to upgrade your car. Take a look at what's available, you could be on the road in a short time.
Yup. I’m getting ready to swap a bronco 9 inch in with ladder bars and a top loader 3 speed in mine. Don’t have to take the body off at all.
Some of you had asked about my plans. Here is the plan so far (I'll have to figure out the rest later and it may not be in the right order): - remove front fenders and grill - remove rear fenders - remove running boards - remove and sell flathead (I gotta pay for the new stuff I'll be installing) - remove seats and interior - strip seats down to frames - remove body bolts (I can imagine what fun this will be!) - lift body off frame (ditto to above!) - order MIG welder - strip frame - order cross-member and boxing kit - check frame for straightness - remove/replace cross member - box frame - not sure what to do yet on rear-end... - finish this list.....(looks like I'll have lots of time to think about "what else?" while I get to this point.) I'll have to check delivery times on the things being ordered and maybe move them up in the list depending on how long they'll take. Comments?
I’d be interested in all the stuff you want to take off (flathead and trans banjo and front end for sure). The stock front end really doesn’t need to be changed out. Put a dropped axle on it and update the brakes and it will ride great. If you want power steering it’s not hard to swap a GM power steering box into one using a GM 525 steering box plate availble from speedway and Pete and Jakes. I would talk to the upholstery shop you plan on using before you strip the seats down. Sometimes they want to see what it was shaped like before so they know how much to build up. There’s no foam in these like so everything has now, so they have to build up the cotton batting. unless you just want to take the body off the frame, there really is no need to. If your planning on a parallel leaf kit for the rear it can all be done and bolted on, very easily with the body in the frame. Also the frame rails really do not need to be boxed unless you are planning for serious power with the new motor. You can trim the center crossmember to fit a new trans and and the reinforce it with a center X member kit from chassis engineering or something similar. One thing that I can highly recommend, is once you take all the fenders, running boards and front sheet metal off the car, buy all new hardware. Vintique make great hardware kits. Also make sure you get new rear fender clip nuts, it’s guaranteed you will break a few of the bolts off in the clips. Just replace all of them. I buy the kit and then a few extras. All new correct hardware makes putting it back together so much easier. And buying the kits is now more expensive than trying to buy everything at the hardware store.
I concur. You really don't need to take the body off to do the work you are planning to do. I've done all of the work on my 47 with the body on. I like M11 front ends, but I've also used the original front ends, with a dropped axle. Parallel leaf rears ride well, and are easy to install.
I just got my 40 on the road. Chassis Engineering parallel springs with a bronco 9in rear and 2.75 rear. May go to a 3.00 at some point. CE stuff worked well. The bronco rear is a 5x5.5 hub. I used drum brakes as well. No need to pull body off! SBC with tri-power and a Muncie with Mech linkage. I did not notch frame, I built a Hurst shifter relocation plate that raised it up and it sits nice. Went with power brakes and adapter from CE as well. Front brakes are speedway disk. 5x5.5 bolt pattern. They fit well. I got all the steering links off Ebay and new king pins a bushings. Using stock steering box which is pretty tight after a small adjustment. I also went with Hooker block hugger headers and made the down pipes. Tricky to work around starter and steering but came out well. Front motor mount from speedway, old Hurst style. Cant use mech fuel pump with that one but I had a good electric one. CE sells a SBC mount to mount on frame, they work good too. It still will be tight for a mech fuel pump. Now, with all that said, the motor fits really good. I built my own trans mount and did not split wish bone. I used the stock Radiator as well. Blanked off the drivers side lower hole and the two uppers and put one in the middle. 4 gals of coolant! I used a pusher fan and a 185deg thermostat. It runs great and stays cool. When I did the engine swap, I only took the grill and radiator off, left the hood on and had plenty of room to put it all in. I have pictures I can send if you need ideas. I did all this on my shop floor with no lift. I am in Sykesville Maryland if you need anything. All the best with Your project. Gray Beard
The list looked mostly good right up until you mentioned the MII front end kit. I would definitely vote for a dropped axle up front. They work great and bolt in. I also second the thought of not necessarily needing to take the body off the frame or boxing it unless you just want to. At least for me, I know that I can get too deep in a project at times and then never get to finishing it up. Seems doing the necessities to get it going again would give a quicker reward and likely be more fun in the end. Oh, and very cool that you have kept this car as long as you have. Looking forward to following the progress as you bring it back to life.
I've had several '40 Fords, a couple with M11's but more with stock/dropped axles. My experience has been a nice tight original/dropped front axle works very well, enough so that I'll never install another M11 in a '40. I'm not trying to tell you what to do, just giving you some insight from someone who's been there, done that. Good luck with your project..Love '40 Fords.
Mice love old cars too ! An old friend did a body off in his garage on his 40 sedan - used the rafters if I remember to lift it then had a dolly thing built under it to roll the frame in and out. Good luck !
Mustang 2 Ifs makes your build off topic for this place. Just so you know up front. This is a traditional (pre 65 build styles) hot rod forum. If you go with the Ifs don't mention it or post pics of it here.....
I built a forty tudor years ago before the MII craze, used a 54 Chevy frontend and MG rack, big mistake. Fortunately I saved all the original stuff and went back with it and a GM steering box, (non-power), new front spring with Teflon and reversed eyes, stock wishbone, it drove like a dream! Traditional is the Henry Ford way, tried and true!
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