Hot Rods A '46 Ford Coupe joins the flock

Picked up this gem. '46 Ford Coupe. All built in 1959. Old lacquer paint, Tijuana tuck-n-roll interior, 291 Desoto Firedome, '39 Ford trans, dropped axle and spring, and tons of character.

 

Some little details. Yes, the Lacquer is heavily cracked.The inner fender splash deflectors were chromed,as was the hood latch and cover. I don't plan on changing much. I may put the hood back on, and I'll have an extra stock grille with the stainless trim, just to see how it looks. I'll try and shine everything up too. It needs carpet. Other than that I can't think of anything other than regular maintenance.

 

Cool coupe.. I like the interior....

 

More:

 

There is one major flaw... my name ain't on the title! Nice score....

 

Hanging with a new 4-wheeled buddy

 

Man, I like that!

 

Pulled the G-78-15s off the front and put these 5.60-15s on that was being used to scoot the model a chassis around. Really gave it rubber rake

 

Time capsule, rock that one as is! (Safety & maintenance of course)

 

That is rad. Clean 'er up and drive it!

 

Cool Coupe!

 

Congrats - looks great

 

Preservation of the old lacquer paint question. As you can see it looks like shattered glass all over. There are sections that are bare metal where it has flaked off. What do I do to stop further deterioration? I understand that the new waxes don't help Lacquer that much. Meguiars #7 comes up a bunch in research. And I plan on regular carnuba for the final wax. Suggestions please.

 

Thankfully another survivor falling into good hands...Congrats @green73...a little vintage variety on the platter never hurts.

@Chris is big on resurrecting vintage paint...lacquer not sure...I'm sure someone will chime in on that

 

Great purchase, I love it, had the mercury version. Just my opinion, but put the G78s back on. Those 5.60s are just too small for that car.

 

I am feeling the tire size thing but will reserve judgment as many details are still being addressed such as hood, caps or no caps, paint...so when @green73 tidies it all up the full vibe will be realized...

Green...question for you, in your first set of pics what are those plates you took a picture of? Fender exit header block offs?

As much as I love period decals is that safety glass in place?...I'm thinking yes as it looks like a crack in the window but only half way through...

Again...looking forward to your bring this back to the road where it belongs...

 

I have no advise on the paint. It's old and it has failed, it will just do what it does. Try to keep it on the car

I recently sold my 46 which looked a lot like yours. I had 6.00 16’s up front and 7.50 16’s our back

 

Those plates are the splash shields behind the front tires in the fenderwell. They are old chrome, but the pic doesn't show it very well. I know I'm going to go back and forth on tires, front for size alone, white walls, black walls... Plenty of little tasks to tidy up as any old car like this does, wiring, gauges, suspension bushings, etc... First big thing is going to be adding seat belts. I also want to have the exhaust completely re-done. It dumps under the body. I don't think running pencil tips out the back is too far out of line for this car. I'd like to do headers at the same time too, but steering box clearance may stop that idea. I also want to figure out a trunk latch, which shouldn't be too difficult.

I've already started trying different stuff on small areas of the paint. Letting Meguiars #7 sit for a couple of days in one spot. I tried a cheap black crayon in a couple of the cracks in another spot. Trying turtle wax polish followed by turtle wax black color magic in another spot. Thinking about mineral spirits and oil, and some kind of wood floor polish too.

 

@Chris. I went through your thread on your '46 the other day. WOW! Great looking car.

 

my 46 has a 291 firedome in it

 

Great car!

 

Been working on shining it up over the last week. Working in the cool of night after work. Doing one panel at a time, I came up with a process that seems to work. Step 1 is a hand polish with Turtle Wax liquid polishing compound on a terry cloth rag. This takes the surface oxidation off I guess. Step 2 is a heavy coat of Meguiars #7 Show Car Glaze left to sit over night. It's supposed to kind of re-hydrate the lacquer due to some kind of oils in it. Step 3 (a day later) is a heavy coat of Turtle Wax Color Magic Black left to sit over night. The dyes seem to soak in to the cracks and really subdues the old cracks. All in all it looks a ton better where I've done this and still keeps the aged character. I intend on replacing all of the door, hood and trunk seals and snubbers and I'll replace the dry rotted fender welting too.

 

Wow, that really did make a huge difference!!!!!
Looks good, keep going!!!!

 

Great technique to hide the checking..

 

The poor old radiator let go on the way to work. It looks like it may be original to the gar but modified for the Firedome. Has a few repairs. Looks like a call to Walker is in order. Well at least it happened on a local drive and not on a road trip.

 

So, the radiator is taking a bit longer to show up than anticipated. While waiting I've been cleaning a bit of other things up. The seats are out, and underneath the neat-o tuck and roll vinyl is not good. I was able to free-up the sliding mechanism, and that's a good thing. Also good, it seems that the car was stored in a dry/covered environment for some time. The bad: rodents used the interior for a home. They are not clean animals. Almost all of the batting and soft parts under the vinyl have been eaten away. The vinyl was applied directly over the factory mohair. Finding a shop that will work with the old vinyl to retain the cars history is a tough task. Everyone wants to totally re-do the vinyl. Yes, I know the rolls aren't perfect, that's the danged point! I also get that a good shop doesn't want their name attached to what is in today's world unacceptable. The vinyl itself cleans up quite well with a scrubbing with old school Westleys Bleach White, followed by a heavy soaking of Mothers VLR protectant without leaving a goofy slick shine. The floor pan in this car is damn near perfect. Even under the mouse turds the original paint is still there. I'll be putting a layer of Peel and Seal over this though, before jute and carpet happens. Here are a few pics of the floor pan.

 

That’s a killer car...enjoy

 

I'll be spraying a coat of rust converter on what surface rest is there as well. I've also been working on polishing the paint up. Slow process but its looking good. There are a few things under the paint that are kinda fun. Gotta sand a little to figure out the colors, but there is some old pinstriping on the firewall that needs to be restored.

 

That was somebody’s pride and joy. Lots of love shown in its life, and now!

 

Keep on keeping on.