Art & Inspiration A Personal View of Shoebox Fords

Great post, Now I know why my 50 makes me feel good when i cruise down the road,,,Sam

 

Heres mine!

 

First 3 are just hanging parts to see what things are then took off all 4 paint jobs so we wouldn't have any surprises.
The Wizzard

 

I was just looking over this thread again, and realized that there's at least one newcomer that belongs among my personal favorites. Royalshifter's chopped Victoria is surely on its way to being among the great shoeboxes:

 

this llooks so good.

 

wow that black shoebox is stunning. Great Picture

 

My wife just bought another....it's a '50 2dr sedan. Kansas car. Really solid. Should be a keeper.

 

Sure glad when you bring up some of these earlier post that I haven't seen. Great post and some amazing cars, very nice. Thanks again.

 

up for another look

 

50Fraud:


Who was Cotten Woodworth? Was he from N.J. maybe?

Reason for asking: When I was a freshman engineering student at General Motors Institute in Flint in 1956, there was a "Dealer Do-op" who drove a car just like that -with a Buick engine. I fell inlove with the car and shortly bought a '51 Vicky off a used car lot on North Saginaw in Flint. I embarked on a program to make mine like that-radiused wheel wells , Buick trim, but all black and with a Y-Block Ford. Never had the resources to completely finish the car-it had the Buick trim on one side only. While junkyarding one day in Flint, lo and behold, there was my icon car all smashed up. Amongst other things, he had taken advantage of his GM connection and had a custom headliner made from that perforated vinyl they used back then. Needless to say, that was soon transplanted into mine. Drove that car daily until '59 when it needed too much TLC. Sold it to some (rare) Ford lovers in Flint who regeared it and street raced it into oblivion.

 

Royalshifter, welcome back. Watching your project with great interest.

Dale, I'm afraid I know nothing about Mr. Woodworth. I saw an article about his car in an ancient issue of Car Craft, I think, back in the day. A couple of years ago I ran across that issue and scanned the picture, and it fit well with what I had to say in this thread.

I have a very narrow view of side trim on shoeboxes. I think that the stock trim on a cheapo '49-'50 suits the overall shape of the body very well, so that's what I used on my '51. If for some reason I were to do otherwise, I would copy the Woodworth car exactly, because it also seems to fit the profile of the car perfectly. A distant third choice? Maybe the earlier Buick trim used on the Buster Litton car, or the '55 Chevy Bel Air trim on that silver Tudor earlier in the thread.

One of the advantages of being an Old Fart is that you can be narrow minded, and hardly anybody expects otherwise.

PS: Dale, it's too bad your '51 never saw completion. I think it would have been a stunner in solid black.

 

Damn fine thread.

 

Damn fine looking cars if I might say so myself.I think I am a little pregidous though don't you think?????

 

Ttt

 

As the proud owner of a '49 Club Coupe, I read every post in this thread with great interest.

Glad to see Weesner's shoebox noted prominently. It's the first one I remember seeing, back when he was still welding on the top (sorry Keith!).

Seeing him drive the wheels off it (and Tony and Lee Pratt and everyone else do the same) gives me hope that some day, I'll have mine actually running, driving and finished.

Besides being blank canvases for customizers, these cars are great entry-level customs.

The buy-in is cheaper than it is for '36s, '39s, and every other early Ford--but when they're done right, they're every bit as jaw-droppingly other-worldly (and classy) as some of the earlier cars.

 

The green chop top belongs to Marty Wells from Yorba Linda, Ca. see an article on the car here http://www.rodandcustommagazine.com/featuredvehicles/0608rc_1951_ford_sedan/viewall.html

 

What a great thread. Thanks for bringing it up.

 

Lots of great cars in this thread

 

My first sight of the 49 Fords was at an introduction at the Sportsman Park baseball stadium in St. Louis in late 48. I was 10 and they had a parade of new 49 Fords mostly convertibles. The comparison between these cars of the future and the 48 and earlier cars was astounding. In addition they had Cardinal ball players riding in the cars and the finally was Babe Ruth and Dizzy Dean. Dizzy pitched a ball to the Babe and he hit the ball lightly.
Babe Ruth died a short time later. A friend that had polio at the time had his picture taken with the Babe. One of my fondest memories.
deChrome

 

Nice write up Fraud, thanks.

 

Another cool shoebox thread.
Glad to see it resurrected.

Heres a few I like.

 

It is interesting that you post this. When I was young, a farmer asked me if I wanted to haul hay. I said yes but I was too young to drive and had no way to get there. He said just walk over to his dads place and drive the old ford back and forth. It was a 50 Ford with a Merc flathead in it. Jeeezuz, what a sound. I had my knee in the carb all the way. It was that sound that I remember and it is why I have a built flathead in my 37 project today even against the advice of others.

 

This is one bad -ass kustom i have A red 49 chopped top convert, working top.And A 49 merc. i think i'd trade my mer for this ford yeah great kar

 

Shubox fords will always have a place in my heart. My first car was a 50 crestliner my dad found in the local paper...he loved them too as his dad had a perfect 50 club coupe with V/8,overdrive.
My best friend in high school drove a balck 50 2 door sedan with a merc motor/4 barrel.
Here are a few photos of shuboxes I've built/owned through the years.

 

This's a great thread. Love those spinners.Thats what 49-51 shoebox's are known as down here .single mspinners and twin spinners.gotta love em.
Here's mine and one i like.

 

Cool thread. Any more pictures of the gold flamed box, on the third page?

Brent

 

BEST FLICK for 49-50 Shoeboxes is LA CONFIDENTIAL ! (Kevin Spacey, Russ Crowe, all star cast). Shoebox fords tearing through the streets, etc. Mostly cop cars, but still great. You'll scream and squirm when you see some of them crashed!!

 

I was thinking about starting a new thread about customs, and stumbled onto this old thread which I'd forgotten. Re-reading it was fun, and reminded me that some noteworthy shoeboxes have appeared since this thread began.

The most noteworthy is Mark and Kelly Skipper's outstanding and beautiful Royal Victoria, which is fully documented here on the HAMB and has received just about every possible award:


This Fordor appeared at shows in the NW last year, but I haven't seen it in any magazine or web feature. It's remarkable to me because (1) it's a seriously customized moredoor, which hardly anybody does, and (2) it uses the lovely Buick sidetrim used with radiused wheelwells on a few shoeboxes in the '50s, but now largely extinct except on vintage Buicks. I'd really like to see more of this car:


...and this unusual '49 coupe by Brian Bozzo, not remarkable for radical bodywork, but for an ingenious and deceiving paint job with fades that emphasize its bright brown highlights:


There's one more car that I would have included in the original thread if I had found pictures of it back then. I saw this picture years ago and then lost track of it, but I love the look of this chopped Victoria:

I've since learned that the car was built by Dick Page long ago for Tim Smith. Because of a severely limited budget, the rear window was borrowed complete from a '52 Ford station wagon liftgate, and the chopped top was fabric covered to avoid the cost of metal finishing the welded seams. I think the chopped top on this car is just gorgeous, and I would be tempted to copy it on my own Vic if I had the money. I've never shown this picture to Royalshifter, and I don't know if this car influenced his own chop, but it wouldn't surprise me.

I've stolen these pictures from various internet sources, and I apologize to anyone whose image I've swiped without credit.

Seems like the reborn popularity of the shoeboxes has not lost momentum, but continues to grow. Cool!

 

Royalshifter's Victoria is just about the best looking car I have ever seen.

 

Here's one more, understated and unheralded, that I photographed twice at Santa Maria two years apart. I didn't even realize that it was the same car until recently. This is a very mild custom, but with several excellent and unusual details: