Projects BChrismer's Beater '40 Ford Panel Project

I used the heavy duty landau top upholstery adhesive from my spray gun to glue it all down. The really nice thing about this foam is it sands nicely to shape to smooth out lumps and bumps before putting the carpet down.

 

Cold idle this morning. Idle is set a bit high and I haven't busted out the vacuum gauge to set the mixture screws yet, but here's a sample video for those who wanna hear the old truck idling. LOL

 

Music to my ears. Love the 40 Missouri tag. As my wife always says, sneaky poo.

 

LOL I like your wife, and I haven't even met her!

I have YOM tags on the coupe and the stake truck. I bought this set on a weekend impulse buy on E-bay, before being able to check with the MO DOR to see if the number was available. Unfortunately they are not, so now I have some additional "Garage Art". I've decided that I am going to wait on my next license plate purchase until I get my title paperwork back and go through the appropriate DOR clearing process before pulling the trigger again.

I had 3D printed a license plate bracket to "test" fit, based on the hole spacing of the narrow 5 digit plates. Figured if I got it right, I could give the piece to a buddy that works in a fab shop and have him laser cut the thing and bend it appropriately on their brake. I got the holes spaced right for the plate, but was off about 1/8" on the spacing on the door and haven't taken the time to redo it yet.

 

Took the panel truck to the gas station to refill the tank. I've only been driving it around the neighborhood and made a 16 mile round trip to the muffler shop and have already gone through 12 gallons of gas. NOT GOOD.

I started messing with the carb last night. Vacuum gauge told me that I had retarded timing and I was kind of offended by that because I was the one who set it when I put the pertronix in the distributor. I messed with the timing and everything got worse, so I pulled the distributor off and set it back to where it was.

I started adjusting the carb after that fiasco, only to find that I couldn't keep the dang thing running. The idle was erratic and I discovered that it was running off of the idle speed screw and wouldn't run off of the idle mixture screws. I could turn them both all the way in. NO BUENO!

Frustrated, I went inside for supper and decided I'd wait until tomorrow to mess with it. Yeah...right! I found myself back out in the garage going through a crusty spare carb, making sure the idle passages were clear, and stuck it on the panel. I must have "stored" some extra carb parts in it at some time because it had a new power valve and accelerator pump, but was missing some of the rubber washers under the trees.

The crusty carb idled perfect, but would stumble when I gave it gas. At least that gave me hope that the engine would idle. Came back inside and ordered a new carb rebuild kit that should be at the parts store this morning. Now trying to decide which carb to rebuild. The crusty one is a Ford carb, and the one that was on it is a Holley. Even though they are the same thing, I kinda like the Ford logo on the side of the carb better.

Oh the joys of playing with old cars!

 

Picked up my carb kit from the parts store. Since I had the Holley sitting on the shelf, I went ahead and tore it apart, cleaned it up, and reassembled it using the appropriate washers. It appears that the power valve was toast, too.

Went ahead and swapped out the carb and it seems to have been a successful experiment. Haven't had a chance to test drive it yet, but it idled smooth and accelerated nicely without falling all over itself. We'll see what it does when I take it for a test drive later.

 

I just realized that I never followed up with the carb rebuild post.

Thursday, over the lunch hour, I rebuilt the Holley, since it was already off of the truck, and put it on. Fixed the idle and running issues that I was having. On Friday, my missus asked me to join her and her client/buddy for lunch. She works for a company that provides in-home services to veterans. Her client/buddy, Truman, is a 92 year old Airborne Ranger, and is always fun to visit with. He absolutely loved seeing the panel truck.


I ran over to Lowes and got some peel and seal to help create some radiant barrier under the seats. Spent time taking care of that project yesterday afternoon.

Since I was left at home to feed the dogs, and was told to bring the lawn chairs to my sister-in-law's 4th of July party, I figured I'd get some more "test miles" in the panel.

It's hard not to take more photos. Here's bonus pic 1

Bonus pic 2

and Bonus pic 3

Saturday, my buddy Cory McMahon was supposed to come up from Mountain Home and do the lettering in the panel areas to add the Bret Chrismer's Mustache Wax logo stuff. He reached out to me on Friday and told me that his schedule got jacked up and wasn't going to be able to do it. Yesterday, he sent me a message trying to reschedule, so if nothing else gets in the way, hopefully I will be able to post photos on Thursday night.

 

Oh great ! Now I have to hold my breath till Thursday. I'm still blue from waiting on the carburetor report.

 

Yeah, well up until I finally put the rebuilt carb back on the flathead and took it for a test drive, I was beginning to second guess my decision to even use the flathead in the first place. I had a buddy offer me a '57 283 with some early 60's 283 heads, but being hard headed and thinking it would be cheaper and easier to use my '40 flathead that I had 20,000 miles of experience with.

I haven't had it out on a highway yet, but I have driven it about 15 miles around town since the carb rebuild. I am now very comfortable with the decision to use the flathead. The wide ratio of the Saginaw 4 speed, and the 3.0 rear end seem to be a GREAT match up with the flathead. I'll never beat anyone off the line, but first gear will take me from a stop light through the intersection, 2nd gear will get me to almost 40mph, and 3rd gear is great for around town cruising. I did run it up fast enough to hit 4th, and it was like dropping it into overdrive. I'm REALLY pleased with the choices that I had made.

I'm really bad about doing "temporary" solutions that need to be replaced later. One of those was running a rubber line from the gas tank to the fuel filter. Since I took tomorrow off, I will probably run up to the parts store and pick up some 5/16" steel line and use it between the tank and the filter, just to help keep it further away from the exhaust pipe. It was no big deal when I had it out at Mike's without the exhaust on it, to just do enough to move it around his property. Now I need to deal with it and do it right. I may also work on patching the floor where the previous owner took some of the wood out to try and find the serial number over the rear axle.

 

If one uses Mustache wax do they slide off

 

You know, surfers use wax to help their feet "stick" to the board. The texture of mustache wax is also tacky.

 

The wife planned a "shrimp boil" for dinner tonight, but then asked me what kind of sausage do you use for that. I replied Andoullie, and she say, "I've never heard of that." Needless to say, it was an excuse to take the panel truck to the grocery store.

I always park in the same spot, no matter which '40 I take, and I never fully pull into the spot, as it also has the big "buffer" area at the end where they have the lines marking the no parking area. I guess the '40s are as good at social distancing as I am!

I did take a little time to knock some rust chunks off of the A pillar on the driver side of the truck. It opened up a few pinholes and some larger ones, so I mixed up some JB Weld and started filling holes. Since I was at it, there were a few holes just behind the cowl vent, so I started to fill those, but gravity was fighting me because I failed to stick some tape behind them. As I laid down under the dash to apply some tape, I happened to lay my head down into the JB Weld that fell through the hole and onto the floor. At the time, I didn't think anything about it, but let's just say that the 'rona mullett holds onto JB Weld very nicely. Dunno how I am gonna get that crap out of my hair. LOL

 

While not specifically related to the build, @povertyflats posted this cartoon on FB yesterday. He's been doing a "Super Steve" series about doing Kustom builds. I got a big kick out of it.

 

I am all in with the black with flames. Keep the mustache though.

 

Does "Super Steve" have the last name Rohlman?

 

One and the same. I think he suggested that we make the panel a hiboy tub at one point last night. He's crazy!

 

Tired of playing "russian roulette" when driving the panel truck, I finally called my insurance agent and got it covered today. I'm still waiting on the title work to get finalized so I can pay my sales tax and registration, but at least I won't get an uninsured motorist ticket if I get pulled over. LOL

I took the truck out to the yard waste recycle center today. While it's only about 2 miles, as a crow flies, the street route is closer to 6 miles. Took the two lane to get there, and the truck did good. On the way home, I routed onto the 4 lane highway with a 70mph speed limit. While I didn't reach the speed limit as quickly as I do in the coupe, I was able to run 70mph without taxing the flatty and was able to keep up with the other cars on the highway. Looks like I'll be driving it out to Meeker's this weekend, get it up on his 4 post lift and button up some stuff on the underside.

 

Here's the Thursday update!


One of the shots I included for the insurance man
Another shot for the insurance man
And the last shot before today's shenanigans began.
Cory started laying out the design with his trusty Stabillo pencil
Then broke out the lettering brush
The passenger side from the 3/4 shot
And straight on. Cory didn't like the spacing on this side, but I told him that is the charm of hand lettered signage
This side had more space between the lettering and the Tiki

And the final on the driver side.

I'm planning to drive it up to Mike's this Saturday to do some stuff on the underside, maybe swap out the shifter for the original one that has the bolt on handle, and maybe even have him weld on a piece for the steering stabilizer that I took off of the front end that I had bought.

 

Looks great Bret! Now, you can use it as a tax write off. One of the coolest company trucks I have seen in a while and should haul HUGE shipments of mustache wax. Oh, and that Cory guy is dreamy.

 

I'm glad you finally abandoned that "free candy" logo idea you had. This looks much better!

Looks great!

 

Yeah, and Missouri only has 6 digits available for personalized license plates or I could do FRE-CNDY on the plate. Maybe I could do STACHE. LOL

 

If you did that plate here, everybody would just wonder who Cindy was, and who has her.

 

Nice job Cory!!!

 

Good point!

I had planned to run down to Branson and check out the Ford Truck & Panel event today, but found myself mowing the grass and killing a hot afternoon at the house. About 4pm, I got the bright idea to run to the hardware store and pick up some boiled linseed oil to rub down the exterior of the panel truck. (yes, I am fully aware of the fire danger of linseed oil soaked rags and sponges)


I figure it'll take a little while for the sheen to settle down a bit, but at least the exterior has some protective coating on it now.

 

Looks Good! I bet you're glad to have it out on the road!

Devin

 

I've been running around town in the panel truck, but tonight, it made its first trip out of town. I drove it about 70 miles, round trip, out to Meeker's shop for "Hot Rod Night".

I was a bit cautious leaving town, and ran between 60-65 MPH for the first 20 miles. It's pretty noisy, with little to no sound deadening on the firewall and floors, as well as the holes in the wooden floor in the cargo area. There's LOTS of squeaks and rattles that happen behind the driver's seat, too. I'm guessing that some of the inner support is rubbing against the top or sides when it is going down the road.

After I decided to put my earphones in my ears, to help reduce the noise that I was hearing, I figured I could push the flatty a little harder and ran it up between 70-75. Remember...I'm running a 3.0 rear gear and 29" tall tires, so it was only running around 2500RPM at 70. The flatty much preferred that speed, especially when going up the long gradual hills, and would maintain pace well. At the lower 60-65 speed, I'd lose a few MPH by the time I got to the top.

I filled the tank up before I left town, and when I got home, the needle was just under the Full mark. I'll top it off tomorrow and figure out about how I did on fuel mileage, but I can say that it did MUCH better than before I rebuilt the carb and plugged my vacuum leak. LOL

 

Squeak rattle and roll ! Sounds like
The panel is glad to be out of the hospital and enjoying its 80th birthday.

 

Funny story. I pulled into Meeker's last night, then decided to turn around and park where I did. While backing up towards his chat pile, I poked the exhaust pipes into the chat. This left some in the pipes, but I didn't realize it because I was barely above an idle anyway.

I walked over to the barn to retrieve some of the floor panel stuff and when I came back, Mike, Possum, and JL were standing around looking at the panel and pointed it out to me. I fired it up, revved up the engine, and blew it all out in the grass.

 

Thanks to everyone for their kind comments, thus far, in this thread. I'm REALLY surprised to be 8 pages deep into the build without being flamed for the choice not to mess with the exterior, other than a good scrubbing, some boiled linseed oil, and such.

With this being a low budget beater build, the goal was to get it on the road and have fun with it until someone with deeper pockets decides they need it more than I do. I'm hoping that when that time comes, they tell me they'd rather have a SBC and automatic in it so I can keep my flatty and 4 speed. LOL

Yesterday, on FB, David Conrad asked me to share some pics of the inside, both front and back. When he gave me crap about the seats, I explained that I had worked out a deal with @alchemy for a '40 sedan seat. Due to the fire that gutted the '37 sedan of @cvstl, Clay and I decided it would be better for him to take the seat and use it in the '37 until he can get his '37 seat reupholstered. Therefore, I went junk yarding and chose the PT Cruiser seats for $75.



The previous owner, in an effort to find the missing serial number, took out this section of the rear floor. I need to patch it back up still.


The red vinyl square is acting like a shift boot to keep the hot air from blowing up my right leg.

I believe I mentioned the stock speedometer was locked up, so I am temporarily using a spare '40 Deluxe speedometer until I get the one that Charlie Rambo has offered for the truck.


While the '55-57 shifter seemed like a great idea at the time, it is really encroaching on the legroom. I'm going to swap the shifter to the one that has a bolt on lever, and use a Hurst 5384084 66-70 Dodge B Body shifter that has about a 4" offset. That will move the shifter over and darn near have it centered between the seats.


Not knowing any history on the truck, other than it came from an estate sale in Mountain Home, AR, based on the sheet metal bins that have been added in the back, I would guess it to have been a plumber's truck, with the bins used for storing fittings and such.

 

Those floorboards could use a little linseed oil.