Derek's 1950 ford coupe shoebox build and introduction

Looking good Des

 

thanks mate

 

so ahron informs me that seeing as we have to cut the wheel tubs out to get the car lower that whil we are there we may aswell have a shot at this 2 inch wheel arch drop, it should really look like its tucking heaps of rim once on the ground with the wheel arch sittin lower so stay tuned cause thats probably gunna happen and im gunna do a step by step on ho we do it. cheers

 

Looking awesome!

 

Thanks Maiki gettin there.

 

well woke up to keen to go to work and had a massive case of the cant be fuckeds so i stayed home to work on the spinner, got the bottom plates all tacked shaped and welded in, lunch break waiting for the welds to fully cool before i cut the bracing out so as i doesnt move then its clean up the welds, just grind them smooth a little but not grind them fully off so too keep as much strength in them as possible. then back out to start on taking all the front sheet metal off so i cant modify the inner gaurds so the tyres can coe right up and also im goin to notch out a section on the chassis for the front a arms to come up enough for the crossmember to sit on the floor which should be about an inch or so out then will reinforce it with 5mm plate for extra strength. then later on i plan on getting those rear wheel arches cut out nicely and spot welds drilled so that i can use anything i may need to again but more than likely they will be complaetely new wheel tubs,
1 x fat shoebox sitting on the shed floor then i will just build the airbag set up off that to get it back up.

 

im pretty damn happy with the overall look and shape of how these came out, anyone in australia that wants to do a notch and cant be effed making templates and sending them off to a laser cutters, air ride sell these 4 notch plates for $139, and the are pretty nice and didnt take much modifying, only ground and shaped up one end.

 

.........................................fuel tank tv............................................

 

well its time for me to put my roast chicken on and have a break from the shed, heres a little updates one what i got up to since lunch ha ha

first i finished up the other notch plate bottom on the other side, let them sit for 30 mins while i had a clean up then cut out all the bracing, then i gave them a quick grind and sand and then cleaned them up with the strip and clean disc, i didnt wanna clean the welds up to much and grind away all the strength but will do more work on finishing them off in the future, probably every night thsi week ha ha but they turned out better than i could have hoped for. touched up a couple bits with the welder and then i went on to taking all the front grill and bumper and fenders off, took the wheels off and removed the springs to give me an idea of were this will sit and how much i need to notch out of the front chassis for the a arm to come up a bit higher also once i remove the old bump stop mounting plate and replace it with some plate steel it will be a tad lower, about 2 inches or so left fron the x member to the ground, same in the back maybe a bit more to lay frame fully.

also this already has fatman dropped uprights keeping in mind,

i removed the flat folded section of inner gaurd from the towards the back of the inner on the fron fender cause that already hit the tall firestones when u got a good bump, not evena good one just a bump in general, not good kids............

and just a couple shots of its stance at the moment, looking good i think but still alittle to go,

amazing how much the change of the look of the chop and the car is given once its slammed...............

 

just a little before (friday) and after (sat) aloow for another 2 inches to cover the rim and maybe even a further 2 inches once and if we do a wheel arch drop
the before was axle sittin on the bump stops too.

 

Looking sexy !! Love the lowered stance... great job !!

 

Thanks mate cheers

 

alright fellas, bit more progress on the spinner?shoebox depending whch country you reside in, as i said i didnt see the point in goin this far without gettin this warlock to lay frame, so the wheels tubs had to come out, this is good info i feel for anyone that hasnt done this and wants to see whats involved in making u 49-51 ford lay frame and still run tall firetone rags.
on talking to a few people and discussing my options as far as wheel tubs go i decidied to drill all the spot welds and remove these as one complete piece so they can be raised and a nice rolled section of aroun 3-4 inches put in the bottom of it to give a factory look, it takes a while and a bit of stuffing around to do this and some bracing to again make sure nothing moves when taking strength and supports out of the body.

first off i made some measurements from the rear leaf shackle mount up to the rear window section around were the boot bolts on and wrote it in permanent texter so when it all goes back and i remove the braces i can see whether anything has moved and make the proper adjustments, hopefully nothing does if i/you have braced it correctly.

then i did a brace out of inch rhs from the original top brace that goes from boot lid back mounting panel to the top of the wheel arch, this has to be cut away then shortened later.

then i did a cross brace between those two just incase. i also braced from the parcel tray to the floor and then off that brace to the b pillar area, to stop the rear window dropping when removing that brace.

once i had it all braced up i got a wire brush and then a wire brush on the drill to clean up the are inside the wheel arch were all the spot welds are on the factory seam, once u do that it normally brings up the indentations were it has been spot welded, using a small drill bit i went around and did a pilot spot in every one i could see, you cant see them all, u find the rest later. only a small bit not drilling all the way through, i then drilled with a bigger drill bit once i had then all done with the smaller one, again not al the way through once u do a couple u can see how much to drill and u can see both layers of skin.

 

once all the spot welds u found are drilled out, use whatever u can, screw driver, scraper, chisle, make a skin seperator and start up picking it, they pop if drilled well, and then you'll find some you missed were the skin doesnt wanna seperate, drill those and keep working it till its all seperate, its time consuming but nice to get it out in one peice.

once u have all them apart, there are the top and back mounts off the wheel tub u have to cut, i tried to cut close to the tub so that when i put it back in i will just shorten and trim the ons still connected, cut them free, then i put a texter mark inside the wheel arch above where its spot welded to you fender lip and cut along that being carefull to only cut through that skin you would hate to run the cut off wheel through ur qaurter panel,

i did it like this because we are planning a wheel arch drop so it has to be cut out anyway and can drill the spot welds on the bench, also anything i raise i will have to make a peice to go back in.

There are a couple thick mounts that go from ur body mount to the wheel tubs, these were kind of hidden under the extreme layers of body deadener but i found them and these i cut out, will make something new or different to go back in.

wheel tub out, once peice ready to be trimmed and extended and used in the future once i get them sand blasted.

then the FUN PART..........................

 

and then u get to roll ur diff with ur big firestones back under and slowly let the jack back down till u hear that metal chassis on concrete noise letting u know that ur shoebox ford is sitting on the ground.

of course you have to build it all back in again and seam seal everything but that is coming in the future just let me have this moment of a couple days work and now the fucker sits down,

i plan on settin the airbags up so that this car fully aired out will sit around 10mm off the ground, no slamming the rail or the crossmember on the ground i dont think, the slam specialtie bags i have ordered have a built in bump stop in them plus i still have around 2 and half inches before the axle hits the notch section so im goin to have another bump stop there in case of a bag blowing out the car doesnt drop one side onto the road.

will keep u updated with everything now as i plan on deadline being chopped this year again, ive had my fun for now driving it, its good to be back working on it again and doin phase 2 of its facelift ah ha ha

 

Here's a couple pics of the almighty fat olds mobile owned by the chicken man, mug Wingles himself as it will sit also aired out. The beauty of sharing my shed is the motivation that looking at each others cars give us. Mine was gettin lower than his so he wasn't gunna have that and came round started marking and cutting he is most likely goin to be making templates and gettin notch plates laser cut to suit his cause of the way it's designed but looks rad sitting low.

 

Yeah baby!

 

Yeah boi. Gimme three weeks and ur due back for a working bee booze on hard this time. More booze than work ha ha

 

Sounds good home slice

 

gotta love renewing ur hamb alliance membership with the exchange rate cost me a whole 47 buck aussie. booooom

 

i want some side trim ideas, i will see what response i get here and if not i will start a new thread but this one has everything ive done in it so want to keep it in here, please post pics if anyone has ideas, thanks any feedback would be great, not sure any style yet, i have thought about just welding up all the side trim holes but they can look really bare and slab sided so get them happenin

 

Both cars are coming along nice. Can't wait to see them again in the flesh er um, steel.

 

How about some 53 olds side trim? I know a guy that's taking all his off

 

Hey man lookin sweet. Wat model bags u be using
Cheers Darren

 

ha ha ha morgs yeah i think i know that dude, hes a real chump, always cruises around in his piece of shit olds making poppin noises out the exhaust on decelleration and lips off about how he smashed me in the dirt drags, yeah i know that douche i dont want his stinking trim, besides if i want it ill walk out in the shed and take the shit haha

 

hey darren im ordering my whole bag kit from slam specialties in the states next tues on payday ha ha,
ss6 for the front and ss7 for the back, there supposed to be great, heaps of lift and a built in bump stop so should be the go, and it was very cheap gettin it straight from them even with the 280 bucks postage.
des

 

LOVE THE CAR, LOVIN THE BUILD PICS!

subscribed; keep up the good work man, cant wait to see it in the flesh

 

thanks brother, keep watching ill be putting heaps up in the coming weeks and months
des russell

 

thanks man thats wat ive been told

 

yeah well ina couple weeks ill know and see how they go but im sure they'll be spot on
des