Derek's 1950 ford coupe shoebox build and introduction

Same here just found it, now I love it. Great looking shoebox!

 

Sean it's official lowest spinner. Urs is still lower but mines down there ha ha. Morgs I'm with u......

 

Thanks buddy. Appreciate it

 

Thanks mate. Flows wat it's all about I think.
Des

 

A few progress shots of my buddy Luke from the club layin on some epoxy primer on all the stuff u got bak from the blasters. Was good to see how a professional painter preps everything before paint.

 

My buddy Sean from the Eldorados also stopped in sat on his way to shoot Tex's Eldorado wedding that we all got right off at later on that night snapped off this pic,
And my new buddy Daniel drew this sketch the other night cause he's a good fellow and was bored just like I am now at work uploading pics off my iPhone but it's fun.

 

Pic too small

 

Another Sean Hammond pic

 

The Merc caps look right on it. Moving along nice..

 

Nice Thread, Very nice work on the car. You just gotta love shoebox cars. Larry

 

Good looking shoebox, I have another 49 coupe lined up to start next year for my daughter.

 

Thanks mate. Ha ha your daughter will be too cool cruising a 49 ford good atuff

 

Frenched tail lights done for now untill I'm ready to put te Rod on right before filler/lead time. Don't want to be drivin around with a welded bar on the edge just sitting there started on bending up the rod for the rear seam

 

Pics

 

Now here's how I went about my seem on the rear quarters which a lot of people weld up and grind smooth. Which I like too but wanted to try a little peak. First off I knocked the actual seem seeler piece off ages ago with a chisel and hammer. Then I ran a 1mm cut off wheel on the grinder to get the last little sliver of metal out once was happy the rod would sit in the gap nicely to use as a locator for the rod I got a wire brush on a drill and clean as much of the junk that's Inbetween the panels out as I'm sure u have seen on other threads it smokes and makes it hard to weld even though I'll be welding each side of this part.
Then I bent up the kicks at each end for here it comes down onto the tail lights then a rough bend where the quarter panel rolls up from the tail lights once I was happy with it I started at the tail lights and tacked the rod in place working up the seam till just before the drip rail. I was goin to make it come off te dril rail like an extension but it looked shitty I thought do I welded the Sean up from the drip rail towards the back 100mm on each side and that's we're my peak will start then just takes the rod all the way along making sure it was centred in the groove of the two panels and im goin to sit back have a beer and look at it to make sure im happy with it before i fully weld it on cause its easy to take it off at the moment ha ha. Cheers fellas till next time. Des panels

 

Tried this Pontiac trim I was given but really want 52 packard spears I have a wanted ad if anyone knows of any.

 

Just an idea, since this is what I used on my original '49. The strip is twisted, so you have to "manage" the twist out of it and mount just above the rear wheel well.. perfect fit...

It's a '55 Dodge Custom Royal Lancer.. google for more pictures

http://www.plan59.com/cars/cars393.htm

Good luck

 

Guess a two door version would work better..

 

That's a damn good idea with that trim that looks nice as. Thanks mate I will deffintaly look into that

G

 

awsome thread. Looks like a great time and lots of fun.

 

Cheers mate it's been a great time.

 

Four link completed, will do photos and a how to in the next couple days

 

hey guys and gals,

i wanted to do a sort of step by step 'how to four link a shoebox ford'

so first off ill start by sayin i purchased a gambino kustoms four link kit from the states and got alex gambino to post it over for me, it worked out aroun 500 bucks a bit less landed, its a great looking kit and nicely fabricated with all the brackets and hardware u need to complete the job plus a few extras that i bought and we used,

my buddy morgs from bright victoria helped me on this because hes already four linked two cars and made it alot easier with some extra know how and it really helps having an extra set of hands to move the diff around and help with the measuring which there is a hell of lot of to get ur diff centred so ur not crab walking down the road sideways.


ok.
first off, i fully cleaned up my diff using a strip and clean disc to bare metal it, not only does this make for cleaner work but it gives u a nicer area to weld to and handle.

then we sat it on jack stands roughly under the car........

 

next we jacked the car up off the ground front and back to get it level on the shed floor, making for easier measuring and settin ur pinion angle and stuff later on, we used a level and a angle finder, once this was level, we went about moveing the diff and measuring to set it so it was first at my 'ride height' which is just an indicator of were u think you will be cruising with the air bags and optimul pressure for the best ride and stuff, but cause i am in aus we came to the agreement that 100mm off the ground sounded good for the police if they decide to measure underneth the car and if u have an auto leveling system at start up. but remember this is purely whatever u decide cause i will be driving this warlock slammed all the time or draggin its ass down the calder to melbourne for all the aussies playin at home.

once at the height u want, we got it sitting were i wanted the wheels in the gaurds, oh i should mention we put the tail shaft back in to give us and idea of how far forward or back the diff should be looking at the mark on the slip yolk.

we measured as much as we could and got it spot on facing forwards evenly, dont measur off the bodt ever as we found out my chassis is spot on but the body is off to one side on the body mounts about 5 mm.

this is were u can work off for the rest of the measurments, once it was centered side to side on the chassis and back and forth in the wheel arches we were kind of gettin there, all the extra measuring is essential, measur off everything u possibly can, there is alot of back and forth and moving it a tiny bit to get it spot on but u want ur car to drive nice and straight on the road and not crab walk and wear expensive ass wide white firestone dont you????
it took us a good hour and a half of setting up the diff and measuring.

 

once we had completed that fucking long ass task it was time to setup roughly ur pinion angle, now i dont wanna sound like i know everything i can only express what we did and my knowledge and if helpfull great. now pinion angle to the best of my knowledge from everyone i spoke to u have to set it up at the same dgrees of what ur gearbox is pointing, so bassically, get it set up pretty nice from starters then makes it easier later on, keepin in my gambinos four link kit has adjustabel rod ends so it can be changed later on if need be by winding in or out a rod end on the lower arms to move ur pinon angle up or down, u can never run a tailshaft straight on to a gearbox to diff uni joints are designed to have an angle otherwise u will chew through them very quickly and or get tailshaft vibration.

so with that in mind, we set up the trolley jack from the back of the car under the front of the diff and jacked it up slowly with the angle finder on a nice spot of the diff centre till we got our angle, the gearbox was pointing down 5 degrees so in theory form my knowledge u try to set up ur diff pinion angle at the same as that up 5 dgrees but alot of people say set it at 3 degrees and you will be sweet and like i said u can adjust it late a little, but we just jacked it up slowly till we got what we wanted, once thats right we checked out measurements all again to make sure the diff hadnt move, i just turned on the nice jack stand we used which was nice.

once that was all completed and we were fully satisfied rthe diff was were we wanted it we made a measurement and cut to pieces of rhs box tube to tak the diff were it sat from the notched rails accross the diff, nice big tacks so it doesnt break and stay exactly were u set it up, then u can jack the car up move the jack stands out set it on the ground and make sure ur ride height is ok, my ride height is good but a little high ha ha, its still lower than the car sat before with 2 leafs removed and 3 inch blocks riding on the bump stops.

 

now that the car is back on the ground and that diff aint movin anywere its time to start setting up the four link,

start on the bottom bars, now before i go ahead we had a bit of trial and error with this part, so we tacked one set of lower mounts and removed them and did something different so i want everyone to know that we are by no ways trying to come off as perfect there is always trial and error but ill get to that

so first on the shoebox u have to cut off the original front mounts for the leaf spring and also cut the handbrake cable brackets out, cut the hand brake ones neatly so that u can relocate them later and us them again, hopefully,
once everything is cut off grind, sand, clean the rails as much as possible so u have a clean surface to work and weld to cause these welds are pretty damn important that they will hold and be strong.

first we checked were the bottom bars would sit and were they looked good and would work, we got one sittin nice and at a nice angle on the diff and tacked the bracket on, we simply measured how far out it was form the brake drum and chassis and tacked the other in the same spot using the angle finder to get it at the same angle on the diff axle.

what we ended up doin was using 50x50x4mm box tube for the mounts for the front of the lower fourlink arms, we measured and cut a piece long enpugh to go from one side of the rail to the other, we then cut a section out of each end and folded it down to have a nice taper and welded it back up, this makes for my cross member tyoe deal at a later stage, u will see form the photos but we measured off a whole lot of places on the body and held the bottom bars up to it with the barckets bolted up to it to make sure it would work. we then measured it somemore and made sur it was sqaure then tacked it to the chassis, then held the bars up with the brackets on again and got them sqaure, if ur brackets on the diff are right u can nearly pick one up get it nice and tack it in place then measure off that and do the other side to match, if u are happy with how it looks, how it measures up and evrything is sqaure u can go ahead and put some good big tacks on all of it cause its staying there now, we mounted the crossmember under the chassis as u can see, the car sits rail on the ground and the box tube has plenty of clearance, now our reasoning was when sitting the top bars in place too they would hit the bottom bars eventually, but i want my diff to be able to hang down a whole lot so i can undo the bag bolts and let it swing right down to get the wheels on and off, this car is gettin a 1 and a half inch wheel arch drop on the rear ehich lessons your chance of gettin the wheels off, the way it is now it hangs down heaps, givin the top bars more travel before they hit the bottom bars.

ignore the brackets in the first pics thats before we changed it. the centre of this crossmemebr will be made into a nice curve usin the orignal one that is just infront of it and has to be cut to allow for the tail shaft later on.

 

once we were happy and again all double checked measurements we put some nice strong tacks on everything so it wont break or move, i know it looks like morgs did everything but we did share all the work ha ha, someone has to be on the camera to show all u guys my piece of shit 50 ford ha ha.

now with the top bars we had all the floor cut out and the areas of the chassis for the top bar mounts all cleaned ready to go, bassically they are the right legnth so we got at one end each and held it were looked good and the brackets worked and would allow nice up and down movement of the arms, we hel them right and i tacked the bracket to the diff and then morgs held the other end and we made sure the bushes were angled right and straight so no binding up, then morgs just tacked the one smaller bracket in the right spot, then bolted the bigger inner bracket on and tacked that in place and looked at in to check it was right, then measured off that and made the other side exactly the same, then put some nice strong tacks on everything,

we were happy that everythign was strong sqaure an straight so we bolted everything up, cut the tacks on the box tube thats been holding the diff in place, jacked it up took the jack stands out and put it back on the ground and jacked it up and down and checked the up and down motion and movement of the four link set up.

i was really happy with how well it worked, how nice the kit was and all the time in measuring aside it was relatively easy and quick,

next..............

 

this was all good and movin nicely so we called it a day and went and drank beer, a couple days later ahron brought his brand new tig over to test run on all the brackets on the diff to make it look pretty, then he got carried away and tig welded nearly every other bracket on the chassis, think he liked using his new tig. but i will post a few more pics over the easter weekend of it sitting ont he ground and a bit more finishing off work, all my bag brackets are in the mail from air ride so i will be able to do step by step on how i did this, i am new to airbags and is always good to see how people set stuff up, its pretty easy but wil show how i do it, stay tuned, heres some pics of ahron welding the diff that i took and some of the welds and stuff,
cheers
des

 

Hells yeah! Ol 85 lebaron sure knows how to weld! looking good des. Did you get those other top gussets done for the front top bar mounts?

 

na morgs i was doin other shit then ahron was welding in there, i will be onto finishing those off but, i told ahron i was doin those and hes like get em done and tacked and ill weld them when he welds the bag moutns, i figure ill let him tig those too cause he did such a good job on the diff to,
cheers again for ur help buddy it look sick