Customs It's time: Project 1941 Ford convertible "custom" begins

This poor car has sat engineless in my garage for over 2 years. I bought it a while back, it had sat since 1962-63. I got it running, cleaned it up and drove it for a while until the throw out bearing seized up. I pulled the transmission and decided the engine smoked so much it should come out too. Then nothing happened. I had big plans to build an engine but it kept getting put off. Last fall my friend Bruce @F-head told me he was going to sell his nicely dress 1949 331 Cadillac. I ended up buying it from him, and decided it will be the heart of the ol tub. This car was going to be a family cruiser. I have a little kiddo now, and it was the only car with a back seat. That all changed this past summer when I bought a decent 53 Ford convertible as the family war wagon, so I can do a bit more to the 41 then I had planned. I have collected pieces for YEARS for this car. And while I do not want it to be an ultra slicked up, shaved custom, I do want it to be bitchin. Last winter I had the entire interior done. It turned out great, much nicer then the rat infested stuff I was driving around on before. I plated all the garnish moldings, and everything on the dash. The car will be lower, faster and cleaner. It's going to get ugly before it gets better. It need s a lot of TLC but I think I have nearly everything for it:
Dropped original axle and everything to rebuild the front end
3.54 rear end that I am going to go through
I already rebuilt the factory 3 speed transmission
the 331 needs taken apart and cleaned and with fingers crossed, should be a runner

I am going to pull the front clip and clean/paint the front frame and fix some butcher holes in the firewall and paint it. I have thought about pulling the whole frame and blasting it...that is yet to be determined. I also need to do new glass, seals, window stuff, etc. I want this to be an old car, but ride and fuction as nice as I can. It is super dirty on the bottom. Still do not know what I am going to do there. I want to clean and paint the entire inside of the car so no dirt and rust dust blows out everytime we drive it. It needs a top. and so the question is: will it get chopped? I would love to but being 6'5" it is always a challenge. Sure, it would be way more bitchen chopped. So we shall see. the body? Probably being left as-is for now although I would like to eventually repaint it. The paint is just shitty enough that it could use it. I love accessories. I have picked up an NOS rear gravel shield, tons of old chrome work, just last night I got an NOS chrome radio head in the mail I won on ebay for 11.00...I've been looking for one for years. A lot of custom guys like to shave all that shit off, I like to load em up like a baked potato.

I picked up a set of rare 1941 Ford "long" skirts this past weekend but in the end I think I will use the NOS foxcrafts I've had for years because I think they will fit the style of the car better.
And the crestliner wheel fell into my lap from a good friend. I never imagined that I would ever get a wheel this nice, but it all worked out.


So, long winded but this is a long project. I hope to have it on the road in a year or two. I need to firt finish my garage the car is sitting in before much major work can begin. But it's gotta start somewhere. So, I will update this when appropriate, but let the build finally start

 

Ultimately, with no boundaries, something like this would be my goal. You may ask "why the hell would he do the interior and plate the moldings and then talk about chopping it??"
The answer is as stated above, this was going to be the family car. It had to fit us all comfortably, and having a chopped car seemed silly. But now that I got the 53 which makes a little more sense, I think I can do more what I want this this ol tub. So, time will tell.





And the car when I got it, just so we can see where it started








After a few months of work and a lot of cleaning

 

Man...Best of everything...Imagine, both styles of skirts; and the comfort of having a choice!
Love those Hildebrandts, and the Edmunds.

 

Chopped, long skirts, shaved handles, and 41 Stude taillights.

 

hell yeah! get on it.

 

Long skirts for the Fordillac please.

 

Have you thought about a carson top?

 

step on it

 

The hood had been one pieced and the cowl vent filled long ago. Aside from shortening the hood side spears and the possible chop, it will probably stay pretty stock bodied

@BURN OUT BOB yes, but I love driving this car with the top down. So, regardless of chopped or not I wwant a full functioning top

@cadman @alchemy The long skirts are going to my good friend Paul Garland. I recently found him a 41 convertible that is pretty much a twin to mine. I love both style skirts. I hunted for a long time to find the shorter ones with the lip. In the end, I figured that a car like mine would look better with a little "louder" skirt, where as Paul's 41 is going to be way more of a true custom, and the sleeker skirts should go to him. I know it sounds weird, but I love the 50's goofy parts like the "lipped" skirts. I've never wanted this car to be ultra low, sleek or smoothed. And I think the longer skirts would look better on a car that was that way.

 

Chris...Those are (were) called 'Flare Skirts'. And I'm with you, nothing cooler.
I haven't been able to find any for my '47, (there are 'glass ones, but 'pricey'; besides, I want steel)

So I have these nice VW doors, and I'll be trimming out a pair of flare skirts, either welding a 'found shape' trimmed off something or just roll-form the bottoms on the English wheel.
I am super envious of your '41, a ragtop at that! My '47's a fordor, no rust, a lifelong friend gifted it to me 2 years ago.

There were 2 semi custom '41s around my town (Santa Clara) that both had '41 Stude taillights, as Alchemy suggested...both ran them in the rear fenders, horizontally. Beautacious! One was a Biz Coupe, the other a chopped convert, with a Carson.

 

I also like the flared skirts
I have a nice pair ratholed away
we're gonna chop my friend marks new 41 vert 3" next week
Paul R thinks we can just move the top pivots down
we'll see about that
I'm gonna need a ride in that thar machine
B

 

Great looking car Chris, looking forward to seeing it evolve. Full on customs are cool but I really like the "fixed up old Ford" feel that you are going for.
Gordon.

 

@F-head yeah if I chop mine I wanna do 2.5-3". Can't wait to see how Mark's turns out. And yes, Paul has talked to me about doing that trick with the top as well.

 

Chris - this is gonna be good!! I have my orig 41 hop up right back to its 1946/47 look that my Grandpa finished here up as when he returned from Europe.
Your ideas will be great looking and make for a spot on mild hop up custom - I'll be watching your progress here. 41s are the cats pajamas!

 

QUOTE
"The hood had been one pieced and the cowl vent filled long ago. Aside from shortening the hood side spears and the possible chop, it will probably stay pretty stock bodied"








Where's your hood/center trim?

Did one not come with the car? I suppose not.

The original center trim really finishes off the car over and above transitioning between the welded up halves.




.

 

Awesome Chris

 

This maybe my favorite car of yours.

 

I did some trading with my friend Darrell to fix the bottom of my trunk lid. This car was "bumped" in the ass end at some point. The passenger fender has some filler in it, it had a 46 rear bumper and the car the donor trunk lid came off must have been rusty. Regardless it is now fixed. I need to fix the tool tray and try to blend the paint

 

So I have a loose deal done with my friend Paul Garland to chop the car somewhere in the 3" neighborhood. Car will get shipped down to him shortly. I'm pretty excited to to see it done! Here is a quick photoshop my friend @JeffreyJames did

 

Now that's the cats pajamas !!! Really like the chopped look.

 

Is he gonna practice on his or yours first? Hahaha.

In all seriousness, that is the guy to do it. Loved his old coupe and excited to see his and your verts progress

 

@Hitchhiker haha who knows. I have an opportunity to get it down to him very cheap, but I told him he can take his time doing it. I found him the car he just got...I was looking at it and would have bought it if it was nicer then mine. But it ended up being about the same shape so I turned him into it.

 

Hey Chris, Seeing this reminds me that I need to send you some info on a Chopped `40 Merc Convert that was built in this area, then sold to someone in the Spokane area in 1952. I know it would be a long shot, but the original builder/owner is still looking for it. Can you send me your mailing address via `Convo` and I can send you the info...that is, if you are OK with that....



Nice plan for the `41. Hope to see both yours and Mr Garlands on the road sooner than later...

 

Great plans Chris....of course I'm partial to anything 41, but I like the kustom simplified look your going for, does wonders for these cars.

 

Good luck with your project Chris! You sure have a knack for finding cool project cars and finding the little period pieces that make them era correct.

Sam

 

No turning back now. I think I need both bows, too. Sigh....

 

You know how much I love this car buddy! I'm so glad you kept it!

 

Got the car wrapped with some Seran wrap for its trip down south.

 

Here's a picture of my 41' I bought it in Ft. Wayne, In. in 1962. Chopped working top. Been a custom since around 1956.