Projects My 1940 Ford project or how to ruin a perfectly good car

change the wheels and drive the hell out of it

 

Love her just the ways sits…minus the rear suspension and wheels. Absolutely dig that color!

 

lets see 40 ford - chopped 40 ford . sometimes its hard to deal with what life throws at us . you can change your mind a hundred times . till ya light the torch !! drive now /decide later . oh if no one said it . SCORE !!

 

I’m with most. Fix what needs to be done to make it safe. Then drive it awhile before any drastic changes.jmho. Snowman

 

I'm all for taking a vehicle to another level but saying your ruining it sends fuel to the Custom Haters...

Congrats on your new adventure...
I look forward to you taking this 40 to a new level...Lower and Smoother...

 

A leaf spring setup in the rear with some lowering blocks, change the wheels and tires, and you'd be well on your way to achieving the tail dragger look you're after without cutting anything up. If you get sick of that look, remove the lowering blocks, give the car a little hot rod rake and you're back to a basic '40 hot rod without changing much of anything.

 

The '40 Coupe is one of the cleanest, most classic designs Ford ever made.
"Restyling" one is usually not viewed as an improvement.

 

Some updates. I pulled and replaced all of the suspension. 2 link, IFS and air ride. A new set of Firestones replaced steering column and wheel. Started the upholstery. Still need to do my bench seat. Started stripping the old yellow paint.

 

The suspension removed will help another project and the modern upgrade will give you mood adjustments with the flick of a switch...

The external work is fitting...looks good...coming together...

 

I have a '40 Coupe with leafs and lowered like yours was when you first got it. I don't plan on changing it as I really like it as is.

BUT, yours looks really BADASS the way it is now. Nice job!

 

In the early 50s if you had a tail dragging 40 you were a bad SOB.

 

That looks to be a real nice body under the yellow paint.

 

When in high school, I lowered my '40 all around with shackles about 8" long. That lasted about a day.

 

I'd have been tempted to make a yellow taildragger based on that mockup pic with the (cardboard?) skirts on it. Do you have plans for a color?

That old engineered rear suspension is both hilarious and terrifying. Looks like both wishbones were located with a single bolt to a piece of angle iron which itself was bolted to the frame? Whoever built that thing REALLY believed in the shear strength of a single bolt!

 

Was your car from the Dallas area? if it was I may know one of the original owners.

 

Butt Alass...It is the Hamb after all...where design takes second place many times to the meaning of Hotrod Life winning the race and in Custom taking it to another level...

 

Ahhh!!...it was you who started it!!!...any pics?

 

No, got home from school and pulled them off. Car handled like a stage coach. Seemed like a cool idea at the time though.

 

Probably the weight on the stilts doing the stress walk side to side...I guess having spring at both ends made that possible in theory...but here were other details at play for the Young Choffman...40 in high school how cool is that...sure beats the stuff we had to get around with...

 

That's a cool car. I'm not really a fan of sbc. But the 4 speed is cool. I love tail draggers but you need to go all old school. Flathead and column shift trans.