THe whole idea was to get a car built that shows my talent. And give me something to learn on a bit. My shop has done everything in house to include the sandblasting. ( that was FUN! HA! ) I started with a set of 54 fords. 1 mainline 4 door and one customline 2 door. one had a title. Between the 2 of them there were enough parts for one car to be built. I did a lot of measuring, staring and thinking before I even touched it.Here is a few pix. this is the crap i started with. The 2 door parts car was worse on the other side and the floors were GONE in it. So this was the better alternative. next i removed the b pillar by drilling the spot welds, moved it forward, and reinstalled with the proper plug welds. Makes it look factory. then i started cutting and trimming the rear doors to use as quarter panels. I actually gained a TON of room in the car doing it this way. I gained some greenhouse and floor room between the seats comparing measurments between the 2 door and 4 door.
after getting everything cut to fit and structured, we took it off of the frame to do it right. I then hand fabricated all of the airride components. Used some of the factory stuff up front and had NO frame mods. I wanted it low but not so stupid that it could not be driven in the event of an air leak or failure of some kind. After this the frame got sand blasted and painted. The under neath of the car got anything wrong patched up. While the frame was getting blasted i picked up a 1956 ford fairlane y block and tore it down to regasket it. sorry bout the blurry pic. then it was on to the firewall. 3.5 hours of tape and prep later...
Here is the motor getting ready to go back in. This was the first week of january this year. By now she is back on the frame. Floor all patched up from the inside as well. I coated the floor with herculiner bed liner you can get from autozone or any other parts store. Works REAL well. Sealed it all up so well that everything looked factory. I seem sealed everything before i rolled this stuff on for long lasting protection. y block with the 3 speed in her new home I then turned my attention to getting the side pipes molded in. IMO having fake lake pipes is like having fake spot lights... why? Besiedes sitting this low where would i have room for the exhaust? This is why i wanted to get the fire wall done first. Less back trackin knowing the fenders were goin to be molded to the side pipe covers after this major hurdle the taxes came in. So it was time to order all sorts of goodies! While parts were on order it was time to start finishin up certain areas. For instance, the doors were from a 2 door and the 4 door and 2 door b pillars were different. So this was an easy enough of a fix. I then decided the stock dash was just to ugly so it had to go...
Fantastic job so far! I sent you an invite to the 52-56 Ford social group hope to see you there! the guys and gals will love your build!
I tied the rockers into the original hat channels. The pix suk but i hope you get te idea? And again. Seam sealer was used as well as plug welds for structure. Then it was time to concentrate on getting the sheetmetal fitted properly. I also did a few custom things to the front end. Minor. But clean IMO
stretched the drivers side out as well Then i turned my attention to the rear. I thought the fuel door was ugly as hell. I had to get rid of it. So here is how i did...
pathing the L/R quarter.. After this there was tons of grinding on the body. As you can imagine. Then i turned my attention to the interior fab work. Getting the 54 ford 4 door mouldings to match the 2 door mouldings and getting those to, in turn match up to a 53 merc dash was a real challenge. Then THere was just getting the dash into the ford in the first place. These foloowing pix will be in the hidden speaker thread.... rear mouldings this should be in the hidden speaker thread as well... can you see them? can anyone tell me what this is for?
looks like i have posted a few more than once. Please forgive any of those errors. I have so many pix to go through that it is difficult to keep it all straight. My fault. getting it ready for filler. This was only 6 weeks ago. I HATE body filler.... lots of skim coats later prepped and ready for primer in just 4 days! ( my hands and arms were numb by this point ) can't be to careful. I was aslo wearing the proper vapor mask.
we slammed this together the sunday before the viva show. Took it for a 2 mile test drive that night. Then left for vegas in the morning. Talk about a shakedown run! So i am missing a few shots of putting it together. I had no time to stop and take pix. The following are of the car in vegas.
pretty damn close. Money is all that has stopped me. I have a few customers cars i am working on now so money is not the issue right now, but the time is. Funny how that shit flops huh?
I actually noticed that my car was in a few pix on here while i was surfing around before posting. Was very proud of that. I had the tr-icarb before i left for viva but no time to play with it and clean it and even install it before leaving. So here it is now. I have all 3 ford stamped carbs for it. I have the ouside 2 blocked off for now. So does anyone know where to get progressive linkage for these? I am missing a few parts it turns out.
Nice job. I had a 54 ford and the guy I sold it to has another and they both have a totally different dash board what model was yours?
There was no expense spared on this build. Frame off and everything was either rebuilt or replaced. Do keep in mind this was done to this point in about 3 months. If you have any questions or comments just shoot.
Neat car, great build pics. I'm curious to know, where do you gain room on this car as compared to your 2 door parts car? Was the parts car a business coupe? Also curious to know why you used the door pillar from the 4 door as opposed to using the pillar out of the 2 door, seems like that'd be less work to me. Great pics regardless, I'm a big fan of 2 door conversions, sometimes it's just the best way to do it.
Beauty is in the eye of the BEER holder,,personally I prefer the '54 dash slightly modified. This is mine. HRP
The car was a custom line s door. There is more room on the inside than the 2 door. Especially on the floor. Look at the pix from the side. And look at the interior pix. You might see what i mean? I used the door frame cuz the pillar is different from a 2 door to a 4 door. I would have had to cut the pillar out of the 2 door and used it instead.That would have been more owrk actually. And it was in BAD shape on the drivers side on the 2 door. This also allows the door frame and the pillar to be equal in width. Cleaner. Again. IMO
The Jalopy Journal
