Thanks, koolkemp, I take that as a compliment. Our design is influenced by Ralph Jilek's Ford and Glen Hooker's Merc, both of which were Valley cars, but very little has been copied directly from either one:
Several of you have commented that you liked it better as a coupe. I liked it in that form too, and it would certainly have been easier to stop there, but the whole basis for this project was to do a '40 convert with a postwar-style top (with quarter windows). I have always felt that '40 Fords (especially coupes) are such a nice design that most efforts to improve them by customizing fail. The one exception to that is the convertible, which in stock form is an ugly duckling. I thought that a complete revision to the top would make it a much prettier car, and that's what we're trying to do. The decision to channel it, and to do the other radical body modifications, came about in attempting to get the proportions right with the new top. The good-looking coupe that resulted was just a happy accident. Thanks again for the many comments.
I was really excited when it was still a coupe, but I don't blame you for "convert-ing" it... (yeah I thought that up myself)... It will be a very beautiful car... Hell it already is! I could see it with about an inch and a half or two inch vertical chop from where it is now as well...
color choice is gona be huge...imo...charcoal can look pretty good but candy apple red done with a gold base under it ...now theres a color...just my .02
I've been more interested in doing this as an "idealized" '40 convert than as a sinister or showy-looking custom. Kinda the way that Edsel Ford customized a Lincoln Zephyr into the original Continental. Most of the decisions about proportion & color go through my "What would Edsel do?" filter. Gunmetal, or some other understated color, is more consistent with this direction than a more flamboyant color would be -- although burnt orange was on the short list for a while. I have even considered choosing a stock '40 color like the pale grey-green that I repainted over on my '41 years ago. Similarly, the proportions of the top and body have been chosen more to look "right" than to be an extreme statement (as I think the Jilek '40 was, for example). The grille that we've been planning all along is a faux '40 Merc, but I'm even reconsidering doing it more like a '39 DeLuxe.
I think it would look great the pale gray green you are thinking of,I agree an understated color will be perfect for the design !
Courtesy of Rick Finch, here's the very grey-green I was speaking of (Cloud Mist Gray, in Ford parlance):
Sorry, there's nothing new to report. I've been kinda short on money lately, and have had to ask Don to take a break. I hope I'll be able to ask Don to resume work before long.
The successor thread to this one is called "Tony Miller's Custom 40 Ford Convertible", also by DRD57. See here: http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?p=9464927#post9464927
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