Its been a long while since i had something i was excited about working on and after years regretting selling my 50 ford choptop ,i finally got another shoebox ford. I sorta stumbled on it through the local Craigslist ad a week or two ago and ever since I saw it, i kept going back day after day, until i couldnt take it anymore and put up one of my harleys forsale. The damn bike sold the next day and no sooner then the cash hit my hand we were in a truck to pick it up. Its a 1951 club coupe, that the 2nd owner put in his heated garage in 1967 . He bought it off the original owner after the engine threw a rod. The guy had tinkered with it for a bit, and even threw in 283 small block in it but thats as far as he got it. Later a friend of his needed a seat for his ford so he gave him the one from the coupe ,since he planned to use buckets anyway. Well now its 50 years later and the car seen sunlight for the first time. plans are to get the 283 running for now, but eventually ill be swapping it out for a ford 302 stroker motor with 450 hp i have and 4 or 5 speed trans. Other then that fix a few small spots on the body , french the light, do some hood work and lower it. heres where it sat since 1967, when we took it down the floor under the block were solid white as if the concrete had just been done. outside for the first time in years. Tomorrow going to take inventory of all the extra stuff the guy gave me, he had the trailer fulled by the time we left with parts. Hopefully ill even give it a good wash and scrub and see what im working with.
Nice find! Looks like someone converted the master cylinder to the firewall from under the floor as well. As bad ass a 450HP SBF would be in that coupe, I'm kind of partial to the period 283 SBC that's already in it.. You can make that thing scream if you build it right.
is that a record player mounted under the dash? wow! that's a great find; i'd keep it chevy--it's already got the setup work done for you. and PLEASE don't chop the top!!!
What a great find. Gotta love the coupes! Finding a front seat won't be easy (I got lucky after searching for a year). And your car still has floor pans!
Thanks guys! I took a ton more pictures of it. We unloaded it at my buddies dads house and put it up on the lift. I can't believe this car. The rockers have spots that need Small patches and that's only on the outer , the rest of car is great shape..we even got that little 283 running and it's sounds healthy , tight and no smoke. Hard to believe it sat in the garage since 67.. I might have a total of $100 -200.00 of sheet metal patch and welding I need to do on the whole car. Until I start doing the headlights, tail lights and hood mods. Going back out now to see if the paint polishes up any.. hope to be surprised..
Congrats - right place at right time - best to replace all rubber parts, rebuild brakes, upgrade wiring, etc - have fun with Sent from my SM-G930V using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Try not to muck it up..Thats about as virgin barn find as it gets these days..Surprised it waited for you, must be an omen..
and here is the worst spot on the whole car.this and one little spot on the other outer rocker and 2 holes the size of a pencil eraser on drivers floor is really the only rust we found.
in this picture you can see he rigged up the steering linkage. he said he was going to order the stuff to do it right but it had been on a weekend and he wanted to be able to make something so he could at least move it in garage until he got the linkage sorted out the right way.
so after inspecting the undercarriage for what needed replacing we took a look at the engine to see what we needed. the 283 is set up for a t10 4 spd he gave me with the car, but he had bolted a power glide housing because it was nice and light and he could keep the motor from tilting back since the motor mounts bolted to front of the block, after getting an idea what we would need, measuring a drive shaft that he gave me off a different ford,we put it back on the wheels and started messing with the motor. after a little gas it started right up and runs perfect. Seems strong and tight. i may end up running this for the next year or two on the road until my other motor is fixed. After we got it running my buddies dad pulled out his polisher and started messing with the side of the fender, from there it kept going on until the polishing compound ran out and i went and got more. Im pretty happy with what came up, and i plan on leaving it this color while i drive and fix up the car. Eventually it will get a shiny paint job , but after shelling out the money to buy this its going to be a while before i even look at colors. after that got it back to my house and polished a bit more..
As far as mucking it up, my plans are simple. A nice mild custom, frenched headlights,tail lights, smoothed hood and trunk, doors , a different grill and lower it. switch in a 9 inch read, and put my 347 in it with a 4, or 5 speed trans. I know thats not traditional, but i built the motor for my 68 mustang and a week later broke a ring. I want to get that fixed and stuffed in the 51. The wife wants the mustang since I got my shoebox, so the original 302 goes back into that. This is going to be a budget type of build so I have to use what i have when i can. The whole idea for the 51 is going to be low and not too slow. As far as the to.. no sawsall for me. I cant afford to pay someone to chop it, nor do i have the talent to do it. Seems that a coupe needs to be done a certain way otherwise they look goofy to me. So unless a bunch of guys show u in my driveway with welders,skill and wanting to help me out, its safe to say this roof stays. There a few coupes Ive seen on the web that i really dug and im thinking about gearing my build like them.. here is a few i like.
Theres something on each of them that i would like to incorporate into mine, not so much build the exact car. when ever i build something whether it a bike or a car i The collect tons of pictures of things i want to do or add.. then i go back g through them one by one and see what will work. seems easier to do on the bikes. The biggest influence on me as far as my taste in shoeboxes is an older custom i had. A 1950 sedan that had a tons of mods done including a 3 1/2 inch chop. I loved the look of the car an regretted getting rid of it from the moment it rolled out of my driveway,but my parents were in a bad jam and i needed to get some money to help them. Family first ad all that. It needed a lot of sheetmetal work and at the time it was just sitting and i hoped someone else could finish it off instead of sitting for another 4 years. Ideally i wanted to find another sedan and build it just like that one, with the chop and all the other mods, but paying someone to do the roof and the fact everything in my price at this time just seemed to be just as bad a shape as my old 50. The coupe popped up on craigslist for $4000.00. Said no motor or trans and that it been sitting in the garage since 1967 when he got it. Pictures looked great and something about it just kept making me go back to it. Finally i said the hell with it and put up a 90 softail i had . That sold in one day, the same day as the owner of the car posted a few more pictures. Called my buddy up, called the owner up and i had 4 grand, enter and leave my hand within 2 hours. The bonus is the longer we stayed talking to this guy the more stuff he gave me. First he left the 283 in it, even showed me he got it running, then threw in a t 10, 4 speed. then started pulling out trim even though it had all the trim on it. New door handles, tail lights, extra interior trim, i think we closed u the trailer 3 times and he would talk and say hey you can make more room in that trailer.. help me with this, and pulls down a complete 51 dash , gauges and wiring and glovebox all still in it, then pulls down another trunk lid, digs out a 49-51 manual and extra grill pieces! so much for 4 grand for a shell with a back seat and no motor and trans! In the end i think it as meant to be, I met and made friends with wonderful older couple that loved old cars and motorcycles( he bought his first harley and got his license at 65!! now has 4 of them, and said the 4 k was going to a brand new Indian this week!) and got way more then i could ever anticipate.
As far as replacing the treat end look for an 8.8 out of a mid late 90's explorer or mountaineer. Already the right width and bolt pattern, disc upgrade and if you look around you can find them with limited slips and decent ratios too. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G891A using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Guess since I mentioned it ill post a few pictures of my old 50 and show the things that id like to do to the 51. This picture was after i sanded the primer down and found out the car once had flames..
I thought about that, but I have a brand new center section from Rider racing with 3.70 gears and a Detroit soft lock that's rated for like 1000 hp,I spent a grand on that and it's been sitting in my 68 mustang. When I put the original motor back in that with an AOD transmission the goal is for a nice driver with decent gas mileage for her, so I was going to put the stock open center section back in that. Plus with the motor I plan to put in the 51 , I want to see what I need to do to put alittle bit bigger tires on it to get more traction on road. Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
it going to be that color for a long while.. plan to put it on the road and drive it while doing the other stuff to it. Paint is my last thing and the color is growing on me and my daughter says its her favorite color..
The only thing wrong with that car is the powerplant. Put the FORD in it and run the wheels off of it.
The Jalopy Journal
