Making the shifter work. First up, I wanted the gate at the top of the column and figured I could mount it behind the column drop I had made. Next, how? Because of the way the lever operated it moved the gate tang in the opposite way to a regular Ford auto column (stock the tang moves down to disengage.) When you pull back on the lever on the 40 column, the shaft moves up. I made tang and mounted it as high as possible while still allowing full movement. I made this as a screw-on part. Then the gate itself... Because the movement of the tang when in engaged/disengaged was now different from a stock situation, I found I had to make a new gate in a mirror image of a factory one. These shown are RHD factory ones. I made the new one at the rear from stainless. I should also note that I was trying to keep all the sweep radiuses, shift arm lengths etc. the same as factory to minimise issues. The arm in this pic is one of the manual ones shortened to replicate the operating radius of the factory auto version. I finished up the gate and also made it a screw-on piece, this time to the column drop. So far so good. Arm at the modified lower end. I mounted the column and then determined the necessary modifications to the shift linkage rod. This connects to the modified factory RHD monkey motion connection to the transmission as shown many posts back. In place and hooked up. Much to my relief, it works! Phew! It does clear the factory dipstick tube when it's bolted in place on the back of the head. There is obviously plenty of finessing to do, but at this point I'm pretty happy.
Left hand drive is tougher than I imagined with dip sticks and the starter over there. I will never complain about tight spaces for my steering again.
Yes, it creates extra issues. Which is why I went for hanging pedals this time around with the column shift involved.
Cool having original lever to shift , I had original shifter in my 47 Merc years ago ,with Windsor and C4 ,I didn't have a detent , just selected whatever needed , mind you no engineer need for rego then
Love the welded/moulded fenders, gravel pan and rear deck. I know the front is going to be uber cool but it will be hard to beat that ass!
Very cool. Looking great. A car that cool deserves something a bit a more interesting and cool than a regular sbf and 3 spd auto.
Great picture of a very beautiful car! You sure have a lot of light in that picture! makes me dream of bright summer days....
Before I put the trunk lid back on for safe keeping a few more mundane things had to be taken care of. Such as the brace for the trunk prop. This had the bottom cut off at some point so was just swinging in the breeze...and this brace is important because, well, the trunk lid is heavy and can distort the trunk surround. So I took off what was there and lengthened it. Cleaned up: In place:
That's interesting....My 39 CS does not have a support there. I have not noticed any flex of trunk surround but I will have to check for it that next time I put the trunk lid on. Thanks for sharing this info.
Next bit was the bracing under the parcel shelf. Originally these cars didn't have any because the seat back could fold forward etc. to give a 6ft floor from the trunk to the front seats. I won't have that feature, but do want bracing. I folded up these hat sections. Fitted them like this and gave everything a coat of red oxide epoxy.
Yes, they are for a shelf. The spare didn’t stand vertically because of the fold down seat, but sat flat under the shelf - which was removable. You’ll also notice the hump in the floor for the frame C-notch.
It's Amazing what you can fit in a ford sloper with the the original seat folded down ,have filled mine up with swap meet parts a few times
The Jalopy Journal
