Projects ‘39 Ford Deluxe Coupe build

All 39’s had juice brakes. None had vent windows.

 

The old man walk me back to an old dilapidated shed and opened the doors.

............... It moved!

 

So I moved the location of the rear back 1/2” and it looks much more centered. Next I’d like to install the turbo 350 I did take some time out to rattle can the dash to match my front seat.

 

I see a gap above the fender. Is it bolted in fully? I’d highly recommend getting it tight before checking the wheel fit.

 

If there is no weight in the rear other than the body, the upper gap between tire and fender lip will reduce but you jay roll further forward ir back a tad. No biggie to adjust ….

 

I'll bite... what is the ping pong paddle for?

 

I see what you’re saying but that looks like a shadow to me.

 

Haha, yeah no room on the workbench I had to move to the ping pong table. So the fenders are tight to the body it’s just a shadow.

 

FYI. I have 235/70-15 on my 40 with a 7" wide rim. I'm probably going to 235/75 for stance with the same wheel. 67-69 camaro rear is the best width rear I've found. I also recommend setting rear ride height before moving the centerbolt hole. The springs will " settle " after loading and use; that will probably take at least a year and should be 3/4 to 1 inch. You have a great project.

 

Looks good man I like where you’re taking it.

I’m in Lake Panamoka just passed Wading River

 

I put some M&H street slicks on the car 7.75/8.0-15’s on stock chevy 15x7 wheels. I think the back spacing was 4”. It’s pretty tight. I don’t know how it’s gonna be driving it but it looks pretty cool standing still.
I started to install the turbo 350 and realized I had the wrong size flexplate so I moved to the steering box. I’m going with the original box. The previous owner replaced the original firewall so I used a spare box and a piece of 1” pipe to locate a new hole for the steering shaft.

 

That coupe is gonna be cool! Good placement on the rear axle. My '39 Coupe was built in the '60s and had a '56 Chevy rear in it (must have been a popular set up back then) with boogered '56 Chevy springs mounted with chunks out of the Chevy's frame... not pretty. I replaced that mess with a Chassis Engineering parallel leaf spring set up. Works well. There should be plenty of room on the frame side for your wheels, they just can't have much of an off-set... which is fine. Didn't matter on mine, 'cause it's got radiused rear wheel wells.
It's got 3" lowering blocks on it.

 

Wow, that’s really sweet! Love it! This is the kind of stuff gets me back into the garage in the morning. After my coffee of course.

 

So I’ve got steering now as I’ve completed the installation of the ‘39 box, pitman arm and drag link. I mocked up the steering wheel and dash and so far I’m happy with the way it looks. Next I decided to carry over my interior gold color to the 327 block. I didn’t object to the orange color that it had been painted I just wanted it to look a little different. I’ll paint the 350 trans gold as well. Before installing the motor I have to split the wishbone and at the same time replace the existing front spring with my posie reverse eye one.

 

TomT what width axle did you use with the four bar?

 

You can select any axle width really - for my old coupe I bought an axle w/disc brakes on it si I di not know what width. It did work well with the directions of the 4-bar. On my pickup I an used a 4” dropped 32 axle to keep the tires inboard. I did have to lengthen the 4-bars by about 3/4” to center the wheels n the front fender openings. If my memory serves me a 36 axle is a good unit for under the 40 ….

 

I’m not using a four bar, I’m simply splitting the wishbone and mounting them to the chassis engineering plate under the trans. I bought a reverse eye front spring for the front end. If that doesn’t get me low enough I’ll think about a dropped axle, right now I have the stock front axle.

 

That color on the engine looks great. What paint did you use?

 

Picked it on Amazon, the brand is Seymour. Went on nice and dried super fast in my garage which was only a few degrees above 50.

 

Gold is good! Goes well with glass beaded aluminum...

 

I’ve been mocking up the motor. I removed the distributor and cleaned and lubricated everything. Tested the vacuum advance all good. Bought the basic tue-up kit , cap, rotor, condenser, points, wires etc. I prefer to run with points in my effort to keep this as simple as possible. I did my best cleaning the aluminum intake. I used simple green with a brass brush. I’m not totally happy with it, there is still some staining but it’s good enough for now plus I’m not trying to make it look new. I’m gonna try to run the motor with a generator. I’m hoping it fits under the hood cause it really sticks out quite a bit. The fan is kind of an odd shape as the fan blades are not evenly spaced out and I’m not exactly sure why it was made this way? Hoping to get to the wishbones next.

 

I know the Gen mounted on the stock exhaust manifold is an issue in the 40 Ford. Back in the 60's I hand built a mount to bolt to the front 2 intake manifold bolts and a support down to the top water pump bolt. The stock adjuster arm came across from the passenger head. It worked fine. Seems someone started producing on much like it but it seems to have disappeared in place of the Alt mount in the same position. It was a very simple job, just something to think about. The 5 blade fan was to try and move more air and the odd spacing was to quiet it down a bit.

 

I also built a Spacer/Mount to move the Fan blade down to the SBC crankshaft to get more like Ford intended it to be. Not much of a challenge there either if you're a little bit of a Machinist. In stock location the top hose can be a PITA.

 

M and H's look cool, like where this is heading

 

Did it not foul the bottom hose? I have this issue with the top hose on mine, it wants to be where I want the top hose to be.

 

Odd as this may sound; I had a similar experience with a grimy intake manifold. I cleaned it with Simple Green and it took most of the gluck off, but it still looked dingy... I figured I'd have to glass bead it. So in prep for the blasing I scrubbed it with hot water and Dawn for dishes and it came out like new... no blasting needed.

 

No lower hose issues. If you think about it, the Crankshaft be it Flathead or SBC is in about the same exact location. Henry mounted the Fan on the crankshaft, and it cleared the bottom hoses. The bottom of the Rad sits quite low in stock location. That seems to be the larger issue with fan on the SBC and top hose location.

 

Seymour huh? Last name wouldn’t be Butts would it? Hehe.

 

Thanks for all that info fellas. Yes it sounds like there will definitely be things that will have to be addressed once the motor is in place.