Projects 1939 Ford Convertible Sedan Resurrection

And people wonder why it takes so long to build these cars...I love what you are doing with this project.

 

Wow!
That took some imagination along with the engineering. Attaboy for you.

 

These are the kind of details I love. Nice job!!!

 

love that wiper switch idea, going to have to try and remember that one

 

Thanks Weedburner 40 ! I was reading the recent thread about how long it should take to wire a 32 Ford today. Most of the estimates were in hours. I measure the time needed in weeks... Mostly because of things that we engineer and fabricate and try to make their use convenient and easy to service.

Thanks for the Attaboy Joel!

Thanks drdave ! I really enjoy doing them too. Keeps the brain and body active you know.

.

Glad you liked it Neil! You don't have to remember how it's done just that it is in this thread.


Here is some more dash and electrical stuff:

So this is the location the stock radio goes. Mine had a stainless filler panel here. I filled it
in years ago. I finally made up my mind to install theses round rocker switches rather than
the rectangle shaped ones. Why? Well these are smaller and I thought the round configuration
might look better in this vintage of car. This area of the dash is also not really flat so the
larger rectangular switches would not have fit flush to the panel.


So we have two seat heater switches, too rear power window switches and two power
door lock switches.



On the right side there are switches for the electric fan ( with a light) and a switch for the
courtesy lights. The ignition switch will go in the hole for the old starter button.



So the problem with the round switches is that they are not built to handle the load
that the rectangular switches are. So we needed some relays to handle that problem.
I saw this nice compact panel being used on X38's Sloper and asked him for some details.
Fortunately Tony obliged and helped me acquire the parts I needed.

I had hoped to mount the double panel on my hinged existing original fuse panel but it just
did not quite fit as hoped. So we put it on it's own hinged panel. That plastic cover should go
a long way toward keeping the electrical parts dry. This panel is located below the functioning
cowl vent and experience tells me one should be prepared for some leakage in this area.


So inside that nice cover there are two modules. This one has four micro relays
and eight micro fuses.

This panel has 6six 45 amp micro relays.





Here are examples of mounting systems and module kits available. I bought my parts in Australia with the help of X38 and his electrician friend . I later found a US source for most of this. Thanks again Tony for your assistance.
If you have a space problem behind your dash like most of us you may want to consider using this stuff. Let me know if I can help. PROLEC is the brand. You may be able to make out the contact info at the bottom of the page.


I don't think I covered this yet. This is the choke lever. It's been converted into the lever to
open and close the defrost butterfly valve on my heater.

Since the the glove box is made from sheet metal we were able to make a bracket to
hold the sheath and attach it to the glove box. Pretty simple really. Now I just have to
decide if I should try to relabel the choke and throttle knobs. I think I will remember
(at least for the near future) what they do but if anyone else drives the car it may be a
problem. I think I could sand off the engraving and polish the plastic smooth again.
I don't know how I would get the knobs engraved with the proper function. Does anyone
know if a a trophy shop could engrave them? Well I still have some time to solve this problem.

Thanks for watching.

 

For re-lettering the knobs look for someone local that has a Glowforge. It is essentially a CNC laser that can cut designs in just about anything.

 

Thanks! I'll check into that.

 

Window Glass! I thought this would be an easy project to get out of the way. After the months it took to get the stainless frames polished this had to be easier....well not necessarily. back in January I took my glass patterns
( original glass) to a local glass shop. The manager said sure we can do that. We'll take care of you. So last week ( early May) I finally got my last two panes of glass from them after several tries at getting it right.

The first time they cut all of the pieces the same thickness. The windshield pieces were the right thickness but one had several scratches so it had to be replaced. Turns out the side glass needs to be 3/16 thick. They had the original glass so I would think they would have measured it before cutting.... So they said that the glass would have to be tempered and they had to order that. A few weeks later the glass came in. The guy had ordered it in 1/8 inch. Way too thin for this application. The manager was really ticked at his employee and said it was coming out of his check!He also said he would not order it again. A few weeks later I get a call from the employee to pick up the windshield glass. He got that right this time. He said his boss had settled down and was willing to order the side glass again.
Many weeks and an extra reminding visit later they came in. The two front door pieces were good.The correct thickness and the right shape.

The two rear door pieces were good on three ides but the top edge was cut in a wave
pattern. I have no clue what that guy was thinking. So the glass shop had to send them
and get them cut again. Short turnaround this time. It only took two weeks.

I usually try to use local resources for this kind of stuff if I can. I think I chose the wrong source
this time. Turns out I could have purchased the glass off the inter net from a supplier that does
classic car glass all of the time for about $300.00 less and probably could have saved a little aggravation
for me and the supplier.


If I had not wanted to use the original type rubber seal I probably could have use a thicker glass
using window setting tape.

But I chose to use this stuff because I think it looks better.
There two types of seal in the kit. The seal with the flat bottom
is for the bottom channel. The other seal is for the sides and top.

Here is the collection of tools we used to set the last two pieces. We struggled with the
process and tools needed but learned a lot when doing the font door glass.

I had done some welding on the bottom channel installing a bracket for the power windows.
This resulted in some warping of the window channel. This old Black And Decker table
vise worked pretty good for this project.


The when the channel was finally straight we still had to get a good consistent gap.
The rubber channel fits good at about.032 to .034.

Turns out these old piston ring pliers worked well for spreading the channel.

We used some rubber hose for a spacer in the bottom of the channel. A spacer was included
in some of the original window channels ( but not in this kit) so we assumed it was supposed
to work as a shock absorber.

Each package contains enough rubber to do one window. The kit is long enough for the
longer front door glass too.

The front 90 degree corner required this cut .

The rear edge we found that we did not need to cut the 45 degree notch but did need to
slice a little off of the top ridge. to keep the rubber from twisting.

First we installed the rubber seal on the glass DRY. We learned that you don't want the glass
to rubber interface slippery in this type of glass install. Then the window channel and the
outside of the rubber seal was lubricated liberally with a mix water and dove dish detergent.
We found it best to remove the assembly from the vise at this time and place it on the floor.
We then both applied heavy pressure by pushing down on glass. This worked pretty well.
Notice we left the rubber seal a little long during this phase of the project.

After trimming the side seals down and cutting the bottom seal to size it was lubed and
the bottom channel was pressed on in the same manner as the side seals.

The flange you see at the right side of the picture actually has go inside the stainless channel.
It has two threaded holes for very small flathead attachment screws. Getting those screws lined
up is a challenge requiring some heavy pressure applied to the window channel and a small
alignment tool. A few ###@!!! words seemed to help also.

So finally all of the glass is ready for installation. I put them on a high shelf hopefully out
of harms way for a few months while we continue with body work. If you wonder why the
frames are black , it's because they are covered with electrical tape to protect the polished
stainless. What a pain in the butt these windows have been! happy to have them out of the way.
I am also glad I did this now instead of waiting until the car was all painted and ready to go
back together.

 

Nice dealing with the glass issues, and getting beyond that portion of the build.
At times like this I tell myself..."it shouldn't be this hard".

 

Tempered side glass on a old car is the only way to go. Nice write up and superior quality as usual.

 

Thank you for a thorough and detailed run down of the process. About to do the same on '58 Impala. I'm sure the set up is a little different here and there but largely the same. Very helpful!

 

Thank you! I am so glad that project is behind us.

Thank you!

That would make my day if the posts on the glass project was helpful for you! Hope it goes well for you.

This is just a quick post to let you know I am still alive and so is the project. Summer,family and house projects slow progress to a crawl. But we did get the body off the frame and onto the rotisserie. I have been welding all of the stuff I could not and did not want to weld while laying on my back when time and ambition allows.

The body cart and rotisserie are tools built here in my shop a few years ago for my
for coupe project. They pretty well. I will post the plans and drawings for them on
another post. I am glad I have a 9 foot ceiling. We can lower the car a bit if we take the
wheels off the cart.

That's it for now. It's time to get ready for one of my favorite car shows of the year.
Hope you all are having a great summer.

 

Looks almost finished and a great job. We both know there is a lot left to do ,but I'm sure you'll get it done . Well done , Sam.

 

I got to meet Sam in person yesterday, and checked out his shop, finished cars, and of course his convertible sedan project. Cool guy, cool place, cool cars, and a killer project! Two plus hours zipped by in what seemed to be minutes....a meeting of like minds and a friendship created thanks to the HAMB community.

 

Man, that’s looking great. Nice to see it in that state. Wishing I was that far along, lol.

 

Ditto here!
Thanks again, Sam, for taking the time required in making an outstanding documentation of one
Huge DIY project! Gives many of us the confidence and motivation to tackle some of these challenges
and "keep the wheels turning!"

 

Thanks Joel ! Are you back on that pick up yet? I am not seeing any posts lately on the 39-40 projects I have been following, your included.

Really enjoyed that visit Tim! And thanks for the knobs!!

Tim not only drove all the way down from Vancouver BC area to visit, he brought me these beautiful ( made by him) machined aluminum knobs! These new knobs will have a stainless socket head cap screw pressed into them to finish them. The knobs will be used for the convertible top hold down and B pillar post hold down bolts. They are a big improvement over the stock style shown on the left side of this picture. If any of you need the original style let me know mine are now surplus to this project.

Keep doing the excellent work you do and you'll get there

Thanks 36 Rokit! The project is huge! I often go back to this thread to remind myself how much has been done already and motivate myself to continue on.

 

Here is an Exhausting post for you to read. You might remember that I bought this chassis complete with engine and everything it needed to run. I think so far I have changed the brake master cylinder and the transmission. The engine came with some nice stainless headers, but I have had some experience with the 4 bolt collector flange in the past. I could not keep gaskets in them so not wanting to deal with that problem again I chose to buy some new ones. I chose Speedways tight fit headers in stainless steel. I think the part number is 930-0107. They have 1 5/8" primary's and a 2 1/2" 3 bolt collector. I just noticed that I bought myself another problem with these headers as the small print says 90% of these headers require shorty spark plugs..... I have never heard of that before. It looks like NGK Autolite and Accel make them though. Once again changing one thing causes more things to be changed.
well I guess that Hot Rodding for you.



The Header


Another thing about this exhaust system is it ran directly under the master cylinder. So we
had to change that.

A couple of years ago I cut the exhaust pipe off way back here. I guess because it was easy to get
to with the sawsall.

I modified this clamp to allow me to tac weld the straight pipe sections. Worked pretty good.

We able to reuse some of the existing bends in the original stainless pipe to reroute the
pipe away from the master cylinder.

I forgot to mention that I had not welded stainless steel for quite awhile and when I did
it in the past it was on 1/4" plus materials. So I had to buy a small spool of 308 stainless
wire and exchange my 75/25 bottle for an argon bottle for my mig welder. I was surprised
that some of my beads actually looked decent. (I said some). Even if they didn't look so
good the penetration was good.

So we made it to the collector part of the project. You can see the 2" fittings I bought
would fit inside the the collector. My buddy Don said that inserting the pipe here could
cause problems. As in too much heat.....

So after cutting the flange down enough to allow the elbow to connect to the tail pipe
I cut some slits/reliefs to allow the pipe to be reduced down to the 2" dimension.

Well four wasn't enough so I doubled it to eight.

I used a crescent wrench bend the segments.

Some times I had to use a dremel tool cutting wheel to re-cut the slits but eventually
i was able to match the slightly oval shape of the 90 degree tail pipe elbow .

After several test fits in the frame I committed to welding the elbow to the flange.

Much welding grinding and polishing later we had this.

The offset here was too slight for a bend so we welded it with a bevel cut. You can see
we have plenty of clearance for servicing the oil filter. Didn't have that before the modification.

One side done.

The passenger side collector needed to be even shorter. This meant the pipe had to be bent over much more to match the OD of the tail pipe elbow.

Success!

This proved very challenging to weld and finish.





Many test fits later we have a connection! I used Remflex Exhaust gaskets for both the
header and collector.They are good up to 3000 degrees. You only torque them once.
They are about 1/4" thick and are supposed to crush to about an 1/8" I have not been
able to get anywhere near that much crush on them. I have had them on my other 39
for about ten years now. I did have to replace one collector gasket this year the rest are fine.

 

Finally! It's time to build a paint booth!The intent here was to build a booth similar but better than the one we built for Don's Mercury project a few years ago. The other objective was to not spend too much money doing it. I think I may have spent around $400.00 on this booth.We are pretty happy with the results of our labor so far.


The dimensions are roughly 20' x 14' with an 8 foot ceiling. This door is scrounged remodel reject
that we used on Don's booth. It beats using plastic sheet for a door.

We wanted to be able to remove the body from the booth without tearing down the booth so we
built a 9' removable section As seen on the floor here.

Removable section installed along with the trusses which are 2x4x14's. All corners were framed with 2x4x8's
We stripped some old 2x4's and 2x6's for the wall stud's and floor footings .Some diagonal bracing was installed to firm things up a little.

A small header was made for the door along with a 2x2 brace that connects the booth framing to
the nearby shelving on the right.

Inside view of the intake filter bank which is made up of four 20 x 20 furnace filters.


When anothercarguy (Tim) was visiting recently he said that he used some sheet rock shims to
and staples to secure the 4 mil plastic. The cardboard keeps the staples used to secure the plastic
from pulling through the staples. A brilliant idea Tim! Thank you!

Outside view of the filters

We had to lay the the roof trusses on their side to clear the shop lights. I wanted to put the 4 mill
plastic sheet but we decided that would be too difficult for these two old men.

I wanted some windows to let in more light and to allow us to see the painter do his magic .
I found these light weight plastic windows at Hobby Lobby. The little ones are only $1.50 each.
I think they are intended for replacements in poster and picture frames. I used clear packing tape
to install them in the walls.

The outlet filter element is a very course 20 x30 filter that is 6 inches shorter than we used
last time. I hope it is adequate. Last time the filter collected the airborne paint particles very
efficiently. We could take it out and shake it periodically and reuse it for the entire project.
We used bailing wire to support the filter on the backside and bailing wire to retain it on the
outside.


In order get air hoses and electrical cords into the paint booth without tearing the thin plastic
I decided to try this idea.

I needed to make a hole large enough to get this 2 inch ball inside the booth . One on each
end.

I needed a hole for breathing air and working air hoses.

Tried these out yesterday. I think they will work fine.

Although I thought the booth was pretty well lit up without these low lights Don thought we
needed more so we went up in the attic and retrieved the old shop lights we had been saving
for this purpose. They are a mix of two tube florescent, LED's and 4 tube florescent. I thought
the 4 mill plastic was robbing too much light. So I went back to Hobby Lobby and cleaned out
their supply of the larger poster size clear plastic . Still reasonably priced at $4.00 ea. I was able
to cut the plastic in half and get two windows out of each for the 2 tube fixtures.

Of course long hours of prep and block sanding can get boring so I put in a couple of TV windows.

We used some 2x2 and bailing wire to secure the fixtures.

The old 4 tube fixtures were building demolition freebees.

This large diameter hose was bought from Mc Master Carr for the previous paint booth. Yes it
gets in the way but it is easily removed to improve access to the tool boxes.

My Uncle Mike donated this fan to the cause when we built the previous booth. It runs on 120 volts.
I can turn it on and off using a circuit breaker in the shop panel so we won't have to wade through the
snow this winter to turn it on and off.

I put this fan out here a year ago thinking we would get around to painting the car last winter.
I think I was a little off on that prediction.

The camera just does not show how bright it is in the booth but I though I would try show it.

So now we are gathering paint and prep supplies and planning how to proceed with this important
phase of the project.

Speaking of paint.... I have been rethinking my black color choice lately. I kind of like this green color. It's pretty close to an original color. I still have plenty of time to mull this over.... I would be way ahead to just buy this beautiful CS that is advertised here on the HAMB! I am just invested in this project to back out now though.
Thanks for watching and commenting !

 

Nicely done! I too am re-thinking my plan to try and convert a a tarp garage into a spray booth...will be doing something very similar to yours.

 

That has to be exciting!!!

 

Some great tips & tricks for a home based booth!

 

That was a lesson learned when I set up my first "spray booth" to paint my roadster...(yes, I learned it the hard way ). I do like your cord/hose pass through...and the Hobby Lobby windows!

 

Wish I had a workshop big enough for a booth like that. Nice work. That pale green does look good

 

Thanks for your tips Tim! I can see how similar our booths are. I chose to just use the shims full length rather than cut them into smaller pieces. It worked well for me but cost a little more as it took more than one bundle of them to do the job.

YES IT IS!!!

Thank you! I have no doubt some else has done all of these tricks in one way or another but some one new may see it in this thread and be able to use some of the ideas on his booth.

Thanks Neil! I am a very fortunate man. This shop has been a dream come true for me. It has helped make my retirement a very happy one. I would suppose that finding any home with shop space would be difficult in England.


Yesterday was a day for cruising with my club. Great weather and scenery! We had 10 cars show up for the event which is excellent for my little Thursday Night Garage Association. We had company for a while today during our shop time but we were still able to undress the 39 a little this afternoon.


Removed the doors, trunk lid, and removable floor panels. We tagged and bagged the fasteners.
When it was time to remove the hinges we noticed that we had a unruly mix of fasteners that would
look pretty ugly on a finished car. So we will order a set of door hinge screws for that . Hopefully
Bob Drake still has them in stock... Metal prep is next. Painting in the tool box area should be a challenge.

Thanks for watching and commenting.

 

Absolutely incredible. Great job.

Thanks for taking the time to share on the HAMB.

 

A pleasure to watch your thoughts and build of the paint booth. absolutely fantastic! damn good job, dude! Thanks for sharing, have a nice weekend. i'll keep watching

 

Nice work as usual Sam!

 

The project looks great! Can't wait to see some paint on it. I like the paint booth! I have used plastic twine to hold plastic sheet on structures in the past, works great and is cheap.

 

Thanks for the kind words and encouragement gentlemen!
Well we have been busy this month in between other just life things that get in the way of doing what we want to do.

I finally did a little project I should have done many winters ago.I bought some 2 inch foam insulation to cover the old leaky sliding door opening in the shop. I have probably spent a lot of money over the last 20 years leaving that thin sliding door in place without insulation. The door is rarely opened especially in the winter. Since we are mixing paint right in front of it this winter I decided to get this little project done before painting.

I guess the main reason I never installed the insulation is that I liked looking at my
colorful centerfolds and posters. I took them off the door for now as I figured the
moisture caught between the door and the insulation would ruin them.

So the foam insulation was pretty easy to install and will be easy to remove for access
as needed. It is much warmer in front of that door now. It also reflects a lot of light.

I also installed another air filter/ pressure regulator inside the paint booth. Just a cheap
HF unit. I also have another filter/regulator on the main air line. I also installed a dedicated
paint hose ( green) for this project. The hose is hopefully clean inside . It is a little more
flexible than the old red working air line.

We christened the booth with a motorcycle painting project for a friend. The booth worked well.
I did decide to install one more intake filter and installed some backer rod under the base
boards of the booth. I could see where air had been entering the booth under the base boards.
I guess that means I have a pretty good seal on the walls. I have to crack a window in the shop
to allow enough air into the building to allow the fan to suction correctly.

Okay back to the car. I pulled the door hinges off and discovered I had not welded the
new drake cowl to the existing upper cowl area so I had to drag the welder into the booth
and fix this problem.

Welded and finished

The bondo magic finished this off.


So I need to share a lesson learned ( a little late) about mill scale. I used 16 gauge hot
rolled steel for building this tool box. I have discovered how hard that mill scale is.
It is so hard that you cannot just scuff it with sand paper which you must do before painting
it. We tried a few things before using this Rust- Mort to soften the scale. You have to keep it
wet while sanding.

We tried the SEM 69504 first. I have never been a fan of the 69504 because it seems to
put off a a gas that rusts all of the bare metal around it. Don had this SEM 69508 on hand
and gave it a try. It softened up the mill scale quickly and if you kept the surface wet you
could sand off the mill scale without too much effort. You do have to rinse it off with water
when finished or it will leave a residue. S0 there you go. Lesson one, don't use hot rolled
steel unless you use clean it off with SEM 69504 or soaking it in an acid pickling solution.
White vinegar is one product that works well for soaking the mill scale off. Lesson two,
sanding the mill scale off a flat surface is time consuming, uses up a lot of abrasives
and nets an ugly looking surface to paint.

With those projects out of the way we moved on to caulking/seam sealing those new floors.

Time consuming work! I used SEM 29392 Black and 29362 White Seam sealer for this
project.




Now after some surface scuffing and masking we moved onto priming ( finally!)

We used Global Star Industrial P9.3.KI HS Gray epoxy. don did the spraying and liked
the way it flowed.



On to the bottom . This was a long day. We had to apply the urethane primer ( 2 coats)
with set up time in between, then simple black primer and finally two heavy coats of
black Raptor 0820 urethane.

So I made a mistake when I built this cart years ago. Where that yellow arrow is pointing
the gap between the floor and the rail is less that an inch. I am surprised Mike the painter
did not complain about this when he painted my 40 coupe on this fixture 8 years ago. It also
is too close for comfortable spray painting in a few other areas. Because of this, we decided to roll
all of the paint materials on this side of the floor. we used those skinny 4 inch long by 3/4 inch
3/8" nap rollers to apply the paints. I tried foam rollers first but they did not hold up to the
urethane's very well. I think the texture of the Raptor is acceptable. I should be able to clean
the bottom of the car without snagging the rags or towels.


Results? Well it won't win any Riddler awards but I think it will be acceptable for the driver
this car is intended to be.

That is all for now, Hope you guys have a great Christmas !