Ok...... Is the car solid? More specifically if the car rolled over (turned upside down) would it stay in one piece? I ask because if the floors are rusted out especially the areas around the body mounts, the car is not structurally sound. Some floor pan holes are OK but if the structure is compromised, there’s no place to bolt the seat belts. Simply put...... If it has no floor, it is unsafe to drive. Before anything else including driving the car, it has to be solid. A good quality set of lap belts are easy to install and can be done on a weekend or after work. Simple easy and done for now. Installed lap belts now are way better than a 3 point system in a dusty box that may be put in .....one day. Do the brake lights work? The windows need to be fixed for hand signals and ventilation. I suspect that something is in the old tracks and window runs jamming the windows. Get the 1949-51 Shop Manual (Green Book) Some things are going to need TLC like vent windows and the pop out glass. If you try to force the mechanisms they can break. Oil and gently work the hinges and fasteners. It may take days or weeks to loosen stuff up. What’s been done to car? Engine? Suspension? Brakes? Wiring? Man..... You gotta loose those goofy dog bones, skulls crosses and spider webs. It does nothing for it. Krylon gray primer is cheap.
P.S. I see the window is broken in the corner and crooked in the track. That car is unsafe with that jammed widow like that. Get it to where it will roll up and down or take it out of the door. It’s like a blade 6” from your throat. Bad Ju-Ju especially with no seat belts. Get the Shop manual.
Brother, all that shut is going away. As far as the rest of it, I just don't know yet. I know it drove the 100miles to my house, barely, the brakes work, there isn't handle or crank in it, there's one piece of glass that isn't broken. Hell, I had to stop twice to gorilla tape the hood down. But, it's home, mostly there and I'm not in a huge hurry. I would like to get it road worthy-ish in the next few weeks though(latches lights and glass) seatbelts are more to avoid tickets and placebo effect than anything. Got a bucket of tractor store paint in mind this weekend. Maybe lay eyes on wiring. Plug in some of the vacuum lines, solve fuel delivery. Try and get rid of as much of that rat rod nonsense as I can
I have Wesco 3-point belts in my Ford, I may have had to buy something extra, maybe the B-pillar plates. It wasn't much. The instructions were pretty good, I used old body/front end washers on the bottom of the floor. They were about a 1/4" thick and big in diameter.
Ok,OK, found a set of lapbelts locally, ordered a turn signal switch, looking for glass(not hard to find) gonna rewire whole thing, found a hood latch panel. Here's a challenge Window regulators and door mechanisms. The previous owners were going for this ratrod thing and were using vice grips, and guess what the little shafts are all stripped or broken. I dont suppose anyone has addressed this before and has a solution? Thanks
I have a pair of '49 regulators, they are "square shaft" and/but I don't know if the guts are any different.. Or, if you are going fancy, you could get electric operators...That's what I did... let me know..
That's certainly a piece of the solution as i dont have any hamdles yet either lol. I really don't want to go power.
Just looking at it, it would best find the complete assembly. You may need a parts car. Nice coupes are worth the effort. Tudor and Fordor sedans are quite common as far as shoeboxes go. Coupes are special. I’ll dig around in my book. That’s the inside door handle assembly I’ll look and see what the part is called in the manual. It’s the mechanism for the door latch.
Man, so much truth in this. Non car people and wives(lol) don't understand why coupes are always special. Appreciate the help
The springs are inside the hinges, and in most cases, if one looks closely, the hinges will be cracked on the inside of the curved part on the bottom ....due to the forces of the springs holding up the trunk by the hinges. A little bit of welding with additional support will fix it, but on my '49 with '51 hinges, I just removed the springs (they will kill ya if you don't watch out). The trunk "hold up" mechanism is just a sliding rod on the driver's side that drops into a slot when the trunk is opened. This is all covered on my website.
Thanks Matt, I got into the manual. You may be in luck. I would get a set of inside door and window handles. You also need the bezels that go under the base of the handles. These are spring loaded. The door and window handles are retained by a pin that goes through the base of the door/ window handle. The bezel is spring loaded and it helps to retain the pin. To remove the handle that bezel has to be pushed inward and the pin driven out. Then the inside door handle can be removed from the remote control (door latch) assembly. Your remote control door latch assembly and the window regulators may be good. You may can get by with some new handles, bezels and pins. My only concern is those shafts may be out of shape from vice grips. If they are worn really bad handle fit may be sloppy possibly wearing or breaking the handles at the at the pins. It’s worth getting some inside handles to see if they will work. You may have to clean up those shafts if the metal is out of shape to fit the handle. If so..... use a small hammer to move most of the metal and finish up with a file for the burs. You want to try and keep as much metal as possible. Some of those door handle shafts are square or they have teeth that mesh. It’s been a long time. Anyway get some handles and pin them on to see if that will work. in the shop manual that part is called, the remote control.
Thanks, the only real concern is the shafts being stripped out. They function as designed, but the tip is broke on one and the others are all pretty stripped out. Got a line on regulators, zero luck with r/c mechanisms. I'll try again using correct nomenclature
The Ford Barn classifieds are pretty good IMO. Poke around on eBay as well. I have found quite a few HTF parts for my car there. Give Sam at Sam's Vintage Ford Parts a shout, he is located in the Denver area, super nice to deal with. If he doesn't have it, he will know who does. https://www.ebay.com/str/samsvintag...6P60kJDgqY5k-in3IE6zRjlUfIIWlLtwaAiSpEALw_wcB
https://www.ssnake-oyl.com/ and https://www.julianos.com/ are a couple sources for seat belts. I have a set from Ssnake-oyl, they use the big chrome latches that look period correct in an old car.
Alright, so last night I was trying to figure out latches and discovered my trunk has been cut. So, panic set in and to the net I went ISO a trunk lid. Found one, a 49 locally(ish) and made the arrangements. Discovered he had a 49 and a 51. Unsure which would work better I bought both. Lmao. So now I have a 49 and a 51 trunk lid. Looks like hinges are different, what else? The 51 is in a little better shape for what its worth
For those interior door handle spring-loaded things (I've heard them called inside door latch remotes, but I don't know if that's a universal name) try to find a couple out of the back of a 4 door sedan. There's a left and a right, you need two that don't have the spring broken and have good splines. You'll have to swap them onto your rods (the flat-stock things that go to the latches) because the 4 door ones will be too short. But the rest of it should work. Back at the Thunderbird restoration place I used to work at, we regularly would cut the splined end off of window regulators, leaving about a half inch stump that would get beveled down to almost a point. Then cut the splined ends off of whatever regulators we could find that had good splines, bevel the opposite end down, and weld them together, basically adding the good splined piece of the shaft to the other regulators (again, often 4 door rear regulators used as donors). Those splines being stripped by vice grips is unfortunately very common. It can be a real bitch to weld the replacements back in squarely, but on the plus side, you could use any spline pattern you wanted, as long as you had matching handles for them.
I actually considered finding just any regulator and cutting and welding them like that. But it's a last resort lol even thought I could drill and tap and run a cut off bolt into both. I really overthink shit. Anyways I think I found one, maybe 2 if the back door works
The '49, '50, and '51 trunk hinges are ALL different from each other. You CAN use '51 hinges on either '49 or '50, but you have to do some work. It's all on my website. Did you even see my post about having a pair of '49 regulators? And if I can make a suggestion. Do one thing at a time. It seems you are trying to tackle 4 or 5 different tasks at once, and having trouble completing any of them. Concentrate. Get on YouTube. Google "the part I want that is for sale". Check out Ebay, but be careful of scammers there.. check with Chris at Shoebox Central. SEARCH. Relax. You aren't going to have your car finished anytime soon. Advice from an old 80 year old.. It took me 8 years to build my shoebox, one step at a time. See my website.
Lol no.way am I converting my 50 to 51 hinges. I'll stick with 49/50 deck hinges and figure out the 4 holes in the trunk lid.
Well, yes it takes a bit of work, but not much. I suppose the decision is dependent on the owners desire to ultimately have a nice looking car. For instance, personally I think exterior hinges are ugly. But that's just me. And if you or anybody else would like to waste a little time and see how it's done anyway, go here: https://www.49fordcoupe.com/Hood-Trunk-Lid-Hinges-Retrofit
fords had no turn signals until 1952. you'll need to find a universal switch kit. don't forget to run the brake-light wires through the switch.
https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/1949-1950-ford-turn-signal-wiring.1077990/ This '51 four door appears to have the column mounted turn signal switch:
The Jalopy Journal
