Okay. Now that i FINALLY have some progress to show and the time and space to be able to work on my first build i wanted to get a thread going to document my progress. I wrote my introduction post almost 3 years ago, and really thought i was going to hit the ground running but since then every spare minute and dollar has gone into my business and personal projects all got pushed aside. Im back to being able to spend some time on my own projects so i hope to make steady progress going forward. My hopes is to build a 40s ish period highboy that looks familiar in style, but has lots of custom features, traditionally minded. thats how i build my motorcycles and there will probably be some chopper influence thrown in. I dont know a ton about early ford parts so i rely heavily on friends that do for help. Im really just winging this whole build, so constructive comments are welcome! Lets go.
Here is where im going to start. The first parts i bought was the wheels and general chassis parts. actually the first things i had were tires, that i got for christmas from my family that all pitched in. With the lack of knowledge of what fits what, I bought a complete front axle set up to have all new parts that would fit together from my friend Josh Carrillo in Los Osos. he also helped put me in touch with the Jennings brothers who have been a great help aswell in getting some original parts, like the 32 front spring, and some other stuff ill mention later on. the 40 rear end, brakes and torque tube i got off craigslist in Ventura, K member and pedals came from Texas. I got some ASC rails from Roadster Supply which is close by to me and layed it all out. Some of whats in these pictures i ended up changing out before i built the chassis to get the odd stance i want.
Mock up of all the parts- One of the things i wanted to accomplish with this thread is posting high resolution photos that show alot of detail for anyone else like me that could use the reference.
In my line of work, im really critical on proportions and getting everything looking just right. I like 32 rails, but to me they have always looked too fat under anything but a 32. (probably an unpopular opinion) So to fix it in my head I sectioned each frame rail to slim them down to the same height at their widest point as a model A frame to bring back that proportion. On the left the original size, and right is reshaped.
Since i altered the height thru the center section of the frame rails i also had to modify the K member to fit in the new rail height. I kept the modifications tight to not affect anything else that mounts on the K member.
And finally, a rolling chassis- I ended up switching out the front crossmember to an original 32 crossmember. Thank you Josh and Neil again for helping with getting me one. Cross members welding in, torque tube shortened (hope its right..) This got my stance how i want it. I dont really know how much its lowered but its a decent amount but still a tall car. Still have final welding to do.
Next the K member that i bought also came with these support arms, appear aftermarket but made well so wanted to use them. They also had to be modified to fit my sectioned frame rails.
Onto mocking up the body- I have seen what others do to fit an A body on 32 rails and chose to modify the front cowl feet to better fit. They were damaged both sides anyways. The cowl sides will need repair aswell.
Is there anything prettier but still ultimately simple than a 4.50 and 7.50 by 16” on Ford steelies combo? Like a well worn pair of blue jeans.
The project is looking great, and I do appreciate the high quality photos of equally high quality craftmanship! I will stay tuned for more.
Some more progress photos- This body had been hit in the rear at some point and the under decklid panel and rollpan were cracked all over and cut apart already, so i opted to replace them instead of try to repair. I kept the originals if i decided to fix someday. The quarter corners were rotted so made some patches for those both sides. You can also see how i added the rear frame horns back into the frame instead of just bobbing them.
Not sure if it was the person i bought the body from or previous but all the floors and subrails from the doors back were cut out and nothing was put into the body for structure so it was alot of work to untwist, unbind, and commit to welding in some temporary structure in order to do subs. The body i bought came with a steadfast subrail kit, i ended up using pieces from but i should have just made new ones from scratch cause they didnt fit well for my frame and i wasted a lot of time trying to fit them. made some temp mounts from the rollpan to frame to position the body, capped the ends to tuck all the way into the new quarter corners and mocked up the arches.
From the arches forward wasn't going to work at all, they didn't line up in the right spot or height or width of where the body was cut back so i made some sub sections to go from the old subs to new arches.
Cross rails mocked up. Those cover plates are to hide where i had to pie cut the steadfast rails to get the bend into the next section. Would have preferred to have the join with a clean overlap like the rear bar but wanted to hide the piecuts.
To continue on I wanted to now mock up the decklid to check the fit. This was a rumble seat car, and im going to keep it so. I know most people say they prefer the trunk over seats but i have a few plans to *hopefully* get to have a rumble seat, and some storage room. I didnt have hinges, and the body mounts for the hinges were cut out but i had some repops i can use. Mocked it all up and then realized the stock bump stops wouldnt work since i have a weird floor now so i made some new stops. Just tacked in place for now to make sure they will not interfere with anything else down the road.
Can anyone help me with what kind of fasteners hold in the top of the curved panel? And I’m assuming there is a weather seal of some sort under that top lip? There was pre drilled holes in the under decklid panel but lining up the curved panel holes with those puts that top edge in a weird spot. Thanks for the help!
I think they are oval head countersunk screws. No seal, the water just runs in and through the holes in the rear floor.
Very nice fabrication work! Unfortunately, some people tend to cut or hack out a lot of useful parts in some of these old bodies. I had similar issues with my coupe.
Interesting, I wonder if this panel is not correct then and these holes are supposed to be sunken so that when you tighten the screws if doesn’t just crush the material? I would have thought there would have been a half round seal so water finds its way to the frail holes below. Thanks for your reply!
The Jalopy Journal
