Projects A tale of 3 chops and the revival of the 41 to 48 fords

This is a tale of 3 chops on some 46 to 48 ford and merc coupes and the recent revival of the 41 to 48 fords. After reading " Alter Boys Pete " thread " chopped 41 merc" I decided to do a thread on the come back of these great cars. These cars offen get ignored but have shared a great history in the world of hot rods and customs. Since their issue as new cars, right away Barris and the Ayala Bros. started customizing them, the business coupe was a good looking car in it self, and by then Henry ford had perfected the drive train and suspension, these cars bone stock are a pleasure to drive, and their mecanical entrails were sought after by all the hot rodders, yup their engine bays held the coveted 59 ab motors, the guts out of their trannys could repair a 39 trans, by late 47, they came with tube shocks and had factory front and rear track bars and front sway bars, and some even had columbia rear ends. I always called them the perfect pig, cause when you gut them , you use everything on them, I've lost track of how many I have parted out to get the drive train componets and 16" wheels but I have always tried to save the coupes.
In the last few years , with the growth of the tradional custom movement, I have seen more and more of these cars being built, another reason is that they are the last afordable ford out there, you can still buy a project car from any where from 500 to 4500 dlls.

 

Here is a couple of old pictures of the coupes as they wait for me to get to them.

 

The picture on the left top corner is the business coupe and the other is a club coupe, though similar , their are a lot of diferences between both bodies, the club coupes have longer doors and shorter sail panels and the club coupe stock has a roof skin that resembles a foot ball helmet, this was so the rear pasengers would not hit their head when sitting in the rear seat, if any one has a picture of stock club coupe, please post it.

 

This will be interesting...


Here is a line drawing of both style coupes. (1941 model, but the main body is identical for the other years as well)

 

Thanks Rikster, if you could post your perspective on the hot rod and custom history of these cars on this thread, it would be much apreciated. for me , my first exposhure of these cars was the race scene from "Rebel with out a cause"

 

If you notice, their are big differences between both drawings and when chopping these cars, a diferent aproach must be used in each case, their are diferent styles used when chopping these cars which makes them an interesting subject, for they always reflect the personal taste of who ever is building the car , make no mistake, these are some of the hardest cars to chop but done right , always draw a large crowd at car shows and no two ever look the same.

 

Magoozi... I have alway's had a liking for these myself. I had wanted one for many years and finally got one a couple of years ago. Here's a picture of my early '46...

 

Even the short door coupes like this '41 can respond to a chop if done well.....
It looks best when the rear roof angle is not changed in most cases......
I think,memory serving ,this was 3"

 

Stance is everything with these cars, if you notice in Rikster's drawings, Even from the factory, these cars sat lower in the rear than the front, the factory roof lines go up hill, especially on the club coupes, but since the car sits lower in the rear , the roof looks even, These cars do not look good with a stink bug rake, between the long truck area and the up hill grade on the roof , they look terrible jacked up in the rear. I have seen some street rodders make this mistake, for this makes the cars look akward.
As Rikster stated; the 41 's had basicly the same cabs and frames , whats difer'ent is the fenders , running boards , and front clips, In 1941, ford used the same width axle , and rear end as a forty, thus the fenders, running boards where narrower than the 42 to 48 models, In 1942, ford gave these cars a wider and lower wheel base in an effort to make them handle better, they also added a factor front and rear tract bar and in late 47, came with tube shocks , the front axle changed too, it came with a factory two and a half inch dropped axle and was wider than the 41 axle, thus the fenders where change to acomadate the wider wheelbase.
The mercury's where set up the same as the fords, but had a 3" longer frame and front clip, they took the same front end but to make up for the longer wheel base , ford added an extension to the whisbone cup mount.

 

This aproach works well with a mild chop, the car almost looks like a forty coupe, but if you go with a harder chop, the roof turns up looking funky and whedge shape, another aproach was done by one of the cavaliers, he sunk the roof into the rear quarter panels, hopefully , some one can post a picture of the car.
The chop on my business coupe was started by my good friend "Ausi Pete Nash" it was done right in the back yard where it is pictured, no fancy shop or shade ,the wheather was brutal that year, it was an average of 100 to 120 degrees than year, no mig welder guys, all the work was gas welded, and Pete had to ruff it out Von Dutch stlye, living in a trailer my friend lent him, Pete has always loved customs and has a good eye for laying out chops, I wanted an old skool chop so Pete leaned the rear roof section forward, in useing this aproach, you have to redo the quarter windows and back corners of the sail panel, other wise you end up with quarter windows that are angled wrong and egg shaped and too small.

 

I agree, these cars are great fodder, for a budget build even now.....
Great for a Kustom and great for a clean HotRod as well,as they can be bought often for under 1500 and up as a roller and are easily built trad style with the stock ftr end etc......

 

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Good Post.........An Rikster, Where do you git all this "stuff" you {Post ????/ } come up wid ?
I had a '47 tudor back in 58......Everyone refered to it as "A wollerin' Tub " But I saw one chopped and '47 Olds Grille in Chester S.C. years ago ! I think IT was from Salisbury N.C. , IT WAS PERFECT !
At the time, I could'nt see how You Could Do a Sedan, Then I saw one of Barris's Olds Torpedo's Chopped !!!! This was 1957-58 Mind You !

Keep up tha' Good Posts, And Thank You !!! Kool !

Smokey II

 

Nice lines on these

 

Gimme the long door over the short any day of the week.
D

 

I wanted a 41-48 Ford convertible for 3 reasons:

1: They do ride and drive nice compared to any earlier Ford

2: Out of all early Ford convertibles, they are the cheapest

3: I have always loved 41-48's (especially 1941's) I think they have always been overlooked but I agree they are getting more popular

 

Here is my 48

 

Here are some, 47 club coupe and 46 business coupe. The 47 came orig. from the Eastcoast, 283 with a 4 speed, I liked the chop, not perfect but great stance. I still regret selling it. I shipped both cars to Germany, too bad.

Why are there so many traditional Hotrods and almost no traditional Customs?
Hope one day people stop with bags, front clips and tilted steering.

 

Man , I would love to see a chopped two door sedan, I have only seen them as resto rods or stockers.

 

I have always like this car alot, the 47 olds grill works great on these cars and is my favorite, the other grill of choice is the late 40's caddy grill, these cars have curves everywhere, the stock grill seems to flat for the design of the car, but by removing the top crome piece on them, they can look cool too.

 

I decided not to chop my 46 Tudor, I've Photoshopped it 20 times and it just does not look better, which is the point of chopping, right?

I've only witnessed one good tudor chop, most go straight down and they look like an ambulance. The tudor in the other pic uses the roof off a 50 Mercury, and a few other modifications

 

I'm with you, 4t64rd.
One of my neighbors has a 41 Tudor street rod that he tore down for a rebuild. He hinted around for a whole summer about me chopping it for him and we even discussed it but I decided not to because I noticed that he is a picky %$#@ who has only bad things to say about ANYTHING he has done on any of his cars.
But the bigger problem was I could not convince myself that it would be better looking when chopped. Maybe photoshop could change my mind but I just couldn't picture it in my mind and took that as a red flag to walk away.

 

I agree Chris, not much is needed to make a 41 to 48 ford convertible look cool, I owned a 41 convertible in my early twenties, and had a blast with the car, the only drawback I saw with the 41, is that when the top is up, they look like a covered wagon, but man it was great for making out in the back seat.

 

The 46 business coupe was being built for the president of the German lifters, but he changed his mind and bought a custom buick riviera, I think the business coupe looks great even without a chop, they make a great and afordable mild custom, notice how we stuffed a rear seat in the business coupe and made it a five pasenger vehicle.

 

I actually don't mind the top...but I do agree when chopped they gotta be a little more streamlined When I chop mine, I really wanna make it a functioning convertible as I love driving this ol tub with the top down!

 

^love it.

 

Great shot of a perfect kustom

 

If performed right, 2 door sedans look good with Carson tops on. I would add fenderskirts and use a simpler paintjob. There are a few examples of 39 40 Sedans done that way and I think it looks same good on 41's to 48's.

 

take a short roof coupe. add long door 8 1/2 inches wider. 4 3/4 inch chop (6 inches out of A pillar) slide the roof forward 4 inches to line up A pillars. fill the 5 inch quarter window. pattern a 36 3 window shape and use the front of right door to shape the rear left to gain the 3 window look. add 7 sections of roof to maintain the drip rails remove the running boards and raise the rear fenders to slim down some of the bulk. widen the rear fenders 2 1/2 inches and mold them to the body. weld the trunk closed and mold it in. add front and rear roll pans.

let it sit in the corner for 20 years to let it season and you end up with my 48 3 window coupe

did I mention that in that in 1993 when I did this, sun roof's were cool. the roof cap is a 912 porsche roof with a working electric sun roof (metal not glass) what can I say. they will come back and I'll be ready lol

 

I've alway thought the 41 front clip were cleaner

 

Sam Foose's custom coupe that he built in the 70's, really cemented my love of customs ! I started with a 4 door and was just planning to build a year round driver....add a really rotten coupe roof and about a million feet of mig welding and you get this:




Plus this



a little fab work...




Its al little further along than this pic below...