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

I love the huge ass on these cars, if the chop is right, they look like a chick with long hair, a small waist and a big juicy ass, everything just flows and looks sexy.
we should start a " junk in the trunk club"

 

I think this is what No name was talking aboat , but I disagree, I think the olds grill is the best suited for the 42 to 48 fords, I love the grill treatment on my chopper budie's car, and it inspired me to put one in my car.

 

amen

 

Miguel wanted me to post some of the latest pics of his 46. He wants it to drive it to Santa Maria. Deadline is coming up soon!!

 

Here is the lastest pics, there is the transmition and wisbone ball mt. by using this, the chasis is completly stock,, thats one advantage of usesing a 289 or 302 and a c-4 tranny, also the firwall is stock and the clearence for the fan is perfect, no gay ass electric fans on this car, stock 46 brake pedals are used with a small power booster and a dual resavior, pedal is in the stock location and no modification of the floor or the stock transmition floor cover.
Ya the crunch is on, trying to make it to Penneys show, dead lines are extremly stressfull but are positive because they push you to get the car done, and if you make it, they give a strong sence of achievment afterwords, June is the busiest month of the car show season, and it sucks not having a car to drive to them.

 

actually this is probably the best Olds install I've seen. most try to flow the moustache
this pointed hood and smooth fenders work very well. the fat ass I'm referring to is really the area above the rear fenders. I spent a month sitting and looking.
if you look at the other photo I posted of my car. I don't claim it's right, but it was the solution to the problem that I had with my build. the tail light holes in the fenders were lined up even with the bottom edge of the deck lid. this was done in the early ninties and I am still working on the final look.

you are very right that evryone has different opinions on cars and as much as I like these I don't think a straight on side view is attractive on chopped fords.

one more area that I'm working on is the peak over the center of the windshield. get dramatic the more you chop

 

I almost bought a 47 Merc conv. Amazed how longer the hood seemed

 

I agree no name, I like the way they continued the hood on the chopper's car, it fill's up an otherwise large area above the grill, as to the area above the rear fenders, I have seen several cars that have pancaked the decklid and lower sail pannel, on my car , we had to modify the lower corners of the sail panel to keep the rear corner roof lines flowing, I hope I don't get in trouble once I bolt on the deck lid.

 

I widened the rear fenders 2 inches, welded the trunk solid and added 39 ford hinges to the rumble seat. once again this was done in 1992 when crap like that was cool

 

Mikey's Playpen!
We all build a car for difer'ent reasons, most the time , it's because we like the car or the other is for sentimental reasons, ya know the car belonged to our dad or grandfather, in my case it was both, the first is obvious, I like 41 to 48 fords alot, the secound is base on the history of the car.
When we buy a project car, we offen wonder the past history of the car,the diferent people that owned it and the trips they made in it, which brings me to the story of my car;
I got a call from a friend asking me for a front clip for a 46 ford business coupe, my friend told me that he just bought the car from a guy in alpine that had owned it for a long time, but it was missing all three fenders and a hood, so I sold him the missing parts for the car. A few weeks go by and he called me again and asked me if I would be interested in purchasing the car from him, the price was right so we struck a deal. Weeks go by and my fellow club member Ben fields tell me " man some guy just bought the 46 that sat next door to my grandpa's house in alpine, man I was going to buy that car and build it some day" so he told me how him and our other fellow club member Mikey had played in the car when they were just little tots, so I told him that if I ever decided to get rid of the car, I would let him know.
A few years go by , and my friend Auzi pete was chopping Grease Machine's 41 plymouth, so Pete ask me " Miguel , why don't you let me give that thing an evil chopp?" so we struck a deal and Pete started laying out the chop.
As time went by, Mikey came over for a visit to check out the chop on the 46, Mikey was'ent much of a custom guy, for he liked hot rods, but he did have a soft spot for chopped 46 coupes. He ran up to the coupe and uttered " man now your'e never gonna finish this car, it's just going to sit and rot with the rest of your project cars, but I could tell by the gleem in his eyes, that he like the car and was challenging me to finish the car."
Another seven years went by, and I finaly decided to get the car done, Mikey passed away a year ago and I have always regreted that he never got to see the car that had been his play pen as a kid finished, Pete calls me every couple of weeks from Auzi and always ask me on the status of the car, and how he wants to finish the chop he started. Recently he has mention to me that he plans to come out in November , so he can finish the chop,but I answered " No Pete , I have a better idea, me and you are going to cruize in that car when you come out ".
So I guess I have a lot of motivation to finish the car and I hope I can make Mikey prowd of his play pen.

 

Wow I love this one! I would like to paint mine that color...

 

the color is from one of those rolling toasters made by Nissan.

 

Well I still like it.. Its like a lime gold.. do you have the name of it?

 

I love the way they rounded the top deck lid corners, Noname , do you have any more early pictures? I also like the color alot.

 

Well I brought my buddy tono on board, he works at a restoration shop I set up in the late eighties for a friend of mine, he usually works on big clasic cars from the thirty's and is an ace body man, he still does lead work , peck and file , and is great at heat shrinking wadded up panels.
Back in the day, most of mexico's best body men came from mexico city, reason being, till the late 70's, you could'ent import bondo , so you had to learn the old sckool way, him and his brothers are secound generation body men and painters, Tono started doing body work when he was just 8 years old, I can't afford to have him do my body work in lead, so bondo will have to do, and he only uses a light skin coat to finish up his work, I'll try to post some updated pictures soon.

 

that 41 belong to a local pin striper/painter he is also a HAMB member. It started out as his grandfathers 4 door sedan

 

great info here. i like these cars and would love to do a nice custom. here's jd's '41..

 

Keep the pics coming, I need some more inspiration.

 

man , what a great car!

 

Still trying to get some updated pictures for you guys, looks like I missed the deadline for Penny's show, I'll be trying to get the car atleast in primer for John's Gathering of the customs show, I figure it will be a good road trip to get all the bugs out before I paint it.

 

Well I just got back from Santa Maria and as always, had a great time, many thanks to Penny and the crew for putting on a great show.
there was quite a few 41 to 48 fords out there, did anybody get some pictures?

 

Miguel,
I like this thread and My 48 ford, even with the design flaws from me and the factory lol.

I bought this Hemi powered business in 1990 for $8000 and drove the hell out of it for 3 years. after a 3200 mile road trip I lost the transmission 10 miles from home. and managed to drive it to my shop. I decided it was time to rebuild the motor and trans. when I found out how hard it was to find rebuilld parts (before internet) I thought it was a good time to do the chop/ 3 window conversion that I'd been thinking about.

I started Aug 19 1993 and am looking forward to finishing it before my 20 year anniversary aug 19 2013 lol again

 

It was a nice car, ran well, but I didn't build it so it just wasn't mine. I tried a flame job. still wasn't happy

 

time to personalise my car. without a plan I was going full custom (when I started)

Did I mention it had a Hemi???

 

I found a 2 door sedan parts car and another frame that hadn't been hacked up.

My plan was 6 inches out of the A pillar and move the B post back 8 1/2 inches for the sedan doors

 

I knew what I wanted it to look like and I had enough pieces. I don't have any metal shaping tool besides a few hammers. so I have to go to my scrap pile for bends and curves

 

the full custom was going with the Olds grill and Buick head lights. biggest problem and best solution was the lower Olds grill pan with the front part of a spare ford roof for a front roll pan

 

I tried 3 different roof sections and ended up with a 912 porsche with sliding sunroof (honest this was a cool idea in 1990) as were the box skirts

 

Around back I had the required frenched 59 cad tail lights mounted even with the bottom of the deck lid

 

Here's one we did a few years ago.............I think it's important to keep the drip rails.