1951 Ford Custome Coupe Build..

Matt, don't let me steal your thread here. I'll remove this if you like.

EBW, the '49 and '50 trans are the same, the '51 is very similar, but longer. All of them (overdrives) are complete units. The difference is in the length, the '51 is longer.

If you have a '51 (I suspect you do from your avatar) then you can use the '49-50 but will need to do two things. You'll need to move your cross member forward a few inches (holes are already in the chassis) and have a longer drive shaft made.

Conversely, if you have a '49-50 and use a '51 trans you'll need to move the cross member back a few inches (drill your own holes) and have your drive shaft shortened. Apparently in the 1951 design, they replicated the existing chassis down to every detail but added two holes and left the '49-50 holes too.

On all of the transmissions, passenger side (at least in the US) tailshaft, is a series of letters/numbers that indicate what the trans is. R10E-1 is 1949-50, and R10E-1A is 1951.

I don't know what the differences are for 1952, but I know that the transmissions were LARGELY unchanged through about 1966. Of course, you'll need to determine what differences there are yourself, sorry!

Why did I put this up? Matt offered his '51 trans to me (thanks again dude!) but I wanted a '49-50 for my Shoebox. He was most helpful also when I was trying to get the trans I ended up buying shipped up to me in Utah. He even offered to pick it up and put it on Greyhound... what a guy! Anything I can do to help him out I'm more than happy to do so!

 

great thread man way to keep at it!

 

Daddio .. Thanks for the Info !! I am happy to hear that I can get the earlier ones also.. I was worried I was stuck with 51 only.

Sorry for highjacking this thread

 

Looking good ! Keep it going!

 

Also, if you have a good three speed and buy a worn out overdrive, most of the three speed stuff will fit the overdrive trans.

The OD trans I bought had a HAMMERED second and third, but first, overdrive and the main shaft were in good condition. Since my original 3 speed with 54,000 miles on it was pristine we used most of the internals from it, along with new bearings, seals, gaskets and stuff.

VanPeltSales.com was WONDERFUL to work with. Although I only bought a few things from them (under $20) Mac was always helpful to give advice.

Sorry for the lengthy descriptions in the middle of your build thread man, hope it helps other guys.

 

I had a 327 a few years back with a Saginaw car 3-speed hooked to the back. Never once did the tranny or motor let me down in 3 years of driving hard. I hammered on that Saginaw but it never broke. If you are running the 283, it will probably be easier to get bellhousing and other parts if you run the Saginaw.

 

No sorrys guys. Eric gave great info, I never knew about the differences until he told me, and glad he is able to pass it along to others.

BTW, did you ever get the trans shipped?

EBW, I do have a 3 sp w/OD for sale. I might have two of them for sale.
But I do have an extra one right now. Not sure if the OD is good, but they can be rebuilt. PM me if your interested.

 

My only problem with this, is I dont recall seeing your Tech article on it. haha no but hope you took some pics so we can get a better idea.

 

Thanks, its for sure looking like I will be back on it by sunday night or monday.
I have the rocker/1/4 panel to sort out, put all new seals in the steering box, and hopefully mount it and get the new steering arms etc in.

I cant wait.

 

Thanks, its very slow but steady. I would like to be driving it before this years up

 

Awesome car to start with, very clean. I would love to get ahold of a club coupe ford, great looking cars.

I would go with the ford 3 speed but get the column linkage hooked back up and not run the floor shift.

I am building my 51 merc and kept the 3 speed and column shift and found a offy adapter on here to mate my early 283 to. I havent found the flywheel that accepts the merc clutch housing so I will either have to put the flywheel on the rotary to machine the bolt pattern into it or start a thread to see if there is a flywheel that has that clutch housing bolt pattern.

Gotta have the 3 on the tree in my eyes

 

Loving your build thread. When I first got my '51 I did not have any garage space too. A lot of work got done in the driveway. Much nicer to work with shop/garage space. My car is a 14 year work in progress. I love your car and watching it progress.

 

A buddy of mine picked it up when he came down for the LA Roadster Show, thanks a million though!

Tech article? Are you kidding!? What makes you think I'd be capable of rebuilding a trasmission, LOL? A friend owns the best trans shop in town. I dropped the OD and the three speed off with him. He worked his magic and its back in my garage now.

Be prepared guys, rebuilding one of these (even if you have usable spare parts like I did) is going to cost around $500 in labor. Complete gear sets a available through VanPelt Sales for around $650.

 

These 3 speed trannys are the EASIEST assemblies to put together!!! Its tricky but I did mine all by myself besides a trip to the trans shop to have a clip installed because I couldn't find or make a tool to open up the clip. Specifically the clip in the tail shaft housing that has the little cover with 2 bolts.

I followed the diagrams on the Van Pelt site. $500 is a deal to do one though. I think $800 is fair in all honesty though, the overdrive is a pain in the ass.

 

I certainly don't mind delving into uncharted territory, but this is something I didn't want to pull back out and pay someone else to do right later. My trans guy is fantastic and like you said, money well spent.

 

I havent updated in a bit.
I got the steering box installed back in, and am about to install the new tie rods etc. Dropped the gas tank, letting it drain and dry before I start the cleaning and repair. Also, I wasnt happy my rear 1/4 so I am going to replace a section of it. It was beat. Also starting to set up for molding the rear gravel guard.
I have a bunch of small things started, during the day when I can make lots of noise I do the grinding and hammering, at night I have projects that wont wake people up.

Will most more pics after this weekend. I have a three day weekend and am now single, so I have lots of time.
Here is an artsy pic.

 

Keep up the motivation and good work !!

 

Its been awhile from my last update.

Been working on it alot but haven't posted pics. Been really trying to hone in on my metal finishing work. So there has been some things I have redone a couple times.
So we will start at the driver door. It had been pretty beat up from about 10 inches from the front, had lead on it, and still felt like a bag of walnuts, plus the wrap around on the skin was ground down to much so the skin separated from the door. So I found a donor from a 4 door, and figured I would splice them together. Should of been no big deal right? well FYI remove all dents from bothe panels before welding them together. I dont know why I didnt think of this before haha. So as I removed the dents and srunk them down, the weld area turned to a tin can. Got pissed and took a cut of wheel to it, and a hammer to another part.

Thanks to Eric (daddio) and Josh (JF), and the guy that brought it from Utah (cant remember his HAMB id) for helping save my hair from being pulled out and more hammer throwing by hooking me up with a drivers door.

Also Eric (EBW) came down to pick up the 3 sp /w OD trans. Super nice guy and hooked me up with this sweet drum thats huge and can be made into a stand for a grinder/buffer.

The rear 1/4 panel right below the wind split, was hammered as well. I began to try to shrink it, but it was beyond my abilities, and honestly traveled over the edge to a waste of time.

Also shaved the gas door, dropped the gas tank, continued the metal finish work on the front rear 1/4 panel witha shrinking disk. I know there is more but cant think of it. Been alittle ADD with it.

 

Great meeting you also !! Keep up the work, you are farther than you think !!

I will get those other parts to you soon... or when you come up to my neck of the woods.

 

A few more.

 

Looks like you are struggling with pretty much same things than i am at the moment,door stuff...
That quarter looks like much better than what is it on my project.Keep it up!

 

You're a rock star brother! Keep on it, you'll be done before you know!

Sent from my DROID device using the TJJ mobile app

 

Thanks guys.
Also, I went out and bought a HF stud welder setup.
I hadnt used one in years, its funny how much you forget over time.

Anyways, I read alot of reviews and looked at different setups. I know cheaper isnt always better, but when its all you can afford you make due.
Bought it last night, and used it over the wheel wheels to pull up some low spots. gotta be alittle gentle with the slide hammer, but honestly its a good setup.
Works great for hard to reach places where arms arent long enough, and you cant get behing the panel due to space.

 

Are you done yet ??? haha..

I purchased the same setup.. As long as you are easy with it.. IT will work out for you !!!

 

The area that is dark is low, so working from egdes in with the studs.

then hit the area with a shrinking disk

 

Here is some recent stuff.
Some buds came over, I am very unfamiliar with American engines.
So the 283, ended up being from a 65, it was pulled from a 57 Bel air. The engine has a new rebuild as they can tell, and is in great shape. The heads are Powerpack corvettes heads. It has front and side engine mounts, I am going witht he side.
So I am still very stoked, new oil pan and gaskets and I am running.

I was going to do a three inch notch, as of right now I am an inch from the rails. I chose three inch as if I wanted to do bags I can have some room. I have no desire to lay frame.
So got the 1/4 plate and one of guys cut it up for me and now I just have to clean the plasma cutter debree and they are good to weld in. Going to work on that some more tonight.

I did shave the gas door, and wasnt happy with the way it came out. so I redid it. the pic here is not the finished product, I will post another in the next couple days.
There was a section in the rear 1/4 that was beat in. So i cut it.
Got that tacked, planish a bit, and started filling in the rest last night. I formed the rear 1/4 section with a basket ball/rolling over it haha. The first pic is it tacked in, to see how it would lay, I did cut the welds out and formed it some more accordin the the green markings, Then it fit %99.99 perfect, good enough for mister gold member to handle. The others are it retacked.
Also there was some cancer spots in the pan I cut and replaced.

Plus I made 2 slap hammers, ones gold member, and the other is bigblack.

I will take some more pics of the progress tonight.

 

Looking Good !! That rear Quarter is nice !!

What are your specs on the slap hammers ??
I need to make a few also !

 

... Also Did you get the metal for the stands yet ?? I may have some extra.

 

The second pass of welds are done just have to grind them down. Looking forward to tomorrow morning when I can go to town grinding.

I did mine kinda like this http://www.chopperweb.info/forum/articles.php?action=viewarticle&artid=98
Bought some hockey stick tape and wrapped for grip.

 

I havent yet, trying to figure out what I am going to put on top.
I was thinking about making some kind of multi use thing.
Maybe something like this? so many ideas I love this thread
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=320079

Now that we have taken care of the shrinking tools we need a way to stretch the metal.

I do my stretching on a beater bag and it's really nice to have beater bag stand.

So again looking through the scrap pile I gathered up some materials.




I added a post dolly holder and a hammer holder to the stand.


I made my own post dolly's. Here are a few of them.





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