Projects building a low budget bellybutton 40 ford coupe

yes I have and no you dont

 

Noce work as always Travis. keep it coming.

 

My point was its just as easy if not easier to put a Ford in a 40 Ford.
So lets quit mucking up Zibo's thread and watch a bitchin' 40 come together. By far one of my all time favorite body styles.


Hey Zibo, I'm curious to see how you plan to mount the front of the rear radius rods, unless I missed it. I'm planning to run the pair I've got on a torque tube, but always like to see all the different ways people set those up on open drive.


Sent from my DROID device using the TJJ mobile app

 

Love the Stance what is above your rear Bumper

 

Lots of great info here for my someday 36 built from junk project! I dont have time to read it now at work but will tonight! Thanks Zibo!!

 

I've got an early SBC that could have gone in there,
and there are some nice examples I've seen.
I just like a Ford in a Ford,
although I would have gladly thrown in a baby Hemi if I had one!

I really wanted to get away from the old tranny.
It was fun going through the gears.
There was a time I would have thrown an early ford/mercury overdrive transmission,
the one with the same half-bellhousing,
then freeway cruising would be acceptable.

*********

Okay Rokit and others here's the prequel...

This was a southern california car.
The previous owner found it in Perris Ca by Riverside.
It had the bitchin metallic lime green paint that was popular back then,
Bummer was the ass end was sticking out of the barn,
so it was really faded out to the point of not having paint on sections.

The running gear and rims were mostly gold.
That was when it was nice.
Then someone had sprayed/brushed the running gear and rims with royal blue and bright orange!
Not sure if this was before or after they sheared any gears in the tranny and rearend!
The last registration was 1965,
and it had that seized 347/1939 tranny with no gears.

It was crazy the rear end was mounted with unequal length radius rods,
bolted on to the frame with angle iron brackets.
Lots of really hack stuff.
The owner friend had collected everything to restore it,
and also some stuff to mildly hot rod it.

With a couple friends help - Luke, Matt and Rey,
we busted but and got it running enough to make it to the 2006 Asphalt Invitational up in SJ,
first time in 41 years on the road.


It was easier to pound out the hack and put it more or less stock,
but I really liked the 17A coupe so made it look stinkbug like in the Don Montgomery book.


At that time it had a mercury flathead and was a great runner.




It was even the car I drove my pregnant wife to the hospital in!

I tried for as long as I could to keep the old paint,
but parking it outside in the wet Ventura fog was taking its toll.
Before the rainy season I rattlecanned it with a dozen spraybombs.





Dang that was 2007!

We tore it up good back then and drove it all over.


On the way home from the last Asphalt Invitational in San Jose,
the block cracked.
That's what happens when trying to keep up with an overdrive!

After that the 59a was installed,
and it turned into a tractor for 4 years.



If anyone has any info on the Perris years pre-1965,
that would be really cool!

TP

 

You rock!! Keep it going Zibo!!

 

Awesome story to go with an awesome car.

 

Thanks for the thread Zibo - nice lookin' low-buck ride.
I must admit that I don't like 40's without a hood / bonnet, other than that, keep it coming.
Cheers.

 

That's not mine but I think they're reverse lights.
I like the stance of that 40 from the rear but the front views its a little high.
Perfect moonshiner car!

I'm a picture junky,
and I've also became really dependent on searching the internet for how to do things.
So while this post kinda keeps my momentum up,
hopefully others can learn from the roadblocks or mistakes I've made!
That's kinda why the step by step photo overload.
This has been done a number of times but there's always a hitch.

Yo Greasy - man I'd love to be able to blast this thing up to Ventura County soon!

***************************

Now that the wishbones could be solidly mounted,
it was time to fit the spring.

The old spring had a high arch with tons of leaves,
and my cousin had ditched another spring that was a little flatter.
It still had the normal eyes so it could always go lower by flipping the main.

This is the nice thing about these 36 bones,
the spring naturally centers the rear end front to back and side to side.

as long as the crossmember is in the right place anyway!

For the first time it was confirmed that a stock 1968 ford mustang 8 inch is the perfect fit for a 1940 ford!
This was a huge relief no matter how much measuring I did.
I can still go with wider rear rims too,
there's a good couple inches of clearance on the inside.

So now it was time to think about the front mount.

TP

 

Very Cool Zibo. I was gonna small block ford my 40, but I just love a W motor. One day i'll get it in there. Like the lo tech approach, a car i could actually build.

 

Great story. Looks like you'll have many more good times with the coupe in the very near future.

 

Did you use the 32 ford motor mounts on the front. right size for the flat head mounds. it all bolts in like it was ment to be

 

As far as mounts are concerned, the W motor will use the same mounts as a small block, correct? And, since I've seen early hemi's in these cars, there should be room for a big block, right?

 

I really dig that car. The old setup is killer but, I understand the upgrade. She's gonna rock.

The pic with the bikes piled on the front is priceless.

 

Great build. Cool car.

 

I really like this build! The way I would have done it for what it appears you plan for it, which is a daily driver. Agree totally about losing the banjo, I sheared enough keys and twisted enough axles to last me 3 lifetimes in days long gone by. Same goes for the trans. I can remember spending Thanksgiving day once installing a trans. in m,y '32, on them you had to pull engine to change trans. My Thanksgiving dinner was cheese and bologna sandwiches from a country store near the shop owned by the father of a friend!
Being from a different generation, my styling would be a slight tail drag, Caddy hub caps on the front with www tires front and rear, most likely Diamondback radials, and tear drop skirts with flares, if I could find them. And I agree with a previous poster, a '40 looks better with a hood.
But those are the choices of an old man and that's your car. Build it your way.

 

Zibo, the rake on your car is perfect, but you already know that. This is a genuine hot rod. Great job, thanks for posting all the detail.

 

all HAMB threads should be this awesome, nice work.

 

very cool car and build. great job man

 

Hey Guys I appreciate all the comments and interest!
Here's a quick update before I take off.

***************************

The front wishbone mount took a bit of thinking.
I wanted to keep the wishbone angle as stock as possible,
but this made the tie rods really close together in the center.

The only way to do this easily was to have the nuts facing outward.
I've never actually seen pictures of anyone doing it this way,
but I couldn't think of any reason this wouldn't work.
Really the zirk could be point outwards,
the problem was they would be difficult to remove,
as there wouldn't be any room to knock them out when they got stuck.
Yeah I'm a hack and tap the ends a little to pop them off!
(the trick is to tap on the actual bracket first and that usually loosens them up)

The measurements weren't too precise lengthwise just as long as they were equal,
as I'd place the mount wherever it needed to be.
Like they would self-triangulate.
For a second thought to TIG it all up,
but was way faster and "more traditional" to stick weld.
It is a really strong way to weld,
and actually looks like the welds on the wishbones.

Later on the plan is to make a torque arm to stiffen the wishbones up,
but for now a small gusset would have to do.
Its not much just reinforces the weld seam a little.
This has worked on the RPU for years.
Will just have to keep a light foot on the pedal.

Now it was time to get that rearend in there.
After some angle checking and hammer banging,
the bracket was welded in.
Maybe I should have bolted it in first just in case,
but all the measurements squared up.

Again with the stick welder.
It looks ugly as the flux wasn't cleaned up in the picture.
I'll probably make some more gussets later on,
at this point I'm not sure how much of the x-member will need modification for the tranny.
In the picture you can see the reverse install of the tie rods,
with the nuts sticking out.
Not as pretty but only a hundred people will really know!

The flattened rear spring lowered the rear a ton.
As usual I finished up in the dark.
Now I'll really need to lower the front end!

The next day I was surprised at how much the spring had settled down,
almost 3/4 of an inch.

I'm hoping with some fuel and a transmission etc.,
it will go a little lower to be even with the fender lip.
There's still 10 or 11 leaves in the spring,
and it's not reversed,
so there's a bunch of easy lowering options.

Okay so now it's a roller,
on to getting the engine/tranny mounted.

TP

 

Zibo,

Way kool build!

I can't wait to see how you build and install your track bar for the rear end and modify the X member for your tranny install.

Thanks again, Fred

 

Man....you come up with the slickest ideas and it always turns out looking just right. This is just too cool......

 

Love the build. Yah see with a little ingenuity a great looking ford can have modern ford components. Apparently the guys who go with the walmart motor lack the skills to do the job correctly. I tip my hat to you sir, as you are a scholar.

 

Comin' along nicely - keep up the good work.
Thanks for posting updates - keep 'em comin'
Cheers.

 

I like that you did not do the usual small block or now flathead since their getting so old...... Thats why i am putting mopar into mopar.P.S. I do like chevys and flatheads tho.

 

Really nice. It brings back lots of memories of my first car, a '38 Coupe. My brother had a '39 Standard. Both cars in the same town owned by brothers from different eras. He was 5 years older. Very different looking cars. Mine was more like yours. Thanks!

 

Okay guys I'm finally back!

After the rearend was set up,
I really wanted to slap the engine and tranny together,
and figure out how to modify the x-member.
The past years I've become way more fabricator based,
so that's the stuff I think about the most.
This time I had to step back,
and think of the proper time line for the project.

So before I rushed into things,
it was smarter to get the mechanical stuff out of the way.
Then I wouldn't need to pull the engine/tranny back out if I didn't have too.

The head gaskets weren't an issue,
but I wanted to make sure there were no surprises.
This was a running car with about 140K miles,
and it did look like there had been some work done before my time.
It was a relief to see everything inside was really clean and smooth,
barely a ridge too.
(A couple years before I had removed the oil pan,
and after a plastigage of the mains were in acceptable tolerance)


It took a couple evenings to do each side,
but it was well worth the peace of mind.

The only issue I really had with the 302 in the Lincoln,
was a leaky rear main seal.
I was dreading doing this job,
thinking I had to pull the pan and pop the caps to replace the upper rope seal.

It was a let's say a learning experience when I saw the rear seal on these later models
is a simple oil seal.
I could have replaced it without pulling the engine like I had thought.
So $5 and 10 minutes later the worst leak was solved.

This was now labeled a "Rattlecan Rebuild".

Some tranny seals were changed,
and everything bolted back together.

In the back of my mind,
I was fighting using the AOD transmission.
Through some horse trading,
a t-5 kit was partially assembled but it was too far away to pick up easily.
Also,
I've read of a million and one horror stories of troubleshooting problems when piecing these engine/tranny combos together.
This engine came with this AOD tranny,
so I knew there wouldn't be any surprises (hopefully),
I really liked the way it drove,
as well as being cost-effective!
Maybe later on I'll do the stick swap.



Before I had pulled the engine from the mock-up,
a template was made of the AOD outline.

This is a big effin transmission,
and I'm sure what separates the ford from the chevy guys!
Even though a comparable 700r4 or 200 is probably just as chunky.

Thankfully the outline didn't interfere with the crossmember verticals,
only the center piece and the flat part on top.
Hopefully.
TP

 

That engine looks pretty decent for rattlecan.......

 

I just read through this whole thread. Really like what you're doing and the 302! Great ideas, too.


I actually have the HAMB Calendar page with this photo hanging up at my desk at work. Had no idea it was yours, until now!





Keep it going!

Malcolm