Projects Thompson Shoebox Ford Build

Nice job on your car. Some interesting and unique ideas. I really like the tail light idea. The trunk floor where it fastens to the quarters is a problem. I always thought if I build another shoe, that i would fabricate drop panels at the sides like 60's cars. I've chopped 3 of these old shoes, the first one was chopped very much like yours except for the slanted door pillars. Keep up the good work, and keep us posted....Coop

 

Thanks Coop,

Im gonna use window urethane to basically glue the trunk side panels back in place like factory. Your rite tho if I ever do another box I will just weld drop pieces on the edges and make a connection point on the bottom of the qatar somewhere I guess.

Thanks

-Dane

 

Damn you make me feel like a slacker. I've got so much metalwork to do that it's hard to motivate myself to get back out there and start up again.

I like the nascar-looking tires on there. Looks pretty cool!

 

You and me both. Im trying to finish up the metal work still so I can move on but I still have a ton of work to do. I still have everything you can imagine left to do as well... motor wiring... re fitting bot seats to clear the new tunnel.. and on and on. I want to have it on the road by end of summer..... we will see.... HAHA

 

Rounded the pass door on the body today and hung the front sheet metal so I can properly gap the pass door tomorrow. Still waiting on the drivers door.... I took some pics of the car with all the sheet metal on to keep me motivated. Car looks way bigger with a front end

-Dane

 

how are you laying frame without cutting out the rear wheel wells? you must be running a small tire

 

Magic!! No its not on the frame. I have room up front and the rear has bump stops in the bags that keep it up some. The white walls will may hit the rear wheel wells but I'm cool with that. Im probably around the same hight as your car it your avatar... but yours may be a bit lower considering you have a larger tire. Im have a set of 15" original wheels that Im going to put whit walls on but I don't have the cash for them rite now. The tires on my car are only 14" that came on the car I use for rollers. Any progress on your build?

 

In my avatar pic its actually sitting on the rear spring perches, I haven't cut them off yet. I'm actually gonna keep my frame up about a 1/2 in when its laid out, I'm not like the mini truckers, I don't want my shit tore up. plus if I blow an air line, or a bag, I'll still be able to get it off the road if i need to. I'm running G78s which are 27 1/2in diameter, same as the radials that are on it now, that way when I put the G78s on I won't have any clearance issues. I'm making progress, just really slow. The plan is to get the 4-link done, and rear bags in this weekend.

 

Sand blasted my front clip and trunk lid yesterday and today..... damn I hate sandblasting. Every time I have to do it I forget how much it sucks... But I'm done with it for the most part on my car so ill quit crying about it now. Next car I'm paying to have it done. Metal work is getting pretty close... just waiting on a drivers door. Im hoping to primer all this crap on saturday. Then my car will only be two colors and one of them wont be the color rust.

 

Nice! Did you sandblast it in your garage? I have a small HF siphon blaster to do little spots, and man that thing makes a mess! I paid a guy to do the whole car.

 

Amazing work! Keep it up.

 

Haha. I used to blast little stuff in my garage and that makes a mess. No I have a friend that has a 100lb pressure pot blaster and a good size area outside to work in. I did my whole car at his house myself... Took me 11 hours to do the shell and the front suspension with the clip off.....

 

Thanks 562roadster! Just wish I could go faster so I could drive this damn thing sooner than later.

 

Damn.. wish I had access to a blaster like that... What type of media are you using ?? Silica sand? Or softer material like shells...

 

A buddy has an engineering company with a blasting booth. He offered to let me use it for my car, but I wasn't sure it would fit in his booth, and I didn't want to warp the panels since I've never done it before. I still have a trunklid and a couple doors I'm going to need to do, so I'm gonna hit him up for that. Can't remember what media he has. The guy that did my car uses a copper media.

 

I just used silica sand because its cheap and the blaster I used was only running at 100 psi so I doubt I could warp something even if I tried. The pro blaster I go to uses a media called green diamond and walnut shells.

 

Man, I hope you had a good respirator. Silica is some dangerous stuff!

 

Small update.

Got the front end parts in epoxy primer. Front end is not lined up just has a few bolts holding it on for now and hood is just sitting on fenders. I need to pull it back off to pull the motor to see if it needs a rebuild. I also worked on the trunk gap and the drain channel on the one side that was rotted out. Im going to try and work on the hood tomorrow. Motivation has been lacking but I'm gonna try and get after it again....

 

Thanks for the motivation el diablo. Making me get my a$$ in gear and do work on my Shoebox. Build is looking real good man.

 

Thanks KomoG2, Now go build some shit!!! Im trying to motivate your motivation.

Look what I got!!!! It only took forever to get it and I had to buy both but its worth it. Its like the missing piece of the puzzle. Now I just need to clone myself so I can bodywork the car I have in the shop, while I chop, fix and hang my new drivers door.

 

Just a little progress on the door today. I spent the morning at the swapmeet so I only had the afternoon but not bad progress for a few hours Now the fun part, the finish work and corner radiuses.....almost forgot about the rot! I hope I can squeeze a bit more time on this and finish it up soon so I can move on with my build.....

 

Damn, you don't mess around! It would take me a week to make that much progress.

 

Reading this tread just made my Sunday. Great job!

 

Thanks guys. It gets easier the more you do it blueford. The time consuming stuff is the finish work. I'm going to round the corner to match the pass side as well so I'm sure ill spend at least a day if not more a day on that stuff. Not to mention I have to blast the cheap flat black paint off of this one at some point as well... This stuff takes too long....haha

 

A guy around the corner from me runs a small machine shop out of his garage. I had him open up my og wheels to fit the newer rear end I installed. I have been trying to finish up on a job and wont have time for my own shit till then.... Cran and motor rebuild is in as well... Now I just need to win the lotto and ill be set.

 

Looks awesome! Great Build

 

That's cool, I need to find someone to do the same.

 

If I was not lazy i could have just bolted the spacer to the inside and use a carbide bit on a die grinder and open them up myself...

 

For me it's not being lazy, it's understanding that if I tried it I'd screw up the wheels and probably make them unable to be balanced.

 

thats some fantastic work man. This is your first chop and custom? Where did you learn to weld and do sheetmetal work?