I have always had an appreciation for folks that like to be different and this caught my eye http://olskoolrodz.com/forum/showthread.php?t=54944 Now this is not a Ford build but lets explore the concept,let's imagine this is a '53 Ford and has similar rust issues and the common rusted crossmember so for a donor lets look at some options.The '53 Ford sedan has a 115" wheelbase and is 73.9" wide, a 1989-95 Crown Vic has a 114.3" wheelbase and is 77.5" wide the 1989-96 T-Birds are 72.7" wide and wheelbase is 113".Looks like these T-Birds might not be a bad platform for a swap? with features like power disc brakes,power steering with rack & pinion and 4 wheel independent suspension.
The problem is a TBird and Cougar of that vintage are unibody. Cutting a unibody like that completely invalidates the structural integrity of the ch***is. Moving the front wheel well to match the wheel position is a mistake in my mind. I'm sorry guys, I don't like to be critical, but in my opinion it's a real clusterflub.
That interior is horrid and moving the wheel well back looks awfull too, I guess it's a good idea just poorly executed.
OLM, now that's a nice job, and riding on a ch***is doesn't drive the engineering/technical side of me crazy. Hey, I think my drive heaves stopped.
in my opinion if its gona be done do it on a full framed car, there is a guy around here that dose alot of this stuff. when he dose one he cuts the floor pans with firewall and dash. and dose it that way. he done a 54 f100 on a ranger chasis in a day like that. and this ford coe on a chevy van. has the dash and all in it still on the original chevy van firewall and floor pan
In my humble poinion, the only people who will like that car are people who dont know what a 53 Chev really looks like. I second the opinion from above about structual integrity of a unibody car/body transfer.
This is why I brought up the scenario of finding a donor car that had a similar wheelbase and width which the builder of the '53 Chev did not do which put him in the position of making modifications to the wheel wells.So would you lose structural integrity by swapping bodies? because in a sense you would be creating a '52-56 Ford unibody car.A lot of the 50's Fords have rotted floor pans and rocker panels and require replacement and the donor car would address that.
I agree with what others have said , its UGLY ( sorry - no polite way to say it ). I think the builder could have put his time and energy to better use and had a nicer car for it .
Jeff, the unibody is designed as a total structural unit. The roof is as important to the strength of the body as the floorpan. They both work together. When you cut the majority of the body and all the roof away, you have seriously weakened what's left. Notice how his strut towers are just standing free in space? Most of their ability to absorb impact was through the body and roof structure. Welding the older Chevy body to what's left does very little to help. The older body is designed to sit on a ch***is that does the load and suspension impact work, not work in conjunction with whats left of a unibody floorpan. The correct way is to use a late model ch***is, with the proper wheel base and track widths, under an older body on frame car.
the unibody even use's the windsheild as part of the structural system which is why there glued in with urathane. t-top cars have factory subframe conectors because the roof is not structuraly strong no more.
thers one of them here localy, me and the old lady were out eating and it was parked at the front door. she said what is that. so i told her. she said that just dont look right. i said i know.
re: Then there is this way: http://www.hotrod.com/featuredvehicl...d_thunderbird/ Darn! Is that shoebox, or ****box? Oh well, I guess sometimes beautiful parents have the ugliest offspring....
No doubt you have seen shoebox Fords that have been chopped and sectioned and said they were cool,this link was done in all metal so He did a lot of hard work and the end result is better than the '53 Chevy link.There is a company that copied the idea and sells a fibergl*** "clone" kit.I actually like the car as I had a '91 T-Bird and wish I still did, it was great on gas and rode and handled well and I loved the comfy seats.Now if it had a '54 Ford fascia,Hmmm?
Well, if one of you guys has a mini stroke or something and wants one made, bring your car up here and..., no, forget it. I'm not going to take your money, no matter how much you beg and plead.
i dont know. the 51 tbird looks a helluva lot better than the 53 fwd chevy does. if you only had a choice between the 2 to drive, which would you pick. pencil me in under the tbird column.
I guess it's just a matter of personal taste or preference. And kudos to the persons that put the effort into those cars but personally, I think they're both ugly. I had a '87 Turbo Coupe and liked it for what it was, just as I like my '56 for what it is but no way I'd want to combine them into one car. Again, just me being me along with my 2 cents' worth of opinion.
I don't much care for that '53. Looks outta proportion to me with the lengthened front fender. And the interior was pretty plain for all that work done. Had it been me, I think I would have done more research to figure out which full framed cars had a similar wheel base to a '53. Just my 2 cents worth.
I get the impression he was just working with what he had, and it was more a proof of concept than anything else. If a guy sat down and really thought it through, the idea has potential to produce nice results.
Here is another build but involving a Ford product,http://olskoolrodz.com/forum/showthread.php?t=54680 Truly an artist with metal.
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