Here we go..... going to start the thread on my newest project car, a 1946 Ford Tudor Sedan. Last year I decided to trade my Pontiac Wagon for a 1946 Ford Tudor Sedan project. The Pontiac had been fun and we toured lots of California with it but my ADD had me searching craigslist and HAMB classifieds.
I searched most of the Western US and found the 46 in Sacramento. We took a quick trip to check it out and were pretty happy with what we found. The old girl had been someone's sweet heart at some point but was left to neglect. The body is super solid and the flatty turned freely. It appears to have a repaint that's of questionable quality. Lots of overstay and some bad adhesion. But over all a perfect place to start. After some horse trading I was the proud owner of a new money pit. Thanks to my buddy Rog for taking time to road trip up and help with the process. Also for the use of your trailer. Part of the reason for a Tudor sedan is those 3 little knuckleheads. Also the reason for a wagon. I want to make this Ford into the family cruiser. I have no problem putting tons of miles on my old cars. I wanted something big enough to accommodate the family but still kinda hot roddy and cool.
On the two hour drive home Rog and I had built the car in our heads a dozen different ways. We knew we had a solid body with rust. 99.99% complete and unmolested. No having to undo someone else's great ideas to have my greater idea. We got it home and in the car-hole. The goal is going to be to get it sitting proper using traditional methods. Drop axles, Springs, crossmember,....... no MII or air rides. Also it needs to be dependable and safe for hauling kids around. Here is where I may lose some of my audience..... but stay with me. As much love as I have for all things traditional I also have the world's worst luck. I don't know how many times I've heard someone say, "I've never seen something break like that." Enter my new project with a flathead. With that in mind..... and with the reality of hauling family around I came to the conclusion I would try to get the flatty running but would be very budget concious. If it was going to be a too much to see if it would even run I would have to get it out. I couldn't devote all of my budget to solving an unknown flathead bad habits.
Over the next few days I started looking close at what I had drug home. First things first, I tore out the inside to make sure no visitors came to live at my house. My little helper, Charlie, is another reason this will be the family hauler. Here it is cleaned out. Check out those floors.... little surface rust but rock solid. Overall, very little rust anywhere.
I started in on the paint with some cleaners and polishes. The paint isn't the best quality but it's going to be on this car for a long time still. I can't afford to paint it for at least 10 years. It's shining up enough I'm happy with it at this point. I'm doing it all by hand so it's a time consuming process. But I'm learning her stories through all the bumps and bruises on her old hips. That's the hood under the trim. Just a comparison. Stay tuned for more updates. I have a year's worth of pics and stories to upload.
At this point in the build I am gathering parts and polishing paint. With 3 kids and a job that soaks up 60hrs a week I don't have much time to just go work on the car. I sneak into the garage and set small goals for myself..... like just get the top half of that fender cleaned and polished up. My life is a terry cloth hell. But my fingers smell great......
The short term goal at this point is still to get the flathead running and enjoy putting around town for as long as that lasts. I have been soaking the cylinders with Marvel and looking for any obvious signs it won't start..... crank turns by hand easily. The cylinders poof out air and compression sounds good. It's decision time..... do I drop budget money on a 12V conversion to get it running (battery, alternator, alternator mount) or do I just buy a 6V battery and see what happens? Those of you with kids knows what happens next...... It's back to school clothes shopping It's Halloween It's Thanksgiving It's Christmas ..... and lonely sits dad's new shelf in the garage. Noone has rubbed her big old fenders in weeks. Hoisted into the air and left with front wheels dangling.
At this point it's winter and my mind begins to break.... why the hell did you trade a running, driving car for a project? Remember all the fun you had in the car you could drive? What made you think taking on a full project was a great idea with work and kids and a mortgage and groceries and did you pay the phone bill?What are you looking at car parts when you didn't pay the phone bill? To add to my positive self esteem I had discovered that the water pumps on the flathead were frozen solid. Call it a sin but that was enough for me to abort getting it running. New plan, keep the 3 speed and add a "period correct" dressed small block Chevrolet to make a mid 50s cruiser. Thank God for the Turlock Swap Meet in February. I'd managed to squirrel away what was a lot of money for me and hit the fairgrounds ready to do the damn thing.
I knew for certain that I wanted to keep the 16 inch wheels for the look I had in mind. With that decided it was time to figure out brakes. The brake system on the car was shot after years of neglect so they were going to need a full rebuild. The question was do I try to find a disc kit to work with the wheels, do I rebuild the stock brakes, or do I upgrade?
I went with a friend to Boling Brothers Early Iron to pick up his Model A frame and spoke with Derek. He sells the entire kit to swap to self energizing Lincoln style brakes. This would allow me to keep my 16s but improve the stopping power. I bought the full front and rear kits plus every line and fitting I needed. Derek had it all in stock. Here's the frame from Boling Bros we picked up. I think it's a 2/5 chassis that's shortened a hair. Yes that's a 348 (tri-power) in front of Scotts sport coupe.
I'll fast forward this part.... happened to be on Craigslist and found a smoking deal on a 9 inch that was the right width for my car. On top of that it had 3.55 gears, true-trac, big bearing, ...... everything to make it heavy duty and reliable. I couldn't pass it up. Time to change the plans again. Here's Scott handling my 9 inch.... giggity. So now I have the brakes figured out. I have a pretty good idea what I want to stick under the hood. I know how I want it to sit, I know what it's going to sit on (giggity)... time to move forward and get some more parts. Like I said in the post above, thank God for Turlock in February. I was able to find a few vendors and pick up the parts I needed. I ordered a Chassis Engineering parallel leaf spring kit and a split wishbone kit.
Along the way I had also picked up a Magnum 3 inch drop axle for the front. I sent the parts I had to the powder coated before sliding them under the car. Factually, I sent them to the sandblaster and through a communication error they came back Powder coated for the same price. No complaints here. Price seemed a little high for just sandblasting but way too low for powder coat. Everything looks good.....
Damn you Craigslist. Damn you, damn you, damn you. I found a donor vehicle with a bad title and DMV back fees valued at twice it's asking price. Another road trip to Sacramento to bring home more parts. Keep in mind, CHEAP parts. For the traditional folks, I won't go into the nitty gritty of the new drive train. For everyone else I now have a reliable small block Chevrolet power, overdrive transmission, and air-conditioning. It gets hot in the Valley and I like to drive. I'm old enough now, I deserve AC. Cover one eye and scroll down to see the donor. And to the whiners I'll make you a deal,..... when you pay for my build I'll take your advice on what parts to use. That didn't take long.......
For those of you who stuck around, thank you. The others, flame away. Here's a big box of stuff to make the drive train more user friendly. HEI, aluminum intake, and a carb. Plus loose odds and ends for the 9 inch.
I have plenty of parts piled up now.... but that's it. They are just piled up. It's late April and I take a few days vacation. It's time to make some progress on this damn car and not just spend money...... I called the posse together and made a plan to get some work done. We had two back to back days. Plenty of time to get the engine, trans, torque tube and banjo out in one day. Day 2 would be installing the parallel leaf kit and 9 inch. Rog is always willing to lend a hand and a hoist.
I love it. I've been there on the trade a running car for a non running car. I'll never figure out why I do that. Cool car though and I like the direction you are going in with it.
Flatty out, sitting a little high in the nose. Paints looking better, though. Flatty and trans came out a lot quicker than we were expecting. I had already pulled the radiator and had most of the bolts out or loose. One more from the side.
Drugasm, I have the same car only a '47. I like your approach even though it isn't "traditional". I will also be running an off-topic power plant in mine - but I won't talk about it here and I will keep the hood shut. I like the work you've done so far and I really like the layout and flow of your thread. I am looking forward to seeing more updates. Thor
Back into the garage, wedged between all the really important stuff I keep around. Same day as the motor came out we decided to keep on trucking since it's rare I have a full day of hot rod. Time for the banjo and torque to drop out and make way for the leaf kit and 9 inch. Thanks again to Rog, out she comes. And also thanks to Nicki in the red, screen left. She let's me steal Rog weekly and has always been pretty cool about it.
The flathead, 3 speed, torque tube, and banjo all went to a friend who is building a 1932 Roadster. They will be used and not left to rot back into the earth. Off to a good home.
That's awesome that you found a home for some of the old driveline. I have to find a home for mine including the running flathead and transmission. Like you, I am space limited and don't really have the room to keep all the extra parts around forever.
I had ordered and powder coated the Chassis Engineering parallel rear leaf kit for the 46. I ordered the "lowrider" kit Everything was/is very high quality and instructions were easy to understand. Cleaned up the frame surfaces a bit Drilled a few holes And she's in. You can see in these pics too how clean the floors are. Just a little surface rust here and there. Nothing that needs to be dealt with right away.
Test fit everything and it looks good. I will tear it back apart and have the 9 inch housing Powder coated at the same place that did the leaf kit. Still have to weld the saddles to the tubes and set the pinion angle.
BEFORE AFTER The width fits very well under the car. The 9 inch is from a Ford F100 and it works great. I am half thinking about having the rear wheels widened by a bit and there's room on both sides. As far as being a "lowrider"...... well I hope the springs settle some more with weight on them. It's still a bit taller than I had in my vision but I can deal with it when that time comes.
And that was the month of April. Fast forward summertime...... 8th grade graduation, summer camps, New York/Washington DC field trips, trips to see grandma ..... summer went fast. And not much hot rodding happened. I didn't totally drop out. The semi daily 64 F100 parts runner kept me busy. Too busy. With my limited time, limited parking spots, and limited budget I couldn't afford to feed every project. With a heavy heart I listed it for sale.
My lady and kids do listen well.... or she left her credit card out and unattended near my birthday. Either way, a Speedway dropped cross member showed up. Sorry for the bad pic. I have about half of the rivets ground flat right now and need an air chisel to get the rest out. The crossmember will slide forward and bolt in once I get back to work and do something.... first step is borrowing an air chisel.
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