Extremist Shoebox - background, pictures and progress

I've been posting for a while and haven't shown any pictures of my car or the work I've been doing to it
for the last couple of months over many late nights and weekends.

I bought this car about two years ago. It had been built by an old Ford Goodguy (who I've learned died just recently)
in San Angelo Texas, probably over 10 years ago. He sold it to RB Motors in Kerrville. A guy in San Marcos bought it
and kept it in his garage for a few years before he decided to clear some garage space and listed it in the Austin papers.
My father-in-law and I went and checked it out. It looked awesome from a few feet away. Shiny red paint, louvered hood,
wide white bias plies with lancer caps, tunneled antenna, frenched headlights, shaved door and trunk handles, white
interior. It was a kemp built by a long-time rodder who had some experience. 302, c4, and 8.8" rear, 67 Olds column
with tilt, power buckets, power windows, A/C, 14" steelies. New floor pans. Everything but the steering u-joints were
from junk donor cars. High effort and low budget. It got the old guys and ladies running and reminiscing every time it
pulled into a gas station.
The present owner admitted he really didn't know anything about working on cars, and this sled was loved but slowly
falling to pieces.
Every part of the front end was shot. It had some "creative" body work that was reaching the end of its life. A long list
of electrical gremlins and mechanical things that were broken. I paid him a fair price, filled it up since the guage didn't
work and tried to keep it on the road back into Austin, the front tires flopping back and forth, the one functioning brake
trying to pull me off the road, the trunk swinging up and down on every bump, lights turning on and off when I turned
the wheel, etc.
I spent the next few months driving and fixing it. I rebuilt the stock front suspension and started through the rest of
the list. While I was at it I swapped out the springs front and rear for a Jamco set, and lowered the car a couple of
inches.
After a year or so it was still sweet, but a solid driver and looked like this:

http://s77.photobucket.com/albums/j65/mmflh/50 Ford Shoebox/?action=view&current=P1280154.jpg

http://s77.photobucket.com/albums/j65/mmflh/50 Ford Shoebox/?action=view&current=P1280155.jpg

http://s77.photobucket.com/albums/j65/mmflh/50 Ford Shoebox/?action=view&current=P1280158.jpg

http://s77.photobucket.com/albums/j65/mmflh/50 Ford Shoebox/?action=view&current=P1280156.jpg

 

Good to see that resurrection ain't just something they told me about in church.

I'd personally ditch the spots--I just don't like them on that car. Weird, because I usually dig spots.

Tucker

 

After the work I did on the front suspension, the nose was lower and the car was much nicer to
drive, but there was a little play still in the driver's side spindle that kept me from getting the right
camber and the front end would still dart back and forth a little over bumps and it was really starting
to piss me off. The master cylinder was starting to leak. The car wasn't low enough. Repair plans
evolved into a ball joint and disc brake conversion, 9" Ford with locker, Volvo steering box, tube
headers, etc. thanks in no small part to lots of research of HAMB threads. Pretty much everything
but the leaky c4 (due to budget) was in play.
The Ford (Chula, named by the last owners) took a long rest on jackstands:

Removed front/rear suspension, exhaust:

http://s77.photobucket.com/albums/j65/mmflh/50 Ford Shoebox/?action=view&current=P3240167.jpg

http://s77.photobucket.com/albums/j65/mmflh/50 Ford Shoebox/?action=view&current=P3240163.jpg

http://s77.photobucket.com/albums/j65/mmflh/50 Ford Shoebox/?action=view&current=P3240162.jpg

 

I decided I had to have a '57 to '59 9" and that was that. Finding one was no
where near as easy as I figured. I obviously don't have the connections, but I
did finally find one in a junk yard recommended here by a fellow HAMBer. It was
on a car at the bottom of a pile, the last one they had and it wasn't cheap. 3.70:1
conventional. Good backing plates and drums, surprisingly.
I scraped a good 20 pounds of shit off of it, degreased it, sandblasted it. Got it rebuilt,
Auburn locker. Painted it. Found brake parts for it and bent my first brake lines. Thanks
out to Porknbeaner for trying to help me with the brake hardware.

Spent too much on it. It looks good:

http://s77.photobucket.com/albums/j65/mmflh/50 Ford Shoebox/?action=view&current=P3240165.jpg

It took a long time to empty all those bottles. Really. At least I recycle.

 

nice box

 

At the same junkyard I got their last manual Volvo steering box. Things are cool!
Aluminum and feeling the precise construction when you move the steering arm through
its range is almost too enjoyable. Kinda like comparing a Pingel fuel petcock to a stock
Harley petcock.
I sprung the plastic and ordered a Fatman's mount for the box. My dealings with Jim Genty
at Jamco really impressed me, so I called him and discussed what I had in mind. He sent me
a ball joint and disc brake conversion, a remote mount booster, a dual under floor MC with
pedal, 2 inch lowering blocks. I already had front and rear stabilizer and shock kits from them
that I hadn't used.
I cleaned up the Volvo box, changed the oil in it and put it aside.
I called Borgeson and ordered a u-joint.

I'll try not to bore you with the details. Nothing I did will impress this audience, and none of
what I did hasn't been done by numerous magazines and hundreds of shoebox owners. However,
if you're new to this: none of this work was "bolt-on." I don't have a welder, but I can cut, grind
and bend shit like you see in the movies, lucky for me.

Here's the MC mounted as high on the frame as possible. I'm going to get it welded in addition to
the 7/16" grade 8's. This is before I cut the lower part of the bracket off for ground clearance. I
also cut the brake pedal bracket so that the pedal and bracket would be an inch or so closer to
the frame, to move the brake pedal comfortably left and have the rod be more in-line with the MC.
The MC hoses go to a remote mount reservoir (firewall).

http://s77.photobucket.com/albums/j65/mmflh/50 Ford Shoebox/?action=view&current=P3240164.jpg

The booster mounted in the trunk. To the right of the booster, I cut a 12"x4" hole in the floor for
the rear stabilizer bar to live, I knew that was going to be necessary with the lowering blocks.

http://s77.photobucket.com/albums/j65/mmflh/50 Ford Shoebox/?action=view&current=P3240161.jpg

I put in the rear end and stabilizer bar setup.
The Jamco stabilizer kit doesn't fit well, at all, with the offset center section of the Ford 9". I broke
one of their rules and notched one of the holes in the top, flat stabilizer support bar so that everything
would slip-fit and tighten up without tension.

I don't have pics yet, but when I got and installed the front suspension and brake parts, I found I had
to grind about an inch off of a section of the lower control arms, because the discs would hit them when
turned in. I called Jim and he said this isn't abnormal due to the tendency of these cars' frames to spread.

Finished up the brake lines. Ran a vacuum line from the booster to the intake manifold. Heres' the finished
booster setup. The carpet is covering the hole for the stabilizer:

http://s77.photobucket.com/albums/j65/mmflh/50 Ford Shoebox/?action=view&current=P5050177.jpg

 

The stepped upper A-arms lower the car another 2 inches or so. I had to cut the
inner fender wells on each side, a big notch for the a-arm to fit into on compression.

BBK shorty headers fit the 302 perfectly. The passenger side a-arm hit the header in
its normal range of motion. I adjusted the header with a sledge hammer. Carefully.
Just enough of a flat spot to fix the problem.

On the driver's side, the u-joints were a paper thickness from touching the header. I
took the steering box off. Cut the spacers off the bracket to reduce the space between
it and the box, and then shimmed the gap between the bracket and box as needed to
keep the space as small as possible between the two. The steering box needs to be shimmed;
it will not mount flush to the bracket.

Here you can see all of this, and also the remote brake fluid reservoir on the firewall:
http://s77.photobucket.com/albums/j65/mmflh/50 Ford Shoebox/?action=view&current=P5050178.jpg

The original brake pedal had a tab attached to the side of it that would stop the pedal
from rising a certain distance above the floor. The replacement pedal didn't have this, and
I don't have a welder. I attached a rubber suspension bump-stop to the floor, under the car,
to stop the pedal where I want it.

I bench-bled the MC, re-connected the lines to it. Then, bled the brakes, starting at the
booster because it's the highest point, moving toward the M/C using a self-bleeder kit.

 

I've got 15x6 wheels for the front, 15x7 for the back. I'm painting the wheels
a pearl black, will have chrome trim rings and spiders. Waiting on tires, 215-70 front,
225-70 for back. After that, I just have to get the exhaust system built and it's back
on the road.

Here are some pictures with 14's. You can see the additional lowering. That's it from me
for a while. Thanks/Mike

http://s77.photobucket.com/albums/j65/mmflh/50 Ford Shoebox/?action=view&current=P5050169.jpg
http://s77.photobucket.com/albums/j65/mmflh/50 Ford Shoebox/?action=view&current=P5050180.jpg
http://s77.photobucket.com/albums/j65/mmflh/50 Ford Shoebox/?action=view&current=P5050176.jpg
http://s77.photobucket.com/albums/j65/mmflh/50 Ford Shoebox/?action=view&current=P5050173.jpg
http://s77.photobucket.com/albums/j65/mmflh/50 Ford Shoebox/?action=view&current=P5050174.jpg

 

nicely done. I love the stance. Great Job.

I guess consider yourself lucky. That guy at Jamco never returns phone calls especially if thier "problem" calls. I know I'll never buy from him because of that. Parts were a bitch to get.

 

Beautiful car!

 

Nice job! Cant wait to hear how it drives. I totally didnt know You could mount a booster in the trunk. I certainly need to learn about that.
Did You use a manual or power Volvo box? I have the Fatman adapter but havnt installed it yet.Also I see the rear vent windows are gone. Can You still roll the window all the way down? NICE BOX Keep us posted. Im saving this thread good usefull stuff--THANKS!! ---FEDER

 

It might be that the mirrors and spots so close together clump up the lines of the car.

I have a love-hate thing with spots. Usually love the way they look. Hate that they're not really useful.

When I do the body work (chop, repairs, etc.) I'm not sure what's going to happen with the spots or the mirrors.
Thanks for the feedback.
/Mike

 

Thanks! I didn't want a big ugly booster hanging off the firewall. Only my front brakes are power. Front brakes go: MC to residual valve, to booster, booster back to front brakes. Back brakes: MC to back brakes. I'll find out if I need a proportioning valve, don't have one for now.

I used a manual Volvo box. Rear windows don't move.

/Mike

 

Mike, consider me one of the impressed. Reading about something in a magazine and doing it in your own garage are two completely different things. Your shoebox looks awesome... also appears to be super solid underneath. I'd be interested in seeing pics of the completed dual m/c and pedal install (from top and bottom). I'm still running the stock m/c in my '51, but it's on "the list". FWIW, I think the spots go well with the skirts - plus they appear to be functional! And since it sounds like you plan to chop it, that would push the car even further in the custom direction. But what do I know... I've got dummy spots and no fender skirts (and like it that way, dammit). LOL Great post.

-murph

 

I've been meaning to post the progress on this car. It's been a driver for a while now. It's low, I don't think I'd do a bigger static drop.
The pictures are after the jamco lowering front/rear suspension, disc brake/ball joint conversion, trunk-mounted booster, volvo steering box, BBK headers and 2.5" exhaust/glasspacks, early wheel co. 15" smoothies and diamondback www's and '57 9" traction-lock rear. I've got a few hundred miles on this and it really worked out well.
Next up is a 400hp 302 and AOD swap, before and after which I'm going to drive the piss out of it. Next year comes a classic chop, bodywork and repaint. I'm going to use the 302/c4 and the old rear-end, if I don't sell it, on an old ford wagon project.

Anyway, here's some updated pictures. Thanks out to the HAMB for help along the way.

 

dang... if mine ends up looking half as nice as that id be happy...
that car has that "something" about it... its not one thing but the
whole package............. love it.

 

Gorgeous car, nice work. I've never been a fan of dummy spots, but real ones are cool. Overall it looks damn near perfect.

Kinda disappointed to see you want to chop it (hey, it's your car and only my opinion, they don't have to match )

 

that is a sweet shoebox...very nice!

 

Big A,
Thanks.
The chop is going to be very subtle, probably about 2.5" max. I want it to look like a more streamlined model that could have rolled from the factory.

I have nothing against cartoony chops on sedans (that aren't mine), but I really like the stock proportions on these cars when they're low.

 

Not that it matters, but I agree 100% about the stock proportions looking good on these cars when lowered. A few years back, Dusty had a black/flamed shoebox that he had mildly chopped. I only saw it in pictures on the HAMB, but it looked right on. As you put it "a more streamlined model that could have rolled from the factory". I don't know if I have any pics of the car squirreled away, but maybe someone else does.

-murph

 

Very nice!

I just got a 57 rear- they're getting hard to find for sure.

The stance looks killer!

Tuck

 

Nice job! I think a chop would look awesome.

Looking forward to seeing it out on the roads.

 

extremist-

very nice work!
i brought my truck into the shop about 6 months ago in a similar situation --
it drove, but there were a lot of things driving me nuts.
like you i ended up replacing or rebuilding everything in the chassis and driveline.
i don't know about you, but i didn't really plan on doing that much work.
once you start though, where do you stop?
old cars are a form of masochism.


ed