Projects 348 powered 40 Ford sedan

Soo, looking at my ‘mini tub’ and talking to a couple of guys running 8’s on the back of their 40’s, I realised it was going to be really tight, and needed more room. Ide been concentrating on making room at the front. I basically made them run further back, as they were tipping in just past the axle centre line. It needs a bit of ‘persuasion’ with a mallet and block of wood, but I got it out of the way and back together.

 

While I was there, I ended up redoing some PO repairs around the bolt holes. They had almost made the wheel fender mount shape octagonal, and to make the fenders fit, added extra bolt holes to pull the fender into the ‘corners’
I spent ages hammering the fender mount lip out, and replacing half of the fender mount metal, oh, and adding cage nuts to all the holes part of this meant removing some of the inner structure . While it was out, I de rusted the backside of the inner fender, epoxied it, and replaced the structure.

 

Rust, I really didn’t want to get into this, I thought it was ‘workable’, I’m not building a show car after all, this car won’t be painted, but I just couldn’t leave it. So I decided to fix the base of the b pillar. It’s not in yet, some more rust to sort out behind it, but this little piece took about 6 hours to make and trim to fit.

 

Oh, and I finally got my L78’s mounted on my rims so I can work out how much to wack out of the axle.. Small stuff, but all necessary.

 

I'm jealous; I always wanted small window Halibrands for my car. Nice repair on the strut.

 

Nice work Neil.

 

Nice job on the B Pillar feet! Thanks for showing your tooling. Any job worth doing is worth doing well!

 

Thanks guys, rust is tedious stuff, but has to be done. 39 Guy, if you're doing this, there are some 'mods' needed, if your interested, i can dm you pics etc, thought it might be a bit 'dry' to post all the steps on here.

 

Had to be done, a quick mock up to boost my morale. Relieved to say that they will fit, with room to spare!
Both inner rear fenders are now mini tubbed, and I’m just finishing the dull rust repair.
Nothing that exciting to look at, but all progress

 

I’ve also picked up a set of 56 f100 rear brakes, early large bearing, so will work perfectly (I hope) with my rear end which will be a 201 quickie with 40 bells, narrowed to fit the halibrands under the fenders and 9 inch shafts.

 

Nice!

 

Looking good !

 

Good progress Neil. Keep at it.

 

The pics of the little-window Halibrands sure brings back memories. About 35 years ago I had a '40 tudor in the same condition (old black paint), and used some shop roller old Halibrands on it. It looked exactly like your mock up.

 

^^^^^^ Me too. My neighbor had a B/G 53 Chevy with those wheels and I really wanted them for my coupe. He got rid of them and the ' 53 while I was in Uncle Sams Canoe Club. Thanks for the picture; I knew they would look great.

 

Being self employed, work has taken over my free time lately, but I’m plugging away still on the passenger side rear inner fender,

 

Ive also finally got a cam for the 348, and dropped that at Dave Gibbons place . He assured me it’s normal for my engine to look like this..
It’s taken a while to get the cam, beginning of the year was tight for me financially, so no spare cash. When work picked up and I had cash, it then took ages to get Summit to get it in their system so I could order it.
I ordered a ‘cam kit’ which includes lifters, but it arrived without them. Turns out Isky, who’s cam it is, have a 90 day lead on lifters!? Dave sourced some in the UK tho, so no problem now.

 

I’ve also been working out my rear end. I managed to get hold of an early f100 rear axle, robbed the brakes and cut the end of the axle tubes off to possibly use on my bells when it’s narrowed.
I made a ‘thing’ to work out axle width, basically a tube that slides inside another tube with some old drums attached to the end. I slid the tube in until I had the clearance I needed, and that gave me my width. As you can see, it was all very technical with bits of string and weights

 

Keep going. You will get there. Nice progress and determination.

 

Keep plugging away. Hey, that's more technical than leaning a couple of squares on the floor, and eyeballing the end of the measuring tape!

 

And finally, I got a couple of 65 Mustang buckets for it. Really pleased with these, £250 for both, some light wear, but overall great condition. I’ll need to make risers for them so I can see out the windows, but I think these will work great with the look I’m after.
I was looking at reupholstering the bench, but it would cost a bunch to do, and I’ve been eying up buckets for a while. I can always go back to the bench later if I want.

 

Neil, what was wrong with the 348 that you had to tear it apart?

 

Man those wheels stuffed in there is really tough lookin!

 

Looking good Neil! Those mustang seats look right at home.

 

Nothing major as it turned out, but with the engine in the car, I just about got it to turn over using a 5 foot breaker bar, so it was super tight. I had all kinds of scenarios running thru my head, but it turned out to be that the pistons had seized on the wrist pins, apparently due to the the lube used during the rebuild going hard. Dave cleaned them out, and its now fine. To be fair, its probably been about 14 years since it was built, so not surprising I guess. Everything else in there looks as good as the day it was done. Seemed rude not to slide a cam in while we're at this stage though

 

Hows yours going Tom?

 

I can't believe that it has been 14 yrs since we shipped that across the pond. Time does slip by quickly when your not paying attention!

 

Slow going as ever Neil, I finally made it steer from the right hand side though!


....with that success, I promptly pulled everything from the cabin, front end and engine bay to be tidied up and painted.

 

Yep, necessary, but seems like a big step backwards. I've no front end sheet metal on mine now, no front suspension, engine and box out, rear end out soon and body off the chassis! I hope it goes back together..

 

Still here, slowly plugging away. Became very bored with the rear quarter, so decided to finish repairing the front fender captive nuts, which as you can see, escalated somewhat. Dash now out, windscreen out, all rust removed, captive nuts replaced, just about ready for epoxy