Projects Tony Miller's Custom 40 Ford Convertible

Worth the wait I am sure! It must be nice having the car in your garage at last. Did you ever figure out if your tour group will be staying for the car show in Walla Walla this September? I have made reservations in Walla Walla for that weekend in hopes of seeing your convertible.

 

Ha, no pressure there. Our Fearless Leader tells me that we will be in Walla Walla, and at the show, on Friday afternoon.

 

Great,Hopefully all will go as planned then I will see you there.

 

You guys done good Tony! Glad it's finally home. See you at the LARS.

 

Amazing. So subtle. I fear the details may be lost on the average person.

 

Wow....blown away up in here.

 

How true. One guy who looked at it at Del Mar said "You took the handle off the back, huh?" and another said "I see you re-did the seats."

 

How do you respond to that? Thanks for noticing?
As others have already stated, this car is a work of art. Congratulations to all involved.
Kind regards,
Arnold.

 

There are some that just don't get it !

 

I would say, there are some that have no clue what they are looking at. One guy at Del Mar liked the Ford dash Tony put in his Merc!

 

Awesome build, Beautiful Metal work, I was looking @ your Chassis work and had a Question just for my learning. With the Stock lower Control Arm, Under Braking is there not a risk of Control Arm or Cross member Crack out without a Radius Arm to support Lower Control Arm ?

 

There would be no way to use a stock lower control arm without the stock style strut to control fore and aft movement. The struts are there.

 

Congrats Tony and Don. Glad to hear you brought it home. Does that mean we will see you and the car this weekend at breakfast???

 

Just maybe. The trans is not yet good, and I'll be discussing with my transmission shop on Friday. If they are able to tweak it better, I'll be there.

 

See you at LARS Tony!

 

I hope so!

 

I've been following this for quite some time. It turned out absolutely amazing! Well done, guys!

 

Thanks again, all.

 

At long last: the '40 is home, and the '56 is on its way to Australia.

Didn't make it to LARS today; too hot.

 

That's a handsome pair to have sitting in the garage.

 

Every time I go into my garage and see my 40 my heart rate increases a little, I might have a heart attack if I saw yours setting there. Great pair Tony.

 

I thought I'd add a note to this long thread for posterity: the '40 Ford Convertible on this thread is now a permanent resident of the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles, CA. At least for the moment, she'll be down in the Vault, so if you're inclined and in the area, an add on to your standard pass will let you go see the car in person. Top photo is the car on the roof, below is in the shop area having been fully detailed.

 

Sorry to hear of Tony's passing. I have mixed feelings about his convertible going to the museum. I think I would prefer it being driven....

 

Thank you. The donation vs. drive the car was something we talked about. At the same time, Tony was a docent at the Pete for a decade, so it seemed like a good way to honor him and his influence on hot rods and customs. Maybe the Pete will put it up for sale in the future and it will get driven more.

It's also worth mentioning that I'm the only one in the family able and interested in managing a custom car, and so Tony's "50 Fraud" custom '51 Victoria is now with me.

 

I had forgotten that Tony was a docent. Hopefully the car will make it out of the basement and a lot of people will get to see it.

It is good to hear that you are the willing caretaker of 50 fraud.

 

I, too, am sorry to hear of Tony's passing. In 2015, Tony and I both were invited to bring our '40s to the GNRS celebration of the 75th anniversary of the 1940 Ford. It turned out we were both building Merc-style grilles for our '40s at the same time. I'm glad to have finally met him and compared notes on our builds. Beautiful car and good man. Glad to see the car in a place of honor.

 

I agree about the car getting out of the basement. Several of the docents at the Pete were people that Tony trained in, so hopefully there will come a time soon.

I remember when Tony brought 50Fraud home as a box-stock '51 Victoria from North Dakota. When Tony and my mom moved to San Francisco in '93, many of her exterior mods were completed and I helped them drive her out west. Got chased by an F4 tornado across a big chunk of Nebraska in the process, along with having all the sandblasting grit pelting me during the drive. With that kind of history, I kind of had to ensure the car stayed in the family.

 

^^^
Good story. Not everybody will remember the mods on the 2 cars but that will be their loss.