Hi all, I wanted to share & document some of the work that is going on with my 1940 Ford Deluxe Coupe. I hope you don't mind. So, I bought this 'cherry' coupe from a dealer in SE England. I bought it based on pictures and video and it really looked very sound on the face of it. There were some issues with the paint, particularly the front wings with microblistering (I assumed some corrosion under the paint). The story goes that it was owned by a moonshiner (weren't they all!!!) in Georgia, followed by a preacher, hence the thread title. It had no paperwork, other than the V5 so assume all the above is fabricated sales patter. Anyway, the body looked straight, gaps were good and the underside seemed solid. There were some questionable 'upgrades' that had been done along the way, but nothing that worried me too much as a lot of the work required I recognised from doing my '29 coupe recently. We agreed a price, which I think was fair and loaded it up and headed north. We had to take the headboard off the trailer because it was so long with the bumpers that hang way off the body. Big grin all the way home looking in the mirror at my shiney car. Note: all my others are in more of a 'patina' state, so it was nice to have one I cna pollish from time to time.
Back home and it was time to do some more in-depth assessment of what I had bought. The motor had clearly been played with and had some alloy heads and 12V efire ignition. Strangely though, only a single Holley carb on the stock intake. Also the fuel pump had been bypassed in favour of an electric one under the sill, which ran constantly as soon as the ignition was turned on. I wasn't happy with the way the 12v coil had been bolted to the inside of the wing, with various bits of plastic wiring going to it. Also the battery was held down with a long ziptie. Oh, and the alloy rad was standing out way too much for my taste. The car has been fitted with a BWT5 transmission and been converted to open drive. the mods look to have been done quite well using Speedway adaptor and tried and tested methods. It's also got a stainless dual exhaust running from the stock 59a cast headers. The wiring has been protected with heat shield sleeving. The bit that looked most questionable underneath was the tube shocks... The rears had weld-on bottom mounts and were bolted through the front of the rear crossmember at the top. Unfortunately the flange on the crossmember had been gouged out with a grinder and they were touching the exhaust on wither side. The rubber dust covers on the Gaz adjustable shocks had melted. The fronts used F1 style top mounds,, bolted through the frame, but spaced out with some 1" bock section that had crushed and come loose. The bottoms were bolted straight through the axle and the bolts had bent. Suspension all round was really hard. Driving the car showed up some issues with the handling/ride but more than anything the steering was really heavy. Now I am not as strong as I was maybe, but I have several old cars and vintage tractors too - nothing compared to this! The crossply-look radials maybe werent helping, but it needed investigating. It has a reverse-eye front spring and the rear of the wishbone has been fitted with an ally spacer so I wondered if there was something up with the geometry. I put a couple of pieces of perspex under each front tyre and tried it - the steering worked fine, so it seemed like the steering box and linkage was ok and not binding. The interior of the car is wonderful and from 10yds away the whole car looked perfect. On balance I was happy with what I could see. It started and ran nicely, the underside was clean and dry and so I drove it around for a couple of weeks, before deciding to make some changes to the engine bay.
I started off by swapping out the battery and making a more attractive method for holding it in place. I went for a vintage style rubber battery, but with a 12v unit the repro frame I bought wouldnt fit, so using a bit of folded stianless sheet, I made a top frame and swapped the cables at while I was at it. I also relcated the coil to a less visible positon above the dizzy and made some cloth covered cables for it.
While this work was going on I made a couple of calls and managed to track down a previous owner, who by a stroke of luck lives not to far from me in the Midlands. It turned out he still had some spares and paperwork, so I went to see him and did a deal to take the stuff away. It was a good haul: Original radiator Front spring Torque tube and drive shaft Tool kit and jack Twin strombergs on 2x2 intake Chrome bumper garnishes New rear lights Plus a few small miscellaneous bits By this time the electric pump buzzing away and the blue fuel hose was really starting to get on my nerves and I was worried that it could be a source of problems in the future, so I decided to see if I could rebuild the stock pump. That worked ok and I got the blue fuel hose replaced with some copper which got it all looking a lot neater under the hood.
Nice choice! The ‘40 Deluxe Coupe has held a spot in my heart since childhood. Every day I walked home from school, I could see the trunk of a baby blue 1940 coupe. The coupe was covered with moving blankets, and crap piled on top of this very cool rod. I never saw the car in any other condition, just stashed away in this old guys garage. I came to realize, this was the guys old High School Hotrod. I assumed he got married, had a few kids, and life moved on. Years later, I purchased my own ‘40 Deluxe Coupe. My heart still goes pitter pater every time I fire the old gal up. You did well @Little Terry, enjoy her! She’ll always be waiting for you!
That is a beautiful little car. Glad you fixed the horrible coil placement, it bothered the hell out of me. -Abone.
Looks like a nice 40. Do you know what year it was shipped overseas? I don't know what those license plates are from, but they look nothing like Georgia 1940 License plates.
I think it was brought to the UK around yr 2000. I'm not familiar with Georgia plates, but I guess the ones on the car now are just a UK verison styled to look a bit American.
Congrats Terry, I understand your grinning looking at it on the trailer on the way home...that would be a daily ritual going forward every time you lay eyes on it, I'm sure.
With the motor now running nicely on the mechanical pump and looking a bit better under the hood, I couldn't leave well enough alone. It still looked a bit strange to me with a single Holley atop a motor with Edelbrock heads. I also found out that it has been fitted with a Schneider 254F Cam and adjustable lifters, so with the single Holley, wasn't really breathing to it's full potential. So I did a bit of work on the 2x2 setup that I had acquired with the otehr spares and topped it off with a Gear Drive teardrop air cleaner. I have some Gear Drive scoops on my Model A and love the quality and style fo their stuff. Off came the stock intake and it all looked pretty clean in the valley. I have no idea when the motor was last rebuilt. On went a new gasket and the 2x2 setup. I got a new linkage fitted and made up a throttle rod to fit to the stock pedal arm, using some stainless bar and one of the Stromberg bullet fittings on the carb end. I had to put quite a kickup in it but it seems to operate nicely and has got the right 'feel' from the drivers seat. The bit I wasn't happy with was the look of the copper fuel line, so I did it again with a bit more thought.... I'm running #42 jets and size 62 power valve and it seems happy. I need to take it on some longer runs, but ok so far (in my opinion).
The coiled copper line looks a whole lot better than what was there. I think it would look even better if it was all steel line and went directly from the pump to the upper line. If you shortened the upper line to half the present length it would be a simple connection
I spent the next few weeks driving the car to and from work and getting to know it a bit. Amongst other things, I found the fuel tank is empty when showing 1/4 full on the gauge (ask me how!). Then one day I made a call to a guy I used to drink with back in my younger days, who unitl recently, ran his own very well repected auto body and paint workshop (he has recently teamed up with another local guy to offer more in depth restoration and repair services) and I asked him to come and have a look at the car to get his opinion on the microblistering that I had identified on the front wings and a few other places. He cast his expert eye over the car and a few conversations resulted in this... Not too bad on the whole. The blistering was hiding some rust under the surface which had pitted the metal a bit in places. Also we found some lees-than-perfect repairs, so decided to get them all put right and the rust neutralised properly.
There was a bit of work required on the body behind the windows where they had blistered a bit and some evidence of a repair to the lower quarter that warranted some investigation. The dash had got ot come out to be repainted where it had some cracks as well. I had in my mind all the things I wanted to update on the chassis, so we opted to strip out the interior and repaint the shell with it off the frame. That way we could be sure there was nothing lurking unseen. The deeper we went, the more we uncovered, as is often the case with cars of this age. Despite the outward appearance, it had some 'history'! There looked like quite a bit of corrosion in the floor pan and subrails, as well as a bolted-in repair to the LH quarter. I got the frame back home so that I could do the chassis repairs and updates while the body was being worked on by the experts. There were a few areas that needed improving..... shocks were poorly mounted and contacting the exhaust and frame. Rough cut-outs to clear shocks and exhaust that looked a mess, rear flexi hose too short, anti-roll bar removed, etc.
We opted to get the body media blasted to reveal all....... The car has some corrosion issues in the floor, subrails, boot and one or two other areas. There are also some poor repairs that need putting right and some extra holes in the firewall to be filled. Overall though, the panels are straight and the body is square. Above the beltline its really nice and the cowl vent area looks great. We will try to buy floor panels and subrails and the rest will be repaired with the welder. We can also make a nicer job of the transmission tunnel that has been cut away to clear the 5-speed.
Takes some serious nuts to blow apart a running, driving car that far. Can't wait to see it back in prime form. You guys look like you know what you're doing!
Either we've got serious nuts, or we are seriously nuts - I'm not sure which! I don't mind a rough car (i've got a few), but not when it's pretending to be mint. This one has the potential to be lovely, but it needs doing properly. I'm just taking care of the easy chassis repairs and bolt-on mods, the guys at the bodyshop are the real pros.
I wonder how old the bolted repair is. Was that a leaded repair or plastic @Little Terry...body work is an art whether it's a cover up repair or a properly done repair. Perhaps it fooled the previous owners as well...it is getting the love it should've had now...difficult as that may be...
Man you weren't foolin' around! I have never seen bolt on patch panels before, but overall, that is some very nice sheet metal. Now you can put it all back together to your standard and sleep at night knowing it is done correctly. -Abone.
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