The bolted in repair has actually been done quite well. The top edge is folded over to cover the bolt heads, but the bottom edge looks to have been welded so I can’t really work it out. It must be from a long way back in the car’s history. It almost seems a shame to cut it out. The filler was plastic, but who knows when the car was last painted. There’s certainly no filler left on it now!
What a wonderful account of a prize model and year. Thanks for showing us the details. You can be more than proud of the story and your examples. A Little, but crucial, detail is the use of copper line under the hood. It may look neat etc. I've read here and other sites, statement that copper can weaken from underhood vibration. Steel line being the safer choice. Looking forward to more of your account of excellent treatment, being performed.
The guys have started work on the metal finishing and removing the pitted spots with Phosphoric acid(?) and a wire wheel, so that there is no rust left behind. In the meantime, I am trying to source some replacement floor panels and subrails. Anyone know what the firewall codes mean? I have been working on the easy bits on the chassis...... Filled the cutouts on the rear crossmember: Been filling some of the gouged-out holes where the exhaust runs: And I have made some lower shock mounts that use the stock shock link holes. I have now just got to heat/bend/form the F1 upper mounts to bolt direct to the frame, ideally using the holes that the previous guy drilled out (without using the box section spacers that were on there previously): The stock style radiator has been cleaned up, the fins straightened, painted and refitted: I replaced the flexi hoses and moved the rear one to a lower hole, because it was really tight and starting to split near the unions. I made a new longer hard line to reach.
Your friend definitely knows what he’s doing. Great to see quality workmanship. It’s going to be a very nice car! Well done
You had a nice car before and now it will be even nicer! Cant wait to see the final results. That old bolt on patch panel looks to have been there a while based on the square old style nuts on the inside of the quarter panel.
I think there is a stock type upper shock absorber bracket, not as nice as the F1 you intend to adapt though. Have a set, can send a pic. And the car and the work on it is so great!!!
Yes, I think you could be right. Hard to work it out, because it looks like it has been welded along the bottom, but bolted at the top. There could be one repair on top of another, but we won't find out until we start cutting into it.
Will be a huge improvement when you are done on what appeared a great looking car to start with. Something which I am thinking about with the roadster I'm doing after changing to open drive/driveshaft I have been told that with the torque tube removed the radius rods need to be strengthened. It doesn't look like from what I can see this has been done on your car. I'm sure there are plenty of others on here that can advise on this and I am interested myself to find ways to do this it without ruining the looks of the traditional rear end. Cheers Mike.
Thanks for the feedback Mike. I haven’t heard that mentioned before, but this is my first Ford with open drive. I can appreciate the thinking behind that theory, but I’m not sure the old flathead has the grunt to do much damage. The twisting forces are counteracted somewhat by the rose-jointed rod on the top of the axle. I think my approach will be to ‘suck it and see’.
Ahhh- Explains the ‘quality’ of it, welds aso. But strong, and hides under the fenders. Thanks for the input.
Not much done this weekend, but I made up the exhaust hangers from some 1” flat stainless steel bar. The previous ones looked a bit rough, but the principle was fairly sound so I copied the design. I have always struggled with drilling stianless steel, and it occured to me (after destroying another 3/8" bit) that it might be easier using the vertical mill. I set it up in the mill vice and used a slot cutter. Plenty of cutting fluid and it worked like a charm. I used the same technique to drill the 1/4" holes for the bobbins.
Good Luck with your coupe, it was a beautiful car when you started. I'm sure it will be better looking when you are finished with it. Keep up the good work!
Thanks man. Looking back at those early pictures I wonder what got into me. But at the end of the project I will know it’s right and that will increase my enjoyment of it immensely. I also enjoy having the project to work on.
I haven't heard of anyone really knowing what the firewall numbers indicate. They were on my 40 Coupe as well shown here. That's a great undertaking you are taking on. I'm in the 3rd year of mine. Will follow your progress with interest.
I was told it was the body number as it rolled off the line, so mine would be the 6770 body of the line.
Radius arms are definetly not up to the job by them selves, but I believe the 'torque arm' mounted to the top of the diff, and to the front of the radius arm is meant to put the strength back in. My rear end is very similarly setup to yours, but I have two arms of the top of the diff, one each side. I think maybe one is fine for lighter cars, A's, 32's etc, but heavier cars may need another? Don't know, just ran with what the shop did for me, Royal Kustoms, they build alot of stuff, race and street, so figured they know what they're doing.
The powergen was making a noticeable rumbling sound when running so I decided to have a look inside. I did contact powergen and they offered to rebuild it for me for the cost of the parts, but given the cost of the shipping i thought it was worth trying to do it myself. It came apart fairly easy and the bearings looked standard fare, but the rear shaft of the rotor had been damaged. This meant the rear bearing could wobble around quite a lot. At least there was a confirmation of the problem! I thought the best route was to stick with the standard bearings. That meant sourcing a suitable bush and turning the shaft down to suit. It’s a 10mm bore bearing (62000) and I managed to find a 10mm x 8mm x 12mm bush, so I only had to turn down the shaft by a small amount for a snug fit. The really fiddly bit was trying to get the brushes back in position with the springs behind them, until I realised that they could be held in place by a pin inserted from the rear (ooh err!). This holds them out of the way while the rear shaft is placed into the bearing. Once assembled it all seems to run a lot smoother with no lateral movement, so hopefully all good and another job crossed off the list.
Nice build. My '40 coupe has stamped numbers on the right side of the firewall. According to Mike Kubarth the presence of numbers are the exception not the rule on closed cars. And he has no clue what they mean and he wrote the book on '40's.
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