On to the drivers side kickup, had to do some repairs in front of the kickup. Rust and dirt was blowing the inner and outer frame apart as you can se in the first pics. Made a couple of butt welds instead of the single rivit to hold the frame pieces together. Also i had a bad weld (made by me...) on the bottom of the leaf spring mount that i wanted to fix.
This Custom is quite the baby...awesome what your doing. You really got a good handle on making it right.
Well the kickup is now officially done, not the smartest thing to do with the body on or after i put the trunk floor in but i can only blame myself for always being in a hurry and not thinking things thru. Had to put the rear axle in place and get it of the jack stands and on the ground. It looks alot lower without the fenders skirts when you can see how the wheel sits.
Rear shocks in place, drove all last summer without any shocks. Had to put them in front of the axle for clearance. I work at a company that among other things does alot of laser cutting so i use to save stuff that i might build someting of and today i used some for upper mounts.
Yep but it was the only option, don't think there will be any problems. Drove all summer without any rear shocks at all so this must be better
Started to cut the holes for the bumper brackets, will test fit everything before i weld the inner pieces to the holes.
Took 2 inch of the rear bumper brackets, the inner brackets were totally different so the are off for now. Might do a panel between the body and bumper later on or might not because im lazy....
There is a factory accessory pan that goes between the bumper and tail pan. They called it a gravel deflector as owners were reporting stones being thrown up from the rear wheels, hitting the inside of the bumper and ricocheting back and chipping the trunk lid paint. I believe it was not offered until later in '40. Originals are hard to come by but Drake did make copies years ago and some are floating around on the secondary market. You can still be lazy and have one.
When I got my 40, my son's first comment was how ugly the rear bumper looked sticking out so far. I think a gravel pan could be pretty easy to make using a bead roller.
Started to fill the holes for the bumper brackets. This whole rear bumper thing is a little side track, got alot of more important stuff to do but sometimes you just want to do some fun stuff.
Got the rear axle back together and mounted the brakes/brake lines. Put the fuel line back after the kickup work and suddenly it was time for a startup. Got it out of the garage so i could have a look, still sits to high in the rear but this is how it will be. It might settle a little when i drive it more, still nice to have it moving by own power again.
It sure seemed lower in the pic with you standing next to it with no skirt. But, whatever the case, looks good. I appreciate you documenting what you are doing since I will be doing the same with my 40 Merc soon enough.
True. Seems I am going to have to notch mine pretty good too if I want it as low as I’m thinking. And, the Mercs have to have skirts. The wheel opening isn’t as nice of a shape as the Fords.
Once you fill the trunk with luggage and 'STUFF'... it will drop some more. You married ?!! (she can make LOTSA luggage for a trip) 6sally6 Nice ride BTW
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