Projects 1939 Ford Convertible Sedan Resurrection

A safe way to install hood springs is to bend the spring with your hands and insert washers in the gaps, bend again in another direction and insert washers and keep going until it is long enough to install. When you close the hood all the washers will just fall out.

 

I have a spare hood support so I can recreate the setup. I'll try to get that done soon. I used a similar procedure to Crust Chevy the last time I did this.

That's the plan. The hood goes on tomorrow!

That's what we did wrong. We tried to pull it straight out. Thanks for the reminder.

This Bob Drake hood ornament is a really nice piece. It fit very well.

There was so much chrome on it I couldn't get the center hood trim on. So I had to
grind some plating off. Finally got the trim on without damaging the paint after a few
hours fiddling around.

I keep staring at this thing!

I used fender welting between the running board and the frame. I did this on my
forty coupe too. Ford had something stapled to the original running boards. Probably
not welting.

I used 18 inch rivets to secure the welting to the boards. Less h***le than trying get
the glue them on.

They are installed for good I hope.

Fenders and grill went on this afternoon, loosely for now. Kind of looks like a hot rod now!
Hood tomorrow, stay tuned.

 

Man, I’d wager to say you are getting excited at this point. That’s going to be a beautiful car. Keep up the great work.

 

The car is looking awesome. These fat fenders with a white firewall and no hood always just look so cool.

 

That '39 Deluxe grill really shows off the styling. I used the welting from Drake between the running board and frame and used 3M headliner contact cement in a few places. I think rivets would have worked better.

 

Thank you Ron! Excited...... Yes!!

I do like 39-40's without hoods and this one looked pretty good without it, but I have to get it inspected next week so I thought I should have all of the body parts on it.

I don't trust most of the adhesives that I have been able to find and use on my stuff, so the rivets were a proven solution to the problem. As you may have experienced there is considerable time and effort required to get all of the bolt holes and body panels to align. The glue can too easily give up half way through the process. I haven't seen a post on your pickup project lately. I hope you feeling well and making some progress Joel.


It has been a frustrating week but at around 9:00 PM tonight I lowered the car off of her
blocks and set her on the floor. It has been almost 6 years since we started working on
this beast. I drove her around the block once tonight. I will schedule the dreaded inspection
for some day next week ( I hope).


The fenders hood and grill aligned much easier than expected. I thought it would take
weeks ( really). It only took us a couple of days.

The headlights took a week. I finally replaced Bob Drakes square rubber O ring with a
softer derometer rubber and manged to get the stainless rims on without breaking
the lens. I broke the first lens during my first attempt,so I ordered two more.
Darn things are expensive.

Ready to roll

A little comparison shot. This photo was taken at least 15 yeas ago.

I finished installing the boom mat while I waited for the new lenses. I also
put some new 4 inch speakers in these old kick panels that I acquired with the ch***is this
car sits on. I put a fuse in the panel and fired up the sound system. It sounds pretty good.
The tunes are on a thumb drive plugged into the amp that is attached to the back of
the small steel glove box. Interesting thing is that it is always on ( when the ignition is on).
You can mute it but not turn it off at the control panel. I may decide to put an on off switch
in the line somewhere. I have more tunes on that thumb drive than I have in my 12 CD
player I installed in my other convertible 24 years ago.

That's it for tonight. I think I will have to sneak in a couple more laps around my neighborhood
tomorrow.

 

The car is looking great. I hope the inspection goes well for you!

 

Another occasion when there should be a "really like" ****on!

 

It was a nice day for a test drive. Just a few miles on the back roads in the neighborhood.
I don't think I made it to 40 MPH but it rides pretty well and that power steering is nice
to have. The ride height looks pretty good to me. I wanted to just keep driving but it
needs an alignment and a little thing called registration and insurance.....

 

I love it when a plan comes together!! Looks great Sam!

 

The car looks great and the stance is awesome.

 

Sam, the car looks GREAT! Congats and good luck with the inspection.

 

Thank you gentlemen and or hoodlums as you may prefer.

The inspection went well today. I was fortunate in that the lady that had previously made things difficult for us hoodlums that like to put cars together from various vaguely do***ented sources is retired or moved on. She was replaced by a very cooperative retired state patrolman that I have known for decades. It took him almost an hour and half to sort it all out. I ended up getting a ownership in doubt registration ( recommended by inspector). This should be good for 3 years after that I should be able to get a clear ***le.

The car was ***igned a new vin number plate that was attached to the A pillar on the drivers side. He told me I will have to remove the vin numbers stamped into the frame between the steering box and the front crossmember. That will not be an easy task since the car is pretty much finished in that area. I was told I should grind it off which I thought was against the law. I think covering it with a coat of bondo would be much easier and less messy, but that is not the recommended procedure.

The reason for not using the the frame number is that the shop that sold me the frame transferred my cars frame number to the new hand built ch***is that their customers car body was transferred to. The inspector was curious about that transfer of the numbers. I told him not to quote me but I said it is a common practice. Since the car was donated to a prestigious auto collection and will probably never be driven, I suppose he will just not follow up on that issue.

I also had to get the car weighed today. It came in at 3200 pounds. I still have to install the top irons, top canvas and upholstery, so I think it will end up around 3400 ponds. I was thinking it would weigh in ataround 3100 pounds That boom mat is pretty heavy I guess.

So tomorrow I will see how much they want to tax me for this thing. Then I'll call Hagerty and get some insurance.
Lets see... oh yes, I need to schedule an alignment before I start collecting windshield time and some miles with smiles. (hopefully).

 

yay!!!

 

Hey, 39guy;
" ownership in doubt registration" . This is a new one on me...
Is this similar to a bonded ***le, except w/o the actual bond payment requirement?
Too bad they couldn't use the body#, if fords have one that's different from the ch***is#.
Otherwise, looks n sounds like you're golden. .
Please get a jar of "Smile be Gone", so's you can sleep at night... .
Marcus...

 

Congrats on crossing that hurdle!

Interesting they want you to grind off the old number. I guess you could weld over it and then clean up the weld...either way, doing that on a freshly painted and ***embled car would be a bit nerve racking

 

You have built a car that’s not just beautiful, you’ve built a really good car. Well thought out. Now, finish and enjoy.

 

Did you save receipts of everything you purchased? Should show taxes paid on parts. What tax on completed car? Screw us anyway they can.

 

I think I would fabricate a bracket,panel,etc.. Paint it the frame color and glue,2 side tape,etc. and place it over the serial number.

 

I think you are lucky the officer didn't ask you to remove all three serial numbers form your frame, that would be a chore. That front set of numbers is easy, I would scuff, bondo, wet sand and put a black wrap over it (***uming the frame is black of course) if painting in that tight space would be too difficult. .

 

Don't the new inspections come as stickers that you could put over the number on the frame? I had a in doubt or restricted ***le; it is no big deal.

 

I can't think of anything to say except great job on a beautiful car! Enjoy