How My 1939 Aussie Ford was built

Hi Guys. I thought that I'd show the progression shots of my 1939 Ford Deluxe Coupe Ute. It's an all steel Aussie body that took ten years from the start to end. For now I'll show you what I started with and what the end result was. If anyone should show any interest, I'll show you how the two came to meet.

 

Nice Job!!I'm Diggin the Interior and colour.
More Pics, and details, please.
B.

 

Nice i have alvays liked diffrent things
Would like to see a back shot of it

Paul

 

It's a darn nice truck but sure would look better with a hood on it!

 

Well, where to start. I won't bore you with pull down shots other than to show that the chassis was stripped totally to repair rusty sections before fully boxing and mounting the 302w-C4-9 inch combo. The tray area is quite large. Later you'll see just how much of the original steel was replaced. These cars only had one light on the back that was both a stop-tail and number plate light. Mine now has English Austin lights with L.E.D's for globes. The initial build of the chassis had the flat head still there, but I was talked out of using it due to the huge rebuild costs down here. I did keep the I-beam instead of an independant set up. More soon.

 

A friend of mine is building a '40 Ford ute on a Chevy S-10 chassis with a 302W/C4. It needs doors and the U.S. doors are completely different - different curvature and door frames. If you know of any, PM me please.

 

good to see another west aussie on the Hamb. nice ute you got there mate. are you goin to big Al's poker run this weekend?

 

G day Jon boy,
Well, finally you are here and showing the build up.
Great to see.
Make sure you show all the stages and the many stories that go with it.

BTW, in reference to Weasels request, for info on doors.
If you offer him my 40 deluxe doors, you are dead meat. '''''''''''
Geez, I hope its still in your back yard.

I might even bring back my 40 Ford Deluxe sloper to park it back next to the ute..
Look foward to the ongoing buildup on the thread.
Regards
oz40(Tom)

 

Love it lets see all the details!

 

Hi Weasel
My passenger door came from a 4 door sedan. The top edge was trimmed down to suit the roof line, but other than that it fit right on.(after two days right Tom??)

 

Hi All.
Firstly to answer moon.dog62's question. I'm deffinantly going to Big Al's. Last year I met some nice friends(see photos). The other shots are of the first bits of body work done by the master craftsman that did my Ute. The area is the bottom door hinge section on the right side. I figured that once done, no-one would know that it took nearly two days of fabrication. My photo history started. As you can see the two layers had to fit perfectly into one another. I thought it was done but there was a third layer that fitted over them that was a mirror to the first two. When welded into the door pillar it was virtually a file finnish.

 

When do oz40's doors arrive at Long Beach? I'll be there waiting!

Thanks for the door info - I'll pass it on to my mate with the '40 ute.

Here's a couple of pix as we were getting ready to do the Chevy S-10 frame swap....





And here after the body was mounted...





Here it is with the US doors mocked up....

 

Hey Ozzyrat

We found that part of the problem is the curvature of the doors. The U.S. doors have a much deeper crown/curve and therefore bulge out in the middle when compared with the natural line of the B pillar on the Aussie bodies. The top of the window frame is a relatively easy cut 'n shut, but the door curvature isn't. It seems the ute has flatter sides in the cab.

 

Well, I have to admit this was a tricky one, It was part of my learning curve about fat fendered fords.
Yeah, Ozzyrat39 was frustrated but very patient with me, I have to thank him for that and all the other jobs in between.

The door fitted sort off but we had some gap and alignment problems and after many, many , many measurements in all different directions with the door and qtr panel, but finally we got it after 2 days.

 

Just adding more fuel to the storyline.
Actually, the donor four door had variations in measurements and this threw the fitup of the door into a calamity for a couple of days.
So we got another 39/40 ute door from one of Ozzyrat39 mates,, bolted it on and bingo, the penny dropped for me.
But like he said, 2 days,............ what a bummer.

And Yeah, Weasal and Ozzyrat39, I am a guuna come a gunning if my if my doors walk.
Regards
oz40(Tom)

 

Hi All
The 40 Ute body looks pretty good. I can see some similar places that you've repaired. Moving the parcel shelf inside the cab back I did too. Both left and right sections behind the doors was replaced. These were formed over a wooden skeleton looking template.(sorry I don't have shots of that). The repairs done previous were very average. The bottoms of both B pillars were rebuilt first, so the sequencing is a little out of order. The left hand side kept getting higher from finding more holes in the body.

 

One area of the 39 that was completely new steel was the rear. Anyone following me is looking at new metal. The first section to be done was the left corner. Someone had previously tried roughly to repair it and hide the job. Our approach was to replace. Later the inside section was redone and made longer to help seal up the tail area. This approach was done in other areas to improve what Henry did back in 1939. There was too many areas that water could get in and start rusting. The top swage prooved to be the hardest to get right. After two attempts it was discovered that a 3 inch mandrel bend supplied the right curve. Two were bought. The outside sections were cut out, and the rest thrown away. The main long sections were formed using the wooden skeletons as a template. I'm lucky enough to have two more Utes in my yard to use as templates.

 

What memories.
LUV the ute.
Give me more pics.

 

One area that was repaired through fabrication was both door jam bases. I can't think of another name for them. As shown by the shots of the left side, there was nothing under the putty. We later found a sedan in a field that could have supplied doner sections, but why cut up when you can fabricate? When the various bits were laid out it was hard to see the end result. It all went together like a jigsaw. The right side was easier after the practice run on the left. The last "L" section added strength and helped to tie it all to the floor. The new floor and sills were bought not done in house. The floor was also extended back into the cab space by approx 1 foot. This took a pretty useless cavity in the tray area and turned it into a usefull storage space inside the cab. I'd like to add at this point that we had our round of the Nostalgia drags here in West Oz. I managed to get third in Hot Rod class. I broke out by two hundredths of a second. Damm.

 

That thing is COOL!

Mark

 

We did the same thing extending the floor and making the lower part of the cab flush with the rear window section to give a flatback cab.

There is a flawless '39 ute here in SoCal too - see photo. Keep those pix coming.

 

Keep the Utes coming I smell a thread.....

 

Hi Weasel. I saw the same Ute at a Pomona swap in June 2007. It had a price of 45000 US on it. The next swap that I went to , there it was again. I'm thinking of bringing mine over to California in 2010. Wonder what I might get for it?????

 

There was a couple of places on the build where the work done by the factory sixty odd years ago just didn't cut it. The back corners of the cab where the coupe section stopped and the ute started. Three angles and areas come together in a mess of spot welds and it's all covered up with lead. On both sides my magic man Tom turned flat steel into compound curves to replace the mess with one piece. As you can see the result is close to a file finnish.

 

Hey, slacko,
we want more pics and details

 

Sorry havn't posted for a while. Figured everyone was looking at Slopers and stuff. Well, my tailgate was in too bad a shape to repair so as always a new one was made. We tidied up a few more of Henry's ideas be hiding the hinges and opening mechanisms. A central locking kit gave up it's solenoids for the openers. I can actually take credit for the design of the openers. The hinges were a joint effort and dam hard to perfect. A button under the back of the Ute activates the solenoids. An english wheel and shrinker got the perfect shape. When it was painted a very talented guy called Geoff Ray (hope I spelt that right) did the striping. When it was done it weighed about 7kg less than an original one.

 

Damn that is nice! It stands out in a crowd too, saw it in ASR?
I like the friends you made, I miss living in Perth the best looking women in the country out there!
Doc.

 

Nice work. And x2 for the hood comment.

 

One part of the build that's not realy bodywork but must be is headers. Quite a few years ago I had some custom made that a low life stole. I decided to resort to the theory that the only headers that a true hot rod should have are homegrown. A friend rolls the tube part of motorbike exhausts so he did the ones for mine. I took photos of every hot rod in Perth that had zoomies at a local show and had a go. A good friend Sue lended a hand. The deflectors were an idea I borrowed from the stolen headers.

 

Not much too add here other than f ckwits should watch out. This happened 6/6/9