MY aunt called me and told me she wanted it out of her garage. It was my great uncle's. My mom remembers going to the dealer with her uncle to get it. Its all original with flathead 6 and 3sp with overdrive. I want to make a driver out of it. Should I rebuild the flathead or slip a newer inline 6 or V8 in it? Are the stock brakes decent or is there a easy way to slip some disk brakes in there? I wanna paint it black. I think these cars look bad *** black. I really wanna suprise my Aunt and Mom and drive down to Texas and let them go back in time in the old Ford.
I've never owned a flathead, but that car begs to have the 6 removed, a flat V-8 installed and a set of duals with Smiity's on it just for the sound.....then make it a mild custom, nosed, decked and a late '50s mild custom interior.....then stop right there!
If you haven't already done it, check out the shoebox hambers social group for a ton of good info. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/group.php?groupid=127 I run a flathead V8 in mine. It's not fast (by any means). They often have cooling problems. But they are still *****in' as anything. If you put a flathead V8 in it, it'll be a labor of love. However, once you get one dialed-in, it'll probably run fine. Getting it there is the tough part. From what I understand (limited experience), the 6 cyl is pretty bullet-proof. Do you care about originality at all?
Paint it black?! That's been done. Heck man, the original paint doesn't look that bad (it'll probably buff right out). Besides how many original paint '51 Fords have you seen cruising around? I'd leave the paint as is but that's me, I like original patina and you can only have it one time.
If you want it to be 'fast', you'll probably wanna pull it and go with some sort of OHV V8 engine. You could make that car 'fast' with a flathead V8, but it aint cheap.
Well I know its the original motor. Since its so original it would be cool to keep it stock. My uncle kept a little book I found in the car with every tank of gas and every trip he took in it. It matches the odometer. so the car has around 86k on it. I think it would be cool to have the original motor in it. ....Plus my good friend is 76 years old and has worked on these motors alot in the past. He says it would be easy to get it going again. He suggested sending the crank to the machine shop, new bearing, if the pistons are good just re honing and new rings.
Actually , my uncle repainted it himself in the driveway. I found a different color paint on the inside of the truck lid. I asked my Mom and she remembers him doing it along time ago. The original was a more gray-blue, battleship type color. I know what your saying though. Maybe I should just leave the outside alone.
I think it would be cool to keep the original drivetrain if you can. Like others have said, make it a nice MILD custom, they are hard to beat in the looks department. I am not into the speed thing myself (even though I do have a big block in mine), I more enjoy the ride and time getting there.
Just clean it up and drive as is. If it runs good keep the 6 until you know what YOU want.I don't think you will hear one complaint about leaving it stock .it is a nice car.
Some parts (oil pumps especially) are getting mighty hard to come by, a rebuild may not be a straightforward thing. If it runs OK, concentrate on making the electricals 100%.
Don't tell me, you want to paint it flat black. Do something a little different with it, you'll be glad you did.
looks great as it is, drive it and fix the stuff to make it safe and reliable.. Then if needed do a mild custom... Run that flatty until it brakes, the OD should let you keep up with traffic. she wan;t be fast but man she looks great.
86k? why rebiuld it.i bet that puppy will start right up with very little work.or did i miss where there is a problem with the motor.
We sell flathead Ford stuff. I expanded the ignition parts to include the flathead six, so if you need any of the usual parts (points, cap, rotor, condensor, wires, etc) we got 'em. That six was a real nice motor actually. It was the last year for the flat six in Ford's lineup. They went to a new OHV six in 1952. www.flatheadv8.com
I think it has to do with what you define as a "driver". Drive around town, OR make it an Interstate cruizer that allows you to take 500-1000 trips to shows, drags, HAMB meet 'n greet's. The 6 banger works great for the first, but not so well at constant 65-70 on the Interstate for several hours. Since you mentioned a disc brake conversion, I suspect you want to do more than put-put around small town Oklahome. Do the whole deal. Engine, trans, brakes, etc.
Wash it. Polish it. Drive it. You'll park it amid the customs you're envisioning, and inside, most of those owners will be drooling over yours. After you've driven it 2 - 3 years, you'll know what you want to do with, it and you won't be regretting a (otherwise) mistake afterwards. Congratulations and good wishes.
You could probably get it running again without an engine teardown unless you KNOW the engine is kaput. Many a car like this was garaged because nobody in the family wanted to drive it anymore, the brakes went bad, the radiator had a leak, or simply the battery was dead. Check all the systems and fix them one at a time. Save your moeny for later changes, just get it running and driving legally and enjoy it for now.
The con rods are ***aniem, and thats a bullet proof engine. My son got a Pk Up yrs back and had the same idea, sup it up. I suggested to him that he leave the 6 in it till it went bad, Its still in it and still running. We split the exhaust manifold, in the 70s after a guy hit him and two other cars (no real damage except he was pushed up over a curb and broke the exhaust system) and the insurance paid for the repairs, so we got the exhaust system for free,LOL Get her running first, you might be surprised, and have some fun with her. Once shes on the road, you can get a clearer picture of what you want to do. Iceman
I broke the motor loose by putting a secret recipe of stuff down the sparkplug holes and letting it set. Then rocking it back and forth in gear. So it will turn over. Would you leave it 6 volt?
picked this one up a couple of years ago, parked in 72 i think it was. it has a 6 in it. it turned over freely but wasnt getting spark in the distributor. my pop figured out the problem and it fired right up. i would just drive yours and have fun and then if want to do an upgrade later go for it!!
You are in the right place for info! keep looking around, some times the best path is use what works, upgrade or rebuild the brakes and drive!!
If the wires are bad then I would strongly recommend switching over to 12. I personally would inspect the wires carefully if they are good I'd still consider upgrading to a 12v system. Easily done you'll just have to change out some stuff like lights, relay's and coil ignition, wipers and heater. I'd only do that if I planned to drive it more that 2-3 times a week. or if the 6v gen dies.. Except to be completely original, different, or just cheap. I don;t see a honest reason to keep it 6volts. I'd rather see ya working on that then painting or rodding it... Other opinions may differ... my 52 f1 had perfect wiring and the original 6v system. Well, perfect until I touched the wires they instantly cracked and exposed the green black bare wires. Talk about a fire waiting to happen. I debated for a while either staying the 6v or going 12. I ordered a universal wiring kit and had at it, the wires were worse than I thought and it really put my mind at ease and I really know my truck wiring system now.. It wasn't hard just a bit time consuming. I have no regrets going to 12v bob
If you keep it 6 volt (for now at least), you want minimum 1 gauge battery cables, or perhaps 0 or 00 gauge. The bigger the wire the better for the old 6v systems. I have 00 on my 47 Plymouth with original 6v. ....my local Battery Warehouse store made the cables up in the sizes needed for a reasonable cost. Just replace plugs, rotor, cap etc first and try to get it running. I bet it won't be too bad. Nice looking old Ford.......I don't see many coupes nowadays.
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