Let me start by saying I’m a complete sucker for project cars. I’m not sure what it is exactly, maybe it’s the low dollar entry fee or the pride to refurbish an old relic but I’ve never purchased a turn key vintage car. It has always been mostly neglected cars that need attention and sometimes I actually finish the car so yeah my latest acquisition is no different. It’s a 1939 Deluxe Coupe that was advertised as “old hot rod that needs to be put back together” I’ve heard that before but that’s my kryptonite, not to mention its probably one of my favorite Fords of all time. It was only the next town over so after a 5 minute call and a 15 minute ride I was on it. The 80 something owner walked me to a dilapidated shed in the back yard where the car had been sitting for quite some time. He told me he bought it about 4 years earlier but I new better. Whenever I hear that I usually double it and more so if it’s an older guy because they have a tendency to forget how fast time goes. So his story was he bought the car as a project at Carlisle brought it home and never touched it other than applying some POR on the chassis and picking up some additional parts. The car was in primer with some metal work having been done but I was actually pretty impressed with the body. Along the way he also bought a rebuilt 327 Chevy motor (327 block with a 283 crank so effectively a 301) and rebuilt turbo 350. I really like what I saw so I bought it. For the record I didn’t steal it which is my other problem that is I usually buy high and sell low. After getting the car home I went over it. A previous owner had installed a 1956 Chevy rear, the floor had been replaced the front end is pretty much original with the straight axle and juice brakes, ‘39 steering box which I’ll retain. My immediate plans are to install the motor and trans, install some parallel leaf springs as the installation of the Chevy rear was not done properly. They left the transverse spring in there and then split the radius rods and attached them to the chassis, yikes. l’ve begun to get the project going by first installing the included Chassis engineering motor and transmission mounts and test fitting the motor. Here are some pics.
...Agreed, congrats Dugy on the very desirable Hotrod material...keep us up to date with the journey...sounds like the dirty work is taken care of....
We must be related? Buy high / sell low? or give it away! Sounds like a great project! Good Luck! Nothing better than a 39/40 Ford!
We travel the same highway in life. My latest fix-er-upper is a 40 bought just last year. Mine has the stock rear spring also but was done with a P&J kit. I like it and it's staying. What I did do on mine is cut out the M-2 and replace it with a Dropped I-Beam and stock steering box as it should be. I have done several rear dual spring kits for Customers (these photos are of B-B's Hemi Powered truck) and found all of them needing lowering blocks to get rid of the Mile High rear stance. I detest lowering blocks! I don't follow the install instructions to avoid the Block issue. Being your already in Fab Mode here's a couple photos of how I do it. Works very well and ends Spring Wrap when you hammer it. I seem to have misplaced the photo of the rear shackle receiver going through the Frame Rail instead of under it. You can see how it goes in the top photo. I can probably find it if I search harder in my files. Yes there's room for the Gas Tank without any issues.
Interesting, I just pulled the rear axle mess and began installing a Posies rear spring set-up that I bought from Pete and Jakes. It looks a little different with 2 positions to chose from on the front spring perch. The instructions state I have to “C-Notch” the frame which came as a complete surprise to me. I mean I want the car to have a nice stance but I don’t want it in the weeds either. Here are the instructions.
If you need to C notch a 40, it must be really low. My family usta have a 40 coupe that sat down rather nice, and it wasn’t notched. I recommend a 48 Ford rear axle bumper.
Thank You dugydog, for sharing what a swell job you are gonna turn out. You made a great rescue, and took care of the seller. ----'39 [QUOTE="hotrodharry2, post: 15062363, member: 67889"]We must be related? Buy high / sell low? or give it away! Sounds like a great project! Good Luck! Nothing better than a 39/40 Ford![/QUOTE] Brother!!! It's hard for me to remember, let alone accept the foolishness of the fortune I shared by being 'That Guy'
I don't know what you call a good stance but if I remember right B,B's truck runs a 29.5" tall tire on the back. I can tell you for sure it does not have a C notch and more than 4" between top of axle housing and bottom of frame rail. My 40 Coupe runs 30" tall tires and looks about the same in the fender opening and No C-notch. Were I you I believe I'd do the wait and see method. This is B,B's truck as mentioned.
Just finished installing the mounts for the parallel leaf springs. So yes I’ll keep going with the rear, I have to remove all the extra stuff that was booger welded to the axle tubes first.
Check the housing for straightness before investing more time in it. That much welding usually warps them.
Ok it took me quite a while using my plasma cutter, cut-off wheel, sawzall etc. but I finally got all that stuff off the rear. I still have some more grinding and flap disc work to do and hopefully the rear will still be true. Then I can get it up on the leaf springs and figure out the location of the spring perches. I left the shock mounts on the rear for now hoping that I can use them with the new setup.
I have the ‘55-56 Chevy rear installed. I have not yet welded in the spring perch’s because I’m trying to make sure the rear will be centered as close as possible to the center of the wheel opening. The posies kit gave me 2 options for the spring perch, the picture I’ve posted is with the perch in the most rearward position, but I think I’ll move it forward because the springs are currently hanging and once the car is on the ground it’ll obviously change. I put some 15” chrome steelies on it but I’m not real happy with how it looks. (Note: not I’m not gonna run with radials) The wheels are 7” wide and I was hoping they would fit within the fenders but it doesn’t look like that’ll work. I’ll try to find some narrower wheels.
Love your project and it brought back sine great memories. This is my old 40 coupe which I thought sat pretty low. I used a parallel leaf kit from CE and they had 2 springs to choose from - one a 3 leaf another a 5. I used the 5 but took out the lower most leaf to get it down and with tools, spare, some parts and luggage she sat right down as it went up and down the east coast a lot. These pics are with very little weight in the trunk and 235/75-r15 tires. The front was a dropped axle and a posies reverse eye front spring with some early Chevy 14” rims with a good negative offset to keep me inboard so I would not hit the fender lip even going up driveways. Tires were a 185/75-r14. My goal was to not have any air above the tire and below the fender lip front and rear - keeping the tread line under the lip basically. This was done 15+ years ago. My present 40 pickup project has a 3 leaf but I have beefed it up with that lower leaf I removed years ago and the same rear tire size. Major difference is that I want to tow a small, light camper. Good luck with your project!
You should be able to take all of the brackets off of your rear end. The lower shock bracket is usually part of the lower spring plate on parallel leaf kits.
TomT you definitely nailed the stance on your old ‘40, thanks for that valuable info. The tires I used to test fit are 235/60/15’s (7” wide rim with 4 1/2” back spacing) which are wider than I want but I was curious how they’d fit. I did also purchase a reverse eye front spring as well but I wanted to see how much lower it’s gonna make the front end before I decide on a dropped axle. I ended up removing all the brackets from the rear. The kit I purchased included shock brackets that I’ll need to weld to the housing approximately 1 inch inboard of the u-bolts.
Thank you - I did forget to mention that I used Speedway.’s 4-har 35-40 FE kit with their panhard bar. It just gets the wishbones out of the way of things and rides really well. The coupe was a flatlttie/5-speed with 8” 3:50 gearset rear. Looking forward to more build updates …
Ok so I borrowed some smaller wheels and tires (14” by 6” wide 225/70/14) to further test fit the rear. I don’t like the fact that the wheel is not centered in the wheel well. I took some measurements and if I can move the axle back about 1/2 inch that should center it. Since I haven’t welded the spring perch’s to the axle tube yet I’ll remove them and drill a new hole for the center spring bolt 1/2” behind the existing one. I’ll weld 1/4” of flat stock to the bottom of the spring perch and drill the new hole from the bottom, thanks for that tip geoford41. Once I get the rear properly centered I’ll work on getting the trans bolted up and setting up the correct pinion angle.
I have found on many occasions that the actual wheel opening is not the same on both sides of the car just due to the stamping. I have reworked many openings just so both sides looked the same. You might want to do some very tight measuring before you start moving things around.
A common occurrence but I would wait until you have your driveshaft angle determined to see if you need to tilt your rear forward or back which may center it without modifying the mounts or to redo your mounts. Ask me how I know …..
Not wanting to be a smart arse, but you'd better drill that new hole 1/2" forward of the existing one if you want to move the axle back.
I would put the cars weight on it before you move anything. It may center itself once the cars weight is on the spring.
Hey, Dugydog Looks like a fun project. Your '39 Deluxe was the first for Henry's hydraulic brakes and vent windows. The Standard did not. In 1957, I helped a buddy throw a 265 in a '39 Deluxe. Could not get it to fire so we connected a tow strap....Jack popped the clutch = bam ! Fuel filled some cylinders and bent some valves. That was the first time we learned about correct distributor install and timing, boo hoo. "Hot Rod School of Hard Knocks" at 16. One of the best things about street rods is they are never finished = let your dreams begin >>> Happy Holidaze < Cruizin' , Jim Mothershead
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