My dad's first car was a 35 ford slantback, in 1951. In the 80's he found a coupe body that had been rolled within 60 miles of home. He thought $950 was alot to pay for a rolling chassis and a body that probably needed a new roof, but he brought it home anyway. It sat there for many years until a friend who owed him for a few cars said he'd repay him by painting his car. It took him 10 years to get that work done. I'm sure he wasn't working real steady on it. A few years ago I pushed dad to go get the car even though it wasn't done. I wanted him to be able to drive before death came calling (you never know when). So we went and picked it up. We worked on it a bit and had the flathead running well enough to get him a trip to the road and back. The smile as he drove by is something I wish I had on camera. I sprayed the wheels yellow for him and he took it town a couple times in the course of the next few years. The 8RT was very weak and the 3 speed liked to jump out of 2nd and 3rd. I asked him if I could work on it this winter for him and he, in his generosity, said get it titled in your name and do what you want with it. I plan to do some writing and picturing about the project, because there have been many things I've bumped into that I've had to figure out through trial and error. The 8RT didn't fit well enough to put a fan on the inside of the engine compartment. I learned that the earlier flatties would work better. Dad said he drove to Minneapolis once in his first 35 and drove it about 55 or so. I wanted to be able to do better than that. I'm keeping it mostly stock, but I'm adding a few conveniences. The main upgrade to the drivetrain is to add a T5 tranny. I've got a Speedway kit bolted to the 41 flathead. The flathead is almost completely stock, but I'm doing some things with the color of the engine. I've got a 12 circuit Painless ready to go in. Here are a few early pictures of the project. The first two are as we are getting it back from the guy who sprayed it. Its a good 20 foot paint job. The next is how it sat for the past few years in a lean to. The whole time threatened by cold bulls walking into a structure to get warm during cold winter months (I could tell you stories about a few nice cars he's had get beat up by cold bulls). The next is a picture of how it looked at its best prior to taking it apart. The next is a picture of the tired flathead I pulled out - you can see how close the fan would have been to the radiator. Next you can see where the old 3speed sat in the cabin of the coupe. The next picture is the engine out of the car, using my fancy-custom-1-ton chain-hoist-into-the-attic-with-a-couple-of-supports-for-the-trusses, engine puller. Next the new flathead waiting to be cleaned up (supposed to have 2000 miles on it). After a bunch of scrubbing and a few mods to the tranny (the pan will be red). The original frame with the top crossmember cut out - bottom has to go to in order to get the bones right and the tranny to fit correctly (the pic is with the cabin raised about 6 inches). I cut the old torque tubes last few inches out and welded on an open drive that i cut out of about a 1947 ford 3/4 pickup, using the same trucks rear end cover (bolts right up). How the T5 fits mounted in the frame with the top crossmember cut out is in the next photo - I need to bring it down several inches to get clearance on the floor and to get the engine at the right rake. That will require the bone splitting. I'm looking forward to throwing him the keys to this one in late spring of next year. I did that with a 53 buick about 10 years ago and he gets it out to drive a few times a year. More to come. Any advice is welcome. I've learned a lot from this sight already.
Man, Jeffery James has one of those and he had to pay cash money for it! by the looks of your deal he got screwed Great looking car and cool thing your Dad did!
Shooter, My dad is one of the best men I know. Its still his car until he leaves this world and I can wait a long long time to lay claim. He is a farmer/rancher with a love for all things old. He's pulled old stuff home for 50+ years. At 77 he just got back from a 2700 mile road trip to Texas and back, by himself, to pick up a 58 chevy station wagon and some other stuff from his brother. Thanks for the comments and compliments guys.
Every once in a while somebody DOES get around to it...Really great story. Thanks for sharing. Nice car.
I'm with you on the T5 conversion...don't let anybody tell you different. Until you can afford to go tradtional...
made this conversion on my 36 fews years agos,never going back to stock 3 speeds!good luck with your project!
Kustoms, Beautiful car. I'd like to get this one down on the ground like that. The three dueces looks great. Any chance you have pictures of how the bones got split? I got mine apart today - still trying to figure out, just how I'm going to do this thing. Wish the paint on this one looked as good as yours.
Yeah, I definitely did pay quite a bit more then you. Looks like you have a real nice car to start with and the fact that you well on your way is inspiring. Thanks Chris for rubbing that in a bit.... Fucker. And that '36 is beautiful.
unsplit wishbones,rear suspensions is posies parallel adjustable,set at higher point,next summer ill try at lower position...
Got the wishbone split done today. Ordered parts from Speedway including 11/16" ford tie rod ends, a pair of weld bungs, and a pair of radius rod brackets. I started with cleaning up the wishbones on the inside and on the face. The weld bung got held in place by a pair of vice grips to get them plumb with the rest of the radius rod. After those were in place I measured out the distance to the original pivot. I cut the brackets to accept the least distance from the frame to the top of the radius rod. I had to have 1 3/8" clearance from the inside of the frame to the outside of the T5. I added a quarter inch and placed the bracket there for welding. When everything was welded up it was just a matter of putting the pieces together. I cleaned up the pieces, sprayed self etching primer on the bare metal and then squirted some flat black rattle can paint on. Took about 2.5 hours to do everything and get cleaned up. I've got to replace a floor section - dad's got a 37 with a good floor in it I think I'll use for a donor. Last pictures are of his mid 30's ford parts car array. The 37 is the one without the roof.
OK - learned a few things since the last post. First - I'd place the radius rods about 2 inches toward the radiator from where I put them - then it would have been easier to build a transmission mount. Second - its really hard to try to cut out a floor from a 75 year old car in a blizzard. Second things first. I cut out the rusty old floor pieces and bought a piece of 16 gauge to graft in. I made several cardboard patterns for it before cutting the sheetmetal. You can see the progress on that in the first few pictures. When i was satisfied with fitment I put the sheetmetal into a hand cranked crimper and lifted the topside about 1/16" to let the panel rest in the opening. Then i used sheetmetal screws to make sure i had the old and the new as close together as possible, then tack welded about every 2 inches around the perimeter. When that was done the screw holes got welded from the top and the bottom to make sure the floor was really solid. Then it all got seam caulked. Shot the floor with some rubberized undercoating, put the body mounting rubber bushings in place and dropped the body back down. I wanted to save as much of the old as possible so a custom hand brake mount was created and bolted to the tail shaft mounting bolts on the t-5. The original e-brake exits out of the original hole in the center panel. Welded up the original 3 speed hole on the center floor cover plate. Ended up replacing the steering sector with another one dad had at home. This one cleaned up nicely and seems pretty tight. Ordered some headers from Red's and put them on. I did have some fitment issues with the drivers side - had to slop out a couple of the header bolt holes and ended up cutting the exit pipe and bending it up about 10 degrees to get it to exit into the frame channel right. Also ended up readjusting my original mount hieght for the transmission. The lowest point on the t-5 is the part that attaches the transmission braces. The bottom of that piece is now about 3" below the bottom of the frame on the 35. Still have plenty of room to get the speedometer cable put in place and I'm not bumping the bottom of the floor. For what its worth the chicken scratch welding in the 3rd series first picture is not mine - it was done by the 1st builder. Working on building a frame that will be bolted inside the cowl to hang things like the fuse box, radio, and whatever else i might need - all to keep the firewall free of bolts and extra holes. Thats next.
I have a 36 been trying to get done,bought it in peices of cragslist cant believe I found it it still has the original top in it I done the mustang front and leaf rear with a c notch Still have a long way to go with it
Carlos, Looking good. All the right parts in the right places. You've got the stance I'm going for eventually. I'm keeping it close to original for dad for the time being. Love the wide whites. REally like the signs in the background. Keep me posted on your progress.
going to run chrome reverse and wide whites on it .Wished I had 4 bared the rear though.still waiting on 2 wheels .Caint wait to get it on the ground rolling.You are doing some fine work looks good
Carlos - your car is coming along nicely. Its good to see progress. A little update on the progress on the 35. Some of the 35 fords came with a factory roll down back window option. This one had been cut out and replaced by a just a stationary window. I spent an afternoon with the original roll down window mechanism and fabricated what i imagined the original to look like. I still have to put the window channel in, get the rubber gaskets to keep the rain out, and get a new piece of glass cut and installed - but the main installation is done. None of the stuff I'm doing is probably going to win any beauty competitions - but it'll stay together. A lot of other little things accomplished - got the intake, new plug wires and rails put in, original oil filter and lines redone - chrome caps on all the bolts. Got the firewall insulation in place and the frame set up for inside the firewall (to attach wiring, radio, and other things to). Starting to take apart the tack strips and clean up the interior to prepare for the headliner and other interior pieces. Still need to put in some dynamat and insulation.
The Jalopy Journal
