Projects 1937 Ford Hemi Coupe Build Thread

Tater I am not sure i would Piss down the host shirt if I were you. You might find yourself all alone some place else.

 

Just kidding!

 

I really appreciate your concern (and everyone else's), you've brought up valid points, but this is THE car dad has always wanted, and we're doing it his way. We've thought this over for a very long time, and this is the direction we'd like to go with the car. I really hope that you guys will enjoy the build as much as we will and I am eager to hear your thoughts as the build progresses.

 

By the way, thanks for putting this thread on the blog. Also, I'm enjoying your Model A build, it's really cool.

 

Love the car. Always wanted a '37 coupe.. That hemi is bad****. I wouldn't do it to my car, but my only qualm about you putting MII stuff in there is this car has such a rad vibe, and you just want to pay attenion when changing stuff. Make sure the gains outweigh the losses. If point A is how it looks(which I'm guessing you like?), don't change point A... Change how you get there. Make sense? You can get the same stance with any number of suspension combinations, but what stands out as important(to me) is THAT the stance is******in, not how you got there!

Joe

 

You're a stand up guy Ryan.
That's a very eloquent way of expressing the potential with this car.

 

Chrysler hemi weighs 765 lbs. soaking wet. Add a******* and an all steel Ford.
Must ll biceps will flex...

 

It is your Dad's car and he can do with it what he wants, but I agree with a lot of the comments here. That car was a time capsule that would have been great to see made safe and drivable with it's original build intention. I've just spent a ton converting a MII 32 5 window back to a beam axle front end. The car just didn't look/feel right with the modern suspension. I'm glad I did it. Regardless of the path you take, I'll be watching this with interest. How can you go wrong with a Hemi powered fat fendered Ford!
Speaking of the Hemi, you said the car was built in the early 60's and then was never driven. You posted a note of the engine build you said you found from the original owner when he built it. When was the engine built? Those certainly aren't early '60's prices....... and I had no clue there were roller cams and aluminum rods in the early 60's....... learn something new every day.

Good luck with the thread.

 

Since we're voicing honest opinions and offering an outlook from a mentors perspective (which is what's really happening) I'll add my .02.

I restore for a living, and it's been my primary focus for 43 years. I can't recall the discussions over all those years about making something "better". One of my favorites is 6V vs 12V. On a car that's potentially worth 6 figures I ALWAYS go 6V. What did folks do in 1950? Nobody drove because their car wouldn't start? Radial tires too. If the 193* whatever had 6V electrics and belted tires that's the way it needs to stay. Electric fans too. Not back then, the cars were simply kept up. So to this IFS or not idea, of course I'm in that long "not" line like the rest. My "not" is based on "not needed" for a few reasons. A big one could be oil pan clearance. Maybe exhaust too. Ol Henry Ford was proud of his metallurgy. There's a picture out there of one of his axles twisted COLD about 7 times. And it didn't fracture or break. Simplicity doesn't have to mean weak or unable to bear the loads it's asked to bear. What these guys are saying, how well these drive, how easy it is to service, and the big picture outlook of value? As Charlie Sheen said, "Winning!" I don't fault or judge anyone who does it, but I also couldn't be paid enough to put an M II under my 39 sedan. If I was offered $2,000 and free parts to do that to my car, no thanks. Now I don't have a (potentially) fire breathing injected HEMI in my car, for now it's just a flathead. I have 2 engines at home that might find their way into mine a few years from now, a 59 Nailhead or a 4 bolt main 350 (cough-cough) Chevy. And I won't change the front suspension for either one. More room for exhaust, oil pan, whatever, and an axle that can handle it in fine fashion.
The last thing I'll touch on as well is value. Our founder is right, an M II is just "another one" with regard to chassis construction. Don't be insulted by this, but I call M IIs a "cop out" when it comes to that. If you don't "get it" from all angles you can't see that. Save the false bravado about "...never for sale..." because that day smacks all of us in the sack when we least expect it. How much will it reduce the value of your car? I'd say potentially THOUSANDS of dollars. We have those topics here from time to time, investment or not, what's it worth, blah, blah, blah. It's irresponsible to ignore potential value if only for that bad day when you need all the $$$$ you can muster up, and it's the toys that go 1st. Your car is something many here would dearly love to have. Many, perhaps all, looking in wouldn't do that either, and NOT because old is a fashion statement or a fad. It's respect for tradition to follow an old trail vs plowing a new road. While not as bad as changing the color of the Hirohata Merc, or swapping a 417 Donovan for a BBC in a vintage top fuel car, it is a degree of disservice to what you've found and taken on. I'm done, not another word on the topic, and now not the biggest cop out of all by saying "...your car..." and "...do what you want..." which is where I was earlier. Now get busy and keep saving me $$$$$...

 

I think he was doing a valuation on the car at a later date.

 

This is kinda like adding two and two together and****uming you get the right answer.
The Chrysler Hemi is nearly the heaviest engine ever produced, maybe IH is heavier?
But the point is, your adding that weight to a fairly heavy car on top of that.
The M/2 suspension is the lightest duty design in Fords product line, save maybe for the Fiesta. On a purely logical standpoint this is not the best choice of suspension for this project. On top of that it is just wrong on so many other levels, that have already been stated, so I will just leave it at that.
Good luck on the build.

 

Thanks, but it's not a cop-out, it's dads vision. He has his reasons to do it as I know you have your reasons not to. You'll have saved plenty of $ by the time we're done.

 

Yes the Hemi is very heavy. I'm sure Chassis Engineering and Fat Man are well aware of that and wouldn't have sold us their product if they deemed it unfit to handle the load. Thanks, apparently we're going to need it.