Projects 39 Ford Conv build (update 4/1/25)

I finally hauled my ol 39 Ford Conv from my house to my shop to get started tearing it down and rebuilding it. Someone asked me recently how long I’d had it, and I said, I don’t know, probably 4 years or so. Well, or so was right. More like 8 years. Lol. Anyway, I started a thread when I bought the car, (39 Ford Conv garage find) if you want to search to get the back story. I’ll take up where I left off with the car awaiting a trip to town to my shop.
It was starting to look like it did when I picked it up in Texas.

Me and my brother in law got her loaded up and hauled to town to my shop. Hopefully this stay will be shorter than it’s slumber in Texas which lasted from 1961 till 2012 when I bought it.

I’ll be adding pics periodically to catch up to where I’m at presently.

 

CONGRATS. looks like you have avery nice car to start with. Take plenty of photos for documentation.
Good luck. Lve the rumble seat and short roofline. Nicer than the 40.

 

That looks great, keep us posted on what happens next.

 

IMHO, the best looking car Henry made. What a find!

 

I agree, and I own a '40

 

Oh man, I would love to own that. Congratulations.

 

A week or so after getting the car in the shop, I moved it to the lift to get started on the disassembly. I’ve been fortunate to have been able to build on to my shop a couple years ago and I put in a two post lift when I did. Wish I’d done it a long time ago. It makes working alone a lot easier.

Although this looks like a pretty nice car, it’s really not as good as the pictures make it look like. I bought it based solely on a few crappy cell phone pics from the owner. I admittedly got caught up in the thought of scoring a “find” and really should’ve waited and looked at it in person before making the deal, but I’m in Missouri and the car was near Ft Worth, so I pulled the trigger and made the deal. You’ll see what I’m talking about as the pics progress.
It’s always intriguing to me when I start pulling an old car apart. They will tell you things. Most of the time it’s nothing significant, but just clues about it’s past. It had been hit in the right front fender at some point, resulting in a used fender being installed. I can see a light green metallic, a purple metallic, and primers in between. Kinda makes you wonder where that fender came from

 

You can see the damage left behind in the lower cowl just in front of the hinge area from the swipe down the fender. I’ll address that later, as the first order of business is to check, straighten up, and mock up the chassis/running gear. That Washington blue left behind is the original paint. There’s very little rot in the cowl area, which is good, but the floors are very rotten.

 

Ron, gotta tell you, that's a nice rag and looks like the makings of a sweet pan also. Mitch

 

Thanks Mitch. I’ve had that ol Pan project for 25 years. Need to finish it before I’m too old to kick and ride. Hahaa.

 

Looks like a really good foundation for nice convertible project! Looks like you built a nice shop too. Good luck and I will be following.

 

Great looking car, can't wait for more pics... But one question, is that your excuse for winter?! No snow, leaves on the trees, t-shirt weather, etc?

 

Great looking project. I am so envious of any one with a complete car to pull apart, whatever the condition!
Front x member looks standard issue with the repair.

 

Thanks. It’ll be slow, as I’ll only have a few hours per week to get to work on it.

 

Thanks. These first pics were taken in October 2019, but as for winters here, they’d probably be
t-shirt weather for you. Lol.

 

It is nice to not have to search for hard to find parts. The crossmember was hacked up like a lot of them were to clear the small block fuel pump, plus the the added patch in the u-bolt area. That’s tops on the list of frame repairs.

 

This ol turd was some kids hot rod in the 50’s. Red firewall, dash, cheapo red and black vinyl upholstery, 265 small block....It got yanked around and abused pretty good. I like the shingles for floor patches. Hey, they did what they could to keep drivin.

 

Beautiful, subscribed. Hope to one day find something similar.

 

Got the doors fitting as close as possible and then welded in plenty of 1” square tubing before pulling the body off the frame.

I thought this was pretty cool. Last time inspected and licensed in 61.

 

Now here’s where the two post lift earns its keep. Makes it a one man job.
Time for a trip to the ol car wash.
It’s getting serious now.

 

Further evidence that it belonged to a young fella back then.

 

I really like your car. It has that certain look about it where I half expect "Wally" & "Eddie Haskell" from Leave It To Beaver to both be sitting in it. ENJOY!

 

Great project and a nice car! Lippy

 

Hahaa. Thanks. Exactly how it seems, with those stickers on the visor. I could see them hacking up that front crossmember the way it looks.

 

Bolted the frame to a little trailer so I could get it outside to sandblast. Not my favorite pastime, but it’s all part of the job.
Dragged this thing inside so I could rig up a fixture to hold the frame while making repairs/mods.

 

Bought some 3x3 tubing and made cross runners/uprights to attach the frame to. Got everything leveled up and secured.
Using Wescotts frame diagram for reference, started checking dimensions. To my surprise it was in pretty good shape, dimensionally. It does have some rust that will have to be repaired, but overall, I’m pretty happy with it.

 

There was some rust between the outer rails and the x member that caused some distortion along the lip. I blasted into the gap as best i could and then drilled through the top layer so i could pinch the two together and then plug weld them together. Might not have been necessary, but I thought it couldn't hurt, and might even add some strength.

 

After getting all the problem areas plug welded, I went on to drill/knock out the rivets to remove the front crossmember and the gusset plates in front of it. When I made the deal to buy the car, I got all the parts that the prior owner had gathered up for several years. In the stash was a brand new NOS front crossmember. I was glad he had the foresight to pick up those parts back when they were still available here and there. I shot some UPOL weld through coating on the areas between the rails and the new crossmember before sliding/tapping it into position. Then I bolted it in temporarily and drilled some holes here and there to plug weld through the rails and into the crossmember. I figure that will hold it secure when I get to the re-riveting step.

 

I mocked up an old block, empty trans case, torque tube, and hung the rear back in it. removed the spring and raised the rear to where I hope will be ride height. Welded some 1" tubing with a saddle to clamp the housing to, so I could loosen the clamp and rotate the rear to get my pinion angle right. I'm converting the banjo to open drive, and will be running a non traditional trans.(which I will leave out details about). I had Nostalgia Sid drop my axle and spindles, install new king pins and bushings. Very happy with that. Nice work by a nice bunch of folks. This is pretty much where I'm at presently, although I am building a flathead and working on repairing the hacked up dash. I'll post a couple pics of the motor just for fun.

 

Really like your build, coming along nicely.
Here's a pic of the Lumpy's "rag top" featured on "Leave it to Beaver" (actually it's a '40 though).