Projects Another shoebox build thread...The Mystery Machine!

Ever since I first started on the HAMB, I've loved the shoebox Fords. Well, as some of you already know, I got one a few weeks ago. It's a 1950 four-door sedan the previous owner had as a parts car. I saw the grille and custom touches and knew I had to preserve it. It has a few rust spots here and there but overall is in pretty good shape. I call it the Mystery Machine for now not because of any plans for a psychedelic paint job, or to drive around solving mysteries with a dog, but because I have no idea what's under the hood. I plan to change that today, but I wanted to get a build thread at least started.

Here's a picture of it while a buddy and I were picking it up:


And here are some of it in my garage:





Plans are to drop it with Aerostar coils and dropped springs, 302/AOD combo (unless there's something really special under the hood already), replace the rust and paint it a dark blue. And then drive the snot out of it.

 

Pop that hood already!!!

 

By the time I got the bumper off my son was up from his nap so had to end it there. May go back at it tonight or tomorrow night, im tired of not having the hood off. Ended up being a 2-man job, had to have my dad come over and help.
Found some clothespins in the bumper guards, anyone know what those might have been for?

 

Holding wet clothes on a wash line ??

Ha-ha , had to do it !!

 

Awesome ! Finally your tearing into it, PB blaster will become your good friend with rusty nuts and bolts. Any sneak peek pics of what might be under the hood ? Did you jack it up to look under ? Not sure about the clothes pins might have been used to hold a cover on at one time .....

 

I've already used about half a can of PB blaster, it was on sale a few weeks ago and I stocked up. Tried to get a couple of pictures of the oil pan, couldn't get far enough back to get any good ones. Haven't jacked it up yet, it's currently using bricks as wheel chocks and I want to get something more secure before I do so.

 

Worked on it some today. I hate to say it but I may have to cut up that tube grille that's on it. Looked at it some today before tackling the splash apron removal, and figured out that the grille is attached to the splash apron, and then to the parking light trim. So even after removing the splash apron bolts, I'd have to take the grille off anyways. So I've been focusing on removing the grille. I've got the upper and lower mounts taken care of (where it bolts to the grille surround and splash apron, respectively) but the head of the machine screw attaching it to the parking light trim on the passenger side is almost stripped, and I can't hardly get my hand behind the grille to get a wrench on the nut. Tried to do the driver side, but my wedding ring wouldn't let my finger fit through the bars. Anybody have any ideas, other than cutting the bar that connects to the parking light trim? I'm guessing I have to have access to the parking light trim from behind in order to remove it. I checked the green bible, and can't find any guidance there.

 

I take it the cable is broken? You can bend a piece of steel rod or a cheap screwdriver and go between the hood and grille bar and hook the latch arm where the cable attaches. See if these pics I just took of my 50 show it better.

 

@badshifter Yes the cable is broken, problem is it's got that aftermarket grille, '51 hood and hood surround on it so I'm not sure I can go in between there. I'll look at it tomorrow and see. @Pist-n-Broke told me to go up behind the grille after removing the bumper and splash apron so that's what I was going for.

 

Congrats on your shoebox,it looks a lot better than mine did! I hope your project goes well.

 

Thanks, it's gotten off to a bit of a slow start but I plan to keep at it. I've been following your build thread, didn't your rockers have quite a bit of bondo in them like mine do?

 

The front rockers were new,the rears were pretty much bondo and air.there was a fair amount of air involved in that car!

 

Yeah, the ones on mine are mostly bondo with what looks like silver drywall tape on the outside. Thank goodness for EMS!

 

That's a bummer about the grille. I was checking out the pics and it looks kind of tweaked and rusted anyways. I would just cut it out if need be... If your super attached to it you could always have it fixed up and re-chromed. It is pretty unique though can't say I have ever seen one before on a shoebox !

 

I'm kind of on the fence about the grille. It is unique, but I don't know how I feel about it other than that. I've thought about just cutting it out, but I'm also not really sure what I'd replace it with. Cutting it is a last resort, but if it has to happen it has to happen.

 

Going between the hood and grill surround isn't going to work without damaging something. Wish it was that easy. Rusted, worn and damaged screws and bolts is just part of these Old cars. My advice on them is to use a 3" cutoff disc and remove the heads or nuts, what ever end is showing. I know removing the splash pan is tough but if there was an easier way I would have found it and shared it with you. Another way to look at it is no matter what, before you are done with the project it will all most likely come totally apart. Cutting off or braking off some of the fastners is just part of the job.
The Wizzard

 

@Pist-n-Broke Thanks, that's what I figured, if there was an easier way to do it you would have mentioned it. I think I'll take a Dremel to the heads of the screws holding it to the parking light trim, I don't think there's room for a cutoff wheel without getting too close to other things like the grille extension there above the parking light.

Here's a picture of the area, the bolt I'm talking about is in the middle of the red rectangle:

 

with the clothes pins you found I would guess a flathead that was thought to cure vaporlock by attatching to fuel line

 

I can't blame you for trying to remove the grill. I hope that will work for ya, My guess is that the 3 vertical bars of the grill will be bolted to the upper cross brace with the hood latch at a point you may not be able to get to until the hood is open.
The Wizzard

 

Damn, I wish I was closer. I'm pretty good at figuring out how to do stuff like that. Rusted/broken cables are pretty common on British stuff.

What about jacking up the front good and high, and reaching up around the battery box and just giving the cable sheath a good tug, and see if it'll slip and unlatch it ? Worth a shot, you need a cable anyways .
If not, I'd keep working at the grille. Once that's out of the way, you'll be home free to pop it from underneath and stuff. If all else fails, you'll have to sacrifice the grille to the car gods . You can remake it with some stainless tubing or something, and make it even better. Sometimes you've just gotta cut bait and move on ...

 

That is what I was thinking.

 

I hadn't thought of that, makes a lot of sense.

Actually, I'm lucky in that regard, the vertical bars aren't connected to anything. My father in law was supposed to come over today and bring a dremel tool to get that off, he ended up not coming over. Literally the only things holding it on at this point are the screws through the parking light trim.

@Buddy Palumbo I hadn't thought of that, I'm not sure where the cable is busted but if getting the grille off doesn't work I'll give that a shot if I can get up in there. I wish you were closer too, if my build turns out half as nice as yours I'll be happy.

 

The only way I could see this working at all is if the inner cable is rusted solid to the jacket. I went and measured from the bottom of the frame rail around the Batt just to the cable jacket and it's 33". How long is your arm? Add in the jacket is, or should be, fastened in 2 places to the inner panels with cable clamps. You might get lucky, let me know how that works out.
The Wizzard

 

I have gotten pretty good results on sticky trim screws that I needed to save by heating the screws with a propane torch and tapping the end of the screwdriver handle with a plastic hammer before cranking on it.About 80 % success rate.If there is a little nut on the back 90 degree or 45 degree tip needle nose can be a big help.Good luck.

 

Not that long, I'm not Kevin Durant lol. I'll hit it tomorrow with the dremel and see how that goes. I will say the radiator seems to be farther forward than I would expect (right behind the hood latch support) so my guess is six-cylinder, anybody else care to venture a guess?

 

I'm figuring with it up high (and with great determination being a factor) , one could wiggle up there a bit between the engine and rad to get a shoulder higher than the frame rail to grab the cable . Thinking that the center cable is solid and the outer sheath is wound , the outer sheath should stretch and pull on the center cable a bit (even though there are a couple clips up front on the rad support that will hold the outer sheath still) . That's my theory , at least , lol !!
If the rad is way far front into the lower pan , I'm betting on 6-popper as well - or may have been originally .

 

Sounds like a good theory at least. That last part is the kicker - I'm curious to see if it's had something else swapped in at some point. It does still have the manual trans on the column, so whatever's in there would have to bolt up to that.

 

Didn't see this before, for whatever reason. The issue is not that the screw is stuck, it's that I can't get a wrench (or even needlenose pliers, I tried) behind it to hold the square nut so it'll turn without just spinning. Even then, my screwdriver's eating away at the head, so it probably just needs to be taken off anyway. I've got the Dremel tool from my father-in-law, I'll see what I can do tonight.

 

So did you get the hood open? Did you try 90 degree tip needle nose to get at the little nut?