Customs Looking at purchasing a 41 Ford Coupe and have questions

Won't get the skirts till next Wednesday it seems as the guy couldn't ship them out as he was stuck in the snow in vermont. I did put a couple miles on this thing the other day and it's running great.

 

Shazam! In my best Gomer Pyle voice . Skirts and caps, also got insurance today so it's actually legal to drive. If I can run some wires for the headlights and tail lights perhaps I'll drive it home. I bought the Caps from Summit and they said they're made by calcustom but they're really thin and kind of crappy so I may be looking for a nicer more solid pair if anybody knows who makes a good set.

 

Yeah they do, when they showed up they were discolored pretty bad and dusty but I washed them up with a nail cleaning brush and some hand soap and they came back to life

 

WOW! Man, that looks great!

 

Mine

 

Holy moly man that things very close looking to mine except you got a nice paint job haha. What size tires are you running on that thing?

 

Love the red wheels. Get flippers caps. Fix the left spotlight. Love the skirts.

 

BRAVO!!! Man, the skirts are right uptown! Any idea what the original name of mfr. was?
Flare skirts are rare, most are plain rolled bottoms.
Stance is excellent, just right!
@sinisterracing seems to have its twin! Envy here... (mine's a mordor, but already have skirts)

 

looks great..

 

Thanks everybody this is my dream custom and I'm happy how it's turning out. Got a few things done today. I took off the old drag links that were bent from hitting the oil pan and replaced them with new ones and set the alignment. Centered the steering box and tried to adjust it but it's plain worn out but I packed it full of grease anyways. I pulled a bunch of bad wiring from under the dash and made some new connections and replace the headlight switch and I've got lights. Got to do the tail lights and brake lights tomorrow. I installed the road draft tube finally and clean the coolant filters again. As far as the spotlights go I'm not sure if I'll keep them or not but they actually do work. I ordered some new springs for the door latch as they're busted inside and I've got to rebuild that tomorrow maybe . No clue on who made the skirts as there was no markings but they are pretty nice and fit perfect.

 

I'll take it back. The stance looks good now you have the skirts on. The drag link looks interesting. It looks like someone has modified it to take a standard tie rod end at both ends.

 

How did you correct the problem of the drag linkes hitting the pan?

 

they had both short door and long door. i prefer long door

 

To poco,When I put the front spring pack back together it raised the car up a couple inches so right now I've got about 2-in clearance on the pan. I do plan to put the 2-in drop axle in it and if I use dropped arms then they're going to be lower than the axle so I may just swap to a rear sump pan but that's going to be after I know that the motor is roadworthy enough.

 

Today I got the brake lights and tail lights fixed and working properly. Drove it about a mile and back to the gas station and figured I had to give it a shot and drive it home the 25 miles , that's what my younger self would have done LOL. Jumped in with no tools and headed for the Hills and made it home with no problems. Was doing 50 to 55 the whole way and had a burst up to 70 just to see if it could do it. By the time I got home the oil pressure had dropped to a little over nothing at idle haha. I'll change the oil again when I get to work tomorrow morning as this is the third oil change and Junk keeps coming out. The gas gauge is working properly so that's nice. It scrapes the pipes pretty good going in the driveway but no big deal. Didn't try to make it into the garage as I would have to move one of the model A's but I think it'll make it up over the hump.

 

Very cool! I enjoy doing things like my younger self would have done. Makes for better stories.

 

It was about 200° yesterday when I got home from coming up the hill by my house so I made a lower air dam and an upper air dam so that all the air that comes in the grill goes straight to the radiator and went up the even steeper Hill, when I got home today it was 170°. Had to borrow a wheelbarrow from the neighbor down the street to put some wood away so a utility vehicle it is

 

Been driving it for a few weeks now and everything is pretty nice. I ended up putting a set of Cheapo 3 pack of gauges in it to actually see what if the gauges were right in my Dash and they were not. So it's actually got pretty good oil pressure warmed up it's 40 going down the road and about 15 at idle which is great. In the morning it's about 40° outside and the car is running at 150 degrees, a little too cold even with the four blade fan I just got.on the way home even going up a grade it bareley got to 170.nothing to complain about I guess.

 

I've got about 500 miles on the car and if changes the oil numerous times to get all the junk out and last time I did I could still stick my finger in the oil pan and pull out chunks of sledge so I ended up dropping the pan and cleaning it all out. I've changed the oil one time since then and oil pressure is still pretty good and temperature is still great except it pushes water out on the way home but doesn't get hot. I also flush the cooling system out and clean the filters one more time and not too much stuff was in there so that's good. got an overflow and I'm guessing it probably pushes a quart out but then when it cool down sucks it back in. Got new gauges installed too that are a little more accurate and nicer looking. Going to be putting a new electric wiper motor in it today and all the linkage I got from a ham member. The motor is a little clackety and I kind of think the Piston is hitting the head somewhere if anybody remembers about my head gasket problems I had to double up the gaskets as it's got the Ford pistons in the Merc block and they stick out. I might just pull the heads again as the passenger side that I haven't touched is leaking oil out of one of the bolts

 

I like hot rods and customs, but was never fond of the "fat fendered" series.... That is except the '41. Never owned one, but been around a few, and in my humble opinion, the "short door" coupes seem to have the hot rod look, while the long door, or sedan coupes look better as customs. I reckon this is because of the top length. Aside from all that, this is a great find, and looks very cool just as it is !!!

 

Check the plugs before you pull the heads. I had the plug tips smushed flat on my flathead once. Must have been the high lift radical cam bouncing the valves at 7,000!

 

Actually I pulled the plugs last week and they all looked great

 

You are now running a completely full radiator. Pushing out a quart and sucking it back is normal. The original system would push out a certain amount if you filled it all the way and run at the lower radiator level.

 

Yep I get that I'm topping it off so it is going to push some out but it just seems like an awful lot as my hot rods and El Camino will barely push anything out unless it's 200° outside

 

Been driving this thing everyday for about 2 weeks straight and everything was going pretty good. The trans started giving me problems from second to third shifts. It didn't grind it just wouldn't go in unless I double clutched it. Fluids good and clean. Lubed up the linkage and checked all that and it's still good so I don't know maybe synchros but again it's not grinding. Today was 85° out and it got up to 200 going up the grade coming home and ate about a gallon of water. Going to check the plugs to see which cylinder it's going out of but I remember when I checked them last week that one was really really clean. Starter solenoid has been acting up the last few days so I just changed that. Was in a parking lot holding the push button and kicking the firewall where it's mounted to get it started, thanks Fonz for the moves..ehhhh

 

The past couple days I drove it back and forth to work it used a gallon of water in the 50 miles. This morning I checked the oil and there's some milkshake in there. Dun dun done. Well the plan was to either swap in the other unknown 8ba or swapping a 327 I have with an adapter kit. While talking with my boss he's got a 36 Ford Sedan that's got a hopped up 8ba with some aluminum heads and some other goodies which I have driven and it's really nice and has good power , and he's decided he's going to put a Chevy drivetrain in it so that's up for grabs. I told him I'd take it. It's got a C4 trans with the gear vendors in it but I don't need that but I'm sure somebody else could.

 

Had me worried for a second - glad it's staying flathead powered.
'41 are an underappreciated car if you ask me. Which you didn't, but that's never stopped me anyways.

 

I've built a couple Flathead powered cars for customers it always liked them. I've got a 31 Model A banger that I like that I actually just sold today so I can bring home the 41 and have room for it. This is my first flathead V8 personal car and I've fell in love with the Flathead. I'm glad it's staying Flathead powered too as I think it just keeps some kind of the cool with it