Customs My 50' 4-Door Shoebox

Hello everyone, wanted to start a build thread for my 50' 4-door shoebox. I know 2-doors are a whole lot more desirable but I am married with two little girls so the extra 2 doors makes life a lot easier. I picked it up from a guy out of Oakdale, CA who had owned it for a few years. The flat head and three speed tranny were long gone and he had swapped in a 302/ C4 tranny. A buddy of mine went along with me to pick it up. When we got there the pictures looked a whole lot better as is usually the case, lol. The guy had tried to do the whole fake patina thing and then did a horrible job clearing the whole thing. It had a nice dent in the rear bumper and the interior was pretty roached out. I fell in love with it and all its flaws. It fired right up and we took it for a test drive. Drove great and sounded good. Brakes stopped as they should and lights all worked. I payed the man and we strapped her to the trailer for the ride home. I have owned the car since May of this year and have tried to work on it a little bit at a time. I will update with all that I've done but here is what she looked like when I brought her home.

 

looks like a fairly decent body....either way, I would repair any damage, nose and deck it, add fenderskirts (not 3-ribbed factory), lower it (not slammed) get rid of that paint and replace the interior.
There....that ought to just about do it...then enjoy.

 

Dam!, no flathead.
Nothing wrong with a more door though.
I would maybe at least get rid of the clear coat.
Keep the updates coming.

 

Looks like its going to be a fun project for you
and your family ------enjoy

 

Thanks for all the input ! When I got back home the first thing I did was throw it up on jack stands and pulled the wheels off. All the brake shoes, wheel cylinders, and hardware checked out. All the brake lines and hoses looked fairly new as well. The master cylinder looked new and the fluid was good to go. I crawled underneath to check out the rest of the drive train and this is when I discovered my new "pets" of the 8 legged kind. I am not a fan of any spiders especially black widows. I used a few bug grenades and had our pest guy hit the garage with a "special blend" for spiders. This seemed to do the trick. I had a little extra play money so I threw some 3" lowering blocks in the rear and ordered up a set of Cokers. Painted up the wheels with rattle can paint and clear. At this point with my play money spent I had nothing else to do but drive her ! On a side note I did notice an oil leak coming from the front of the engine.... More on that later on.. I decided to check out her grocery getting abilities and she passed with flying colors ! Lol..

 

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Fordors need lovin too.
And it looks like you got yourself a nice running
example that the whole family can be proud of.

Good score

.

 

I had to do something about the door panels and faded camo seat covers. My awesome wife hooked up the door panels all I did was cut out the wood. Got some cheap saddle blanket seat covers that look a little better. Also had to do something with the steering wheel so I tried my hand at repairing it. Not the best job but it will do for now !

 

Nothing wrong with "more doors" - you're on your way now - looks great!

 

Thanks for all the kind words everyone. Next on the list was taking care of the oil leak from the front end of the motor. I have a really good friend that works as a mechanic for the city. He told me to bring it over and we could bang it out in a weekend. I ordered up all the gaskets and we got it done over two days. He noticed the engine had the wrong dipstick so I took care of that as well. One day I will change a few things but for now it runs great and is dependable. Installed some new gauges so I could see what was going on with the motor better as well. Rattle bombed the dash with some metallic silver and cleared it. Also added some new dash knobs.

 

Looking good nice to see another more door being built! Have fun Jim

 

Hey your dash knobs look great - where did you get them?

 

Thanks Bludice ! I had a guy make them for me. I can send you his info if your interested. Super nice guy and price was pretty reasonable.

 

Lookin Good!

 

Looks great!

 

Your doing a great job on her.Now drive her and enjoy her! Bruce.

 

Found this on Egay figured for 20 bucks it would make a cool wall hanger. Too bad someone cut it up ! Painted it metallic green and hung it over the wife's work bench, lol.

 

Don't ever apologize for having a four door...I have one, love it and screw anyone that doesn't like it. I briefly had a '49 four door shoebox...love those cars 2 doors, 4 doors, no doors. Good luck with your build...hope you and your ladies have many amazing memories and a ton of fun!

 

Ditto on 4 doors - family friendly, buddies friendly, and getting more and more popular all the time, plus for now they are easilier on the wallet. More and more are showing up ate the car shows too!

 

Thanks again everyone for the encouragement ! None of my buddies that have 2 doors give me any flak for my 4 door so it's all good. I like it and my girls do too !! Decided on a color and ordered up the paint. I have only painted one other vehicle and it was a single stage paint. Then I started the whole sanding process.. Also played around with some tape for fun.

 

Looks great so far , can't wait to see it in it's new color.

 

Nothing nicer than a dark blue shoebox. Can't wait to see where this one goes.

 

I did the best I could getting it ready for paint, I'm definitely not a body guy so it's not perfect at all. Enlisted a couple buddies and we towed it over to a good friends ranch out in the country. The weather wasn't the best outside since it was about 100 that day so we started early. I was pretty happy with the way it came out for only my second time shooting a car. I know its not ideal to shoot a car outside but it was my only option.

 

that looks amazing.

 

Nice work, cool car & way to get after it! Flux

 

Looks superior rather than that Fake patina, you done good and you know it dried good unlike rust-oleum.

 

Looks pretty darn good all in one color !

 

I like that color of blue. Been looking for a 4dr myself.

 

Hey everyone thanks for the kind words about the paint. I definetly think its better than the fake patina job. I would one day like to have the body work and paint done by someone who knows what their doing but it's out of my budget for now. I really wanted to get the bumpers back on and I found a new rear one without the huge dent in it for cheap. The chrome was wasted on both and was flaking off. My wife accidentally brushed up against the front one day and it gave her a pretty nasty cut. I hated to do it but I had to hit both the front and rear with the grinder then sprayed some clear on them. I didn't want my two girls to get cut either since they are always playing around it anyways. Hopefully sometime soon I can get them chromed or find a decent set for not too much.

 

Hallo Notsofurias, great work on your box....and the blue is: WOW thats so awesome!!!!

 

That looks Great nice job especially on a budget I cant wait to get my budget build to that point Congrats! Jim