Yet when I ask $25,000 for my original bodied and ***led 39 deluxe Ford coupe with 283, powerglide, 57 rear and springs, and 12V people laugh. Body and dash, even working gauges, basically original and no rust or damage. Yes, mine rattles, has no AC and rides rough. Just like a 39 Ford should ride. Been sitting since mid-70's so things are rotten and need replaced. $100,000 should do it. But I'll bet it could be on the road for under $5,000 and some busted knuckles. Maybe I should sell it.
This is wonderful news and should let '40 Ford people sleep a little easier knowing they have replacement parts. I don't expect this will be like the '32 Highboy. That was much simpler to build and became an instant hit. No worries of rust, resale value high, and for you sceptics, this is steel and a good thing for hotrodding. The steel's made in the United States by Bethlehem Steel.
its great to have the parts but guess where these bodys come from? china is what i have been told. imagine that!
perfect point.. additionally.. I dont see why this was a need.. I can find a dozen 40 coupes in a matter of minutes thanks to the web.. I have a complete set of sheetmetal for a moment when the right one comes along.. which I will NOT be paying 15K for.
plenty of original examples, maybe so, but we're looking at brand new stampings with modern welding that have never been hit, never seen 70 years of weather and road vibration, never been cut up and put back together with chicken wire and filler... the Mustang fanatics said the same thing when Dynacorn came out with new shells, ones that hadn't been cobbled together from clapped-out ****boxes that had been run into the ground when they were just another "used car".... i think there's a fear of losing exclusivity more than a fear of lost authenticity. how many 4 door sedans have been converted into 2 doors, coupes, or convertibles over the past few years? anybody crying "foul" over that? i didn't think so. i don't see why building a rod up from a decent donor and one of these bodies should cost $100k, either... if, indeed, original '40's can be bought complete for less than $15k, then replacing the body at another $15k only brings the total to around $30k for a new shell, rust free, on your running gear.
Here here. I'd go for one if I were in the market. I don't think whining is going to stop this from happening.
i have owned a couple fortys, i have to say i looked these over pretty good in person, and the quality is pretty good.
It's funny, this morning I was searching for parts for my '40 pickup and came across Dennis' web site and thought a new steel coupe is just the ***s. I came back on to the H.A.M.B and bam there's a thread on it. If I had the folding then yep I'd have one for sure, china or not. Scotty
It probably took a sizeable chunk o' change for Carpenter to step into Drake's place in keeping this project alive. I'd guess he negotiated some sort of commitment from Ford to "purchase" some number of units that in turn gave him the ability to formulate a business plan that demonstrated sufficient potential sales to induce some investor(s) into lending him the "start up" capital. Capitalism doesn't function without capital. If that's how the back story goes, or something like that, then Carpenter is a pretty savvy business guy. I hope it works for him, there should be reward for taking such chances if they're well thought out. BTW, Ford selling rights to use of it's trade name falls under trademark law, not copyright. A small nit perhaps, but important distinction if a legal action is necessary. I believe when he said a commitment from Ford to "purchase", he didn't mean Ford would buy the bodies but to gain licensing income from future body sales. As a business capital proposal, Carpenter would tell potential investors "I have a nod from Ford (estimate) that I'll probably sell **x bodies in **x amount of years". Carpenter may have used past sales numbers of comparable steel repro bodies such as Brookville or SAR to sell his proposal. Maybe he fronted the whole endeavor himself? At any rate, we've seen recent cases here where a coupe body shell or panels could have been utilized to repair a wasted car; The recently posted towing accident that could use a roof and driver's quarter. Mastergun recently parted out a coupe body that had laid on its drivers side and needed a quarter and partial roof. Tom Medley's burned coupe. Maybe just as cheap to replace the shell rather than hammer out the burned original. I agree that a 49-51 Merc coupe shell would be a hit. Also, a 40 Willys coupe shell would be insane. Imagine how many 4 dr. sedans would be conversion bait?
Right now I'm pricing out what it would cost to fully restore my shelled-out '40 Standard Tudor that still needs a new floor pan, chain box, etc. Just for kicks, I decided to put together a list and prices from the catalogs to see what all is out there in case I found a coupe to drop the parts into. So far, minus new floor pan, fenders, running boards and other sheet metal, I'm looking at $10K just to replace parts that are missing on mine, and that's not yet including soft trim, paint, rebuilding the flathead or rear axle, and there's a bunch of ch***is/suspension parts I still have to factor in. Plus I have fenders that are in poor enough shape that they probably would be better to replace with new. I am really tempted to look into the Drake/Carpenter body if I could get all the coupe bits I need, and that's pretty minimal at this point. Since I already have a front seat from a tudor I'd build a 'business' coupe with the jump seats. The stainless side trim is available, so that's not a problem. The few pieces unique to the coupe that I'd have to get that aren't repop'ed would be door and quarter window garnish (would garnish moldings from a 4-door work? I ***ume they could), but I'd be looking at well over $25K before I begin putting it together. At least I still have the headliner bows from the rolled'n'rusted out '40 coupe I boned out 30+ years ago. I don't have $15-20K to drop for an original '40 coupe that still needs over $10k worth of restoration work, rubber, etc. to bring it up to 'new' condition. The last '40 coupe I looked at a couple of years ago at the Lincoln Swap Meet had a $15K price tag on it and, while it was a running car, it still needed a lot of work. BTW, I haven't seen anything on a 'new' hood for the car, just body and fenders. Did someone go ahead and make a new hood? If so, then I'd consider getting one and building my tudor into a Deluxe since I have the pieces for a Deluxe grille, none of the guts for a Standard grille but two Standard hoods.
i'm wondering if someone has thought about replicating the garnish trim that seems so hard to find? seems to me that it could be made out of fiberglas and would look the part so closely that only experts would know the difference. i saw an original '40 frame the other day, at a friend's shop, and if it was ANY indication of what most of them look like after 70 years, i'd think long and hard about using it. i can't recall what he replaced it with, but it had serious rust all through it. i suppose individual states may be the deciding factor on what they're licensed as, depending on the ***le used, whether they're considered a '40, simply rebodied, or a 2012 built from the ground up.... i'd prefer the '40 ***le myself.
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