I just picked up a 1951 Ford Custom. The car is very solid. Only has minor rust damage in the trunk. The worst parts on the car are the passenger side quarter panel in front of the wheel well. Some one drilled a lot of holes to pull out an old dent. Someone did a real hack job on the trans tunnel (which is ok with me....because I was going to be cutting it out to make room for a more modern overdrive transmission). And there was a real bad patch job done on the front floor pans. Basically a flat piece of metal was laid over the old pan and epoxied into place. The plans for the build are: Smooth out all the body panels Shaved doors Frenched headlights Fix the floors and trunk Mustang gas tank 93 mustang 8.8 rear with 5 lug conversion 3:55 gears 302 sbf an an E4OD trans. Rebel wiring harness Drop block in the rear Aerostar springs up front And a moderat chop. Luckily the shoebox already came with sbf engine mounts Bringing her home The passenger quarter panel is the worst body panel on the car. E4OD transmission out of 96 F150 (my dads old truck) 96 302 (also out of my dads old truck) Stock bottom end. Ford Motorsport roller B cam Ford Motorsport 1.6 roller rockers GT40P heads Comp cam valve springs And a dual plane intake. Small rust hole in lower kick panel Patch from one of the previous owners You can also see the hacked up trans tunnel Passenger side...same kind of patch as the drivers side. And another shot of the trans tunnel Back side of rocker is solid Underneath is very solid...all body mounts are good. You can see where the drivers floor was cut out and the trans crossmember has been cut as well. Solid rear floors. Before I started cleaning the floors
Currently working on cleaning the car up. Seeing what all needs patched and doing some research on brakes and other parts. I’ll keep this updated as much as I can.
looks like a visit to a shop that can blast it clean to save a lot of time and labor - consider a early 60's T-Bird set of seats - be sure to figure out glass before chopping
Already planning on having the whole body blasted. Just working on getting most of the old coating off the floors and trunk 1st.
I completely agree.... I have a stud gun and love it. I trying to decide if I want to try and save the original quarter or just invest in a patch....or make a patch
Looks like it has good bones, my '51 is set up similar to your plans, you will have a good time with it! I used an AOD behind my 302 and didn't have to touch the floor/tunnel at all so you might have to just patch up the damage and keep it simple.
The E4OD is very large. I’m debating about either a manual 3sp with over drive or switching to an AOD. I already have one of the old ford SROD transmissions out of a truck at the house. Really starting to lean in that direction.
I managed to get a couple of hours in on the 51 this evening. I got most of the passenger side stripped. You can really see how beat up the passenger quarter panel is. I think I have decided to run this 3 speed with overdrive SROD transmission out of an early 80’s F250. The shifter position on these is farther forward than the ones that came out of the cars. So it should be in a position forward of the bench seat.
Got a few more hours in yesterday. Managed to patch the lower passenger door and cowl area. Then I ripped up the old patch in the passenger floorboard to see how bad the damage was. Looks like a lot more cutting and welding in my future. While I wait to order a floor pan I will go ahead and patch the rocker panel. I’m really debating about cutting off the passenger quarter panel in the damaged area and just work the original steel back into shap. It would give me a good excuse to go ahead and invest in an English wheel. Lol
Not really a build thread, I bought a '50 coupe from a friend who has health issues and the car had sit for several years, I have just been going through it and fixing a lot of things. I have some sheet metal work to do also but my main objection is to get it on the road and address some of the sheet metal work over the winter months. HRP https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/1950-ford-club-coupe-my-new-project.1116699/ https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/1950-ford-club-coupe-my-new-project.1116699/
I didn’t get much work done on the 51 over the weekend. I did managed to go pick up my freshly rebuilt 302. And dropped off a 292 Y-block to be rebuilt for my 54 F100. I also scored a bell housing. I drove over an hour away to go get it but for $60 bucks it was worth the drive. With the bellhousing in hand I was able to get the engine and trans mocked up in the 51. I’m pretty sure the engine frame mounts I have are the Jamco Suspension mounts. I’m using a 96 F150 oil pan. I seem to have good clearance all around. I still need to fab the mount for the trans and get it centered.
My cousin owns a machine shop and is going to make me a set of dies for a bead roller like the one pictured below that finnrodder made for his shoebox. Once I have them I will start making my patch panels for the floor and then I can fab up a trans tunnel. I really wish th PO hadn’t butchered the trans tunnel. The below picture is from finnrodders build. Just showing what floors made with the custom made dies shown above can look like.
The fox body mustang rear end is 59 11/44......so I guess I’ll be on the lookout for another rear...I guess I miss read the measurement when I 1st looked it up. If I can’t find an 8” from Maverick or Granada I’ll go with a ranger rear end
I'm planning to do a Ranger rear end with Mustang disc brakes on the rear, and maybe Mustang gears if I can't find a Ranger unit geared the way I want. Kind of a "Frankenstein's axle" situation.
I lucked out and found a Maverick rear for mine on ebay of all places. Nice job on the floors & trans tunnel by the way. Looking good!
Good find on the Maverick rear. The floor and tunnel above is not the one in my car...that is from finnrodders build...was using it to show as an example of what those custom bead roller dies can do
Good score! It might be pretty tall geared with OD and the 3.08 though, I'm running 3.55's behind the AOD and it just loping along at 65-70.
I have another 8.8 from a mustang that already has a trac lock and 3.55 gears. Might swap them over. I just want the car to be a good cruiser. And low interstate rpm's would be a great thing.
I'd go with the AOD and 3.55 gears, or get a C4 for the 3.08 gears. The E4OD is the electronic version of the C6 so a) it's going to suck more horsepower, b) it's HUGE (as you've noted), and c) it's electronic, so you'll have to get a computer (if you don't already have one). The C4 or AOD will be a better choice over the AOD, just depends on what you want to do on the rearend.
That was my goal as well. My '66 Mustang (302, 4 speed, 3.25 gears) turns right at 3000 rpm at 70 mph, so I wanted the '51 to be my cruiser. I passed up a couple of C-4's to get the AOD, took quite awhile to find one in my area, because I wanted the gas mileage and the low rpm's the OD would give me. Critchdizzle has an excellent point on the E4OD, the computer and the wiring that is required is a pain; not to mention the huge size difference. The AOD goes in without any cutting at all; all I had to do was modify the trans. cross-member a bit.
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