TECH WEEK: Chopping a 1947 Ford Sedan Coupe

Hell JimC.
Are you really that petty and then not vote.
On top of it, you remove your post??

 

WOW. Kinda strange. Carry on.....

 

The zipp cut is getting migghty nervous about now...

This realy gets me pointed in the right direction, i'd been having resurection fantasies of the old girl in an all new look.
I'm partial to the tail draggn', boniville hard top chop and yours now...
thank you for such a helpful set of photo's and explanation, i'm stoked.

 

Nice work! Subscribing.

 

Thanks again guys. And to ALL that voted. I am proud tha I held 3rd a**** all of the great tech there was. I appreciate it!

 

I'm digging the chop.

 

We will be atarting another thread soon. We have gotten the frame blasted and are painting it this evening. The body is at teh blaster as well. Ready for pick up. Then the fun begins. Smooth, mould, tuck, stretch, french, recess, and m***age.

 

Nevermind....

 

First of all, I wanted to thank everyone who voted for us in Tech Week Contest. We came in third behind two very good submissions. We are honored in being in the Top 3. ​

I started another thread but did not get too many responses. So I will continue with this one. ​

This is the start of a build thread of a 1947 Ford Sedan Coupe. There was
We want to take it to the Goodguys in Loveland in the beginning of June. We have a lot of work ahead of us with not much time. The car will not be finished but we want to show off the chop we did on it in metal finish. I have a 12 hour-a-day job and Shannon has his customer’s cars he works on during the day. It only leaves evenings and some weekends to do work.​

So here are some current progress pictures:​

The plan is to get everything blasted and start fresh. This will expose all the rust that we need to deal with give is a clean slate.​

We pulled off the body and set it on stands. Pulled off the doors. (Does anyone have a spare set of lower door hinges by the way) The frame will be dis***embled and sent to the blasters too.​

The plan is to get everything blasted and start fresh. This will expose all the rust that we need to deal with give is a clean slate.

We pulled off the body and set it on stands. Pulled off the doors. (Does anyone have a spare set of lower door hinges by the way) The frame will be dis***embled and sent to the blasters too.










After we chopped the car last month, we made our own rotisserie because we felt paying $1200 for a premade adjustable one plus shipping was crazy. For those who do not have one, make one or get one, they are amazing.









We put some pnuematic casters on it in order to be able to roll it around on the gravel easily. It also made it easier to load it on the trailer.





Got it blasted and took the car for a drive in the woods.





Got it back to the shop and started to prepare the bottom of the floor and put some more tacks on the roof. The floor was a *****in kit that was installed a long time ago. It had some rossette welds in it already but the bottom looked like **** and needed help. We uses self drilling screws to pull the metal together tight. We then drilled some small 1/8 holes next to them and welded them shut. As we pulled each screw out, we welded the opened hole.










There was still some POR-15 left after the blasting which as what you burning. We ran out of welding wire right after this shot and it was 9:00 PM. Home Depot was closed. Put a stop for the nights work.

We have a lot of ideas and plans with this build. In truth, the car actually belongs to my uncle who is funding the build but has been in my possession for over 10 years. When I picked up the vehicle, I was given the instructions to make this a "Street Rod" project with a fuel injected motor and all modern interior, billet, tweed, blah blah blah. How plans change. The first big change was the chop. There is no stopping now.

There are going to be some modern items that some of you will frown on but we will do our best to conceal that aspect of it. As of now, we already had a modern frame that was made for the vehicle. That update will follow.
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Next up is the progress on the frame. We had this blasted prior to the body and picked it when we dropped off the body. The frame is only about 10 years old so there was not much to clean up.









We hit with some etching primer.





Hung up all the extra frame components.



We fabricated some frame holders that we could grab unto and flip the frame as needed. Flipping: Easier said than done. The frame looks light but it is not.















Started ***emblying the front suspension. Hard-core traditionalist: close your eyes.



Here are some final shots. These are the wheels from my 49 and are not staying, just for props.











So for now, the frame is done until we need to plum the fuel lines and brake lines.

 

Got a little more work done last night. We started marking off areas were rust would need to be repaired. We also found some areas that were still coated in bondo, even after blasting. We found someone had stuffed fibergl*** matting into the hole, resined it and then covered it up with bondo. Amazing to say the least.

The running boards came from *****in and were designed to replace the originals as a bolt and go. We found they would look very unflattering to say the least. We decided to mold them in to the quarter panel portion but not have the door extend over it. We cut the rusted portion where the running board used to bolt in the body. With a little bracing, the thick running board now serves as the bottom of the quarter panel behind the door.


I fixed the picture size to fit the screen better.













Started by measuring how much would need to be cut from the running boards in order to sit flush with the doors and body.





















We also started filling the trim holes that had been previously sealed up with bondo.

Neat trick that Shannon showed me using a sheetmetal hole puncher.







We also started welding in shouldered nuts on the inner fender wells that hold the fenders.

 

Small update from last night. The right cowl was hit more than once in its lifetime. It had been repaired with lead a couple of times and even brazed in some areas. We were able to get a donor piece off another vehicle that at least had the body lines intact but still needed some work. Here were are cutting the old one out and marking in the new one. Sorry for the ****py cell phone pics.










We found another car that was a little bit better but not by much.



















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Some more updates for now. We are cutting it close. This car is suppose to be running and driving around the block in two weeks. We concentrated in getting the major headaches under the vehicle done so we can put back on the frame and finish welding the top and smoothing it out. We removed the rusted out bottom of the body that was in front the rear wheel. Here are some pics to better explain:

Right side rear wheel well: Tape lines of where we are cutting:



Bottom of right side in front of rear wheel area. Running board used to be bolted to this area. Can you tell water was trapped in it?





Right side front door hinge area. A lot of work will be needed here.





Cutting the rotted piece out. The side of the rocker was actually pretty solid, just some surface rust.







This is the right front corner once we cut into it:



The start of rebuilding that corner. Since we are no longer bolting in the running boards, we are using them as the bottom.





Now to start paying attention to the bottom. I love this rotisserie!

It is a little hard to tell with the car sideways, but the right rocker has the inner wall removed. We are fabricating a bolt on cover the will be used to run the battery cable and vehicle wiring loom from front to back.









We used Herculiner truck bed liner to coat the bottom of the car. Should be enough protection to last a long time:



The stuff can give you a headache, so wear the right equipment!

 

Got some work done on the frame. Ran the brake lines and fuel lines. Installed a temporary rear end, transmission and engine that we are using just to get us into Goodguys show in two weeks. Also installed a new "TANKS" fuel tank. The tank is nice quality. I also like that the it draws the fuel from the top on the right side instead of the botttom from the left side.











Borrowing a third member from another vehicle just to be able to move it under its power.



Borrowing the engine and trans as well.

 

More updates tomorrow night!!

 

Nicely done, and the step by step photos were appreciated. ..............Thanks!
firstnomad

 

Super job so far. Actually impressive.

Keep us posted.

Paco

 

Looking good, nice repair work, keep posting.

 

Thank guys. We have just this weekend to get it running and driving. I set up the walker radiator last night and used a *****IN products radiator mounting kit. Let me just say, I was *****IN all night long as to the quality and fit of the parts.... nuff said.
Shannon did some welding on the roof. We installed a new steering column and steering shafts. Coming along. Will we make it?

 

Damn right we will!!

 

Bump!

 

it's a driver!! pix soon. Maybe a little video to go with it.

 

I just have some pics from my cell phone. I'll try to post the short video too. Sorry for the ****py resolution.

 

Let's see if this works.

 

Man, you guys don't mess around! The lines of the chop are a lot more evident when seeing the whole car. What an improvement over the stock height!

 

Thanks, its been stressful to say the least. Doors are on, seat frame is in, grille is installed and charging wire is hooked up. Last minute grinding tonight and its on the trailer to show the chop at the Goodguys in Loveland this weekend.

 

Did you reinstall drip rails?

Chop looks great, just needs a bigger motor with a blower... oh wait, thats the other coupe.

 

Looks Great! Thanks for all the updates and pics!

I'm looking forward to more of them

 

not yet. We did not have time. We will be taking a break from this for a while. I am really booked right now and want to keep the time on the proper cars. Like yours for example!

 

I'll post some more updated pics tomorrow when I download them.