Hot Rods What was Henry thinking, 39Ford, now with pichers

Welp, got me a 39 tudoor, the cleanest car I ever bought, totally unmolested. Been in "the barn"( yep, they are still out there) since 1962. A few problems tho, them darn wide 5 wheels, the squirrels, and meeces got into the headliner and filled it full of walnuts, and last but not least, stuk engine,. So why on earth did H put the distributor in between the front of the engine and the radiator, Off to the parts store for a bucket of Kroil to see if I can loosen thing up.. I'll report back with sum pichers, and the results of the Kroil experiment after the slip juice does its work. Sure hate to use up one of my Cobra 289s to replace the flatmotor. Comments welcome, thanks Cheetahman

 

It may take a little time but those wide five wheels will grow on you. Somewhere here there is a thread devoted to the wide five.

 

Congratulations and sweet body style and wide five wheels are awesome. They have the best looking hubcaps and very unique look.
The 289 would fit into her nicely and give you plenty of HP.

 

That distributor is super easy to remove, fix and adjust on the bench, then reinstall with perfect timing. An offset tab will only go on one way unless you do it with your eyes closed.

 

I never understood the wide 5 deal either. I guess it is stronger than the normal close fit 5, stock car guys seem to like it on dirt cars.
I think the distributor was just Henry not wanting to change things. Not so bad in a car with a narrow hood, but like you said, pita on fat fenders. It never would have occurred to me to take it out to do points, I figured it would be easy to get it out of time.

 

Love those '39's. Post pics when you get a chance.

 

Once you get into it you will learn it was quite simple. No second or third moving parts to make. It comes out in seconds. You work on it where you can see things. And you're not laying on top of the fenders of customers cars. The next version was even better yet. Actually, it was quite ingenious. Henry subscribed to the KISS method.

 

Don't get me wrong, I love me some wide 5s, got lots of them laying around from the dirt track days, but finding wide ones in 15" with the artillery look ain't happenin'. As for the sparkalator, tough to get to where it's at, looks like the hood sides gotta come off along with thegrill and radiator, thanks for the input

 

Looking forward to yinz posting some pitchers. Love this bodystyle, and it sounds like you are at a great starting point, too.

Here's some YouTube goodness regarding flathead distributors:

 

Sounds like you found a jewel! HRP

 

If you have a lift, the distributor is very easy to remove from the bottom. Or a Jack and stands.

 

You didn't mention Standard or Deluxe in the first post. Now that you said removing Hood Sides it must be a Standard. In that case wheeltramp brian is correct, you go after it from underneath.

 

with Ford it was about money but it was a better unit thann the 49-53 unit.

 

Yep, standard, I was looking for a 40 but I just had to have a flip out windshield, and the experts told me unavaliable in 40. never thought of going after it from underneath, I'll just keep the fire department on call to get me off the ground, since I ain't got no lift. Great tip.

 

Sounds like a great car and we need pics!

 

I wonder if a 39 frame would fit in a 40?

 

I'd bet money on it,, now.

 

got some pichers on a cellphone, but when it comes to computers I'm still using 1939, here's one of my cheetahs to test my picher posting prowess

 

yippee!, it worked!

 

...There's no stopping you now.

 

The nice thing about those distributors is that you can't put it on 180 off or a tooth off it fits one way only.
They need them like that for all these TV shows that don't know how to find TDC.

 

'39 Deluxe Frame is same as '40 I believe; '39 standard maybe a slightly different front cross member. More like '38or 37.

 

I think Billy is talking about windshield frames.

 

All they had to do was put some centrifugal weights in it like almost everyone else was doing, but they had to be weird instead.

 

Load O Matic was a joke and used until 68

 

we need pics please, and just put a different motor in that has a better distributor location,

 

That Cheetah is awesome, and you have more than one??

 

I was thinking about swapping parts to make a '40. Apologies.

 

I put the picture of the Cheetah up to see if I was capable of posting a picture ,I don't want to sidetrack the thread too much. I built 7 or 8 Cheetahs about 15 years ago, they have off topic suspensions under them, except the one in the picture has a Winters Independant qwik change in it, the guy that bought it put a Rodek big block in it. Still have one here in storage, not running at the moment

 

Back to the 39, nobody around here has the Kroll slipjuice, so amazon it was. Got my computer expert coming this week end, so will have some pictures asap. Man, I hate to tear out the headliner, but the walnuts and mice poop, has got to go, stay tuned