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

The "diving helmet" distributor is a simple and effective design. Not easy to get to on most models but once you take it apart and rebuild it you'll see that they aren't so bad. You can also adapt for the later "crab" style distributor pretty easy.
As for the wide 5s, the pros outweigh the cons. Nobody wants them so they're cheap and available. Many different hubcaps, standard or deluxe each model year, and they look cool without caps too. 39 is first year for juice brakes and last year for wide 5. If you don't want them I'll be interested in the wheels and drums.
Good luck with your new project

 

Wide 5's have kinda grown on me.

 

manoman I'm with ya, , beauty. There are artilley style wheels out there that are close but just don't have the flavor of the real wide5s with the big bolt pattern, and the cone shaped hub. I wanna run 15" modern tires, and searched the universe . Did anybody ever try some 15" wheel hoops and then weld in the real wide5 center?

 

I did the wide 5 wheel dance too. There are 2 versions that are quite valuable. 5 or 5.5 commercial with no artillery design as found on ¾ and 1 ton pickups, and the 3½ as found on 60hp cars. Good clean wheels are worth a lot, commercials sem to be 200 and up...EACH. 3.5s are right there toomaybe a bit less and more available than commercial versions. 16" tires are way more common (read as cheaper) than 15s. 5 on 5.5 40 n up drums interchange thanks to juice brakes. The hood sides come off and go back on very easily. Wingnuts at the fender, a screw at the top front and rear. I have a Mallory crab distributor with no vacuum. Be ready to sort thru some shit that's 37-39 and some that's 38-40. I got a headliner from a place in GA, fast service, nice stuff, seems like it will be a near perfect fit. I'll dig it up. The metal lanyards are numbered but I taped/numbered mine anyways.

A link to my on again/off again build thread;
https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/39-standard-tudor-build-thread.985444/#post-11096839

 

In order to put a 15" hoop on the 16" center you will need to machine the O.D. of the center to fit inside the I.D. of the 15" hoop. That will give you open U shape contact point to weld to. You'll need your A game to do that and end up with wheels you can use. You will not find a 15" rim that will accept the center you want to use as is.

 

Project sounds great, once pictures get posted it will even be better. Highlander you are talking about wheel rim width, but still on the wide five pattern, not the 5x5.5 pattern. I have been seeing some wheels lately and have some questions, this is not likely the place for this discussion, unless it helps Cheetah man. I will post this picture to muddy the waters even more.

 

Daylate, got one of them on the shelf, aquaintance found it when he was replacing the sidewalk to his house, lost between the walk and the grass for who knows how many years. Highlander , been all over your build thread, very informative. I have the same tool tray disease, must be pretty common with these cars

 

Wow a stocker with one tailight

 

Nice Standard! Was it a local car?

 

Michigan farm car, a few years in western Ohio, and now in the 'Burgh. Report that it was undercover , the whole time, 'cept for about a year under a tarp, I think that's what killed the paint

 

qwik update, and Kroil testimonial,, filled the cylinders with the stuff, been soaking for 24 hours, I'll give it another coupla days to do its work. Squirted some on all the screws, bolts and wingnuts holding the front clip on, just for grins, twisted the wingnuts, I didn't remember how good this juice works, they came off instantly with thumb pressure.