Projects Rusty 47 Ford Reserection

Even though its an S10 beater car I want to give it as much visual flavour in regards to being from the early 50's as possiable , so I figured I would smooth out the firewall and paint it white when I get to the primer stage...it might be the only shiny paint on the car lol! So 80 some holes later its smooth (er). I also ziped up the bottom of the cowl on the pass side and welded up the seam at the top.

 

I'll have to say ..... you got grit to get knee deep in a rust project like this. Great job so far.

I don't think I'd have the patients to do what you've done so far. That's why I boughgt my '46 cpe. out of Ks. I might ...... might have a rust spot about the size of a dollar gold piece.

Paco

 

Thanks for all the neat tricks and pic's on replacing rusted metal on your '46, it will make doing my '41 coupe much easier. Do you plan on posting up when you do the body swap?

 

I was gettin kinda burned out fixing rust in the middle of the winter so I decided to do abit more kustom work, I have never liked these dash boards I like the 41's but didnt have one of those...but I did have a 59 Chevy dash with nice guages that I have dragged across the country with me, that I paid $20.00 for at a flea market about ten years ago so....after lottsa cuttin and fitting it found a new home. I had a crappy extra Ford dash so I cut most of it away and fitted the Chevy to it , so that it can still be unbolted from the car, lottsa extra work but worth it I think. It ended up being 9" outta the middle and 2" off each end.

 

Believe me if I could have afforded a nice coupe I would have ! But I will never have the money for that , and I got more time than money ( or brains I think!)

 

Your welcome feel free to ask any questions I will do my best to answer them ! I would love a 41 coupe ! I have a lead on a 41 front clip that I am gonna check out this summer, the body swap is done , I am playin catch up with the pics and I have a bunch of pics of the swap that will be posted.

 

keep up the good work. thats more work than most people would spend on that car, most likely that car woulda ended up as a parts car for a solid coupe or hotrod parts.

 

steve il say it again i will be studying your pics when its time to patch my body up im so glad you finally made a build page

 

Wow. This is really cool. A little sad to get to the end. I am really looking foward to updates on this one.

 

man that car was some rusty nice save on this one and the dash looks great

 

This is great stuff.A lot of work but I can relate to it.To you guys not in the rust belt.I don`t call it rust.I call it a challenge!!

 

I scored the cpe. off a contact here on the HAMB. I sold my pro street roller & my '62 ford unibody daily driver to afford the cpe. I've since stripped it & am going back with all new suspension & driveline.

I'm not in love with these dashes either .... I dig your choice & install.

I'll keep watch'n

Paco

 

Wow .. This is really a lot of work , with simple tools .
This makes me happy because this can be done .
This makes me sad because I have still a lot to do and learn

 

Lol it was a parts car for a coupe...lottsa stuff was picked clean, including a lot of suspension and all the steering stuff.

 

Thanks Joel it was goin through your thread that finally got me off my ass to start my own...I have learned so much from the HAMB , and I love these type of " built from junk" threads so it was time for my own...it might take me a few more days to get all the pics caught up to where I am at now, so keep checking back for updates ...and a few surprises

 

Its far from done...I still got quite a few pics to post to catch up to today so keep checking back.

 

Thanks Paco I also have a 55 Chevy dash but it wasnt complete so I went with the 59, but I do have another kustom that will prolly get the 55 dash. I am really happy with how it turned out.

 

Get at it then ! All the hands on skills I have learned are self taught ( lottsa trial and error before the HAMB !) by fixing rusty ol crap that most people would not bother with , its a great learning experience and will keep you out of trouble cause you will be too busy. Ya gotta start with what you can afford right? And I look at my time as "free" .

 

Ok time for a few more pics before I head out to the shop, The shotening of the chassis was pretty easy it was a 117" long box and I took out 3" to get it to the Ford 114" , I carefully cut it at the factory seam after making some reference marks and tacking in a brace to attach the ratchet straps to pull it together...I also tacked some conduit "legs" to what would be both halves of the frame , so it would stay sorta level cause as usual I was doing it by myself. Took a Sat and part of a Sun to button it up, and I wasnt goin too fast lol!

 

In case anyone wants to know the donor truck was a 1997, the later S10 frames were boxed to almost the rear spring hangers as opposed to the earlier ones.

 

Reassembly sorry some of the pics are kinda crappy it was a really sunny really cold winter day !I will attach a coupe of fish plates on the top of the frame when it comes apart for to paint the frame , prolly dont need em cause its stronger than when GM built it but over kill aint a bad thing .I also had to repair the crossmember at the spring shackles cut out the rusty center and capped it with a nice piece of C channel ...but i forgot to take a pic of the finished product , you will be able to see it in some upcoming pics, time to get out to the shop and make some sparks !

 

Wow....so much rust! Keep up the good work.

 

Man I was glad to see this thread, I thought I had a challenge.
You are the man on fab work. Great progress and I love that dash. This is going to be Bad ASS when you get it done!
Keep up the good work!
Dan

 

Haha thats how I try to look at it too Fitzee...but for once in my life I would like the challenge to be a chop or other custom work on a nice rust free car....I know dream on !!

 

Thanks Dan but I better keep my ass in gear I think you will blow right by me at the rate you are going!

 

Heres a few pics of the initial drop on to the S10 chassis

 

This is the part that sucks about using the S10 frame, the rear kick-up and of coarse this means a new trunk floor to match the different height of the frame, good thing the trunk floor was pretty much non existent .I had already bolted in the wider 4x4 rear end before I dropped the body on , and believe it or not the rear seat will cover most of the kick -up for the frame.

 

Great save and fab work. I wish I had your skills. Will be watching this build. Thanks for the pictures and education for the rust repair.

Jim

 

Body mounts were pretty straight forward, various pieces of 2x4 tubing and some flat stock, some half inch grade 8 nuts and bolts and the hard rubber rollers that go on boat trailers cut em with a hand saw ( was too lazy to get out the miter saw) .I put the orig Ford hardwood strips that were used as a kind of spacer between the frame and the floor, ontop of the S10 frame , set the body on moved it around a million times measured it just as many then started with the cowl mounts and worked my way back, total cost was about $40. mostly for the cost of the grade 8 hardware. I will do the finish welding when the body comes back off the frame. The over built rocker boxes are great to hang the body mounts off of as well.

 

I only had some 20 gauge tin so I decided to build a 1x1 support structure for the trunk floor and also the mounts for the 55 Chevy gas tank I plan to use...sending unit will work with the 59 Chevy gauge, I will most likely have to re locate the filler neck through the floor..there isnt much room to snake it through to the orig Ford fuel door...still not decided on this one yet. The wife thinks I am a weirdo for keepin old cereal boxes but the make great template material