My Chopped 49 Ford Build!

[Shawn F.]

I just finally noticed this section of the forums have where I can post my hot rod builds. Figured I`d throw one of my 6 vehicles up here...

This is my 49 Ford Coupe that is chopped around 3 inches, nosed and decked, shaved handles, 54 Ford victoria headlight rings frenched into the fenders, rear tail lights frenched, 51 Ford trunk lid (without the chrome hinges for a cleaner look), 67 Ford Thunderbird wrap around rear seat, door corners rounded out, and MANY other small custom touches. Here`s some info on it...



Drivetrain wise: what I have going into it is a basic 350 sbc from an early 80`s Corvette along with a 200-4R trans out of a 87 Monte Carlo SS (From my research this is one of the best 200`s to build off of). The car has a nice Maverick rear end and the whole underside of this car is perfect (NO RUST). Now yes I know I will get hell for the small block Chevy but its what I have on hand and the mounts in the car are already set up for it.



Body wise: it`s of course chopped. The headlights and tail lights are frenched. Deck lid is shaved and 51 Ford hinges were used. Door handles are shaved and on poppers (VW starter solenoid used for poppers) and bear claw latches used on the doors. The hood was on a piano hinge to open up sideways but I got a brace and hinges and spend countless hours welding, grinding and fitting the original hinges back onto the hood to open back like stock. Tops of the fenders have a peak brought all the way to the front of the frenched head light bucket. Door corners are rounded, etc etc. List goes on. Also included are metal fender skirts. They are full length about 3 feet long and supposedly very hard to find and very old but in perfect shape.



Interior Wise: The original dash was not there so a 51 Ford Dash out of fiberglass reinforced was made with metal bracing underneath housed with basic aftermarket VDO gauges. 50 Ford bench seat up front with 67 Thunderbird wrap around rear seat. In the meantime I will be using what I think is the stock 49 heater. I pulled it apart and it`s in great shape. I will replace the two wires going to the blower fan motor and a new heater core. We will be installing electric windows with vent window removed (full one piece glass already cut).



I do plan to reinstall clear glass instead of tinted all the way around. Whats in there now is just temporary and will also have original chrome trim around the windows once I find some then chop, weld, grind and polish them.

Exhaust wise I am going to run lake pipes with small baffles in them so it will still be pretty loud but the baffles will cut the high note out some. Also have flame thrower kit I put together using plugs, ignition coils, threaded bungs, etc. Also plan to repaint the car next year, I am second guessing the color now which is white with a hint of lavender that you only notice in shadows and rainy days but comes out a lot in the pictures. Everyone else seems to like it except me.



I am sure I`m forgetting a whole lot but I feel I am rambling on so will let the pictures do the talking for me now. Hope you guys enjoy!

[Shawn F.]

Here are some with the bumpers now on...











Here is a dirty picture of the MII front end on the car. This is the very first MII front sub frame made and put on by Fat Man Fabrications here in Mint Hill NC. Car was black and was featured in a magazine back in the late 80`s/early 90`s (can`t remember exactly).

[Shawn F.]

I stripped the engine compartment as you can now see and painted it with black epoxy primer. The white was nice to match the exterior but next year I plan to change the color of the car and to me the black is plain, clean and simple. I did not do it to hide anything because the panels are pretty straight and clean. To me it makes the engine stand out. And for the period correct purists, yes that is an HEI distributor and a billet air breather which will be painted to match the valve covers. I went with what I have laying around. The intake is a old Holley Street Avenger that I ground off the Holley and Street Avenger logos. If there are things like HEI that I need to run to make the car reliable, I will run it.













I just got the engine and trans thrown in the other day. For a while I had a mock up/dummy motor in because it had to be pulled and put back in numerous times to figure out which motor mounts to use. I ended up moving the engine forward and have it sitting higher to clear the HEI against the fire wall and cross member. There is PLENTY of work to work in there to do exhaust, distributor, bolt up and unbolt the transmission, etc. I had a friend custom bend and build a transmission tunnel from scratch to fit this bigger 200-4R OD transmission and had to modify the stock transmission crossmember. I am trying to make everything easily accessible and clean while sticking with a late 50`s custom/lead sled look with some newer type mods here and there. Still a long ways to go but hopefully should be up and running in 3-4 weeks.

BTW, the frame picture above is dirty and a few chips on it but I sanded it down and repainted it back to gloss black using POR15. Entire chassis and rear end is painted and restored. I should have some more pictures in a week or so with fender skirts on, lake pipes and engine finished!

[David Fermani]

Very nice work Shawn! Looking good. Please keep this thread alive with more pics as you progress.



What are you planning to do to finish off the paint?

[Shawn F.]

David, my plan is to use the free HD Speed and Polish that was sent to me. I was going to Opti Coat it but since I plan to repaint it next year I will just use a typical sealant... The whole car has already been wet sanded smooth with no orange peel. I will buff again, polish and seal it. Most likely throw a few sessions of glaze on it to get the paint to really "pop". It`s going to be my shop car that I park outside the shop parking lot and drive around town to pick up and deliver materials once I get set up with my retail side of the business.

As for the color next year, I am thinking either a burnt metallic orange with white interior, dark maroon, or a 50`s Ford Victoria blue/sea foam green with flake and pearl in it. I have a few options but white interior is a must.

[Accumulator]

Shawn F.- Hey, this is one really cool project! Thanks for sharing it.



Some of those body mods must`ve been a bear...little stuff like the hood hinges that people will hardly notice.



And yeah, I was wondering about the HEI and clearance and all that. Cool that you bothered to grind off the Holley logs on the intake. Also cool that it`s the first MII front sub from Fatman. Wonder if there`s a way to find some of the old write ups on it from when it was first built.



Heh heh, wonder how many of the young `uns here know what "nosed and decked" means :chuckle:

[Thomas Dekany]

Wow!!!! I so appreciate the color, you don`t even know.



If you do HD POLISH and top it with HD SPEED, I wish you`d invest in NITRO SEAL. No way would you want to dull the look with a glaze. The look of SPEED alone should convince you to not use a glaze, even though I used to like glazes.



Make sure to take lots of pictures of the rest of this rebuild and post it.

David, my plan is to use the free HD Speed and Polish that was sent to me. I was going to Opti Coat it but since I plan to repaint it next year I will just use a typical sealant... The whole car has already been wet sanded smooth with no orange peel. I will buff again, polish and seal it. Most likely throw a few sessions of glaze on it to get the paint to really "pop". It`s going to be my shop car that I park outside the shop parking lot and drive around town to pick up and deliver materials once I get set up with my retail side of the business.

As for the color next year, I am thinking either a burnt metallic orange with white interior, dark maroon, or a 50`s Ford Victoria blue/sea foam green with flake and pearl in it. I have a few options but white interior is a must.

[Shawn F.]

Accumulator, the HEI has plenty of room actually. I was worried about it too but had a backup which I may resort to anyways once it`s running and the bugs are worked out. They make an old points style looking distributor with external HEI unit and coil. Looks great and will bring back the period correct look I am going for. As for the write ups on the front end, this car used to be my old boss` car from the hot rod shop I worked at restoring classics and paint and body work and he is good friends with Brent the owner of Fat Man. He has the magazine and write ups so I will get them from him and keep in the car.

As for the young guys, your right. A lot of them these days have no interest in old tin and are into the imports and exotics (which is fine) but not for me. They are nice for daily drivers and easy to work on with bolt on parts and computers but I prefer to drive old tin even daily (mine is a 80 El Camino and 66 F100). I am young myself though (only 24) but have been into old bikes and cars since I was a little kid and not sure why as my father liked them but didn`t own any when I was young. I appreciate all sorts of vehicles though even if they are not my taste. If the work and fine details are there, I appreciate them but my all time favorites are traditional hot rods and period correct classics. I am not as anal as some guys when it comes to period correct, especially if you plan to drive the car/truck a lot so I understand front disc brake swaps, electronic distributors, sub frame swaps, electric gauges and so forth but as long as they keep the look and flow of the car.



Thomas, thanks for the compliments! The color is kind of growing on me and is different but something with it keeps throwing the whole "80`s street rod" look especially without the window trim. I am also looking for some 40`s Cadillac sombrero type hubcaps for this thing which will clean up the look and add a ton to the cars overall look instead of the boring and overdone red wheels. Next on my list for this coming week is the brake booster and M/C, pedal assembly, brake lines, fuel lines and gas tank mounted. The brake lines will take a couple days to do (especially since I am so OCD about how even they are and will match the fuel lines and painted or polished nicely if I go with SS. The wiring is also next which I am VERY picky with and when pictures are posted you will see why and how it takes me so long to do.

[noego]

you picked the perfect color!

[imported_dfazekas]

Thats awesome! Looking forward to seeing this thread continue. My grandfather gave me his 50 Ford that`d been sitting for a while; hopefully I can start working on it this month. Planning on doing something like this to it, so I`m really interested in the continuation of this thread. Heck, I may be contacting you for advice soon

[G'kar]

Its almost blasphemy to say but ill say it anyway... it would look nice to see a custom projector set up for your headlights that still blends into the overall look of the car

[Ron Ketcham]

Nice, clean work.

I would make one of those trash remarks about a Chubby in a Ferd, but I did something similar years ago.

1960/61, I built a 50 Merc Lead Slead.

A guy had started the build and already had a full house, built Olds with tri-power in it and since I was still in high school, money was an issue.

I chopped the top, z-ed the frame, frenched head lights, rolled front and rear pans, 57 vette tailights frenched in, antenna scoup on rear, solinoid doors and trunk, black and white roll and tuck interior.

Painted 53 Buick Titan Red, no fender skirts, was so low with the frame work and the cut front coils and blocks in the back, just wouldn`t work on the roads in my little rural area.

I was fortunate that two old, experienced body men helped my with the chop and z work, some others things as well.

You got one fine vehicle going for you, good luck on those little demon`s that pop up the last part of the build,(they sure ruin a Sunday drive).

Grumpy

[Accumulator]

... this car used to be my old boss` car from the hot rod shop I worked at..

Oh wow, that is just tooo cool!

.. he is good friends with Brent the owner of Fat Man. He has the magazine and write ups so I will get them from him and keep in the car..

Ah, glad to hear that.

[Shawn F.]

Thats awesome! Looking forward to seeing this thread continue. My grandfather gave me his 50 Ford that`d been sitting for a while; hopefully I can start working on it this month. Planning on doing something like this to it, so I`m really interested in the continuation of this thread. Heck, I may be contacting you for advice soon

Not a problem Donald, send me an email and I`ll give you my contact info and be more than happy to help ya out. Also check out Shoeboxford - Parts for &39;49-&39;51 Fords There`s more info there than you can imagine about these cars with plenty of people to help you out.



G`kar, I plan to stick with plain H2 type bulbs in the headlamps. If I could make the projector setup look stock from 2 feet away then I`d be all over it but the cost and looks just isn`t there...



Ron Ketcham, yeah I know I`ll catch a lot of flak for the Chevy in a Ford deal but my comment back in defense is, look at hot rod history and you will see that people started using chevy V8`s in their Ford, Merc, Buick, etc in the mid 50`s and then 60`s when the 350 sbc came out. As for your project you built, sounds like my kind of car! Any Olds Tri Powered drivetrain is popular again now. As for the powered antenna, I remember people using old shock housings to french them into the quarters and sinking the unit into the shock housing for cheap. Ingenuity, and I love it. No bolt on parts for these cars...

[Accumulator]

.. yeah I know I`ll catch a lot of flak for the Chevy in a Ford deal but my comment back in defense is, look at hot rod history ...

Eh, years back people were stuffing Cadillac and MOPAR engines in `em and now those cars are considered "period correct" classics.