Thread: Saving a '40 Ford Coupe

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This coupe belongs to a friend here in Placerville. He's owned it since 1955 but sold it sometime back when for a few years to a family member.. Not sure who tried to put in a late Mll front end and re-doing the rear end but as you'll see they didn't have the skills... They pretty much butcher the front of the frame to weld in the Mll front end...

After getting the front sheet metal off and all the Mll stuff cut off you could really see the damage...

With it all cut away there was a big piece missing on the lower part of the frame, luck for me i had some metal that fit the frame right on.. just had to cut it out to fit and weld it in... mocking up the front cross member with the new boxing plates..

With all the welding done we put it all together and back on the ground of see how we did... Oh is my head on fire??

Of course he wanted to put one of the biggest ford motors in he could find... someone had tried to do it before and hacked up the fire wall and just left it unfinished... hate trying to fix other peoples screw ups...

with the front Mll installed and the motor and trans in place it was time to move to the rear end.. you can see it was not centered in the wheel opening... plus we went with a 4 bag with coil overs.

Took the old leaf springs out and installed a 4 bar with coil overs and a sway bar... now it sits right and all wheels are where they're suppose to be... This was an easy one as this is as far as we took it, gave it back to the owner and he's been working on it for the past two years or so... it's all put together at this point and he's just completing the wiring... hope to be driving it early next year..

Another great build! Thanks for sharing the pics too. That Cleveland oughta motivate that one pretty good.

Hopefully those wheels go back on the truck they came from...

Good save!

Originally Posted by parkwood

hate trying to fix other peoples screw ups...

You're not fooling me, with your skills you love every minute of it! NICELY DONE!

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Much needed improvements! Nice work

Thanks for the build report. Congratulations on the nice work!

It's heart-warming to see a great car like a '40 coupe brought back from the butcher shop and set on the right road again.

Oh wow! Thanks for posting this. My '37 has the old-school Mustang II crossmember, too. It drives just fine (at least it did before I tore it down for a rebuild...) but it's not very pretty. I've debated on whether I wanna cut it out and start over. This process is definitely food for thought.

Of course, with all the other work my chassis needs to be show quality (not that I really want "show quality"), I'd probably be money ahead just to buy a new one 35 40 Ford Chassis Rat Rod Rat Rods Ford Other New Frame Custom | eBay

Trying to fix hack jobs is a pain. Best to do what you did. Cut it all out and start over. Nice job.

So I believe I read a simple word in one of your posts recently that jumped to mind, " Retirement " but then I also noticed that this Forty was fitted in between work on the Chevy Submarine and the awesome '33 Coupe. Is the ford engine a 351 or slightly large in the cubic inch count ? Thanks for posting as your work is very pleasing on the eye and I need to learn from somebody with your skill level.