Thread: Barnfind followed us home!!!!!!!

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Well, we really don't have barns as such in Florida, but this car was in storage for a bunch of years. My Son Don was looking at Craigslist yesterday and ran across a '49 Ford Fordor that was only about 10 miles from home. He knew Dan was looking for a flathead engine to build for the '30 sedan he is going to do once his roadster pickup is done, so long story short, we now have a new obstacle in our shop.

The original plan was to jerk out the flathead and transmission plus a few Ebayable parts and haul the rest to the scrapyard, but once we hosed off years of dirt we realized the body is actually very solid and rustfree. The entire body has a uniform coating of surface rust, and for the most part the floors are solid..........only the front has some areas to repair, but that wouldn't be too bad either. The more we looked at it the more we realized it has never been altered in any way and is pretty complete. It also has quite a few options including overdrive, heater/defroster, clock, trim rings, etc. It even has an oil filter (believe it or not, in 1949 the oil filter was an OPTION!

So, it looks like the flathead will get pulled and stored, and Dan is talking about a crate 350 Chevy, airbags, wide whites, skirts, a toothy grille, Vintage Air Conditioning, and a suede paint job. I didn't want him to get a project to distract him from getting his rpu done, but we are just going to clean out the shop and push this one into a corner until that happens. At first I thought Dan and Don were nuts thinking the car should be saved, but after climbing under it and seeing how it washed up, I have to admit it is too good to scrap. The doors all close solidly and the drip rails are mint. Only holes in the body are at the splash aprons on the front fenders, rocker panels, and minor holes in the rear quarters. You can buy patch panels for all of those. Frame and underside is pretty clean because the car was undercoated at one time.

The car came from Louisiana originally, and was last inspected there in 1966. There was even a 1957 Louisiana plate in the trunk. Just what we needed, another project!!!!!!!

Don

OR.... You could weld the back doors shut, fill the seams, put in a roll bar, trash the front bumper, put a straight-axle under the front, weld the fenders & hood together & tilt 'em, and stuff in an overhead valve V-8 with some fenderwell-exit headers on it... uh... kind of like this...

looks like the car one of my neighbors had, same color & everything. Sadly it was given to the high school & the kids just destroyed it...joe

Originally Posted by J. Robinson

OR.... You could weld the back doors shut, fill the seams, put in a roll bar, trash the front bumper, put a straight-axle under the front, weld the fenders & hood together & tilt 'em, and stuff in an overhead valve V-8 with some fenderwell-exit headers on it... uh... kind of like this...

Not as far off base as you might think Jim.........it started out simple, and before the night was over Dan was talking about converting it to a tudor and chopping the top. He brought me pictures last night of one he liked that was slammed and chopped. Now I just have to keep him focused on doing it simple and getting it on the road............not an easy task, he tends to want to go all out on everything he does.

Don

Good score Don

Don wrote:

Well, we really don't have barns as such in Florida

Don, yes you do!, You just got to get the hell off of the interstates to find them.

A little detour of 75 when you were up in Ocala would have yielded more barns than you could probably count. Some old cars, but mostly horses.

................
T L

Nice project! Hope this doesn't preclude the pink beast resurection, or the truck!

all that skill over in that shop it souldnt be no problemo knockin off the back doors ... nice find don..

Don

Nice find, looks like its pretty much all there. Craigslist is pretty good, I put a set of wheels from a 56 Chevy on lastnight wide whites, rims, full bub caps and got a call within an hour, but he just wants the tires and wheels.

I bought my 50 Ford quite a few years ago just haven’t started on it yet. I want to pull the V8 Flathead and trans and put it on crags list. I have no idea what they are worth. Does anybody have a ballpark figure? My car already has a 8" ford set up with the leaf springs installed, I have a few old Chevy small blocks and one 454 big block if I could find the energy to start. The engines will run it's me that will hardly start.

If you got extra parts with the car, you could be looking at some extra cash.
I sold my parking lights for $350 on e-bay two guys got in a bidding war, love when that happens. Two steering wheels one for $250 from the 50 ford and one from another year maybe a 49 went for $150. My wife just kept telling me to bring more parts in so she could put them up for auction. I would like to sell the flathead V8 with the transmission but I do not have any idea what it would be worth. It is the 8BA that’s all I know about it other then the intake is not bolted down.

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Richard

Man I love the Ol Show Box.

Old cars are gone.

Don, Lucky you on a great find. I love those old shoe box ford's.

Funny how things change. For the longest time, no hot rodder would have been SEEN in a 4-door shoebox, let alone build one.

Oh, and with about $3k in cash, you should have a great hot rod. . .

Ford2custom.......no idea what it is worth, I have seen prices all over the place. With your Ebay experience just put it on with a reserve you can live with and see where it goes. I know what you mean about the bidding wars, sometimes we sell something or see something that goes way over what a new one would be. Dan sold something one time and it went over what he felt he could take in good conscience, so he told the guy to only send the lower amount.........bet that guys jaw dropped.

Denny, yep, it does have overdrive. I'm trying to convince Dan that these were good transmissions and to get an adapter plate and use it and the rear end behind the Chevy, but he isn't believing me at this point. I had a couple of cars with this tranny and it was really pretty tough and that overdrive made it nice on the highway.

Jack, you are right about us never wanting fordors back in the day, but suddenly they are a little cooler. I hope he keeps it simple and just cleans it up a little and makes it dependable, and he could do it for the $ 3K you mention. But I have known Dan waaaaaaaaaaay too long, and can see the wheels turning already.

Thanks all for the nice words. It's funny what 6 hours of scrubbing last night did for this old heap. It still needs a lot, but at least it is starting to look like it has promise. I've been researching parts like weatherstripping and suspension repair parts on line, and you can get a bunch of parts for these.

Now I have to move stuff around to make some room for it. One reason we cleaned it inside and out was to make sure no critters were living inside it before we moved it into the shop!!

Don