Thread: Project '49 Shoebox.

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Dan and I went to the shop today and got in a full day for a change. Dan is still hot to get the '49 Ford project started, so that is what we worked on today.

Here are the plans as of now:

1) Convert it from a four door to a two door.

2) Chop the top 4 1/2 inches

3) Install an S10 subframe on the front end.

4) Airbag it front and rear so it can lay out flat on the ground.

5) Install a crate Chevy 350 and probably a 3 speed stick setup hooked to the existing column shift.

6) "C" the rear frame for clearance when laid out, and install a later rear axle.

7) Paint it some semi gloss color maybe with some flake accents.

8) Basically build it 50's -'60's style, wide whites, hubcaps, rolled and pleated interior, etc.

Anyway, after giving it some thought I feel this might be a good car to do a thread on because there are always a lot of questions from people about how to chop a top or subframe a car. Dan and I have never chopped a full size car before, nor have we ever subframed one, so this will be a learning experience for us too.

Converting it to a tudor is going to be somewhat of a major undertaking because we are going to do it the hard way. The easy way is to weld up the back two doors and pretend they were never there. The hard way is to actually use a pair of doors off of a two door , install them, and build an entirely new rear section complete with rear window. The reason we are doing it the hard way is because it turns the car into a true two door and is a little sleeker.

So, over the next who-knows-how-many-months I'll post updates as we go along. We are still going to keep working on his '29, but this is kind of a little diversion for a while to get some R and R from the '29.

Here is what we got done today. First of all we stripped the complete interior out of the car including the dash, seats, and all four doors. Then we cut out the spot welds and removed the door post that was between the front and rear doors. It will be moved back 5 1/2 inches to accomodate the new, longer doors from the tudor.

Once we got that done we started to install some crossbracing to keep the body from twisting out of shape when we cut off the top. Now it was rigid enough to remove the top without worrying about anything getting out of shape.

Here are some pictures up to that stage.

Don

Now we started the actual job of cutting the top off. The first thing we did was cut out the entire back window. We left the glass in it to retain the shape until we are able to weld in back in. We are not going to chop the rear window, but rather lay it down on a sharp angle to give it a sleeker look.

Here are some pictures of us starting to remove the top.

Don

Things get pretty scary at this point. You kind of say to yourself "what have we gotten into?" But if worst comes to worst you can always make a convertible out of it.

Once it was off we chopped 4 and 1/2 inches out of it and laid it back on to see how we liked the profile. We like it, and have some fine tuning to do yet, but at least we got pretty far today. We may take another 1/2 inch off of the front to even it up, but have to do some measuring first to see if that is what needs done.

So here are some pictures of how we ended up tonight. I have to say, this was one of the most fun projects Dan and I have done for a long time. I'm anxious to see this thing come together, should be a nice little lowrider.
Don

Wow you guys just dove right in. Talk about some major work. Nice cutting too. Lines are very straight. I bet that roof weighs a few pounds! I'd be soaking in the hot tub right about now!

You're right Steve, I'm feeling it a little. It's 4 am and we just ate dinner, so now it's a hot shower, some Excedrin, and BED!!!

I'm pretty surprised how much we got done today. Still a lot to do obviously, but we are having a blast doing this one. Nice thing about a $ 500 car, if you screw it up you haven't lost a whole lot of money.

Don

Don wrote: But if worst comes to worst you can always make a convertible out of it.

That's what a friend did. He actually intended to do it so it was not part of a mistake. His came out real nice.

BTW, are the legs in the first pix going to be a permanent addition? Looks like a good foundation for a console.

Haha, I actually suggested a console to Dan, like the ones people used to put in showcars in the '50's, with a fake telephone and 45 rpm record player. He didn't seem to cotton to the idea. Some guys just have no sense of "tradition."

BTW, what's up with the forum today? I tried logging on a bunch of times and kept getting redirected to some site that was trying to cure my athletes foot and sell me some stainless cookware.

Don

Don't know Don. I haven't had that problem lately. Could be you have a website hijacker software on your pc. Sometimes you can get them from just about anything. Last one I had was by Google and it nearly drove me crazy until I found out how to delete it. But then two months later it showed up again. Pesty little buggers.

Don and Dan, Looks really good! Must be nice to have two sons into cars building long term memories they will cherish. I can’t believe how much you guys have gotten done already. If I could get my wife into working on cars we would be quite a pair. With the 43 acres cleaning up is a real job and she is hard for me to keep up with. I want her to read your post on chopping and bagging, sub framing then I tell her to get me started.

Richard

That would be pretty cool if you and she could do a project together. My last girlfriend was willing to roll up her sleeves and do things like this. She and I bought a 27 Foot SeaRay together that had been repo'd and needed some work. I did the mechanical stuff and she did the cabin and cosmetics. Some of her ideas were actually good ones and I was impressed that she was able to figure this stuff out. She also helped me pull and rebuild the engine on another boat we had, and was a tremendous help in doing those things.

In fact, she sewed up the interior for my '27 when we did some things to it about 9 years ago.

Don

Don, it would be nice, I may talk her into cutting the top on the 51 Plymouth, and I’m like mopar34 I would like to make a Carson style top. We do just about everything together, we cannot afford to have repair people come in we just try to do it ourselves. We have put three gas furnaces in this house, one we did twice because of carbon monoxide getting through the walls where the pipes were rusted out. We changed that one twice, this time we put an outside combustion unit in. We have put A coils in two units, two outside condenser; had a guy working on the side hook up the AC lines. We change from gas to an electric hot water heater. We have ran 220 lines where ever we need them in the garage and house, that’s a plus for living in the country. We ran a bigger breaker box hooked it up; we had to dig up the sewer pipes in January with a jackhammer. We put new parquet floors in one bedroom and we still have the dining room to go. It’s amazing what you can do when you can’t afford to pay someone to do it.

She will help me with the floor pans in the Nova, and then we may get started on her 68 Camaro convertible. She tells the oldest grandson they will be driving with the hair blowing in the wind, mine will be gone by then.

We have two of the three grandson's that love the cars.

When my garage gets to the point where I no longer can walk through she feels sorry for me and pitches right in and it's back to order.

Richard

Things get pretty scary at this point. You kind of say to yourself "what have we gotten into?"

Don,

EXACTLY what I said when I lifted the roof off of my '30 tudor. Much simpler chop, but the "Oh S**t" factor was still there.

Are you going to cut it from side to side and weld an insert to slide the rear of the top back into place?

I think if we just pie cut it in a few places it should line up. We are going to have to take a little more out of the area above the rear window so we can slide it forward and up a little.

Then we need to build some additional metal up in the area right in front of the trunk lid because of sliding the top forward about 6 inches, but that is ok as it will make the trunk area look less boxy.

Dan just got home from work and we are both wiped out today after the time we put in yesterday, but we are going to head over there to just sit and study what needs done next.............that is, if we can get our chairs back.

Don

I think the cat on the right has not missed to many meals!! =)

By the way the car looks great so far. I love seeing the progress keep us posted.