Thread: Opinions wanted regarding '36 Ford Slantback

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I only had one car in my life that I didn't have the heart to tear into, it was a '38 Chevy four door that a guy had done a complete frame off restoration on. It was in primer and ready for paint and my plan was a 350/350 swap with a/c, etc. But the guy had done so much work and the car was so nice I ended up selling it to a restorer.

Looking back, I now wonder................what the h*** was I thinking?????

Don

I love hot rods and restos both so I am going to say leave this one alone, it looks too perfect to chop up. Its easy to chop up a car but a lot harder to unchop it back into an original classic.

Don, who is a good flathead engine guy in our area?

Mike

Well you've collected 32 opinions and comments here and another 18 on another site, so have the 50 comments helped you decide what to do??

The car looks good as is. So you can either keep as an antique and enjoy it or you can resto-rod it and enjoy it. You have to decide which way will bring you the most joy. Resto-rodding will certainly expand your horizons as far as use, but it really comes down to what puts the biggest smile on your face.

Originally Posted by Mike52

Don, who is a good flathead engine guy in our area?

Mike

There used to be a top-notch flathead guy right here in Cape Coral........Tony DiCosta. He owned Hot Rod and Custom Supply and built the flathead Total Performance used in their pink old style T. But Tony got religion and I hear he is a Missionary in Costa Rica or someplace like that. I don't know of anyone else, and I called my usual machine shop to freshen up the flathead I bought from Paul on here, but he told me he didn't do them.

I might send the two we have to someone like Motor City Flatheads just to have the machine work done, and then assemble them ourselves. We don't want radical, just a nice, fairly stock rebuild. If I find anyone in the meantime, I'll let you know.

Don

Originally Posted by Mike52

Inspector, your opinion is it should be 'saved' and kept all original, please elaborate on "someone who appreciates it for what it is". Where is the true spirit of hot rodding? Thanks for your opinion, I do appreciate it.

Mike

Mike, the spirit of hot rodding is alive and well, particularly within me. I appreciate a well-built rod as much or more than the next guy. Problem is, only perhaps 10% of the rods out there are well-built. I wouldn't even DRIVE the other 90%, much less OWN them.

I'm so sick to my stomach of looking at CRAP that I could puke on my shoes. I wish you could spend some time with me teching cars, you'd see what I'm talking about. As for car shows, I've quit going to them. I'm not talking about the $100,000-plus cars, those most likely were put together by someone with an engineering background or at least someone who has been around rods long enough to know how to build one properly and get good money for his efforts. I'm talking about the amateur shows like the one here in Phoenix at the Pavillions on Saturday nights. 9 out of 10 of the cars are junk in my opinion. Now, you have to understand, when I'm at an amateur show, I'm down on hands and knees looking under, around, over and in the car and like I said, most of 'em make me want to puke. It's not a pleasure at all, so I don't go anymore.

A casual aquaintance of mine came by the house several years ago with a '56 Ford "Effie" with a blown BBC that he had just bought for $35,000. It was supposedly built by a reputable shop. He invited me to drive it. More disappointment. The front end was a clip swap from something and had insufficient caster to return the steering wheel. You had to manually turn the wheel back after a turn. Not wanting to be an ***hole, I congratulated him on his find and bid him goodbye. That's part of the 90% I'm talking about.

I think it was Pat Ganahl who said he sees somewhere around 200 broken suspension systems on rod runs every year. These are driven by fellows who either didn't know what they were doing in the first place or who paid good money to bandits who shade-tree engineered the system and used under-engineered parts all in the name of the almighty dollar.

So, when I see a pristine, working example of Ford Motor Company engineering that was completed on an assembly line when men cared about the work they produced, I get a little hot under the collar about changing it into an ill-handling, ill-braking piece of dung. Not to say that the shop you have in mind is in that category, just to say that 90% of them are.

Don't we already have enough of these CRAP-WAGONS on the road????

Edit: I just know somebody is going to jump on the ill-braking part of it. Yes, I have driven cars with mechanical brakes and yes, they are scary. But a change to juice brakes from a '40 is about the limit of what I'd do to that little jewel.

Originally Posted by Itoldyouso

There used to be a top-notch flathead guy right here in Cape Coral........Tony DiCosta. He owned Hot Rod and Custom Supply and built the flathead Total Performance used in their pink old style T. But Tony got religion and I hear he is a Missionary in Costa Rica or someplace like that. I don't know of anyone else, and I called my usual machine shop to freshen up the flathead I bought from Paul on here, but he told me he didn't do them.

I might send the two we have to someone like Motor City Flatheads just to have the machine work done, and then assemble them ourselves. We don't want radical, just a nice, fairly stock rebuild. If I find anyone in the meantime, I'll let you know.

Don

well a flat head engine is not much to them they were built and fix in a time were they were easy to build and to fix with out many tools the big deal with them is finding a good core to start with and the price on parts is more then a sbc other then that there a simple engine to work on or machine one thing about them is the rod bolt is part of the rod this is kind of spooky and you need a mill or a very big seat and guilde machine to put new harden seats in less you have a very old kwik way portable seat cutter

Good luck in which ever direction you take.
I see both sides. I have had dreams of doing builds, and never having the money or time or finding the right car.
What ever you do, I promise to not throw hate mail, or send a Christmas card!
I will stay bias

Originally Posted by mopar34

Well you've collected 32 opinions and comments here and another 18 on another site, so have the 50 comments helped you decide what to do??

Bob, the owner faxed me a copy of the title to review about 5 minutes ago, plans are being made this morning to fly out of Tampa on Saturday to go check out the car.

Hmmm, wonder if I can have it here in time for the Turkey Run next weekend????? I'll bet that baby will be glad to get out of the cold, snowy north and retire to warm, sunny Florida......

Mike

Originally Posted by techinspector1

.... changing it into an ill-handling, ill-braking piece of dung..... just to say that 90% of them are.

Don't we already have enough of these on the road????

.

A little harsh aren't we.
By that you mean that 90% of the cars built by guys on this site are "CRAP-WAGONS".

Mike52 wrote:

Hmmm, wonder if I can have it here in time for the Turkey Run next weekend????? I'll bet that baby will be glad to get out of the cold, snowy north and retire to warm, sunny Florida......

I can't speak for the Ford, but I know that I will. Leaving Pennsyltucky early this Saturday morning with plans to arrive in Dade City on Sunday (23rd) and be at the Turkey Run on the following Saturday. It's just too nice there and too damn cold here.

You guys have made me curious. I have ridden in several "pumped up" flathead powered rods before, and was very sadly disappointed in the perfomance. What kind of reasonable horsepower can you make on pump gas?

Originally Posted by mopar34

Leaving Pennsyltucky early this Saturday morning with plans to arrive in Dade City on Sunday (23rd) and be at the Turkey Run on the following Saturday. It's just too nice there and too damn cold here.

Dade City?? Don't tell me you're coming down to visit Dixie (Jim), I smell trouble if that's the case.

Mike

Originally Posted by 41willys

A little harsh aren't we.
By that you mean that 90% of the cars built by guys on this site are "CRAP-WAGONS".

Yep, pretty much. For every ten builders on this site who can do it right, there are another 90 who will screw it up or have some inept builder screw it up and be too ignorant to realize it. I'm just tellin' it like I see it. Like I said, if you could follow me around techin' cars, you'd see it too. Like me or don't like me, I'm not competing in a popularity contest. If everybody who starts a thread on this board knew what he was doing, the only answers would be...."good job, nice car".

Originally Posted by HOTRODPAINT

You guys have made me curious. I have ridden in several "pumped up" flathead powered rods before, and was very sadly disappointed in the perfomance. What kind of reasonable horsepower can you make on pump gas?

Power claims are like liar's poker.............deal away Jay!!
Let's take this 21 studder as an example. Stock it's rated at 85 hp, that's in the day when they quoted "gross" ratings, meaning without any accessory drag figured in. Do the typical stuff, "high" compression heads (8.5 to 1 ), headers, two 94s or 97s, some ignition work, and a "3/4 race" cam you can expect what? Maybe double? Still under 200hp. I'm sure we'll hear about some manner or other of claims from magazines, "my best buddy", and other anecdotal "evidence", but it takes a lot of work (translate to $$$) to get bigger numbers from a flatty. They exist, they're just rare and expensive.