Thread: Opinions wanted regarding '36 Ford Slantback

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I have the opportunity to buy an all original '36 Ford Slantback for a decent price. My first thought is to get the car, drive it as is while I get a new roller chassis, engine, trans, etc. Then lift the body off the frame, sell the entire frame, running gear, etc intact to a restorer. Built the car with a Roadster Shop roller chassis and the engine, trans, rear end, etc into a nice rod. What are your opinions? Here are a few pics of the car.

Mike

I can only hope that someone who appreciates it for what it is gets to it before you do.

Originally Posted by techinspector1

I can only hope that someone who appreciates it for what it is gets to it before you do.

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

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 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.

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".

Do an "old school" rod. Hop up the flattie, put in a '46-48 Ford or Merc rearend and trans, upgrade the brakes and other items , maybe some steelies and moon caps. Leave it fairly stock but with a growl .

As much as I LOVE rodded '36s, that one looks like a great "historic" vehicle- but ultimately the choice is yours. I too have thought about how nice it would be to start with a nice car to rod.

Everybody has a car that they want to own someday, this one is at the top of my list. When I was a kid a guy who owned a junkyard had a black '36 Fordor that I drooled over. He had wide whites on red wheels with caps and rings, a little rake, a white tuck and roll interior, and through the louvers on the hood you could see a red flathead with two carbs and lots of chrome. That car was bitchin'.

If I had yours I would simply update it with '40 brakes, and do the exact mods I mentioned above. Your Tudor is great as is, but a little updating would make it over the top. I'm like you, I'm a hot rodder, not a restorer, but this one doesn't need the streetrod approach with IFS, 350/350, etc to make it cool. I think that would ruin it and make it just like 10,000 others. If you did it like I described you would have all of us old timers climbing all over it.

Don

what a beautiful car! Zupe up that flathead like Don says and you'll have lots of us drooling. Makes you want to dress up and head out on the town for a fun evening!

Taking perfectly good stock cars and making rods of them is what we do...........
About 10 years ago I just missed a similar situation, though it was a '35. Same body, standard model, black, though it was original down to interior and paint except for one reshot fender, supposedly only 48k miles.
What you do depends on what you plan for it. If it'll be a distance cruiser, normal street rod kind of deal, your plan sounds typical. If you just want a local putt around car I'd give it an altitude change, big 'n littles, a throaty dual exhaust. Add hydraulic brakes, during which you decide whether to use the wide 5 wheels, or switch to the more common 5 1/2" bolt circle. Play with contrasting wheel colors, remove the bulky spare from the rear (hide the holes by moving the license plate mount)........and enjoy. The stock rear ratio is probably too low for much more than 50-55 without really wrapping it up, and probably overheating. Speed parts for those 21 stud engines are much more difficult to find than the later engines, so you'd have to figure what you could live with there. The stock frames are plenty good if in decent condition, look for rust through at the body brackets and where the X member ties into the outer rails. Places like SAC, Chassis engineering, and Speedway, among others, sell plenty of suspension and brake kits to make updating a breeze. The sbc fits just right without firewall mods, though could be just a bit tight for a mechanical fan depending on the rad you use (it's the lean back toward the top that gets you).

That's great find! No matter what you did or didn't do, it's going to look great. But for goodness sakes, don't pass her by!!!!!!

A neighbor had a '53 Dodge convertible, I offered him a good price and he was going to sell, but he found out I was going to modify it so he kept it. Several years later he died and his heirs had it crushed. So much for keeping them "pristine"!

i think i would up date the brakes on it and some up dates and drive the wheels off of it. i would have a hard time cutting it up? when up can hop your butt in the seat and go