1940 Ford Tudor Build Thread

[rspears]

And the big hemi just looks so "right" sitting there!

Totally off subject, but in the KC Star paper the other day they had an article about the old Civil Defense "air raid" warning system, following up Hawaii's false alarm a while back. The last remaining siren in the KC Metro is mounted atop a tall building downtown, which used to house the old US Army Quartermaster Depot. The thing is HUGE, 12' long and weighing 3 tons, with a 138dB output that could be heard 25 miles away!! What caught my eye though, was that it's a Chrysler Victory Air Raid Siren, powered by a first gen HEMI!

Hmmmmmm, how to get a 600# engine off of the top of a downtown building.... not that it's for sale other than as the 3T package. Oh yeah, the thing was controlled manually. Local PB start, then engage the siren with a big hand lever and the governor would load the engine to wind up the siren. Said they must have had a deaf guy to operate it , or if not he was likely deaf the second time he did the test runs. The current owner of the building did say that people have asked about buying it, but the question "How are you going to get it down?" always stops them. A heavy lift helicopter is about the only way, and those things don't rent cheap!

Sorry for the Hijack, Ryan. Now back to the regularly scheduled coverage... The sedan is lookin' great!

[40FordDeluxe]

That is very interesting Roger! I never would have thought a siren needed a V8 to operate it. Pretty cool.

[40FordDeluxe]

I'm glad to see the progress on the 40 Ryan. That stance looks awesome to me. And the big hemi just looks so "right" sitting there!

Thanks. Little by little.


This morning I worked on a dodge. Hopefully I can finish it tomorrow. Then back to life and the 40. Haha I was looking at my rear fenders and how to make them filled up even though there is a 10" wide tire back there. I don't think they will look "filled" up even with a wider tire. The front of the wheel opening is flared way out at the bottom, and it's the same at the rear. But at the top center there isn't much room so reworking the fender would need done to get the entire tire near the wheel opening. This tire is 27" tall. I might be able to go to the next size up which is a 275/55R17, but IDK. That will have to wait. I have other stuff to buy. It will just be what it is for now.

[rspears]

That is very interesting Roger! I never would have thought a siren needed a V8 to operate it. Pretty cool.

Ryan,
Back in '65 my family took a trip down to the panhandle of Texas, to the town of Tulia which is a farming community of about 5000 where my grandmother and an uncle lived. As we were pulling into town the heater/ac fan on Dad's '64 Chevy started screaming, so after getting settled at Grand Mom's Dad & I went up to the local Chevy dealer to see if they could fix the fan. While Dad was talking to the Service Manager, I was wondering around and nearby was a shiny new 409 crate engine, but it had a little 2bbl carb sitting atop the manifold. I was a 16 year old kid, excited that there was a 409 sitting there, and the Service Manager brought me back to reality saying, "That's just an irrigation pump motor, son." By '65 the pumps were pulling from about 1800' down, and those big old V8's would sit there running about 2800 to 3200rpm on a governor, pulling up a 4-6" stream of water from the aquifer, running for three or four hours to fill the ditches, then sitting idle for a day or so.

[40FordDeluxe]

I've seen a few 409 and Hemi irrigation pump set ups. But that siren sure was news to me. I'm sure it was cool for you to see that 409 as those were a hot ticket at that time.

[Matthyj]

Roger & Ryan Here you go here it is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEF0FoBZEqw I saw this other years ago on you tube, I know Big daddy is very hard of hearing for obvious other reasons but this didn't help! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEfYnByuTQ0

also https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ke9wf3Ajkg

[53 Chevy5]

Totally off subject, but in the KC Star paper the other day they had an article about the old Civil Defense "air raid" warning system, following up Hawaii's false alarm a while back.!

Thanks a lot Roger and Matt, I wasted a half hour this morning on You Tube watching Chrysler air raid siren videos I really want one now!

[53 Chevy5]

Seth, you bet you can! I have 2 weeks vacation left to use by May 31 and have no big plans so I'm thinking about taking a week off. Shutting my phone off and working on the 40. That would be nice.

I've been to your house, I don't think the phone is your distraction problem, you got a few kids there that kept me entertained

[Mike P]

Thanks for the videos Matt. Boats, irrigation pumps, sirens, saw mills, generators etc were all common homes for the 331 and 354 Hemis. As far as I know they never used the bigger 392s in industrial applications although I have heard rumors that some of the 392s did find their way into boat (marine applications).

The neatest application for an Industrial HEMI I think I ever came across was in an old Airport tug that was for sale on E Bay a few years ago.......now that would have been FUN.

They apparently sold enough industrial and marine motors to justify stamping out their own valve covers besides the more common Fire Power and Imperial passenger car covers.

HVC by M Patterson, on Flickr


The bumps between the spark plug holes on the Industrial and Marine valve covers were for clearance for adjustable rocker arms which were kind of rareto find on the first generation Hemis as mos of them came with hydraulic lifters and non-adjustable rockers. I;ve never had a marine hemi apart, but I've been around the Industrial Hemis, and even though the valve covers have the clearance bumps I've yet to find one that actually had solid lifters and adjustable rockers.

The (Non-Bump) Fire Power, Industrial and Marine Valve Covers are all pretty common. The non marked, and Fire Power Covers WITH adjustable rockers bumps (not shown but used on Chrysler 331, 354 and 392 letter series cars which did have solid cams and adjustable rockers) are probably the rarest and bring some really good money if you came across a set. Or at least they did until they started reproducing them in China.


.

[rspears]

The neatest application for an Industrial HEMI I think I ever came across was in an old Airport tug that was for sale on E Bay a few years ago.......now that would have been FUN.

Mike, you made me remember that at NAS Corpus Christi we had a tug/tractor with a HEMI. That thing was a BEAST, and we got tagged more than once for speeding on the line. They pulled it in for rework, and it came back freshly painted, but they'd put a throttle limiter on it! Only took a few minutes to realize it was a nut welded to the floorboard with a carriage bolt that stopped the pedal, and that bending it forward gave us back our toy. If you blipped the throttle in gear, then hammered it "Super Tractor" would pull the front wheels! We put a big Anheuser Busch "A" with the eagle on the back, but the brass wouldn't buy that it was "A" for America.... Fun times, training pilots.

Very cool videos, Matt!

[Matthyj]

Mike, I believe you are correct on the history, also industrial 331& 354s came in two flavors one was different than the passenger cars with lower water outlets etc and one was the same, my 354 is an industrial but the water outlets are the same as a passenger block. Also I rode in a early 60's speed boat at lake of the Ozarks with a built 392 in it, pulled up beside a fast outboard and the guy driving it said watch this and blew it away, I said let me out and how fast where we going he said 85 mph, I told him give me a hotrod with brakes that thing is crazy! So evidently they sold them to Chris craft and others but they where not industrial, just a crate passenger motor. I sold all my Chevy stuff after that and started my Hemi collecting shortly there after.

[Mike P]

I believe I read some where (Tex Smith Hemi Book?) that besides the different outlets that some of the marine Hemis were also set up to run in the opposite direction for dual engine boats. One of the neat pieces that some of the Marine engines had was a dual One Barrel or dual two barrel carb intake (I recall seeing images of both). They show up on E Bay occasionally and I always thought it would be interesting to play with, but could never justify what they usually went for just to have a conversation piece.

The 354 in my 57 Plymouth also started out as an Industrial I was told that it originally resided in a "big" Dodge truck. It still has the "Industrial Engine" brass tag with all the specs attached. I was pleasantly surprised to find out it also has the triple 5 heads.

BT by M Patterson, on Flickr

[Matthyj]

OThere is a fella in Springfield MO running around with the dual two barrel of intake on a rat rod tow truck! I don't want to hijack Rysns thread though but I could go all day about these beasts! Check out hemis unlimited on Facebook a guy named Ken Jack literally has the world's supply of these motors, I have been there and seen them, more than we could see in a day as well as really rare stuff. Just to make you say "holy cow" here are some of the heads he has, and if you can think of something rare chances are he has it.

[randyr]

Yeah Randy, I think I'm going to try to buy a different set of wheels after this is driving. These are 17x9s so maybe I'll go with a 10 or 12. I have thought about going back to my steel fenders and trying to widen them to fit these wheels and tires. We'll see. Worst case I'll run these for now. 2018 needs to be the year for this car.

Ryan, this is what 255/50/17 (27" tall x 10" wide) on a 17x8 rim looked like on mine...even if the car is lowered an inch or 2 more, which I plan to do, I think the 27" diameter of the tire is too small for the wheel opening. I ended up putting those tires on my truck and will get some that are around 28" tall for the rear. These are not the rims I will be using, they're just rollers. 275/50/17 gets you 27.8 tall x 10.8 wide and 345/40/17 gets you 27.9 tall x 13.6 wide. I'm probably going with 18's on the rear....I'm probably limited to an 8" rim width unless I do some other modifications (which are currently under consideration...)

[40FordDeluxe]

Mike, Matt, and who ever else. Keep going. It doesn't bother me a bit. It's hard enough to find early hemi info so share all you want.

Randy, I may have to dig out my stock fenders and see what they look like on the car now. I'm thinking they won't fit now but hopefully I'm wrong.