1940 Ford Tudor Build Thread

[Scooting]

[QUOTE=
I do have LED rear tail lights which are much brighter than the originals. I just have some concerns now and that is why I want a 3rd brake light. First is too many distracted drivers and I know a couple of people that have been rear ended in old cars. The fault was not deemed by the person doing the rear ending due to a technicality of the old cars lighting not meeting modern appearances. I swear lawyers find every angle they can these days.)

I have the 40 housings where the LED lights are pointing back rather than at the sky like the stock housings. They work excellent. Yet more than one rodder has told me than when they get close they can not see the lights and no clue if I am turning or most of all stopping. I would like a high center light also but have not found anything super yet. Like you I don't thing the lights in the rear windows work all that well. I will be watching to see what you come up with. If I was ready to do another paint job, I think I would flush mount a light under the window. Good luck searching.

[40FordDeluxe]

I have the 40 housings where the LED lights are pointing back rather than at the sky like the stock housings. They work excellent. Yet more than one rodder has told me than when they get close they can not see the lights and no clue if I am turning or most of all stopping. I would like a high center light also but have not found anything super yet. Like you I don't thing the lights in the rear windows work all that well. I will be watching to see what you come up with. If I was ready to do another paint job, I think I would flush mount a light under the window. Good luck searching.

I had the cheap LED drop in LED replacements in this car before and I had the same experiences as you. Friends would say they couldn't see my taillights especially in a truck. I found out the STOP lamp I saw were actually on Model A's. They make all kinds of them now and I found ones that are made for motorcycles and are smaller. My thoughts are if I remove the license plate, french it in the tail pan, I will remove the original license pate light. Make a bracket and mount this stop lamp on top of the trunk handle housing. I'm not sold on this yet though. I really think a flush mount one under the back windows is the way to go and will look awesome. You won't even know it's there until it's actuated.

I'm currently researching who makes ones that will last. It would be a bad deal to have the light drop led's in the light after the car is painted. The coolest ones I've seen are the ones you sand the lens to be flush with the body and then you clear right over them. I'm not sure I'll go that route but we shall see.

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[Hotrod46]

I can't comment on 40 taillights, but I can tell you that I used Rodworx LED lenses in my 46. They are the brightest LED conversions that I have found. I even had a fellow that was helping me back into a tight space at night say that they were so bright, that they were hard for him to look at. He wanted to put some in his car.

I don't particularly care for LED's in older cars, but I had another rodder that was following me on a cruise say that he could hardly see my old incandescent bulbs. If it hadn't been for a very small 3rd brake light in my rear window, he said he would have rearended me. I decided that in this case, safety trumped aesthetics and started looking for some replacements. Now, my regular taillights are brighter than the 3rd brake light!

Rodworx has a big booth at Cruizin the Coast and I was able to see their lights first hand. They have internal conversions and bulbs, but I went with their replacement lenses that have the LED's built in.

[36 sedan]

I have a tutorial on how to make your own LED tail lights, these are super bright and visible from all angles. Cost of the D.I.Y. LED tail lights is usually less than $10.00 each (parts link included).

The project is a little complicated/tedious and takes a while to put it all together, I've made it so it plugs into your existing light frame socket and it uses your lens keeping the original looks. However, even with the bright LED taillights I use and recommend a third brake light, as noted by others, SAFETY always comes first.

I built these LED taillights for my car and wrote a detailed tutorial to help others do the same, unfortunately the file size is to large to post on the site. If you're interested PM your email to me and I'll be glad to share the file with you.

[40FordDeluxe]

I haven't had a lot of time to mess with the 40 lately but I think about it a lot. I'm now thinking about doing fake patina on this when I paint it and I am even thinking about changing wheels to what it had before. I have reached out to some people trying to get pics of this car from the 80s and early 90s. I just want to replicate it how it flashes in my head every now and then.

With that being said, I'm rethinking some choices. The hood scoop may wait. I'm trying to prioritize my time and that means I need to pick wisely which things I choose to spend time on. I know my time will be limited so if I want to actually drive this thing this summer I need to stay on track.

Most likely I won't go to a V butt windshield for now. My glass is good so leave it alone.

Gauges. My water temp gauge is mechanical and broken. Now I'm second guessing what I want to do there. Bite the bullet and reinstall the cluster it had before. Probably the smart thing to do. Especially since Uncle Jerry won those gauges years ago and hoarded them for the car. Unfortunately he never got to use them. The Fitech has a controller to monitor things so I really don't need to go all out on gauges I guess.

There's still much more I'm trying to decide on but with everything going on I'm trying to keep it simple so I can actually achieve a goal. We'll see how it goes....

[34_40]

Just like me, I had to decide on some things that I wanted but didn't have the time to get it done. Some I changed later and some remains the same. It's okay, I can drive it and not worry about most of the scratches.

[40FordDeluxe]

Just like me, I had to decide on some things that I wanted but didn't have the time to get it done. Some I changed later and some remains the same. It's okay, I can drive it and not worry about most of the scratches.

Being able to drive it is a big motivator, and I just have to cope with the I can add and change it later. I've always wanted this to be done when it rolls out of the shop but driving out trumps rolling out.

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[34_40]

Being able to drive it is a big motivator, and I just have to cope with the I can add and change it later. I've always wanted this to be done when it rolls out of the shop but driving out trumps rolling out.

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I was suddenly working to a deadline as the state changed the rules so I had to "finish it" in 11 months. And that meant paint, interior included. They wouldn't even look at a car if it was in primer. The payoff was I don't have to meet all the "new" regulations. So it was worth it to me.

[Hotrod46]

Being able to drive it is a big motivator.... I've always wanted this to be done when it rolls out of the shop but driving out trumps rolling out.

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Yep. I'm feeling the same way about the Healey project. I've been fooling with that thing for 6 years!!! Some of the delays were unavoidable, but much of it was my own fault. Changes to the game plan mid stream that took me backwards in progress. Enough is enough. Time to be on the road enjoying it while I can. I'm not getting any younger for sure!!!!

[40FordDeluxe]

Yep. I'm feeling the same way about the Healey project. I've been fooling with that thing for 6 years!!! Some of the delays were unavoidable, but much of it was my own fault. Changes to the game plan mid stream that took me backwards in progress. Enough is enough. Time to be on the road enjoying it while I can. I'm not getting any younger for sure!!!!

Another thing pushing me is the guy that painted this thing in 99 or so, is putting together a thing for the Goodguys Gazette. He works for Goodguys and the story he is writing up is about how their are still good people in the world and most of them drive street rods. He is writing the story based on the Firebird we restored last year and when him and a bunch of guys did the 40. He said there is a huge possibility the 40 would be needed to be on display at Goodguys Des Moines this year. He asked if it was together enough to resemble a 40 Ford. I laughed and told him yes but we'd have to tow it. So if that actually happens it would be cool to drive it at the show. This is another reason I'm trying to make it look like it did 30 years ago.

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[40FordDeluxe]

Man, the guy that owns this car needs to get off his butt! No updates for 1.5yrs? What a slacker..................................





















I have gotten a fair amount of work done on it but not as much as Mike aka Hotrod46 did on his awesome Healey build. I will work on getting my updates put on here soon. I hope you all have a great weekend.

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[40FordDeluxe]

It sure has been a while. Last time this was in the garage I packed it up and put it in storage to get work done on the wife's truck. It got put in storage this late spring. My wife was pretty addiment I wasn't to work on any non customer projects until her truck was done. Well, we ran out of finding to keep restoring her rig so I was just working on customer stuff squirreling parts away.

I was at a friend's shop one day this spring helping him move some cars and Uncle Jerry's friend Gene happened to stop by to see Steve. He was having Steve paint some stuff for him. When he was done with Steve he turned and asked how Jerry's car was coming. I told him it wasn't and it was in storage. Gene then told me his health was declining and he sure would like to see the car again before he left this world. I asked how long he had and he shrugged his shoulders and said we never know.

At this point I didn't really know what to think. Gene is a nice guy and I already missed every dead line I set out for with this car. My Great Aunt wanted a ride in it too before she left but I couldn't make it happen. I got busy with other things going on and one day it just hit me. I told my wife what Gene had said and she told me to just bring the car home and start working on it. So once again I played musical cars and got it back home.

My sons and I ripped the body off the frame. I finish welded the stuff I couldn't get to with the body on. I was going to remove all of the original under coating but decided if it had been stuck on there this long, why bother it? Plus I still had cutting and welding to do to the floor. The boys put some rust bullet down after I wire wheeled the frame and we set the body back on the chassis. I had to fix a couple of body mount spots due to some newly found rust but they are taken care of now. Sadly my old phone got damaged and I can't get those pics off of there.

Next order of business was to get the trunk floor fixed since I had to cut out the original area above the rear end to allow the suspension to come up enough to allow the suspension all to settle. I originally set the floor up angled forward to allow my vintage cooler to set on the RH side. This was going to house my battery but once I thought about it, I wouldn't have any room to put a couple of chairs in the trunk. When I bought this car it had a group 31 battery in the trunk. I was going to use one again. I had a new one and I knew it would last a long time. I decided to ditch that idea and I did some measuring. I found that a group 78 battery would fit in between the tail pan and the kick up for the fuel tank. My plan is to put a door above this compartment and put my air compressors on the other side. Luckily I boxed the rear portion of the frame and added gussets for added strength. I did think about a what if it ever gets rear ended. Unfortunately as low as it sets most hits will be above the bumper/battery area.

After the trunk floor was all done and painted top and bottom, I decided to mount my air tank below the package tray. There really isn't any other good place for it and I am trying to keep as much trunk space as I can.

Next I moved to getting the seats set in place again. I decided to change the mounts I made before and made some brackets and welded them to the X member so they are tied to the frame as well. I will have to make some covers to hide the bases later. I also got back to installing the master cylinder. I had big hopes of putting a hydro boost on it but there just isn't room. I got a big bore MC I will try first. It had an OEM MC with a kinked line operating all the brakes before so it has to be better than what it had before. I also made an access panel to service the master cylinder.

Another big item that had to be done was the transmission. This one was a burnt up core and the OD housing was empty. I farmed the rebuild out to my Dad. I already had most of the parts and a new torque converter. Just lacked the time. He got it done for me and now it is ready to go. Now that the trans had an out put shaft, I could actually put a yoke on the trans and measure for a drive shaft. I found a shaft in my stash and took it down and had it shortened. I had them put Spicer life u joints in it and balance it. Man, it's been a long time since it had a drive shaft in it!

Last pic I was putting fenders back on to prep for paint. I never cut the fuel fill hole so I test fit the fuel tank and marked my fuel fill then cut the hole. I then cut the holes to mount the tail lights and made some brackets to hold the tail light housings against the fenders.

[rspears]

Great progress pictures! Anxious to see more!!

[40FordDeluxe]

Back in June I was working on getting the body ready for paint. Well, the more I worked on it, the more I ended up repairing. Both doors had cracks under the wing window. Both doors had a pucker ahead of the wing window. There was one under the back of the window on the RH door. I also ended up cutting and tweaking the LH door to get the door to fit better.

Here are pics of sanding around the flames. I still haven't painted the front clip. I'm contemplating my options on the flames. I wanted to keep the old flames but now I'm leaning to having some new ones put on.

Clint was assisting with sanding duties. Him and Colt also got to do some painting underneath, maybe a couple of times. They may have had some on them for a while too since it was Rust Bullet.

[40FordDeluxe]

More body work progress and rear fender prep.