39 Ford Project

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  • Custer55
    Registered Member
    • Feb 2015
    • 706
    • 2442
    • Custer, WI

    39 Ford Project

    I have been working on our 39 Ford 2 door sedan that we originally purchased around 1994 to 1995. Bought it with the intention of building a street rod and did buy some parts and got started on the project and got a few things done on it. I got a Heidt's Mustang II front cross member installed and a Chassis Engineering leaf spring kit with a swap meet 57 Ford 9 inch rear end. Also bought a Bitchin Products recessed firewall and front floor board kit but never got to installing them. The project stalled when our son was born in 1996 as time and budget for the project was hard to come by for a while. Last summer we sold another project car (1937 Pontiac) and decided we should probably sell the 39 Ford also. After looking over what shape the car was in and the money we have in it with the original purchase price and the parts we had purchased for it we decided the only way to even come close to breaking even on it was to put some work into it and at least get it closer to be a running car. So when My 55 Chevy and my son's 59 Mercury and the other summer vehicles went into winter storage we moved the 39 to the workshop to get started on it.
    First project on the list is to fix the rear window and roof damage that it had when we bought it. Seller said a tree had fallen on it. I have never tried fixing damage this bad before but figured I didn't have much to lose by giving it a try on this car.




    This is what it looked like when I started. Actually it was worse as I forgot to take a picture before I started, This was after I had pushed out the damage some.


    This was after some work on pushing on it with a bottle jack and then the ram from my engine hoist.


    Drivers side damage to work on yet.


    Getting it roughly back to shape. Throughout the process I used a rattle can primer to check progress by spraying a thin coat then sanding it off with a block to make it easier to seed where it needed more work.


    Looking much better but still a long way to go.




    A few more progress shots.




    More progress. At this point just doing a lot of hammer and dolly work to bump up the low spots and knock down the high spots combined with using a shrinking disc and a propane torch to shrink the areas of stretched metal.




    Slow but sure getting it a bit better.


    Looking halfway decent at this point, Should only take a thin coat of filler to look pretty good now. For sure much better than what I started with.
    More to come.
    Brian
    Brian,
  • BamaNomad
    Registered Member
    • Nov 2016
    • 3881
    • 3217
    • Rocket City, USA (Huntsville, AL area)

    #2
    It looks great to me Brian.. certainly compared to what it did!

    I've loved 39 Fords all my life I think; coupes early, then came around to thinking 'sedans' when family came along! Good luck with the project... it would make a great companion to your '55...

    Comment

    • busterwivell
      Registered Member
      • Dec 2016
      • 798
      • 3249
      • Sahuarita (Tucson), AZ

      #3
      Nice work!
      I recently sold my 47 Chevy 2 door sedan project. Realized I'm probably too old to take on another huge project, and have plenty of fun with my 56 210, 66 Chevelle and 71 Chevy pickup.

      Comment

      • carls 56 (RIP 11/24/2021)
        Registered Member
        • Jan 2011
        • 1857
        • 33
        • Culpeper, Va.

        #4
        your doing good Brian, nice progress. ------> what you do after lunch?
        ARMY NAM VET, very proud!

        56 210 4dr

        drive and enjoy them while you work on them, life is to short.

        Comment

        • Belair-o
          Registered Member
          • Jun 2013
          • 656
          • 1723
          • Franktown, CO

          #5
          Hi Brian,
          Appreciate you posting your work! Nice to see what can be done. Provides a nice example of what can be done & incentive to try things one isn't familiar with! Also nice that you didn't require a ton of tools to make great progress.
          Thanks, Doug

          Comment

          • WagonCrazy
            Registered Member
            • Mar 2012
            • 1879
            • 530
            • Santa Clarita, CA

            #6
            Great progress there! A lot of finesse work involved, but you're almost there. Keep posting progress pics as you get this dialed in.
            1957 Nomad- LS1/T56 on C4 chassis
            1959 Fleetside Apache 1/2 ton, shortbed, big window, 327ci.

            Comment

            • Custer55
              Registered Member
              • Feb 2015
              • 706
              • 2442
              • Custer, WI

              #7
              It looks great to me Brian.. certainly compared to what it did!

              I've loved 39 Fords all my life I think; coupes early, then came around to thinking 'sedans' when family came along! Good luck with the project... it would make a great companion to your '55...

              Thanks, Yep is sure is way better than what I started with.
              Brian,

              Comment

              • Custer55
                Registered Member
                • Feb 2015
                • 706
                • 2442
                • Custer, WI

                #8
                Originally posted by busterwivell
                Nice work!
                I recently sold my 47 Chevy 2 door sedan project. Realized I'm probably too old to take on another huge project, and have plenty of fun with my 56 210, 66 Chevelle and 71 Chevy pickup.
                Thanks, the plan is to try to sell this one once i get it in better shape but we will see.
                Brian,

                Comment

                • Custer55
                  Registered Member
                  • Feb 2015
                  • 706
                  • 2442
                  • Custer, WI

                  #9
                  Originally posted by carls 56
                  your doing good Brian, nice progress. ------> what you do after lunch?
                  Thanks Carl, Most of my work gets done after lunch. Don't do much of anything before lunch!!!
                  Brian,

                  Comment

                  • Custer55
                    Registered Member
                    • Feb 2015
                    • 706
                    • 2442
                    • Custer, WI

                    #10
                    Originally posted by Belair-o
                    Hi Brian,
                    Appreciate you posting your work! Nice to see what can be done. Provides a nice example of what can be done & incentive to try things one isn't familiar with! Also nice that you didn't require a ton of tools to make great progress.
                    Thanks, Doug
                    Thanks, Your right, I don't have any thing but your basic body tools but I'm sure I will be buying some more as this progresses. A lot of my tools have been purchased when the need for them arises.
                    Brian,

                    Comment

                    • Custer55
                      Registered Member
                      • Feb 2015
                      • 706
                      • 2442
                      • Custer, WI

                      #11
                      Originally posted by WagonCrazy
                      Great progress there! A lot of finesse work involved, but you're almost there. Keep posting progress pics as you get this dialed in.
                      Thanks, A lot of finesse is a good way to put it. The time consuming part is getting all the little bumps smoothed out. The less body filler it needs though the better.
                      Brian,

                      Comment

                      • Custer55
                        Registered Member
                        • Feb 2015
                        • 706
                        • 2442
                        • Custer, WI

                        #12
                        Progress Update


                        With the roof looking pretty good time to keep going on the rest of the many areas that need work. In the process of sanding down the area below the rear window I found some damage that had been repaired previously by just filling it with lead.


                        There was 3 creases below the window that needed repair.


                        I hammered out the lower part of the creases but couldn't do anything with the upper part due to the rear package tray and bracing. So time for a new tool. I bought a stud gun from HF for $100.


                        Not the best in the world but it worked well enough to most of the creases out.




                        Not perfect, but a lot better than what it was.




                        Found another spot that had just been filled with lead on the rear quarter by the lower corner of the trunk. The lead was pretty thick in this spot.


                        So apparently whoever did the previous repairs didn't have any body hammers.


                        Looking a bit better after some hammering and welding up the crack that had just been covered up with lead.


                        The rest of the quarter panel also had some previous damage. The area where the last trim hole is took quite a bit of shrinking to get rid of a big oil canning spot but I have it pretty close now. I may come back to it later but for now I will move on.
                        As you can see in the pictures there is quite a few areas of surface rust that need to be removed. I have just been sanding them with 80 grit and using a wire wheel in some areas and will eventually sand blast the areas in the high crown areas like near the rain gutters and near the door / trunk jams but I don't want to sand blast in big low crown areas like in the middle of the roof if I don't have to. If anyone has a better way to remove these rust areas let me know what has worked for you.


                        Had a couple of dents similar to this one on the edges of the roof to repair. A bit of block sanding highlights the repair area.


                        After popping it out and some more block sanding reveals some old plastic filler.


                        More plastic filler beyond what the dent you could see when I started.


                        No more filler and looking much better after some hammer and dolly work and shrinking with a propane torch and shrinking disc.
                        I use the propane torch to heat up the spots that are just slightly low and then hit the high spot with the shrinking disc.


                        Pretty close at this point. Time to move on to another part of the car.
                        Next time I will continue on the drivers side rear quarter panel, stripping paint and more damage repair.
                        Brian
                        Last edited by Custer55; 03-14-2020, 07:40 PM.
                        Brian,

                        Comment

                        • BamaNomad
                          Registered Member
                          • Nov 2016
                          • 3881
                          • 3217
                          • Rocket City, USA (Huntsville, AL area)

                          #13
                          Thanks Brian for saving an old 39 Ford.. Not so surprising to find a variety of old repairs on an 80 yr old car!

                          Comment

                          • Custer55
                            Registered Member
                            • Feb 2015
                            • 706
                            • 2442
                            • Custer, WI

                            #14
                            Originally posted by BamaNomad
                            Thanks Brian for saving an old 39 Ford.. Not so surprising to find a variety of old repairs on an 80 yr old car!
                            Thanks Gary,
                            Yep, It would be a pretty rare 80 plus year old car if it didn't need any body work!!
                            Brian,

                            Comment

                            • Belair-o
                              Registered Member
                              • Jun 2013
                              • 656
                              • 1723
                              • Franktown, CO

                              #15
                              Hi Brian,
                              You have a bit of an archeological project there - un-earthing the evolution of body filler technology - from lead to plastic! How did you handle removing the lead?
                              Regards, Doug

                              Comment

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