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Thread: 39 Ford Project

  1. #1
    Registered Member Custer55's Avatar
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    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

  2. #2
    Registered Member BamaNomad's Avatar
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    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...

  3. #3
    Registered Member busterwivell's Avatar
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    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.

  4. #4
    Registered Member carls 56 (RIP 11/24/2021)'s Avatar
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    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.

  5. #5
    Registered Member Belair-o's Avatar
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    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

  6. #6
    Registered Member WagonCrazy's Avatar
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    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.

  7. #7
    Registered Member Custer55's Avatar
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    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.

  8. #8
    Registered Member Custer55's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by busterwivell View Post
    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.

  9. #9
    Registered Member Custer55's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by carls 56 View Post
    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!!!

  10. #10
    Registered Member Custer55's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Belair-o View Post
    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.

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