Well guys I am now a new proud owner of a 49 Ford Coupe (shoebox)! I have had my eye on my old bosses chopped 49 for about 8 years now and FINALLY got rid of enough cars and got enough money together to purchase the thing! He has owned it for 30 years + and it has been sitting for most of the time in his shop. Him and a buddy chopped it I believe 3 inches (could be wrong, still need to measure it) and Brent from Fat Man Fab built the front end for it (MII with manual rack for steering). Brent and my old boss are good friends and they told me that this was the first MII Brent built and it was the test dummy you could say. It was featured in a magazine when the car was black for Fat Man Fab. Anyways the car needs about 3 weeks worth of work to get it on the road and I plan to change a LOT of things on it.
Drivetrain wise: What I have going into it is a basic 350 sbc from an early 80's Corvette along with a 200-4R trans out of a 87 Monte Carlo SS (From my research this is one of the best 200's to build off of). The car has a nice Maverick rear end and the whole underside of this car is perfect (NO RUST) and was a frame off. Now yes I know I will get hell for the small block Chevy but its what I have on hand and the mounts in the car are already set up for it.
Body wise: It's of course chopped... The headlights and tail lights are frenched. Deck lid is shaved and 51 Ford hinges were used. Door handles are shaved and on poppers (VW starter solenoid used for poppers) and bear claw latches used on the doors. I mounted the hood on a piano hinge for now since I do not have the original hinges for the hood and it's what I had on hand to open up sideways. Tops of the fenders have a peak brought all the way to the front of the frenched head light bucket. Door corners are rounded out, etc etc. List goes on. Also included are metal fender skirts. I cannot remember the names of them but they are full length about 3 feet long and supposedly very hard to find and very old but in perfect shape and painted to match the car.
Interior Wise: The original dash was not there so we made a 51 Ford Dash out of fiberglass reinforced with metal bracing underneath and housed with basic aftermarket VDO gauges. 50 Ford bench seat up front with 67 Thunderbird wrap around rear seat. In the meantime I will be using what I think is the stock 49 heater. I pulled it apart and it's in great shape. I will replace the two wires going to the blower fan motor and a new heater core. We will be installing electric windows with vent window removed (full one piece glass already cut).
Future plans: There are some things that were done to this car to modernize it in the 80's and 90's that I can't stand but I will slowly replace it all. One of the things that bothers me most is the trim around all the glass. I want to find all the original exterior window trim for all glass and install it. Currently it is all basic black rubber and tinted glass. I plan to replace all glass to NON tinted as well and possibly add the vent window back. I also plan to weld up the holes in the bumpers which are already freshly rechromed and have them done again as well as a pair of lake pipes. Interior wise I plan to do a basic tuck and roll in black and white. The color is called Misty Lavender which is OK but will be changed next summer. In the light it looks basic white with pearl. In the shade it has a pink hue to it (yeah I know it's pink say what you want).
Anyways I am stoked to have this car and plan to drive the HELL out of it (daily driver). The good thing is that it's not hacked to hell and a good job was done on the chop and assembly of the car with only a few corners cut that I plan to change very soon.
