Thread: Opinions wanted regarding '36 Ford Slantback

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As much as I LOVE rodded '36s, that one looks like a great "historic" vehicle- but ultimately the choice is yours. I too have thought about how nice it would be to start with a nice car to rod.

Everybody has a car that they want to own someday, this one is at the top of my list. When I was a kid a guy who owned a junkyard had a black '36 Fordor that I drooled over. He had wide whites on red wheels with caps and rings, a little rake, a white tuck and roll interior, and through the louvers on the hood you could see a red flathead with two carbs and lots of chrome. That car was bitchin'.

If I had yours I would simply update it with '40 brakes, and do the exact mods I mentioned above. Your Tudor is great as is, but a little updating would make it over the top. I'm like you, I'm a hot rodder, not a restorer, but this one doesn't need the streetrod approach with IFS, 350/350, etc to make it cool. I think that would ruin it and make it just like 10,000 others. If you did it like I described you would have all of us old timers climbing all over it.

Don

what a beautiful car! Zupe up that flathead like Don says and you'll have lots of us drooling. Makes you want to dress up and head out on the town for a fun evening!

Taking perfectly good stock cars and making rods of them is what we do...........
About 10 years ago I just missed a similar situation, though it was a '35. Same body, standard model, black, though it was original down to interior and paint except for one reshot fender, supposedly only 48k miles.
What you do depends on what you plan for it. If it'll be a distance cruiser, normal street rod kind of deal, your plan sounds typical. If you just want a local putt around car I'd give it an altitude change, big 'n littles, a throaty dual exhaust. Add hydraulic brakes, during which you decide whether to use the wide 5 wheels, or switch to the more common 5 1/2" bolt circle. Play with contrasting wheel colors, remove the bulky spare from the rear (hide the holes by moving the license plate mount)........and enjoy. The stock rear ratio is probably too low for much more than 50-55 without really wrapping it up, and probably overheating. Speed parts for those 21 stud engines are much more difficult to find than the later engines, so you'd have to figure what you could live with there. The stock frames are plenty good if in decent condition, look for rust through at the body brackets and where the X member ties into the outer rails. Places like SAC, Chassis engineering, and Speedway, among others, sell plenty of suspension and brake kits to make updating a breeze. The sbc fits just right without firewall mods, though could be just a bit tight for a mechanical fan depending on the rad you use (it's the lean back toward the top that gets you).

That's great find! No matter what you did or didn't do, it's going to look great. But for goodness sakes, don't pass her by!!!!!!

A neighbor had a '53 Dodge convertible, I offered him a good price and he was going to sell, but he found out I was going to modify it so he kept it. Several years later he died and his heirs had it crushed. So much for keeping them "pristine"!