Thread: 46 Coupe Rebuild

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Greetings to all, I just recently bought a 46 Ford Coupe. I bought it off a guy out of Georgia who told me it used to run Moonshine in it's prime in Tennessee and Kentucky. He stripped it down and raced it then eventually just pulled everything out of it and let it rust. My plan is to rebuild it with my grandson's and one day pass it on.

Welcome to CHR, Dan. Your first couple of posts on the "other" thread are pretty contradicting, with the first saying you just bought "....a beautiful car..." and the next saying it's an old racer on a "....frame that's shot", and asking what other chassis you can use to set it on. I'm going to be honest, there are a lot of cars & trucks out there that have old iron sitting on a modern chassis, like a Chevy S10 complete chassis, but in my mind they are no longer "vintage" in any way. Instead they are a 2002 Chevy S10 with a 1946 Ford body and it's very hard to get the wheelbase and track to look dead on right without a lot of work. Nothing wrong with it, but it's a compilation of new/old parts as opposed to being a "hot rod" to a lot of folks. No matter how great it looks, once you say, "...it's sitting on a (fill in the blank) chassis..." a lot of people will lose interest very quickly. Now I know there's really not a whole lot of difference in taking a vintage chassis and putting a Fat Man front clip on, and maybe grafting a Jag IRS on the back, but rodder's will OOOOH and AHHHH over that, while they'll give you an "Oh that's nice" for a frame swap. Now that said, there are instances where a frame swap simply makes good sense. One that comes to mind is johnboy's school bus to RV project, where they're going for a reliable, rugged service RV to use for travel, setting the old bus on a Chevy Dually chassis with big block power which is very cool. You just need to decide what you're wanting to end up with, plan it out, and go. Having a project that interests the grandsons is great if you can pry them away from their iPads & Xboxes.

Rspears makes a good point. And It's not limited to cars. Not too long ago, by baby got in a conversation in the check out line about motorcycles. The other lady asks her what bike I have. When my baby replied "Indian" the lady's expression was absolutely flat, because it was the wrong answer (not Harley )

That being said, figure out whom you want to please with your build, then buy parts.

BTW, I say build it to make YOU happy, and those whom like it will enjoy seeing it. As for those that don't, oh well.

Originally Posted by firebird77clone

BTW, I say build it to make YOU happy, and those whom like it will enjoy seeing it. As for those that don't, oh well.

Just to be crystal clear, I agree 100% that it's your car and the only one you need to please is yourself. That said, if you're building thinking the car is going to be any kind of investment or even meet build costs in value, putting a car/pickup on a modern chassis is going to have a very, very limited market as time passes, IMO.

Welcome to CHR! I for one haven't been a fan of frame swaps under older bodies because most of them are hacked when done. My experiences are mainly with older pick ups and the frame swaps drive me bonkers. They never look right on a 4x4 truck. But, on a lower car, you may never see the frame other than in the engine bay.