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39 Ford Sedan


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This just followed me home. Really solid car, zero rust, old paint job shines nice. Rare 40 Olds bumpers.  SBC hooked to the 39 box and banjo. It has a dropped spring in front with stock spring in back and stock front axle. Plans are to lower it with a dropped axle and lowering spring in the rear. Also add front and rear sway bars so it doesn’t feel like it’s going to flip over in turns. Very reliable driver with some things that need tinkering. It’ll be a fun cruiser for me and the family. It came with AC that needs to be installed. It had full wheel covers that the PO kept, so I need to figure out a wheel solution. Probably paint the drums at least. Enjoy!

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Great find. Really nice paint job and I like the look of the bumpers. Depending on how much you would want to spend on brakes, replacing the wide 5 style drums and wheels with the more standard 5 on 5 wheels would open up a far wider choice of wheels and or hub caps that you could use. 

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38 minutes ago, espo said:

Great find. Really nice paint job and I like the look of the bumpers. Depending on how much you would want to spend on brakes, replacing the wide 5 style drums and wheels with the more standard 5 on 5 wheels would open up a far wider choice of wheels and or hub caps that you could use. 

It has new Lincoln brakes on the front and stops pretty good. I might just live with the wide 5's for a while, but I'll paint the drums black or gunmetal gray. But yeah, 40-48 wheels would be a lot better. 

2 hours ago, Paul Payne said:

That is one sweet ride! Your tweeks and improvements sound great- please post more pix when things have moved along! Can you tell us a bit more about the engine?

I don't know much about it. The numbers on the block say it's a mid-80's 305.  It might have a slightly bigger than stock cam, a little bit of rump on the idle. It runs good, has good vacuum and good oil pressure. 

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Congrats on the new ride, Dan! Perfect family car and the perfect mild project that you can personalize without having to tear it down to a bare frame. I’m with you on the white brake drums, those gotta go. I’ve seen several examples where people have painted them a cast gray or gun metal and that looks really nice. You can also put some chrome closed end lug nuts and chrome dust caps on the front to dress them up a bit.

Man, those 40’s sedans have HUGE booty, don’t they?! 😁 

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On 7/29/2021 at 6:18 PM, Joe Handley said:

Looks like it should have a mountain of mason jars or a huge, yet discretely installed tank in it someplace.

That is one awesome Ford.  And I'm still waiting for somebody to do 1/25 scale Mason jars and their boxes.  With photo-etched jar lids!

I have a couple of locally written history books about moonshiners.  "Local" is the northwestern tip of Upstate SC, which was prime moonshine country back in the day.  From here, "runners" could get across 3 state lines pretty quickly: GA, NC and TN.

Those books say tanks were very rare, and some of the old moonshiners interviewed said they had never seen one.  If a car with a tank got seized by the Revenuers, that was instant evidence of guilt and a sure trip to Atlanta Federal Penitentiary.  The runners just filled up Mason jars and put them back in their boxes. 

The '40 Ford sedan could hold a LOT of those boxes with the back seat removed.  The runners installed heavy-duty rear springs to handle the extra weight, but they had to be discreet about that, too.  A '40 Ford with its butt in the air was another instant tip-off to the Revenuers. 

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So I'm itching to get this thing lower to the ground, but for personal reasons it's going to have to wait. So I've been tinkering with it.  It had a bad off-idle stumble. The carb was filthy inside and out so I rebuilt it, and now it runs like a champ!  Also the timing was way retarded. It has no timing marks so I advance it by ear and that really woke it up too.

@Dennis LacyI think I will paint the brake drums black or gun metal gray at some point, but for now I picked up these 16" caps and I think I like them better than the exposed wide 5s for the moment... They'll work until I can lower it and decide what wheel/tire combo to go with. Blackwalls are definitely on the table, and if I do that, the wide 5s will come back out detailed.

I already have the dropped rear spring, I just need a dropped axle for the front, and sway bars front and rear. Should drive a lot better. 

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1 hour ago, Joe Handley said:

Honestly, that would look great with just a 2"/4" drop.  Low enough to tuck those whites a little on all 4 corners and get rid of the CUV stance, but but still high enough to easily make it over the same obstacles a modern sedan should at stock height!

That’s about what a dropped axle and a dropped rear spring will do to the stance. A 4” dropped axle is actually 2” over stock 

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  • 2 months later...

Me and my oldest 2 kids drove the 39 600+ miles last weekend, from Fort Worth to OKC, participated in the Hot Rod Hundred Reliability Run out to Weatherford, Ok. Saw some sights along old RT 66 in Oklahoma, and then back to Texas. Ol car got 15 MPG and used 3 quarts of oil. Not too bad. 

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First off, great memories with the kids for you and them. Car is looking good as is with the new hub caps. Your thoughts about lowering the car are good but remember to leave enough room for the front tires to clear the wheel well openings when turning or going in and out of drive ways. The sidewall profile looks pretty tall.  Are these the 16" wheels and what size are they ? A tire and or wheel combination with a lower profile might also help lower the look of the car.  Even with the stock 16" wheels there are many passenger car radial tires sizes that would fit the stock rims but be a much lower sidewall profile. A pretty standard 225/60x16 size may even fit those wheels and give you better handling of a radial tire and a smaller outside diameter that may get you a couple of inches closer to the ground and still not look like you're running rubber bands for tires. This is a very clean looking machine. 

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1 hour ago, espo said:

First off, great memories with the kids for you and them. Car is looking good as is with the new hub caps. Your thoughts about lowering the car are good but remember to leave enough room for the front tires to clear the wheel well openings when turning or going in and out of drive ways. The sidewall profile looks pretty tall.  Are these the 16" wheels and what size are they ? A tire and or wheel combination with a lower profile might also help lower the look of the car.  Even with the stock 16" wheels there are many passenger car radial tires sizes that would fit the stock rims but be a much lower sidewall profile. A pretty standard 225/60x16 size may even fit those wheels and give you better handling of a radial tire and a smaller outside diameter that may get you a couple of inches closer to the ground and still not look like you're running rubber bands for tires. This is a very clean looking machine. 

Thanks man!  Yes, I know that the drop in the front will create some turning issues. I'm going to go with it for now and see how bad it is. If I hate it I can go down to a 550-16 in the front (has 600s on it now).  I do know that the dropped axle king pin width is narrower than the stock one, so that might help suck the tires in a smidge. I would love the driving feel of radials but the bias plys looks so right on this, and they are fairly new so I'm going to stick with them for now. 

37 minutes ago, NOBLNG said:

Very classy ride! Those hubcaps look fine on it. Sounds like you and the family are enjoying it.👍

Thank you sir!  We are having a good time.

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That is just plain wonderful! What a great family hot rod! I would keep the wheel and tire combo- they look just right! My late father-in-law had a 39 Chevy master deluxe sedan that was our wedding car, very similar vibes, and you will create the same memories for your family.

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