Maiden voyage accomplished!
 

Well, the last of my flathead cars is now on the road! PO bought it in 1957 with a freeze cracked engine, I took it out of the garage in about 2005. He bought lots of NOS parts for it, never did anything but accumulate parts, 2 sets of NOS fenders, running boards, 2 gas tanks, pretty much everything you could buy at a Ford dealer in late 50s including a new in the crate 59 series engine. I have a 40 coupe album that shows progress. Engine has 4" crank, Ross pistons, metric rings, mild cam with lobes at 114 degrees, Holley 390, Columbia rear. Should be some good cruising this summer!

[IMG]https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/pictu...ictureid=42398[/IMG]

Re: Maiden voyage accomplished!
 

What a junker! hahaha cool

Re: Maiden voyage accomplished!
 

Good cruising? I should say so! You have gotten a lot of this together in the last two months since we stopped by. Dang it, what a beautiful car!

Re: Maiden voyage accomplished!
 

I love 32's and 36's But a 40 is just a doll. In high school a buddy had a 40 two door sedan with a Cadillac V8. I remember that the back seat was huge. Good memories

Re: Maiden voyage accomplished!
 

Has it been 2 months Gary? Anyway Thanks!

Re: Maiden voyage accomplished!
 

Beautiful. Great job!

Re: Maiden voyage accomplished!
 

Amazing what happens if you turn off the computer and TV

Re: Maiden voyage accomplished!
 

Good for you, deuce!...

Re: Maiden voyage accomplished!
 

Nice job on a great looking car! Enjoy!

Re: Maiden voyage accomplished!
 

Beautiful job! For those who haven't seen Mike's work it is impeccable. Pictures don't do it justice.

Re: Maiden voyage accomplished!
 

Thanks for the compliment Tom! It isn't perfect but as we say when we are working on our own car "It's good enough for who it's for"!

Re: Maiden voyage accomplished!
 

She’s a wee beauty mate. Great work.

Re: Maiden voyage accomplished!
 

It looks beautiful. It's a credit to you. You "bought right" though, what a find. All those parts the PO had collected was a godsend.

Re: Maiden voyage accomplished!
 

Nice looking '40, is that Lockhaven green?, enjoy your ride.

Re: Maiden voyage accomplished!
 

I am VERY happy for you! Thrilled in fact. Good for you!!!

Re: Maiden voyage accomplished!
 

Beautiful car, I enjoyed looking through your album on this project. Fantastic!

Re: Maiden voyage accomplished!
 

CONGRATULATIONS. You hung in there all those years. Now your dream came true.

Re: Maiden voyage accomplished!
 

The album states the colour as cloudmist grey.

Re: Maiden voyage accomplished!
 

I just looked through the album as well. Very nice. And the color is terrific on the car! :)

Re: Maiden voyage accomplished!
 

great lookin car, a 40 coupe ranks quite high on my list

Re: Maiden voyage accomplished!
 

Corvette8n, The V8 (standard) cars only came in 3 colors (unless you bought a fleet) Black, Lyon Blue and Cloud Mist Gray which this car was originally so I kept it the original which I like a lot.
I was reminded that the "standard" cars could be painted any of the colors available for an extra $15 if you ordered one!! 15$ today wouldn't cover the sandpaper!

Re: Maiden voyage accomplished!
 

This little coupe is gorgeous. If I didn't know better, the fit and finish could easily be confused for one of Kubarth's builds. Here's hoping a few "finished" pictures are forthcoming. I love Cloudmist...congrats! DD


https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/pictu...ictureid=42377

Re: Maiden voyage accomplished!
 

V8coopman, I was helped enormously by the fact that this is the ONLY car I have ever had that needed ZERO body work. I took it down to bare metal and there was NO rust or dents to deal with. Luckily it sat in a garage almost 50 years untouched. The original waffle tar paper is still in the tool area and on the floor where shiny paint remained. The original wood floor boards were reused and the wood covers over the tool areas were also perfect. I did this car last because my motto when working on things is "do the worst first" to help from getting burned out. I can tell you I would never do another wagon, as they are a tremendous amount of work, plus I am too old (almost 70) And finally, THANKS for the compliment but as nice as it is, it isn't like Kube's . If I swapped the engine, shocks, wheels and tires off my wagon I could put it on the concourse but it would probably score in the 970-985 range. Mike's cars really are 1000 point cars. I have judged 9 or 10 times on the EFV8 Club concourse and have a reasonable idea about such things but thanks for putting me in that category! When it dries out and gets nice I will shoot some good outdoor "finished" pictures.

Re: Maiden voyage accomplished!
 

Very nice! Love that color also!


Bob

Re: Maiden voyage accomplished!
 

Mike, stop by the booth at Portland and I'll give you a '40 World's Fair decal for the quarter window.

Re: Maiden voyage accomplished!
 

Will Do Tom, thanks!

Re: Maiden voyage accomplished!
 

Wow, what a great looking car. Beautiful!

Re: Maiden voyage accomplished!
 

deuce....Of course one cannot realistically do any judging via pictures on the internet, but it is sometimes easy to get a feel for the kind of work and sweat that a guy puts into a restoration, and I've been around enough of these projects that it becomes fairly easy to "see" when a guy has created something beyond ordinary. You've become known to strive for quality, yet you're seemingly quite the humble individual. And yeah, it's amazing that Kubarth does 1,000 pointers with uncanny regularity. I've never had the pleasure of meeting Mike, but I have always loved '40s and I've tried to figure out what makes him tick and keeps him so "driven" every time we see him grooming another one of his "babies". Anyway, rest assured that your raggedy old 985-pointer LOOKS every bit as nice ON THE INTERNET as those rigs that Kube keeps turning-out. Just know that from another vintage Corvette guy, I'm wonderin' when is that old Vette of yours scheduled to take "center stage"? DD

Re: Maiden voyage accomplished!
 

Coop, thanks for your kind words. SOON!! Right now I am assembling the 57 FI engine for the car, the unit I have is mid year like the VIN. I very soon will be switching places with the coupe and the 57 and getting started on it. I am not real anal but some of those cars came out of the factory with horrible gaps and fits, especially the hoods. I will first pull the 350 out of it and then start working with Duraglas and making all the parts fit the way I like. All the bonding strips were redone by the PO. Car was originally black with silver coves so that is the way I am going to go with it. It will be a fairly correct driver but not to be judged, I just like how they look and so what if it has 1954 suspension. I don't care about date codes, I'm not building it to sell so when a C1 know it all tells me all the things wrong, my reply will be "so what, I just like driving it" I have a friend who has 57 VIN 18 top flight gold something or whatever top award they give but he isn't snooty about the car. PM me your email address and I will send you pictures of what came with the car. I can now choose which Ford I want to drive and choose which Brand X to work on! I probably will go back and forth between the C1 and the 55 BelAir convertible. And thanks again, nice to hear from someone who appreciates my work.