Newbie to forum, and Ford.
 

Evening all, My name's Dave, and I seem to have acquired my First Ford. I grew up in a fully Mopar family, and still drive them but I had to get this Ford when it came along. It's been in the family since new, but sat through the 80's until 2000ish when my aunt got it funtional. Then Dad took it over and now it's mine. 40 DeLuxe Tudor Sedan, original everything. Paint isn't great, but probably better than I will be doing at 80 years old.

I am replacing the brakes, Master cylinder to wheel cylinder, and all new shoes.
She's getting a new battery, rebuild carb and that's it for a year or two. Drive it, hit some cruise nights and really think deep on what if anything, I want to do to her. Hot Rod is out of the question, she's either staying this little innocent old lady, or getting a cosmetic lift in restoring to original. Too cool to change it after 80 years.

Anyway, I'll attach some pics, anyone have a good option for cleaning the seats, door panels and headliner that won't damage the fabric but will make it look better?

Re: Newbie to forum, and Ford.
 

welcome to the forum looks like lots of future fun don't be shy ask away theres lots of knowledge on here

Re: Newbie to forum, and Ford.
 

Dave, welcome!! I have 2 40s, a deluxe and a V8 (standard). There are a lot of guys who would do as little as possible on that car and maybe take it to an Early Ford V8 Club National meet when they have them again. There is a class for unrestored cars and that one looks like it is pretty darn original. GOOD FOR YOU in keeping it like Henry built it.
While you are doing the brakes you can buy all new pre-bent lines very reasonably and I would suggest you change them out too. The EFV8 advisor for 40s is on here and posts with the handle of Kube. He is the expert on these cars and is writing a new restoration book.
I don't know of a product for the interior but someone here might. Any question you have can probably be answered here.
Thanks for joining!! If you post your general location there are probably some good folks near also.

Re: Newbie to forum, and Ford.
 

duece, thanks. I actually have the brake lines, tomorrow will be bending, flaring and installing them.

As far as I know, the only non-original thing on her are the wheels, but I have the original 16's also.

I am still working through the boxes of collected extra's that came with the car.

Oh, I am based in Fargo, ND.

Hopefully she'll be back on on the road in a few weeks. Dad drove it into the shop and removed the tires almost 5 years ago, then worked on other projects.

I've drained fuel and I am finishing the brakes and rebuilding the carb. It will be fun to hit a few cruise nights with a true original.

Re: Newbie to forum, and Ford.
 

What a great car! As Deuce Roadsters says I would do as little as possible and keep it as is. Cleaning the upholstery could be tricky as it may want to come apart. !st thing I'd try is to gently blow the dust out with compressed air from a distance, maybe 30psi to start. At least get the dust off. Not sure about the stains as water and chemicals could do further damage. I'm sure Kube will chime in. He's an expert.

Re: Newbie to forum, and Ford.
 

Dave, an important issue with the old Fords are the rear axles. When the rear hubs are correctly installed they are VERY hard to get off without using the correct KRWilson hub puller. So if they came off easy please clean and check the inner end of the keyways as that is where cracks usually start from being run loose. That Key isn't supposed to drive the hub, the taper of the axle and the tapered bore of the hub is. SO when you replace your brakes and put the hubs back on Clean the tapers of the axles and the bores of the hub with Brakeclean or lacquer thinner, there should be zero oil on those areas. Then Tighten up the hub nut pretty darn tight, leave the Key out and drive around the block. Retighten it and keep doing this until it doesn't change. Then put your torque wrench on the nut and take it up to near 190 ft/lbs and then farther to the next slot for the key.
When one of these axles breaks, the wheel and tire will come off. They make something to retain the wheel long enough to get off the road but it still can be dicey. I would see about checking the axles in the car with a dye penetrant. Both my 40s have NOS axles in them and I know they have never been run loose. If you already know all this just ignore but since you are new to the 40 I thought you might not have heard of this.
I always clean the end of the axle you can see when the nut is on, and while the nut is off, draw a line across it that shows where the hole is for the cotter key. A sharpie works good for this. Good luck.

Re: Newbie to forum, and Ford.
 

First, I agree with all of the above; I wouldn't change a thing until I got very familiar with both the car and the hobby. Your car is a "time capsule" and should be preserved as close to original as possible. That being said, I don't want to be the bearer of bad news, but you should know that the coils and condensers in these old Fords (especially ones that have been sitting a long time, which your seems to have) can have problems. These items deteriorate over time, and while they will function adequately when first started and not heated up, they can fail when driven a few miles and get up to temperature. You should probably get ahead of the curve and send your coil to "Skip" Haney in Punta Gorda, Florida for a rebuild. Also, you should probably get 8 or 10 condensers from your local FLAPS (hopefully it's a NAPA) in the hope that there will be one or two in the bunch that will be good. This forum is rife with stories from guys in your situation that run into problems after originally getting their cars running and driving..

"Forewarned is forearmed."

I am working on reliable replacement condensers for these cars and have units for the '33 to '36 cars in field test as we speak. The next step will be quality replacements for he '37-'41 vehicles, but we are not quite there yet.

Re: Newbie to forum, and Ford.
 

Deuce,

I’ll always take advice, even if it’s something I already know. The hubs were a pita to remove. Night 2 different special pullers to get them off.. I’ll be careful RE-tightening. I bought new castle nuts for the reinstall.

Tubman, I’ll keep that in mind, dad has collected quite a stash of spare parts. I think I saw a coil in there.

Re: Newbie to forum, and Ford.
 

You might luck out, but even NOS coils are usually bad simply because of their age.

Re: Newbie to forum, and Ford.
 

You bought new castle nuts... I hope they are NOS, not new hardware store. The difference is important.

Re: Newbie to forum, and Ford.
 

They came from Mac’s specifically for this car. Hope they are decent.

Re: Newbie to forum, and Ford.
 

There are two Mac's. There's the Mac's with the big splashy ads, then there is Mac Van Pelt, who relies mostly on word of mouth. Word to the wise.

Re: Newbie to forum, and Ford.
 

Did you receive those axle nuts from that "M" outfit located in Lockport, N.Y., or Florida? They don't have a real good reputation for even coming close to matching "Ford" quality specs on a lot of items. Many of those REPRODUCED, replacement nuts will strip the threads when torqued to spec. Like Alan suggested (ford38v8) above, if those are not NOS Ford nuts, I'd be leery of using them. Contact Michael Driskell at 3rd Generation Auto in Tennessee, or Mac VanPelt for quality parts..... both regular posters here among us 'Barners. Most any of us can help you with contact info if you need it. Welcome aboard! DD

Re: Newbie to forum, and Ford.
 

Welcome Dave. Love the 40 & like the others, i would keep it pretty much original.
Patina is king.....if it were me, i'd redo the interior as stock as possible, keep original paint, add dual exhaust, and drive it as much as i could.
Tubman is right on about ignition parts & most other stuf too.
Charlie NY is a GR8 carb. & distributer rebuilder, keep him in mind too.
Lots of help here from really GR8 folks.
Have fun.............
mike

Re: Newbie to forum, and Ford.
 

Welcome to the barn nice place for information love your car

Re: Newbie to forum, and Ford.
 

The original Carb for your car is the Holley 91-99 it should be marked on the side of the middle body. Daytona sells a good rebuilding kit.

Re: Newbie to forum, and Ford.
 

Dave,
Welcome to the site, and may I say, what a cool looking car!!! Like others said, I wouldn't change the looks at all except cleaning up the interior if possible. My door panels and headliner have seen better days too. I have the car road ready and am working on the interior now. I don't know squat about cars this old, but there are a lot of great folks on here willing to help. Good luck to you. -Doug-

Re: Newbie to forum, and Ford.
 

Welcome to the Barn!

Re: Newbie to forum, and Ford.
 

@V8Coopman They did come from a Florida M place. And they are completely the wrong part. I'll go check in on the other ones and see if I can get them there:)

Re: Newbie to forum, and Ford.
 

One of the first things you learn is the very few repo parts are worth the shipping cost, LOL. Almost always best to look for NOS parts.