John Stanford

1934 Ford    5Window Coupe

I've had this coupe for over thirty years. I acquired it in late 1968, and gathered parts over the next three or four years to put it together.   Original steel body car with fiberglass fenders.. The Coupe was channeled over the frame and e/w a  .040 over 1969 Chevy 350 with a 350TH trans. I had also installed a ford rack and pinion power steering setup in 1988 using the original axle and a highly modified front cross member.

Over the years the car has managed to weather a little better then it's owner.  I moved to Kansas in December 1998, after retiring from my 35 year job with AT&T. The old coupe set in the shop for a while due to my various health problems.  With a bad back and no head or leg room in the coupe, I decided in 2001 to raise the body back to it's stock position (on top of the frame).  Raising the body would provide for a few creature comforts I had been missing over the years...like head and leg room to mention a few. I figured that I would rebuild the old car, get it titled in Kansas and just have a little fun.

Man !!. I would have never guessed that this project would result in rebuilding the car from scratch just to un-channel it.  After I got started, I decided to do away with the rack & pinion and install a Vega cross steer with a four bar.  I also had to re-fabricate a new floor, box the frame, repair front and rear frame horns (previously cut off during the 6 inch channel so front fenders and gas tank cover could be used).  

I removed the body, repaired and boxed the frame, fabricated and replaced the passengers side lower quarter and rocker panel.  I also hand formed a replacement panel for the drivers side  of the firewall. The original axle was replaced with a Superbell Axle  with 4-Bar and disc brakes from Pete and Jakes in MO. The Vega steering box was located and shipped from San Antonio, Tx by my brother.  

The car was coming along petty well and I hoped to get it back on the street in the spring of 2002.

Well.... It's now Fall 2002 and I finally got the car titled in Kansas.. (That's a story for the records - I will cover it later.. after I get over the shock of paying my lawyer off to cover my expenses when I filed suit against the State of Kansas"..

All in all - I have now completed this project (as if any street rod is ever completed ) I hope to get started on my next project in the spring of 2003.

Be sure and stay tuned in... Many Pictures to follow soon.

 

Below are a few pictures of the project..

This is what it looked like before I started the second rebuild. 

     

Now for the Second Rebuild..... 

With Fenders, boards, interior and engine   removed....it is now time to start cutting the body and floor away from the frame. The body was welded to the sides of the frame and the floor was added to the top of the frame during the initial build 30 years ago. Note the missing frame horns on the rear

After a few days of grinding and cutting old welds

Here the body has been cut loose from the frame and repositioned back up to approximately stock position. Note the big gap between the floor and the bottom of the firewall. This represented how much the body had been channeled. Also note the  Rack and Pinion setup in the picture on the right. I must say, it really worked great, but was really ugly due the front frame horns cut off. 

The firewall was a real challenge

Here's a shot of the firewall after I removed and replaced the entire drivers side and bottom. Everything was hand formed using 18 gauge steel.

Working on the frame

Here is a picture of my brother-in-law Gary  helping me with the frame restoration. Yep you heard me right,  all the way back to a bare frame.  I'm the one with the welding hood tacking the box plates in place.  Apparently, the "photographer" (my wife) couldn't get either one of us to look toward the camera. 

A little body work was needed.

I used 20ga sheet metal and fabricated new bottom lips for the wheel wells and also fabricated and replaced the rusted out  lower quarter panels as well as the rocker panels. 

 

Now for the floor

Here's a shot of the new floor after building it from scratch using 18ga steel. 

I started by laying down a 3 inch wide strip on top of the frame rails and then adding an outside strip to conform to the sides of the frame. I welded these two pieces together and then added the floor sections on top. All pieces were then tacked and welded to the body to form the new floor.

Getting it all back together

Here's a couple of shots of the car with the body back together. Here, I Just needed to finish a few minor details like lights, wiring, exhaust, interior, etc... Then it's back on the road again.
Here's a shot of the engine compartment with the old Chevy 350 reinstalled.

2004 ---- I replaced the tired 1969 350CI engine with a 1986 350 CI e/w a roller cam and a 600cfm Edelbrock carb.

2005 ---  I went through a few of stages of primer... 

Just click on the small pictures below to see an enlarged version..

First I tried a light gray, ms07.jpg (47289 bytes)  Next I tried the whole thing in "Hot Rod Black" wfo04js01.jpg (48663 bytes), 

then  decided to two-tone it arc05all.jpg (100929 bytes) with the "Hot Rod Black below the belt line and the Light Gray above ...It looked different, but not too bad.. , as I picked up a "Traditional Old School" plaque at a Wichita car show (total unexpected - but surprised and pleased.)

OCT '06 --- RE-PAINT TIME 

Note: The car was originally painted around 1974, an early 70's GM Corvette color called "Buckskin".  This time I found an  Acrylic enamel color called "Camel" which is really close, but appears to have a little more yellow. Anyway, I picked up a couple of gallons really cheap at a swap meet in Wichita, KS during the summer for thirty bucks a gallon. Man! what a bargain.

 

After tearing the coupe down again, I found I had more body work  to do.... plus sand..sand..sand!

Pictures 1 and 2 show the car in the sanding stage. Picture 3 shows the body in primer

1 js34s01.jpg (50799 bytes)  2 js34s02.jpg (58479 bytes)  3 js34s03.jpg (77668 bytes) 

After spraying the first coat of color, I put the car back together before the final color coat and clear..

Picture 4 shows the car after the final color and clear coats were applied.

4 js34s04.jpg (55407 bytes)

Pictures 5, 6 and 7 show the car after it was reassembled.

 5 js34s06.jpg (43631 bytes) 6  js34s05.jpg (58479 bytes) 7 js340000.jpg (139027 bytes)

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