1939 business coupe build

[thebelvedereman]

I just ordered a whole bunch of parts for this 39 I just picked up so I figured I'd do a little before and after on the build, just ordered all new hoses and stuff from Andy, new wheels and tires, new water pump, new fuel tank, a sealed beam  headlight conversion,  and a bunch of other stuff, going to build it as a tribute to the one my father used to race in the early 60s, his was a true rat rod before there was a such thing, 39 Business Coupe with 325 poly head and a 3-speed truck trans swapped in, used to race it at Island Dragway in New Jersey, I had to laugh when I saw a picture of the front of Dad's car,  because he had  the same sealed beam headlight conversion kit  in his car way back in 1963, here's a pic of Dad's car first and then my new one after

[thebelvedereman]

Eventually I want to drop a polyhead in it, I think, or I may go the other way, and just do a work up on the flatty, I just love the way the old flatheads run, if I can get it reliable enough and back it up with a modern transmission so I can get some decent highway speed out of it I may just keep it

[Reg Evans]

It looks like your dad had a nice 56 Desoto too !

[thebelvedereman]

45 minutes ago, Reg Evans said:

It looks like your dad had a nice 56 Desoto too !

 

45 minutes ago, Reg Evans said:

It looks like your dad had a nice 56 Desoto too !

Actually that was my grandfather's DeSoto, he had two of them, that green 56 which was really my grandmother's , and a white 56, he bought them both new, dad did have a 57 DeSoto adventurer with the 345 Hemi, he used to race that and Island Dragway all the time too, I come from a very long line of mopar people, on both sides of my family actually

Edited May 8, 2018 by thebelvedereman

[thebelvedereman]

was going to go with chrome smoothies on the front, because it still has stock drum brakes with the rivets, but I wanted something to kind of look a little more like the rear Anson Chrome slots that are on it, so I decided to try out a chrome rally wheel instead of the smoothies, they look pretty good, see what they look like after I get them on the car, and get some center caps in them, think I might just do spider caps

[garyp]

Nice car I am restoring a 39 business coupe and also used to go to Island dragway in Great Meadows NJ  

[Richard Cope]

 

I have a 39 coupe also, thinking of changing the wheels and tires., what size wheels and tires are you using?  Getting disk brakes on the front, so my choices of wheels may be limited.  Will be looking for photos of wheels on your car.  

Regards,

Rich C

[thebelvedereman]

 I'm going for that big and little Gasser look, my fronts are 165 80 15s, the wheels are 15x4 Chevy type Chrome Rally wheels, the rears right now are 14 x 8 Appliance Chrome slots, with something like L 60 14's on them, they're the same exact diameter as the front like 25 1/4, I wouldn't even bother keeping the 14's in the rear, except the wheels are like brand new, I went with the dual pattern Rally wheels in the front so I wouldn't have to grind off my rivets or my wheel alignment pins

Edited May 9, 2018 by thebelvedereman

[Adam H P15 D30]

I understand replicating Dad's car but the 39 headlights look so cool without the conversion.

My first car was a 39 Plym coupe just like yours.  It was my only car, I drove it to school, to the lake, to the drive-in .  If it didn't run I either bummed a ride or took the bus.  It almost always got me where I needed to go and this was in the late 80's, so they are reliable.  This was after I unstuck the motor too.  It eventually got a 413 / A833 but only because I wanted to go faster.

 

Adam

[thebelvedereman]

If the car wasn't already converted to 12 volts, and if I had the lenses and other pieces that are missing from the original ones I probably would have left the original ones, because I think they're really cool also, but the car was already converted to 12 volts when I got it, and had round sealed beams butchered into the original buckets, so I had to do something, I am going to have the headlight conversion bezels chromed, so they look closer to the original trim, not just painted like all the other guys did with them, I actually got one of them today, and I was surprised how cheesy they are, I figured they were pot metal or aluminum or something, they're just thin sheet metal

Edited May 9, 2018 by thebelvedereman

[thebelvedereman]

Just got done putting on a new water pump, all new hoses, new belt, and a new thermostat housing gasket, I learned something today, every post that I've seen on the water pump so far says to leave the fan on take the bolts out and there's enough room to get the water pump out, that is not true, unless you want to do major damage to your radiator, I took all the bolts out of the radiator and shifted it over to one side and then slid it behind the mounting brackets and gave like another inch of space then the water pump slid right off  freeze out plugs tomorrow, and if there's any time left in the day I'll put the new fuel tank in also, then hopefully I'll have it running good enough to take for a ride, without leaking antifreeze out of everywhere, and leaking fuel out of four different places in the fuel tank LOL

Edited May 14, 2018 by thebelvedereman

[thebelvedereman]

 I also chose my paint, and I had it custom-blended for me today, it's kind of like a seafoam antiqued aqua, I wanted something different than everyone else has

[Gregarious13]

That's exciting!

 

Greg

[thebelvedereman]

Here's a real quick crappy Photoshop of what the car is basically going to look like

[thebelvedereman]

 thanks Andy for the hoses and stuff, you've always got the good stuff

[JPetrakis66]

love it ...looks so cool

[thebelvedereman]

All right got the fuel-cell in today and fired it up for the first time since I replaced all the hoses and the water pump and the gas tank and a bunch of other stuff here's a quick vid 

 

[insaneradio]

Great job!  Looks great thus far!!

[thebelvedereman]

 I was just thinking about it, I should have replaced the water tube while I had the water pump off, maybe I'll take it back apart again while the gasket isn't baked on yet

[thebelvedereman]

Making a little adjustment to the rear Valance LOL, the rest of the car is solid as a rock, rear Valance had about 3 inch thick Bondo in it, all cracked and falling out, so I knocked it all out, straightend the panel the best I could, and re-bondo'd it, just for now, I found someone who makes new valances, but they're about $500 which I just don't have for a valance right now, of course as soon as I put the Bondo on it started pouring again, I don't think it's ever going to stop raining

[garyp]

Interesting tailights don't think I've ever seen them before.

[thebelvedereman]

32 minutes ago, garyp said:

Interesting tailights don't think I've ever seen them before.

I've seen them on eBay before, they are some kind of newfangled LED lights, they were on the car when I got it

[thebelvedereman]

 almost ready for a coat of primer / sealer

[thebelvedereman]

Okay I've just painted the ugliest paint job in the history of paint, I started not to like it as soon as I started putting it on, but for some reason I just didn't stop, hopefully it darkens up a bit once it dries, but I'm pretty sure that I'm stripping it back down to bare metal and starting over again

[insaneradio]

Once you pull tape it will improve immeasurably!