OUR 1938 FORD STANDARD COUPE
Part 4: The final fitting before paint
The coupe has now been taken to a larger shop (more room than one stall in our garage) for final fitting. I was lucky to get the help of an experienced, and professional, rod builder. I know just enough to be dangerous.
Since I wanted to remove the original hood latch, I needed to find a substitute. I got a Volkswagen latch assembly from the salvage yard but it was too large. I then found a latch from a Datsun pick-up. It is much smaller, has a safety catch, and has provision for a cable release. A plate was welded to the original quarter moon-shaped grill and latch support to accept the lower latch piece. The upper part of the latch was attached to the hood. A cable release was obtained from an older Chevy with its handle attached to the steering column support.The entire unit works slick and the upper latch piece can be adjusted to ensure a tight and secure hood closure.
Since I paid for a new floor, I did not want to put more holes in it for the emergency brake. I designed this seat frame to not only give the right front and back height for the buckets but, also, to provide a mount for the emergency brake handle.
A bearclaw latch was used for the trunk lid. It took a lot of adjustment to make it work but it was worth it. A cable release like the one used on the hood latch was used here as well. One hint: make sure the latch is REAL tight. Use lock washers because if it moves your wife has to crawl through the trunk to trip the latch. That will happen once.
The angle for the latch must be just right.
The emergency brake handle is shown installed on the seat frame. I did not have room to install a radio in the dash because of the tight fitting air conditioning system and I did not want to use an overhead console. I found a console from a Datsun pick-up, used a vinyl paint that would match the interior, and did a few minor modifications to attach it to the floor and seat frame. My wife embroidered a piece of matching interior fabric with "38 FORD" and used it to cover the original gearshift-boot opening.
The dash has been cut out to accept an aluminum dash insert and air conditioning vents. A 1968 tilt Pontiac column is fitted to a handcrafted column drop that will also have LED gearshift indicators.
The photos on the right show the car after final fitting. I used Wescott rear fenders because the original fenders were beyond repair at a reasonable cost.(Nothing is impossible, only expensive) As we were putting the car together, we learned that we needed a different hood. Luckily, after a lot of calls, worry, and panic, we found a '38 for sale in Minnesota. A quick trip and cash netted us a pick-up load of parts that included not only a good hood but, also, an NOS lower front grill assembly.
We also replaced the tail pan before painting.
After the coupe left for paint on a different frame, we completed the installation of the engine and all running gear at home and waited for the call that we could finally finish our 5 year project.
