THE 1946 FORD DELUXE
Our newest acquisition to the fleet has touched down in a state like many of the vehicles around here which is obviously in a state of incompletion or disassembly. This new acquisition is a 1946 Ford Deluxe Tudor Sedan that was in the process of being swapped onto an S10 frame. This was one of the biggest selling points of this car when I initially targeted it on facebook marketplace. So anyway, this car is a simple body that was being swapped out onto an S10 frame and being chopped a little. The owner did what amounted to pie cuts at the back of the roof in order to drop the back half of the roof down as well as on the A-pillars to do the same at the front while leaving the center alone. Since it takes some skill and nerve to take on a chop job, doing it this way allowed him to drop the roof some without having to really do a lot of adding and subtracting of metal from the top half of the roof. Of course this body/frame will still need a powertrain and interior as well as all of the other aspects of a complete car.
So we picked up the car during the trip that had us bringing back the 51 Chevy Suburban. After returning from that run, we also had a vacation to the east coast which was part of a 2 week vacation I took off from the job. Because of this length of time I took off from the job and the week on the east coast, I had planned on making the run to Texas to get this car a couple weeks after returning from the east coast. Despite the weather having other plans, conditions worked to our advantage, allowing the grounds at the guy's house to be solid enough to allow us to be able to get in to retrieve the car.
I used our newly acquired tow dolly to pick the car up since the S10 chassis still had a free rolling rear end, which is all that matters since the front wheels would be on the dolly. Just like before, but in reverse, we drove out to Texas in the morning on a Friday, but instead of retrieving the car on Friday, we went to Ft Worth and spent the night at the same hotel we used on the Chevy run. That Saturday, after checking out a local aviation museum, we drove to the guy's house to pick up the car. In the process of loading up the car, we found out the body wasn't fully secured to the frame so we had to use some ratchet straps to help secure the body to the frame. I even used the come-along that I used to pull the car onto the dolly to strap down the rear of the body to the frame. The dolly's wheel straps obviously held the wheels to the dolly's cradle.
Now the good thing is the car came with all of the body parts, including the one piece front clip. We had to secure all of this stuff in the bed of the truck. In order to do this we did a selective placement of the parts into the truck where everything is in there solid and not hanging over the sides or up against one another where anything could be damaged. Of course it took two of us to move some of these parts into the truck since this is some heavy metal. This isn't some 2012 Honda Civic sheet metal, this is old school heavy metal here. So with the body parts in the bed and tied down with more ratchet straps we hit the road. But not quite. The rear tires on this car weren't exactly in the best shape. One of them the side walls were showing visible cracks. I wasn't about to chance this with the distance and speeds we would have to travel. Luckily we found a local used tire shop that we was able to get a couple of tires installed on the rear rims so we can at least be confident enough in riding down the road without the concern of a blowout.
Even though I tried to be conservative with the speeds I drove, I still found myself going faster than I originally wanted to for a good distance. I did have to be careful on the bumps because it would have the whole body shimmy and bounce around, which made me super nervous since the body isn't bolted to the frame. Despite multiple spook moments we did make it back home in one piece without incident.
The 46 Ford parked in its new spot for the time being.
A shot of the ass end of the car showing the details of the body, note the body parts behind the car.
The front clip of the car showing how its made and how it could possibly interfere with an easy install of the powerplant due to the angles of the fenders where the hood goes.
The plan for this car is to use the salvaged 4.3L V6/700R4 powerplant that was salvaged from the GMC Safari minivan we cut up to turn into a chicken coop. Since this thing is on an S10 frame, the V6 powerplant should mount right in, using stock motor/transmission mounts and exhaust, etc, everything that would've been used on an S10 truck/blazer. I should be able to get the newer Chevy stuff assembled fast and cheap, using parts from the junkyard when applicable.
Now for the body parts. Since the roof underwent a chop job, the doors would have to be chopped as well. The driver's door had already started being cut, with part of the window frame having been cut free and in need of being trimmed to match the new roof lines before being welded back up. The passenger side door will need a complete rework as it remains untouched. Also I will have to more than likely overhaul or replace the window regulators and reassemble the doors in their entirety, including replacement windows, before writing off the doors as complete. This also includes the lock/latch mechanisms.
The body parts for the car, showing the trunk lid and door in the foreground and the hood and fenders behind them.
Dash panel on top of window regulator and inner door panels in the trunk of the body. Note how spartan the dash is compared to newer dashes.
