The Great 1939 Ford V8 Project

[gorms68]

Please tell me you took the time to repaint the engine bay before you put the engine back in ...

Otherwise, congrats!

And the engine wouldn't stand out as much

[Stewart]

So how long till something other than Steve makes vroom vroom sounds in that truck?

[Steve Simmons]

Paint the engine bay? Like I have that kind of time. Nope, the engine bay will remain nice and dirty. If it bothers me later then I'll worry about painting it then. It isn't like an MGB where there's no room. I can just put a big hefty bag over the engine and spray around it.

As for getting it running, there's a lot of work still to do. The main thing is getting the radiator and fuel tanks boiled out.

Nate, I just noticed your post from before about the spark plugs. I did actually use a wire brush to clean the rust, dirt, corrosion, etc from the steel parts. The porcelain was a bit more tricky. I mostly used liquid cleaners on those parts.

[VWNate1]

I am watching this thread with keen interest as it's what I do with all those junkers you see me driving....




.

[Steve Simmons]

Well, not much to report over the past couple months because I've been too busy pouring money I don't have into other things. But I did decide to help the truck look a bit better while it sits waiting in the driveway. I found some spray paint that sort of matched, well ok not even close but close enough for now, to the original green. I painted the grill and covered up the gray primer on the right front fender.

Next I spent more time experimenting with removing the black spray paint from on top of the green, trying terrycloth for a cutting pad, and even some wet/dry to get through the top layers. It was actually working pretty well until my batteries died and I called it quits for the day.

I got most of the green showing on the hood and even some on the roof. Not too shabby looking, except for the glossy wet paint on that front fender. I also got rid of a lot of Safety Orange, mainly on the front wheel / hub cap and the grill.

[VWNate1]

Thanx for the update .

You need to get your priorities in order Steve , once it's running and tagged , you can chase parts in it for the others......

[Steve Simmons]

Free BBQ for anyone who wants to come get it running!

[Larry Kluss]

It's actually looking quite respectable. I think the patina suits it just fine.

[Steve Simmons]

A bit of progress this week! I've replaced all of the internal door seals and installed new glass. The windows now roll up and down, and actually keep the weather out. I've installed the rear glass but didn't have the right glazing, so that will have to come out again but it's quite easy.

It took two full days to get the windshield frame apart. All the heat and oil in the world would not make it happen, so I had to resort to a jeweler's saw and cut through the internal link. Now I have to bore the pieces out of there somehow, which will surely take another two days of solid work. Fabricating new ones will be very easy once the old ones are out, and I can make improvements to water drainage at the same time with no modifications to the frame or cab. For now I've set the new glass in place so at least the cats can't get in. Along with a bit more cleaning up, it's starting to look ok!

1939 Ford V8 Pickup

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Wheel cleaned up and hub cap painted black

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Glass installed

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Last thing I did was to paint the interior door panels. I painted them the same dark green as the grill, and I like it so much that I think we will keep the green on green combo. Dark on contrasting parts like dashboard, door panels, grill, running boards, hub caps etc. The greens look similar in the photo but they are actually completely different shades.

Door panel painted

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One really neat thing I came across was behind the driver's door panel. Someone at the factory wrote "Grey" on the door with a grease marker of some sort and it's still there! The puzzling thing is why it's written on top of the grey paint. Maybe so a color blind assembly man didn't put the wrong color door on a truck? Or maybe the primer was grey as well, but how would they paint only part of the inner door? It's a mystery but still fun.

"Grey"

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Did a bit more automotive archaeology as well. I discovered an old service tag on the door jam from an oil and lube job in 1967. It was the last service the truck had before being garaged for 43 years, and was performed at a garage in Altadena. If anyone has a good method to safely remove a crusty old tag like this, please let me know!

Service tag

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A cool thing to spot was on the driver's door glass. At the lower rear edge was a Ford logo with "1 39" on it, meaning the glass was manufactured in January 1939, the same year the truck was made. Anyone good at glass cutting so I can save it?

Door glass logo

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One more fun item was an old Richfield map from 1959 I found in the truck. I uncovered it a while back and left it there, and unfortunately it was so brittle that many of the pages have since fallen apart. I saved what I could, and very carefully laminated them. I've attached some small sections of a couple pages. I loved seeing places that no longer exist, like Dairy valley and Friendly Hills. The 405 freeway was about three miles long through West LA. There was nothing to the east of Disneyland, and Interstate 5 was actually the 101. Route 66 was still in use and marked clearly on the map all the way from Santa Monica through the Cajon Pass. The 118 was Devonshire Blvd and Route 99 (now San Fernando Blvd) was still active. I love this stuff!

If anyone wants a higher resolution scan of any area of the map (it covers most of LA and Orange Counties) let me know.

Map

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Map

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Map

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Map

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[HealeyBN7]

Steve,

The map was a great find. I also like looking at old maps. Donna and I were recently pouring over one of the first Thousand Oaks maps. The vision for the city was printed on the back.

The map you posted with Disneyland caught my eye. The space age street age names Mercury, Pluto, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus etc, off Avocado Ave are all are very sixties and cool. I checked Google Maps to see if the track still existed, but it looks like the area was redeveloped. While you can still find Avocado Ave, Uranus no longer exists.

Truck looks great by the way!

Dean