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After much arguing the merits of keeping my ’39 Ford Standard Coupe stock, or Rodding it, I decided to compromise and resto-rod the old lady. The basic car is in very good order and so does not need any body work at this stage. Paintwork is not Concours, but is good enough that I can pitch up at a rod meet or even show without embarrassment. We’ve fitted a Jag XJ6 IFS and IRS, Jag brakes and power steering, a Ford hi-performance 302 and a C4 transmission. The biggest problem encountered to date has been the length of the 302. As the Ford Racing Shorty water pump only gives about 1.5”, I decided to do away with the manual fan, and opted for two 12” electric fans fitted in front of a custom made aluminum radiator. A new custom-made aluminum pulley set up was fabricated. I love the original 16” wheels and hub caps and it was important for me to retain these to give the car its stock appearance, so adapters were fabricated to match he wheels to the Jag pattern. All attached pics are taken at the early stages of the conversion – before sandblasting and painting. I live in South Africa, so do not have easy access to a lot of the bolt-on parts available in the US, so a lot of stuff has to be fabricated – adds to the work, but makes the project more interesting.
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