The Grand National Roadster Show is this weekend in Pomona, California. This amazing exhibition of around 500 hot rods and custom vehicles has been wowing fans of beautiful automobiles since 1950 in the heart of West Coast hot rod heaven. While nearly all of the cars that have graced this legendary show in years past have been gorgeous, not every custom car is a showstopper. Take for example this 1940 Ford Deluxe convertible for sale on Craigslist in Bealeton, Vermont. With various parts added from automobiles from the fifties and sixties, this convertible is fresh out of long-term garage storage and is looking for a new home. Could you take this somewhat homely duckling and make it a swan? Would the $17,000 asking price provide you with room in the budget to make it show-worthy? Thanks to T.J. for another incredible find!
As an experienced baker can tell you, you can have all the ingredients for a cake. It is the amounts, when you add them, how you add them, and how you bake them that separates amateurs from professionals. With no ill intent intended, the execution of this hot rod build leaves a bit to be desired. A beautiful hot rod has flow in its design, meaning that everything looks as if it were meant to be together and nothing is out of place or just added on. For someone with the talent of Gene Winfield or Boyd Coddington, expectations are high in this regard. Backyard builders have a little more leeway, but the mantra of only doing something if you are going to do it right applies.
While the photographs paint a picture of a neat old 1940 Ford that has been tucked away in a suburban garage for decades, we do have some written details in the ad. It says that this 1940 Ford convertible is a sixties custom. Under the hood is a 283 cubic inch small V-8 pulled from a 1957 Chevrolet. It is backed by a three-speed manual transmission with the shifter located on the floor. The rear axle is also from a 1957 Chevrolet and the seats were pulled from a 1965 Mustang.
As you can see from the picture above, the speedometer and dash have been modified. The seller tells us that the car rolls and steers, but the brakes do not function other than the emergency brake. Included with the sale is a new chrome grille, a new chrome trunk handle, and a few more miscellaneous parts. We are also assured that the car has always been garage-kept.
Looking carefully through the clutter in and around the car in the pictures would lead you to believe that there were probably a lot more treasures to be found. Some may fit the car, some may have been intended for the car, and a few may have been trade fodder picked up to take to a swap meet down the road. The problem you have is that, if this is an ad brought about from a house cleanout after a trip to a nursing home or worse, it is hard to figure out what is what if the person who collected it is no longer there.
So, once this car changes hands, what should be done with it? From the looks of things, you would have to start over even if you found the beauty in the eyes of the previous owner to your liking. When you combine the condition of the body that we see in the pictures and the statement that it has always been garaged, then you can probably be assured that rust isn’t a big issue. There may be a cut firewall to deal with. Often the firewall is cut in early Fords when Chevrolet engines are installed. This of course breaks Henry Ford’s unwritten rule about Chevy engines in a Ford, but here we are. The next owner may be able to source new or used sheet metal to replace the firewall if a return to the traditional is desired.
From there, the sky is the limit. If it were mine, I would go the route of a stock 1940 Ford with mild period enhancements, such as a hopped-up Flathead backed up with a stock three-speed transmission with Zephyr gears backed by a Columbia overdrive. Perhaps a non-stock color and some fancier upholstery. Dual exhaust out back, of course. Maybe a little rake. With a car like this as a good starting point, maybe you could make it to next year’s Grand National Roadster Show.
What would you do with this car if it fell into your hands? Please share how you would proceed in the comments.
It would be nice to see that car pulled out into the light so a person could see what’s really there. Personally I see a half-hearted attempt at a butcher job. That’s OK as the owner had every right to do that. If that car was to come my way I’d want to undo everything that was done and restore it to its original glory, right down to the 16 inch wheels.
It’s no big secret that I disapprove of an SBC (or any Chevy engine) in a Ford but I readily admit that the venerable SBC is one of the most adaptible engines ever made. I really don’t blame people for dropping them in. They can still park on my driveway…
yeah what’s with the landfill in the trunk, not to mention surrounding half the car? They must not really be trying to sell it, or else they know a lot of what they don’t want you to know.
I zoomed the pic to look closer and it’s all repro 1940 Ford parts judging by the labels on someof the cartons. . Quite a few grands worth of goodies in there. So someone was going to get time to finish the car and drive it again,but as has been hinted at,time waits for no man .
17K? How about $1,700. Looks like junk surrounded by junk. I’ll bet the inside of the seller’s house looks like this too. Everyone seems to think it’s rust free but there is nothing here to prove or disprove that. ’40 Ford convertible…. now who wouldn’t love to have one. Don’t think this is the one.
If they want that much, why didn’t they take the trouble to pull it outside into the light of day, for people to see?
Your mechanical vision would be perfect for this dude if it’s in decent condition, Jeff but then paint it with a heliotrope base.
Wouldn’t be like any others around!
Butchered dash, looks terrible inside. The mustang seats might be worth a few bucks. Sure would like to see the body. With that price tag you have to presume there’s 10k in the glove box.
What bobhess said !!!!
The Craigslist link in the above description takes me to a Washington D.C. listing asking $15,000… not Vermont ad asking $17,000. The car has Illinois plates on the front and Georgia plates on the rear.
If this isn’t a scam ad, it’s a great imitation of one.
If I were able to buy it ( love the 39-40 coupes) I would actually just clean it,get the old 283 running ,drive it a bit then proceed to build something a young person would have put together back in 1965 on a budget and a pile of R& C magazines for inspiration. Returning to stock would eliminate most of the cars history and it’s cheaper to buy one in running original condition than to attempt a restoration. In my teens i so wanted a 39 or 40 convertible I hacked the roof off my 39 Std coupe …Which was actually made back into a coupe by the guy who has it now and has owned it for almost 50 years. There was only ever one real 40 convertible in the country i was living in and that belonged to a mate of mine .
Clean it up, do the necessary mechanicals, including updating the brakes, and have fun.
One more thing. I’ve bought a lot of old cars over the years. One thing most have in common is that the asking price is far from what I paid. Don’t blame someone from fishing. Money talks. The seller can always come down, but he can’t go up.
Get rid of the Chevrolet parts and return it back to Ford power plant enjoy driving it for a couple of years then flip it to someone who wants to do more with it
Troy I hear that all the time, but the fact is a small block Chevy in a rod is a easier sale. I know, Iv’e built seven rods and the two with the Fords were by far the hardest sell. The most expensive accessories also.
Seller got it outside to claim the “car rolls and steers”.
Then put it inside for the pictures.
Took a lot of effort to strategically place all those empty boxes.
What does that tell You?
Bealeton, Vermont is in Virginia, south of D.C.
As Jerry Bramlett almost asks, Where is this car?
A 40 Ford Convertible at one point in time was probably the epitome of hot rod cars to have. Now as time and cars have changed maybe the old Fords aren’t quite what they once were in the minds of Hot Rod fanatics. I don’t know much anymore, but as far as you can’t go up on prices I disagree, I once had a nice little Chevy Corsica for my daily driver, 4 cylinder automatic with a/c, time came when I bought a new car so I decided to sell the old Chevy, My thought was I’d sell it low for someone who needed a dependable work car for a low price. At that time those cars were going for about $1500.00 so I put it the local paper for $500.00 hoping to find some person fitting my idea of a proper buyer. So this dude comes along looks at the car and says I’ll give you $400 for it. I said the car is worth $1500.00 I’m looking for a buyer who needs a basic transportation car for a low price, for you the price is now $1500.00. Well, he was quite indignant, after calling me several colorful adjectives he stomped away never to darken my place again. so happens a young lady who worked at a fast food restaurant came along and bought the car for $500.00 and was very pleased to get it. Ha, Ha.
God Bless America
Funny…..one picture shows the stock rear bumper on it with the later 46/48 Ford bumper on top….then another picture with the 46/48 bumper on it…odd duck it is but that top is the cats meow….