Like most U.S. automakers, Ford dusted off its pre-World War II designs in 1946 and began satisfying the pent-up demand for automobiles. The first all-new designs arrived in 1949 and were dubbed “Shoebox” Fords for their slab-side styling. Ford sold three million of them through 1951, after which another makeover was done for 1952. The seller has a 1950 Ford, model unknown, that has been in the same family for nearly 70 years. You could fix it up and drive it or go for a restoration. Located in Mom’s garage in Gooding, Idaho, this Shoebox is available here on Facebook Marketplace for $4,500.
The new post-war Fords benefited from front and rear fenders that were integrated with the rest of the body. A giant bullet dominated the expansive chrome grills. And running boards were a thing of the past. Suddenly, it was 1950. As time went by, the Shoebox Fords became popular with hot-rodders and other racers who would often customize and lower the vehicles. A 239 cubic inch “flathead” V8 was available that produced 100 hp in stock format.
No mention is made of the model of this 2-door coupe, but the basic Tudor Sedan would be likely (Ford built 275,000 copies in 1950 alone). If it’s a Custom Tudor Sedan, Ford cranked out almost 400,000 of them. If this one had a flathead V8 when it was new, the family replaced it in the 1970s with a 260 cubic inch small-block, keeping the “3-on-the-tree” manual transmission. We’re told the car has 69,000 miles, but we don’t know about the powertrain.
The seller thinks the car might run on a new source of fuel. The interior has been redone and used very little since. The seller drove the car during these high school years, back when Y2K had everyone’s attention. The windshield and seals were replaced about 30 years ago. The seller will scrounge up some spare parts, maybe the Ford’s radio for the next owner. If you’d like to add a solid Shoebox project to your force, how about this one?
Probably a good car under all that dirt but we’ll never know.
There was a small outfit that took the Shoebox Ford, cut off the roof and grafted one from an ’89 T-Bird in its place. Then the whole assembly was placed on the complete donor T-Bird chassis. There are a few of these oddball customized Fords (Frauds?) around.
a lot of wheel time to wear that paint off it.