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Jack Mugan
64 articles

Old School '41 Ford Custom

January 4, 2017 · in Automotive · · 34 · 2.1K

This was the way they did it back in the 50s. We do not get to see many customs on this site, so I thought I would break the ice.

Reader reactions:
9  Awesome

2 additional images. Click to enlarge.


34 responses

  1. Cool lookin' ride, Jack...must've been the last model year Ford produced until '46, huh?

  2. They really did not change the body style until 1949 when they went to the new shoebox design.

    • What I was eluding to was the fact that during the war years, there were NO automobiles manufactured, right?

      • I believe you are correct.

      • Ford stopped production in February 1942 when they started full on war time production. They continued to build sedan cars. They were used as military staff cars. There were some civilian 1942 models built but not nearly as many in the previous year. In 1946 they resumed production of civilian cars. They looked very similar to the '42 model with a few changes. My understanding is that all of the automobile industry did the same as Ford. Chrysler, General Motors and Ford built tanks (or tank parts among other things)and aircraft.

        Hope this helps.

  3. Really nice Jack. Did you do the custom work or did the kit come that way? BTY, that's one hell of a set of fender skirts.

  4. It is a Bandit Resin body that I aded the fade-away fenders from the Revell '48 Ford kit, also added '53 Buick headlights and Caddy tail lights, I drenched the rear license plate, extended the rear deck and lowered the stance. I added the dual spots and dual antenna as well as the fog lights. It has a full interior.

    • Aaah, a kit bash as well as scratch work. Really looks good Jack

    • Very nice work indeed ! Sounds like you modeled your car using the same techniques as the hot rodder's did back in the day. My dad used to tell me about how he had a "Rocket 88 with a Cadillac transmission and how nothing could keep up with him. Thanks for sharing this masterpiece with us.

      • I sure would like to see more customs from that era on this site.
        The 50s were the golden age for custom cars. It was easier back then as the manufactures had so many different designs on the road. Back then, most of the body modifications were done with lead.

        • Yes I agree 100% with you. Plus the cars all had different looks from one another. Buicks had port holes in the fenders. Spot lights were in as were dual exhaust, twin antennas and twin fender mounted mirrors (twin spot lights too) and fender skirts on the rear wheel well openings. It was a very great time for customizing cars.

          • Don't forget chopped, sectioned, channeled, nosed and decked, lowering blocks and mellow-tone or Smitty muffelers.

  5. Although I'm a car fan I don't know much about American custom cars, but this looks very cool, and I appreciate you listing some of the custom parts that were used in the build. So, what is/would have been under the bonnet(oops, sorry, I mean hood!)?

  6. Well in the 50s it would probably be a flathead V-8 with 2 0r 3 carbs, headers and lots of chrome. The interior would most likely have a tuck and roll treatment, including the dash and headliner with tear drop acrylic knobs for the radii, gear shift and cigar lighter.

    • An early Hemi would have been right at home too. 392 or a 354. Chrysler, Desoto, Dodge, and Plymouth all built different displacement sized Hemi engines from a 271 through the 392 cubic inch. Twin carbs or even roots style blowers were pretty cool too. Dad told me about a dragster that he helped build that had TWO engines in it. Cool time for sure.

  7. 🙂 ... Greetings ... 🙂 :
    Good eye candy Jack. At first glance I knew this was your work. Nice work.

  8. Looks nice. Good work!

  9. Very nice, Jack. As you say, not many similar subjects posted here.

  10. Looks great Jack. Very low to the ground, you don't want to drive that over any speed bumps.

  11. Well if it has air bags then that is the show stance, not the driving stance.
    Of course customs in the 50s did not have air bag suspension, so you are correct that care must be taken .

  12. I really like it !

    Now I restore full size 1:1 Dodge and Plymouth muscle cars since I have recently retired. I have had the privilege of working on and owned numerous cars from the '50 and 1960's era.

    You have definitely captured the "look".

    Thanks for posting.

    • I restored a '69 Olds convertible for my son some years ago. I have found that it is a lot cheaper to do them in a much smaller scale.

      • Haha, I agree. I restored a 1970 Challenger R/T back in 2007 and we spent over $55K in just parts and paint materials. Once we were finished with it we had it appraised and it came back at $118K. The man who I built the car for still owns it and we just converted it over to fuel injection. Now it runs even better.

        You can spend a small fortune on restorations. Models are much cheaper...

        Check out the "Turkey Rod Run" at the Daytona Speedway sometime. You will see a huge collection of custom cars there. Last year I'm pretty sure that the number of shoe cars exceeded 6,000 entries.

        I really like the work you have done with this. Thanks again.

        • Ok that should say "show cars" and not "shoe cars". Auto correct. Love it...

        • I have attended the Turkey Rod Run several times, but haven't gone in recent years as is too big and I am too old to walk that much these days. When I lived in Minnesota I always attended Back To The Fifties where they had over 10,000 cars for a three day event at the State Fair Grounds. Now I like the Tampa Street Rod Nationals coming up very soon.

  13. Man, that's cool Jack! Nice ride right there...:)

  14. Thanks Try, glad you liked it.

  15. Thanks Gary...

  16. Very nicely done! Feel free to post many more!

  17. Very nice, Jack. Good to see you putting all that aircraft modeling experience to good use.

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