48 ford 4 door shoebox

[Creeped Out Customs]

Just picked it up the other day 48 ford 4 door shoebox . Cant wait till I bring it back from the dead. The wife likes how I finished my last ride so she wants one now. Nothing hotter than a chick driving an old car woot woot!

 

[Bamamav]

That looks more like a 50 than a 48. 48 was a totally different body......

 

[earthman]

Welcome to the board. Really solid looking body. Good score. I believe that's a '50 from the front turn signals. Just got a '51 4 dr myself. What are your plans?

 

[donsrods]

I'm curious why you would think it was a 48. It is a 50, and they are totally different cars.

This is what a 46-48 body looks like.




Don

 

[dmw56]

That's a 49-50 Ford. The engine is a Mercury.

 

[Bamamav]

I think 50 was the first year for push button door handles, too.

 

[ronnysplymouth]

I think 50 was the first year for push button door handles, too.

Yep....

 

[Creeped Out Customs]

I posted it as a 48 because of the brake light numbers i havent had a chance to run the body vin yet

 

[MercuryMac]

My two cents worth, it's a 1950 Ford. It has push button door handles, a door over the gas filler cap, and longer trunk hinges with the pivots at the front. I don't think the '49s had a strengthening crease in the back bumper, either.
You have a good solid project there. Go for it.

 

[donsrods]

I posted it as a 48 because of the brake light numbers i havent had a chance to run the body vin yet

What are "brake light numbers?" You can take this to the bank, it is a 50 Ford for sure. There are some subtle differences between 49-50-and 51 Fords, and it sure looks like a 50 to me.

Here is a picture of a 49 four door we once had. Notice the differences in the grille/parking light area.





And notice how the trunk latch is different on this 49 than on your 50.



Which is totally different from a 46-48 rear end.



Don

 

[Snake Farm]

What are "brake light numbers?" You can take this to the bank, it is a 50 Ford for sure.
Don

Don, I'm sure he is talking about the year stamped on tail light lenses. Don't know if they still do that but they still did in '03 (that's the newest one to look at here at the 'Snake Farm' )

Here you can see '57 on my Chevy tail light......



And here's the top half of a '57 Buick lens ....Both one year only lenses



But, it doesn't always work..... when the lens is used for more than one year they are stamped with the first year of production, like on my '64 Chevy II that had the same lens since '62



My '95 Chevy work van has the same lenses that came out in '85



And my daughter's '84 Monte Carlo has the same lenses that came out in '81



However that being said, I've never noticed one that had the previous year stamped on it but I feel sure that is the case with Creeped Out's Ford............the folks at Guide must have produced the first 49/50 Ford tail light lens in 1948

Sorry to hi-jack your thread with this "lesson in tail lights" Creeped Out
You have a solid looking 'shoe box' there, should make the 'Little Lady' a nice ride.

 

[Creeped Out Customs]

well it looks like shes a 50 . I guess ford interchanged parts back then too.Havent been too much of a ford fan but I like the body style. I got lucky with this find I payed $1200 for the car the guy could've got 2500 easily .The engine is locked up right now is it easier to take the intake off or the heads to loosen up the valves ,I can move the crank roughly a 1/4 left and right .I poured diesel gas in the combustion chambers to help loosen things up.

 

[donsrods]

That's a 49-50 Ford. The engine is a Mercury.

If that is a Mercury engine it might have the 4 inch crank everyone who does flatheads like. I am no flathead expert, but I see guys on the HAMB talking about the value of those crankshafts.

Don

 

[dmw56]

lf you want to loosen the valves remove the intake manifold.
If those are the original heads the 8CM denotes it is a Mercury engine. A good 4" crank goes for about $400.

 

[MercuryMac]

Hi Creep, I'm a great believer of the taillight numbers giving you the year of the car but I took a picture of my fifty Ford taillights, aiming at some really small letters hoping you young guys could decipher the writing but I was too close to the lens and I got an amateur fuzzy pic. Usually, the year numbers are quite readable but not on my car. Here are some other pictures that I took for you, though. The Merc flatheads in my toy-box look like this, with an ICM on the head and a four bolt rectangular carburetor base as apposed to a three bolt triangular mounting base of the Fords. They also don't have the oval with Ford written in it, just below the ICM.
You'll find an aluminum plate high up on the firewall just to the driver-side of centre. The bottom number is the serial number and about half way through it is a hyphen. Just before the hyphen are two digits that correspond nicely with the year of the car. The first of these is a 1948 Monarch, and the others are 1950 Ford coupe. I hope this info helps.
We haven't been stressing enough, that you have a Shoebox Ford and a very nice project start. Let me press this point home.

 

[Dr Crankenstein]

Good find Creeped Out and welcome to RRR.

Guys? What's this talk about Mercury heads and crankshaft? I know nothing about flatheads but I see 8BA on the heads... which is standard Ford stuff, no? [S

.

 

[R Pope]

8BA are Ford heads, 239 cubes. An American Merc would have a 4-bolt carb too, Canuck ones had 3 bolts sometimes. 'Course, a lot can happen in over half a century.......

 

[dmw56]

Good find Creeped Out and welcome to RRR.

Guys? What's this talk about Mercury heads and crankshaft? I know nothing about flatheads but I see 8BA on the heads... which is standard Ford stuff, no? [S

.

You're right. When first saw the pictures (small) on my cell phone it looked like 8CM. Now that I see it on my lap top (much bigger) it clearly is 8BA which is a 49-53 Ford engine.

 

[donsrods]

The only thing I know about flatheads is that we pulled them out and shoved Olds engines back in their place.


Don

 

[sgtpontiac]

Yep welcome to the site and good luck with your

project.....looks like a good start for sure!