Dave Castle
Senior Member
How hard is it to put a Deluxe Front end on a 40 pickup ?
Deluxe front end on 40 pickup ?
- Thread starter Dave Castle
- Start date
Ken/Alabama
Well-known member
Gonna take some work to get the hood fitting the cowl. Everything else should be a bolt on.
TJ
Well-known member
Why? To me nothing looks better than the stock front end. It's a fair amount of work to make it fit. Lots of work in the cowl area. I've seen it done and if you ever need to sell it for some reason, you'll wait a long time for buyer. JMHO
TomT/Williamsburg
Well-known member
Well, despite the work, it can be done. If you do not have a stock FE I can see you considering this as 40 Deluxe FEs are more plentiful used, especially the grille. The new repops of the 40 Std and 40-41 truck grille pieces are coming out soon I hear but I have heard nothing about price ....
As has been said, everything is fairly simple until the hood. The top "V" and the fit to the cowl area will be a challenge unless you have a complete 39-40 car cowl you can graft in ......
As has been said, everything is fairly simple until the hood. The top "V" and the fit to the cowl area will be a challenge unless you have a complete 39-40 car cowl you can graft in ......
Clem Clement
Well-known member
Someone grafted a 40 on a 36 truck on this net or somewhere. Several years ago. Looked fine. remember?
1931 flamingo
Well-known member
Twas HamtownAl I believe.
Paul in CT
Paul in CT
As they say, hang the hood first, which is what I did. I then grafted the sides of an old junk '39 deluxe I had. By hanging the hood first I could then see it only required small pieces on the cowl sides to match the hood contour. The "hood V" fit just fine. I think Bob Drake sells the cowl sides if you want to invest more $$$. I used the truck hinges in the original holes I think. Don't remember because I had a set of car hinges also.
V8COOPMAN
Well-known member
HamtownAl grafted a '36 CAR front sheet metal to a '36 pick-up cab. Lots of work, but it looked really slick! DD
Karl Wescott
Well-known member
As others have noted, the hood is the issue. Or ISSUE!
The front of the fenders are the same shape as deluxe so bolting the grille is easy.
The major differences in the hood are:
1. The nose profile.
2. The bead reveal on the pickup hood vs the crease style line on the passenger.
3. The shape of the cowl.
4. The height of the cowl is about 2" taller than a passenger cowl.
MAJOR slicing and dicing and extension of a deluxe hood will be needed to get things to fit up, then if you want to use a hood ornament you will have to figure a way to extend it 2".
My recommendation is to be sure this is what you want, and get the right budget and talent lined up before attempting this. Do it right it will be very nice and unusual, do it wrong and you will have successfully destroyed a bunch of parts or end up something only the hard core guys on the HAMB could love. If you do not want to carve up original parts consider a fiberglass hood to start.
The front of the fenders are the same shape as deluxe so bolting the grille is easy.
The major differences in the hood are:
1. The nose profile.
2. The bead reveal on the pickup hood vs the crease style line on the passenger.
3. The shape of the cowl.
4. The height of the cowl is about 2" taller than a passenger cowl.
MAJOR slicing and dicing and extension of a deluxe hood will be needed to get things to fit up, then if you want to use a hood ornament you will have to figure a way to extend it 2".
My recommendation is to be sure this is what you want, and get the right budget and talent lined up before attempting this. Do it right it will be very nice and unusual, do it wrong and you will have successfully destroyed a bunch of parts or end up something only the hard core guys on the HAMB could love. If you do not want to carve up original parts consider a fiberglass hood to start.
TJ
Well-known member
Amen to that Mart.
Mart
Well-known member
Fair enough, Tubman, but if a fellow has to ask how hard is it to do it, I'm only guessing, but he probably hasn't the wherewithall to do a decent job. Pointing out that it isn't universally accepted as a great idea can save the less experienced person a world of pain.
If the OP has the skills and vision to do it then go for it. But, as has often been said, just because it can be done doesn't mean it should.
The following does not specifically apply to this proposed swap.
This is a forum. It's a place for discussion. If I propose a terrible idea asking how I should do something, I hope someone would tell me straight. I wouldn't want to try and go forward with my terrible idea only to find it was a waste of time, money and effort. And when I then report that my results turned out awful, I wouldn't want everybody to then say "Oh yeah we all thought is was crazy but didn't want to hurt your feelings".
I've never seen a sheetmetal swap on a ford pickup that looks better than the stock appearance.
That's my personal opinion.
Mart.
If the OP has the skills and vision to do it then go for it. But, as has often been said, just because it can be done doesn't mean it should.
The following does not specifically apply to this proposed swap.
This is a forum. It's a place for discussion. If I propose a terrible idea asking how I should do something, I hope someone would tell me straight. I wouldn't want to try and go forward with my terrible idea only to find it was a waste of time, money and effort. And when I then report that my results turned out awful, I wouldn't want everybody to then say "Oh yeah we all thought is was crazy but didn't want to hurt your feelings".
I've never seen a sheetmetal swap on a ford pickup that looks better than the stock appearance.
That's my personal opinion.
Mart.