Daily Driver Hot Rod! 1948 Ford V8 Coupe
Tired of fake patina? Here’s the perfect antidote: for sale on craigslist is this 1948 Ford Coupe hot rod, assembled in the 1960s, driven avidly, garaged in the 1970s, and sold to a dealer by the builder’s family in 2017. Every scar, scratch, and primer patch is real. The asking price is $19,950, and the car can be driven most anywhere from its home in Butte, Montana. Don’t fall in love with the big/little red wheels, though – the car will be sold with standard body-color wheels instead, still mounted with white walls. The seller has had this Ford since 2017 when he bought it sight unseen from the aforementioned dealer. After light mechanical restoration, it’s been driven daily for three seasons of the year, garaged only in winter. It is as reliable as a rock. Barn Finder Eric surfaced this excellent period piece for us – thanks, Eric!
The motor is a Chevy V8, vintage 1956, mated to the original Ford gearbox. Chevy was using a 265 cu. in. eight back then, designed with the Corvette in mind but also offered in the Pontiac, Bel Air, and other models. Base horsepower was 162, but in the Corvette, the motor could generate up to 240 hp with the right cam and a set of four-barrel carburetors. The seller says this motor runs very strong with prodigious oil pressure and no overheating. The car’s three-speed manual transmission has been rebuilt, and there’s a new clutch, new fuel pump, new water pump, new glasspack, new brakes and lines, and new starter solenoid. The carburetor has been rebuilt and the electrical system has been converted to 12-volt. The seller notes an exhaust leak at the manifold.
The interior is rough and ready, with light stains and small tears in the upholstery, and cracks in the steering wheel. The headliner is nearly perfect. This coupe is Ford’s Super Deluxe model – marketing nomenclature if there ever was such – decorated with chrome and stainless outside including a “Super Deluxe” badge just above the center of the grille, a clock on the dash, and a range of seating fabrics to choose from. Paint color choices included Paradise Gray – probably this one’s factory clothing.
This coupe’s chrome is serviceable, the glass is good, the shut lines are fantastic. I love the tailpipe. Of course, purists might kick about the Chev motor in a Ford, but I have less internal conflict about that if it was done “in period”, as was apparently the case here. I’m no hot rod expert, but I do know what I like: this Ford coupe is intensely appealing and reasonably priced. What do you think?
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Comments
First car I ever worked on. Friend two years older than me bought one right after getting his driver’s license and asked if I’d help him put a new clutch in it. For as old as it was it was in great shape. He drove it for years and then found a black ’57 Chevy two door hardtop which he literally kept for for most of his life.
Bought a ’41 Super Deluxe in 1974 as a teenage kid. Vapor locked in the middle of a busy intersection and was done with flatheads. Bought a wrecked ’69 Torino GT with a 351 and proceeded, with help of Dad, to transplant everything including AC, AT and PS to the old Ford. Drove it for 6 years as a daily and made Street Rodder magazine!
Got any photos? We’d love to see it!
Way better than the one listed here with Chevy power ! Keep vintage Fords, all Ford.
Mikey it has a chevy
I’ve noticed more sticky ads here the last few days. Annoying
when you try to scroll down. Realize you need to make money, but these ads irritate me
Hi Kent, if you sign up for a membership, you don’t have to deal with ads. Thanks.
If for some reason I had an auto biography, this car and its story would be one very long chapter. From Vietnam to all the 46 to 48 Fords I owned with some 40’s and 32’s and 34’s sprinkled in. I really did love the fat fendered cars. I had several with SBC and the early Ford running gear. They were cheap. and fun to drive, very comfortable and looked cool. I would joke if you had one,just put it in the garage with a SBC over the weekend and Monday morning you would have your car, They just naturally mated, I would maybe do some cosmetics to this car but basically,it needs nothing. Maybe the chrome trim that goes on the deck-lid.
I’d like to see some documentation about Pontiac using a 265″ Chevy engine, maybe they did in Canada. They cane out with there own 287″ V8 in 1955, If I’m not mistaken that block is the same external dimension as all the Pontiac OHV engines through the 455″
That’s how we built ’em in the ’60s.
Most all the Ford’s you saw in Rod & Custom, Hot Rod. and Car Craft
had Chevy engines in them. They
were cheap, easy to build, and made a lot of power depending on
who built it. Ford in Ford was rare
back then but not unheard of. There was a guy in my town that had a ’40 Ford sedan with a 289
in it. At the first Street Rod
Nationals in Peoria, Illinois in 1970,
I saw all kinds of Ford’s powered by
all kinds of engines. Most were
Chevys, but there were others too.
Ron Weeks 34 sedan had a thumping 394 cube Olds mill making over 400 HP and the guy with the ’39 Ford pickup from
Galesburg, Ilii. with a big bad 392
cube hemi under the hood. Who
knows, I might’ve seen this car there
and never knew it. Nice to see that
this one survived.
…and many were classic rods powered by built flatheads !
Yeah Mike, I did see some flatties in
Peoria back then. Like I said, I saw a
lot of Ford’s with all kinds of engines
under their hoods. The Ford in Ford
crowd were running 289s or 302s as
they were getting as cheap as the
Chevy mills we were using back then
as there were a lot of wrecked Ford’s
with good engines at our local wrecking yards so finding a decent
one wasn’t a big deal. All you had to do was find a Ford with a rotted frame and the game was on. After some wreck conscience, these folks
were pulling whole drive lines for their
projects and saving piles of cash while doing it. Glad I got to see it all
happen and that’s what street rodding
was all about.
Well said… I’m of the old school (77 yrs old,) and was taught keep Fords all Ford, Chevrolets, all Chevy ,
etc. Thanks for your comment !
Great story…..wish there were some old pictures.
20 grand with a Chebby engine? Dream on, bro!