This is the '39 the day I bought it.
When I closed the doors the whole side of the body swung like a garden gate! Nothing left attaching the body to the floors, so it hung free from it.
This was the tail panel after I cut off the rotted metal outside, to get to the rotted tool drop inside.
And after welding in the replacement tail panel I found on a local Craigslist ad.
I was going for the "old school" 60's look we all did on our cars back then. The American TTO wheels are made to look like what they did back then. TTO=Torq Thrust Old style. Actually very inexpensive as wheels go these days, and were right at $520 shipped to my door, with chrome lugnuts included. They are as cast centers, and machined outer rim.
Although it's an automatic overdrive, I wanted to play with it looking like an old 4 speed. So I built the shifter, and linkage from an old 4 speed Hurst shifter I had, and made up the linkage from 3/8" rod and heim ends. It worked out great, and moves freely with the heim ends.
Steering wheel was in the car when I bought it, and is a '52 Pontiac. It was cracked and in poor shape. I filled all the cracks with epoxy, and sanded it smooth. Then painted it the same "desert sand" color as I did the dash. Seats are Pontiac Vibe with headrests removed to look appropriate. I'm going to have the inserts in the base and backrest done in the same diamond tuck pattern so they'll match better.
I took the '39 for it's first longer drive last night. Our car club got together in a pizza place parking lot, since they're closed to eat inside, and ordered pizzas to take out to our cars. The '39 was nearly flawless driving out, with one glitch that took seconds to adjust. The shift points were a little too delayed, so I pulled over in a parking lot and adjusted the kickdown cable, and it was perfect after the quick repair.
It ran at 180 degrees all the way in 80 degree temps, and oil pressure sat at 60 psi idle, and 75 psi running, so perfect also. I'm having my hernia repair tomorrow, so happy to reach this point before I have weight restrictions. I can tinker on it the next few weeks whenever I feel up to it, and drive it this summer as I continue to fine tune things.