Phantom 1940 Roadster Pickup - Metalworking Mastery

Building a phantom 1940 roadster pickup

From the April, 2012 issue of Street Rodder

By Ron Covell

Every now and then, a project appears that is such a natural, it makes you wonder, “Why didn’t I think of that?” Keith Confer’s phantom 1940 roadster pickup is just such a vehicle. Confer’s truck is causing a sensation wherever it appears, and since the design looks so “right,” some people may not appreciate just how much planning and hard work it took to get that result. Let’s take a look at the long, arduous process Confer went through to make this truck such a hit.

Every project starts with an idea. Ford stopped making roadster pickups in 1934, but Confer had long wanted to bring the styling cues used in the early ’30s roadster pickups to the ’40 truck, which is much more curvaceous. Confer has a knack for drawing and rendering, and this helped a great deal while he was in the planning stages; it’s always best to work extensive projects out on paper before any metal is cut. While the basic idea of whacking the roof off of a ’40 pickup and adding a roadster-style cowl and windshield may seem straightforward, “the devil is in the details” and Confer put a huge amount of time and effort into getting the details just right.

The ’40 pickup body has a distinctive beltline, and one of the keys to making this truck so visually smooth was making sure this line flowed in an unbroken manner from one end of the truck to the other. This is perhaps the key element that makes the design seem so unified.

Not only is the cab of the truck modified, the bed, hood, running boards, and fenders were all seriously tweaked too, and getting all the proportions to be harmonious from end to end was a major undertaking. It’s easy to move shapes and lines around, and to change proportions, but it’s much more difficult to make the end result look better than the original, and Confer took on the additional challenge of making it look like a design that Henry Ford himself would have approved.

With the design worked out on paper, the modifications to the cab were the first priority. Confer removed the roof and cowl top, and scratch-built a roadster-style cowl. He chose the DuVall-style windshield for a ‘36 roadster, and in this case, the cowl was built to match the curve of the windshield. The dashboard is completely fabricated from scratch, and picks up some styling cues from a ’32 Ford roadster.

New door tops were fabricated to continue the sweep of the front cowl opening, and to seal off the doors where the deleted side windows were. The ’40 truck has a single bodyline on the hood sides, but at the cowl, it splits into a double line, and while Confer had the doors apart, he made new doorskins that continued the single belt line in the hood through the door area. Confer made the doors thinner, too, more in the style of a true roadster door. Confer stretched the body behind the doors about 5-1/4 inches to sweeten the design, as well as generating some always-appreciated interior room for the driver and passenger.

A new back panel was made with a straight bodyline to replace the arched bodyline on the original. Now, the rear bodyline matches the flat front end of the bed. Inside the body, new metal was shaped to make sculptured upper panels to cap the areas that would be finished with upholstery. Confer used the hammerforming process to make many of these panels.

The cab was channeled over the frame 1 inch, and completely new floors were built. Planning ahead (which is always a good idea with a roadster), Confer arched the floor panels slightly so that if rainwater ever got inside the cab, it would run off to the side rather than puddle in the middle. In the end, only about 25 percent of the original sheetmetal from the cab was used.

The pickup bed was shortened 5-1/4 inches in front (to match the amount that the cab was lengthened) and 3-1/2 inches in the rear, to make it more proportionate. The bed was raised 3/4 inch to make the rolled top edge line up exactly with the beltline on the rest of the truck, and a completely new steel floor was constructed.

The hood required extensive modifications, too. It was sectioned 1 inch in the rear to line up with the top of the cowl, since it was lowered 1 inch when the body was channeled, and he sectioned it 2 inches in the front to give it a more graceful look, with a slight taper. Extensive reshaping was required at the front of the hood to make everything fit together smoothly.

All of the fenders were carefully reshaped, too. The trailing edge of each wheel opening was given a more graceful, swept-back line, by forming panels from new sheetmetal, and welding them into place. This is one of those details that just looks so right that many people may not notice the change at first.

In the rear, underneath the tailgate, a custom stainless steel spreader bar was fabricated, which mounts two original ’37 Ford passenger car taillights.

The grille is a Bob Drake ’40 Standard passenger car casting, and it is one of the few items on the truck that was not modified. The headlight rings, lenses, and buckets are a mix of original ’39 Ford parts and Bob Drake reproductions.

The extensive bodywork rests on a beefed-up stock frame, with a Heidts tubular control arm front end (equipped with airbags), and a Chassis Engineering parallel leaf 8-inch rearend, powered by a warmed-up 327 Chevy engine coupled to a Turbo 350 transmission. Confer hand-fabricated a slick cover for the top of the engine that has styling cues from the famous Greer-Black-Prudhomme dragster from the ’60s.

Confer spent 10 years building this fabulous project, doing just about all of the work himself in his home shop, including the painting. Confer’s father, and two of Confer’s friends, Rick Boyd and Chris Knieper, helped with some of the tasks, and Confer’s mother lent a hand with the upholstery. All in all, it’s a magnificent piece of work.

(Editor’s note: Look for the final feature on this incredible phantom pickup in an upcoming issue of STREET RODDER. —B.B.)