Posted on by Royboy

A Rain Delay at Shoebox Central

A 49 Merc dash that Chris is prepping to take to Austin for the Lonestar Roundup

When it was painfully obvious that the weather was not going to cooperate with my NSRA Southwestern Nationals plans last Saturday I was about 100 miles north of OKC. Being that far south I grabbed my phone and made some calls. Chris Whittington of Shoebox Central just so happened to be headed to his shop. Every time I’d been there before had been pretty busy so I figured it was a perfect time to hang out at the Shoebox mecca.

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The rain lasted the entire 2 and a half hours that I was hanging with Chris. He told me the story of how he became a Shoebox Ford fanatic, how he went from Colorado Springs to California and ended up in Oklahoma City. I don’t think there is anything about the Shoebox Ford that Chris doesn’t know. History, parts interchange, what parts are reproduced, what parts need to be reproduced and where to look for the trouble spots on these cars. In addition to being a wealth of knowledge and parts on the Ford Shoebox Chris also carries a ton of stuff for the 49-52 Mercury.

Chris was assembling this sweet 49 Mercury dash for the booth at the Lonestar Roundup.

The building is full of shelves and shelves of parts. NOS, refurbished, brand new parts, just about anything that you can think of.

This beauty has some pretty interesting history. Owned by the same guy that drove it to the last ever Buddy Holly performance. It just so happens that the owner was also part of the fire department that responded to the crash that claimed the lives of Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper and Richie Valens. This was the car that he drove to the accident scene.
I love the interior colors!

Another dash under construction.
Being that this is THE place to find anything for your Shoebox, this one has everything you could want.

The horn ring on the left is the Canadian version. A very rare part that has super cool look.

Chris says that this is just a few week supply of drop leaf springs for the Shoebox.

Anyone that has tried to get rid of the wrap around exhaust on a flathead powered Shoebox knows that’s it not exactly easy. Well it is now. This is a drivers side factory exhaust manifold for a dual exhaust setup on a shoebox. The police cars in this era had Mercury engines and dual exhaust, this is a recreation of the factory drivers side manifold. The easiest way to do duals on your flathead powered Shoebox.

The bone yard has a ton of cars to grab parts from if the parts are not available NOS or as reproductions.

This trunk lid was just too far gone to get rid of.

This 57 Ford has a 312 Y-Block in it and is for sale.
Under all of that is a solid floor that will be used in a Merc project coming up.

Anything you need for a 49-51 Ford or a 49-52 Merc, give Shoebox Central a yell and tell them that Royboy sent ya.

See you at a show,

Royboy

 

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