Jay Hinshaw’s 1940 Ford V-8 Tudor

By Gary Osborne and Jay Hinshaw

In 1940 the rest of the world was in a state of chaos, but here in America we still felt shielded from hostilities by two oceans. The auto manufacturers were producing record numbers of cars. Ford produced their 28,000,000th car that year!

Once again, the name of the game was improvements from the previous year’s models. Comfort was a big concern for the car buyer, and Ford had an answer. The suspension was improved for a smoother ride, more interior leg room was afforded, and several smaller items were added for more convenience. One big item changed was that now the shifter was moved from the floor to the steering column. This allowed for ease of shifting and it freed up more of the front floor space.

The subject of this article is a very fine example of a 1940 Standard Tudor owned by Jay and Margie Hinshaw. They have owned this automobile for a few years now and have really enjoyed driving it around town. I’m going to turn this article over to Jay as he explains a little bit about his experiences with it.

Jay related “I joined the Early Ford V-8 Club and our regional group in 2016 while on the hunt to buy a V-8 Ford, with no specific year or model in mind. I’ve loved “fat fendered” Fords since I was a kid building models. When I was young, I lusted over street rods, but the outrageous cost made that impossible. Age had matured my taste, and my preference went to correct cars, and that’s what I was looking for.

“The ad for this 1940 V-8 Tudor happened to be in our local Chicago Craigslist. The advertised car was located in Orland Park. The seller of the 1940 Standard V-8 Tudor had owned the car for 29 years, but in that time put only 372 miles on the odometer!

“Multiple unresolved issues with the engine made the car very unreliable. This was apparent on the test drive, but the rest of the car was nice.  The $14,000 price was right, so I took a risk. I tried to drive it from Orland Park to my home on the north side of Chicago, but only got a mile before the engine gave up due to no spark. It made it to its new home on a flatbed tow truck. Soon I went to work attempting to diagnose the problems, with good advice from members on the Early Ford V-8 Club Forum and in particular from our own Tom O’Donnell. The principal problem was the classic failing coil, but also a bad ignition switch and too-fat spark plug wires not seated in the helmet distributor caps. It also needed a rebuilt distributor, carburetor, front brakes, new tires, and dozens of minor repairs, adjustments, and replacement of worn or incorrect parts. And of course, the work is never done.

“This 1940 Ford is a partially restored 50,000-mile car. It is far from concourse. Underneath it still carries caked-on grease and sandy soil deposited decades ago. It is mostly an original survivor.

“Nothing is known about its early history other than an artifact found in the car showing it was registered in Iowa in 1940. The body is perfect, no sign of any damage or rust repair. A repaint job was done about twenty-five years ago, in the original Cloud Mist Gray. While the color match was perfect and overall the repaint is pretty good, there was some poor prep-work in a couple places.

“All glass appears to be original, with some de-lamination. The interior shows its age, but the mohair seat fabric is like-new. The car was probably wearing seat covers most of its life. The engine, transmission, etc. are believed to be original to this car. I enjoy taking the car to local car shows. People seem to like the historical aspect of a survivor. They are amazed that the Standard 1940 Ford V-8 model was sold with only one taillight!”

Jay’s car really is a nice example of an original. If you see it at an event, make sure you take a look at it and talk to Jay about all the fun he is having with this car.