When you’re done watching this original sales training film for the stylish new 1940 Ford, you’ll be ready to hurry over to your local Ford dealer and buy one yourself.
Of all the early Ford V8s from 1932 through 1948, the 1940 model year must rank at or near the top among hot rodders and restorers—next to the inaugural year of 1932, of course. Somehow Henry got everything right that year. We’ve featured the ’40 previously here at Mac’s Motor City Garage. For example, check out this excellent three-minute Ford film, Video: Presenting the Ford Line for 1940 from January of 2017. Now we’ve got an even better 10-minute dealer training film that covers the ’40 in greater detail.
There was a lot to talk about at Ford for 1940: revised front end styling with sealed-beam headlamps and a striking new Deluxe grille; a sleek Art Deco instrument panel as trendy as any on the market, and a column-mounted shifter for the manual three-speed transmission (a feature introduced by Buick and Packard a few years earlier.) Conventional steel disc wheels replaced the odd wide-five setup used in 1936-39, and the electrical system was beefed up, in part to support the aforementioned sealed-beam headlamps—a greater driving advance than people realize today. All these features and more are covered in entertaining fashion in the video below. See your Ford dealer today.
How times have changed. Sealed beam headlights which in 40 were as good as you got, many cars still had globes until the 60s. Though with the advent of halogen globes improved those old lights.
Power full drum brakes! Disc wheels, and adjusting seats which rise for the vertically challenged.
All good things and 78 years later so ho hum.
They were on about bright work, non of which seemed very bright and I suspect probably the last year for that with the war in Europe.
As an aside,was the 3 on the tree synchro on first? And again apart from the US column change of any fashion has disapeared. For the occasional [RIP] manual trans it is on the floor like a hundred years ago! Though a few more slots however. Woudlnt that sidevalve love a Tremec 6 speed!
No mention of of the “rum runners”? The ’40 Ford business coupe was the car of choice for runnin’ moonshine. I believe Junior Johnson drove one in his per-NASCAR days.
Nor any mention of Clyde Barrow who wrote a glowing testimonial to old man Ford, about how good the V8 was at outrunning the law!
Nor any mention of Lumpy Rutherford! The ’40 Ford was his hot rod of choice!… Oh, wait. Never mind. That was a few years after this was made…
I believe the Clyde Barrow letter was proven to be a forgery. I’m a sucker for the 1933-34 styling myself.
In June of 1940 my dad bought a new Folkestone Grey Ford Deluxe business coupe that was so “technically advanced” with the column shift that the salesman from Northlawn Motors at Grand River and Plymouth Rd. in Detroit delivered it to our house so he could show my dad all the new features and how they worked. As an eight year old I was enthralled!
When I turned fourteen in 1946, this is the car that I took my driver’s test in to get my Michigan license.
When my mom was along, my seat was the left folding “opera” seat behind my dad. As I was now taller and breathing down my dad’s neck, he decided the time had come to replace this car with a new 1946 Ford Fordor sedan.
1939 Deluxe and both 1940 Standard and Deluxe Fords were one of if not the best designs in those years. A proven design that still looks great today. After 1940, the vertical grille started to go away, with the 41’s having both a vertical and horizontal grille, changing to a strictly horizontal one for the 42’s. And 1941 started the trend of cars getting fatter, the smooth lines of the 40’s were replaced with more bubbled fenders and stumpier body lines. Yes, the 1940 Ford is my dream car, also my dream pickup as that was the last year for trucks to wear the same design front sheetmetal. After 1940 it all went down hill styling wise. Now it’s so bad you can’t tell a Ford from a Honda without looking at the name plate. Sad.
I prefer the older streamlined headlamps of 37-39 which could if Ford wanted,
could have been used with sealed beam headlamps. VW, Porsche and Jaguar had done this until 1966 when NHTSA stepped in for safety reasons? The old headlamp advantage was streamlined look and safety wise if a rock hit the headlamp assy. only the glass in front was broken and you still had a working headlamp. So much for Gov. foresight.
Column shift cars were a “feature” and designed for comfort of a third passenger in the front seat, however when all of my friends growing up were buying these cars for a hot rods those shifters were the first things to go. They remain on the floor of my friends cars who have them today.