1947 Ford Pilot V8 - Reader Rides

By: Greg Gibson

Date: 11.08.2017

Greg Gibson's 1947 Ford Pilot V8 is a classic forties cruiser

This is a fairly standard car, though it’s running running the 239ci (3.9lt) sidevalve engine, with a three-on-the-tree transmission. The funny thing about them isn’t you don’t see Ford logos on these cars.

One modification is the brakes. They started out as hydraulic front and cable rear, but we upgraded them with Customline parts and they’re now hydraulic all round.

I wanted a ’36 coupe, but I went there on the Saturday and it had sold on the Friday. So I looked around and the ’47 was the only one I could find in my price range from that era.

My father set up all the mechanicals on it to freshen it up. He’s got all the gear in his workshop at home.

It’s not fast, but it’s good to drive and sits on the highway about 55mph (90km/h). It likes going down hills and gets up to 110km/h!

I went to the recent historic meeting at Winton and saw two more. Standard they have a lot of equipment on them, such as built-in jacks on each corner and a sunshade for the rear window.

It’s a very easy car to live with, once they’re sorted out. For example I haven’t touched the distributor for about 15 or 17 years!

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