['35Coup]

Hey All,

My Grandfather passed away this past November and left me his restored 1935 five window coup that he'd been building since the 60's. I have never owned nor driven one of these old Fords so I joined this forum to ask questions and learn as much as I can from all you early Ford pro's. I am a lifelong "car guy" and have worked on cars for most of my life so I have the mechanical ability, just am lacking experience with something this old. Please don't hesitate to send me any and all info and advice you may have, especially if it pertains to specifics about running the car at high elevation as I live just outside of Denver, CO. The Ford has a 59 A-B V8 that, from what I can tell based on some research, is out of a '46. I just got the Ford home this weekend and immediately started checking all fluids, belts ect before I fired it up as it hasn't been run in over 2 years. Once everything checked out I decided to fire it up and run it around the block real quick just to see how she did (no license plates yet). Everything seemed to work great except one thing; when shifting between gears while driving it feels like the gears are grinding (like if you were to try shifting without pushing in the clutch) right away then it will go into gear. I make sure the clutch is all the way pressed down and my foot is all the way off the accelerator but it still grinds at first. Is this normal for these old cars? I've only driven it this one time and now I'm scared to drive it again as I don't want to damage anything. Any and all comments are welcome. I'll be posting many more questions but I'll start with this one! Thanks for the help!