Has anyone seen a '32 Ford with both the rear luggage rack and a spare tire mount. If the tire was removed and a luggage rack substituted what did they do for a spare? Obviously there must have been some provision for this dilema. Any comments on this?
There is a '32 rack for English and Euro '32's that goes behind the spare...much more functional than the USA one, which was more for those who were trying to make their cars look like Duesenbergs or something. I got one from an English rodder on the HAMB a few years back. Not an adequate view, but this car probably has the one I have...I think there are pictures of some in the old Thacker deuce book, which is very good on deuces of the empire.
In my parts forty years ago there was a 32 3-window built by one of the Abrahms brothers with two sidemounts, and a luggage rack on the back. Towards the end of the resto-rod era. A nice looking yellow coupe. Currently owned by a Hamber who moved from Nebraska to Aridzona I believe. I always found it odd that there is no solution to the hot rodder who wants no rack or rear mount, and a plain bar on the back, other than making one for himself. Ford didn't make a plain rear spreader bar.
The Service bulletins on installing sidemount spares noted that the rear spare mount was structural, and called for it to be replaced by the same straight crossbar that was used to mount the USA version of the luggage rack*. This was a straight bar made of very stout tubing just like the front one, but it had two welded-on brackets made for the rack. Commonly available modern crossbars, as far as I know, are all VERY non-structural, and are just shiny trim for practical purposes. * This bar is hidden way back in the accessory section of the catalog, unlike the standard front bar that lives in the frame parts list.
Mine was the rare dual side mounts version. All side mount cars have these holes for the spare brace if it came form the factory with one.
The '32 two door I bought in 1951 in Tulsa, Oklahoma must have belonged to a guy who was very worried about flats. It had the dual side mounted spares plus the rear mounted one!
My 32 PU has a straight, rear spreader bar, and per one of the 32 books, all commercial(sedan delivery's, etc) had straight rear bars.
Never seen one. I'd love to see some pics. Makes sense though, cause a rear mounted spare would make those deliveries hard to use.
Jeff, the book I referenced is, Robert Genat's, "Deuce 75 Years of the '32 Ford",, page 45. I'll take pics, tomorrow and post.
I was reading this thread because I would like to put a combination luggage rack/spare tire carrier on my '32 Fordor and I saw your post about the yellow 3W with dual side mounts and I wondered if it is the same car. It has a fabricated rack on back with a Watts-Morehouse trunk. I think Terry Hegman worked on it at one time when he was still in Iowa. Here it is in all its restored glory. In the South Dakota garage In its new home in Prescott, AZ
Yep, same car. I remember riding in the rumbleseat of the other Abrahms brother's (were they twins?) candy brandywine '32 3-window during the poker run at the Oskaloosa rod run about 40 years ago. Pretty sure your yellow coupe was there too that day.
Was his first name Dallas? I ran into a close friend of Dallas once when I was at the Rod & Custom Americruise with the 3W in Madison, Wisconsin in 1999. Years ago he said he was having a hard time in his life, having just gone through a divorce and Dallas told him to take the yellow 3W on a vacation to get away from it all so he did. He said he had it for two weeks and drove down to Colorado and put a ton of miles on it driving through the mountains. He said he had a great time and it really made a difference in his life at the time. I guess "Deuce Therapy" is better than booze or drugs! Here's a little more of the history that I know of the car before Dallas got it. In 1973 Kenny Walsh from Fort Dodge, Iowa was just out of high school and he had moved to Los Angeles, California to get a job. He was out looking for a place to rent one day and came across this '32 3W sitting in the driveway of a house and there were some kids playing in the yard. He stopped and asked if it was for sale and they said it was because their parents were splitting up. He bought the 3W and eventually took it back t0o Iowa. Kenny said he thought it had been an old drag racer because it had holes in the floor for a roll bar and other indicators of its past. I'd love to know its history back before then. Does anyone recognize it from 1973? He built it as a hot rod with a 350 with 3 deuces, a turbo 400 and Cragar mags over the next few years. Kenny took it to the Street Rod Nationals in Tulsa in 1976. Kenny eventually sold it to Dallas a few years later. Dallas did the "restorod" treatment to it and added the dual side mounts, electric windows, seat, rumble seat and antenna (ugh!). Dallas eventually sold it to someone from Michigan who owned it a very short time before Don Bratt from Grand Rapids bought it. He owned it until I bought it from him in 1998. I haven't changed anything on it but would eventually like to de-restorod it and do a total rebuild back to its hot rod past. The body is nearly perfect with no patch panels just a couple of small pinholes in the lower reveal that Kenny filled with lead when he did the body work in 1975. And so that's "the rest of the story........."
Dallas and Denny Abrahms. Both owning stock height, full-fendered '32 3-windows. Many years ago. I know Ken Walsh and he is still active with hot rods in the Fort Dodge area. He has a ton of old stuff, but nowadays he specializes in 40 Willys and 33-34 3-windows. I see him at most all swap meets in Iowa. He can really sniff out the old tin.
Kenny and Hanna are the best people. He was going to stop by and see me down here last year but I was over at the GNRS. The last time I saw him was at Des Moines GoodGuys two or three years ago when he had just finished his '41 Willys. In 1998 I had just met him a few months before I bought the 3W and saw him again at Back to the Fifties when I was driving through. Kenny came running on a dead run and chased me down. He yelled "Hey! I know you and that's my car!!!. We've been friends ever since. Thanks for filling in another detail about who Dallas was for me.
Wow, there's a name I haven't heard for many years! Didn't know Dallas well but seemed like a super nice guy. Dallas let a then friend of mine use the car for his wedding, I'm not sure if he was even there and the wedding wasn't local. I remember at some point on Friday night before the Saturday wedding they went to local golf course to take some pictures with the car. Now if you ever want to see golf course personnel get excited park a car on one of their greens sometime! This was in the late 70's.
Wow! Thanks for posting, those are some great pics. The first one was exactly how it was when Kenny sold it to Dallas. I even got the six Kelsey-Hayes adjustable wire wheels (that were converted to 15") that were on the car in the second pic because Don Bratt had put all new chrome wires and wide whites on it. Thirty five years later it has 56,000 miles of road rash and age on it now but it sure looked good back then.
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