Johnny’s ’32 Coupe

Every year at the Lone Star Round Up I’m asked to pick a car for an award. I take it pretty seriously, so it’s often a point of contention for me – internally at least. I put forth a lot of effort to ensure whatever car I pick fits with the ideas and philosophies of The Jalopy Journal. Often times this means that I spend a good bit of time narrowing down my picks and then finally, torturing myself into making a final choice. It sounds ridiculous, but it’s actually a pretty stressful proposition.

In the fifteen or so years that I’ve made a pick at the show, I’ve only picked one car which belonged to someone that I actually knew personally. This isn’t by design at all – it’s just I make my choice based purely on the merits of the choices and not for any other reason. And so, it was hard not to chuckle when I overheard a middle aged man at my booth claim, “All these damned awards are given on a good old boy basis. I hate the politics of it all…”

See, I just handed my award slip to Johnny Snyder and his wife only minutes earlier. And when I did so, I didn’t even know his name… and further, when I handed it out I was too shy to even introduce myself. It was one of those, “hey, take this slip and hang around for the awards ceremony… You’ll be glad ya did,” type of deals. And then I slunk off back to my booth.

Point is, I love this coupe… and for all the right reasons. It has that perfect mid-1950’s hot rod vibe to it where every little detail is attended to and the overall package is just perfectly balanced as a result. None of that is by accident. See, this coupe has a history that backs up its good looks.

In 1965, there was disastrous flood in Denver, Colorado. Afterwards, Mike “Flathead” Blanchard found this coupe on a sandbar of the South Platte River. He plucked it out of the water, kept it long enough to make sure there weren’t any lost owners, and then sold it to Kenz and Leslie V8 service. Then, in the late 1960’s, Kenz and Leslie sold the car to Don Coleman – another well regarded Denver area hot rodder. Don and his son (Wesley) then built the car as a father/son project of sorts before selling it off in to Ron Garcia in January of 1975 to fund what is now a pretty well known ’32 – The Coleman Coupe.

Anyway, it was Ron that took the car to the next level. He painted it the current shade of burgundy and then went wild with chrome. It turns out that he was buddies with a guy that owned a chrome shop and Ron took every advantage of the relationship. He then made a few other subtle changes but never felt like the paint lived up to the rest of the car and, as a result, eventually sold the car to Steve Markwell. The car then sat until Johnny’s son found it in 2013.

Johnny has done very little to the car since. He’s rebuilt the ’58 283 power pack as well as the ’39 Ford tranny. He also added the chrome rolling stock wrapped in the quintessential 550/700 rubber combination featuring era correct white walls. Oh… and he’s also responsible for the first interior to go in the car since it was found in ’65 – a very tasteful white Naugahyde with burgundy accents. The rest of the car is as God intended – OG ’32 frame with unsplit bones, a dropped axle, juice brakes, and tons of chrome.

It’s just one of those cars that even at a glance you know has history to it. It’s not some perfectly polished jewel – instead, it’s well cultured as evidenced not only by  its earned patina, but also by its period perfection. Johnny’s coupe is just right. And that’s why I picked it this year at the Lone Star Round Up.

Enjoy these photos from Tom Davison and give him a pat on the back for work when you get a chance: