Progress report on the confused 34/32 pickup

Ya ever have those days were if it can go wrong it will,,,,

That was this weekend,,,,we mounted the new radiator and shell,,,and then opened the big box from Rootlib with their new 32 Ford 25 louver hood,,,looks good,,not deadnuts but a lot better than the old bent up piece of crap!

the old hood,,,,



the new one,,,


You guys that don't have a 4 piece hood on your hot rod can't phantom the words that you use when trying to get some sort of proper fit,,,

Raise the shell up ,,move from side to side ,,lean it in and over,,etc,etc,,,

With the shell in place then comes the hood,,,,I will spare you all the times the hood went up and down and the radiator support rods were adjusted,,,I will say way too many times,,

Believe it or not,,,we spent almost 8 hours on it,,,some times glaring at it and sometimes cussin' it!

Anyway so much for saturday,,,

Sunday morning we finished mounting and bolting on the front fenders ,,drilling and attaching the hood latches and front splash apron and headlight bar before lunch,,man ,,we are on a roll!,,, man now we are on a roll,,got the drivers side running board on and the came the last fender,,,damn,,it stuck out past the running board by 3/4 of and inch,,,.

Back to the cussin' again!

The problem is when we made the bed for my truck we altered the plans to to be able to run a 37 tailgate on Daves instead of a shop built one like mine,,,,

We removed the bed and started cutting it apart,,,,1 step forward 9 steps back,,,,around 8:30 last night it was back together,,,and the fender will fit,,,but it's gonna have to wait until next weekend.



Hopefully next weekend the front rims and tires will be mounted and bolt on,,I'm sick of looking at those ugly front wheels,,, HRP

 

Love the new hood..
Look's slick as hell full fendered too!

 

You guys have been busy ... a air conditioned shop sure helps ...
The truck is coming along nicely. I like the new hood ...



At first glance it looks right on ... and will actually help with the cooling ( which is what Henry had in mind when the originals were designed ). I wonder why they did not make the first vent NOT opened up like Henry's ?



Cannot tell from the photo if the rear vent is open or closed on the new hood. The front and rear vent is closed on the originals ... but I know you ( Danny ) know this

 

I called about those hoods and they said they were not in production and did not expect them to be anytime soon- What gives?

 

You guys have been busy ... a air conditioned shop sure helps ...
The truck is coming along nicely. I like the new hood ...

No kiddin',,,the outside air was 99 degrees and the inside air was 76,,makes it a lot easier to make progress.

As for the vents,,,all 25 are open,,,,

I believe Henry kept the rear closed to keep the last open louver from distorting ,,,,,the 25th wants to follow the contour of the cowl and slight close in on itself. HRP

 

I read some where ... in the past 15 to 20 years or so ... that the prototype 25 vents from Henry were open on all 25 vents but that the hood was too flimsy. So in order to stiffen up the hood ... the vents on each end were made " closed " when the hoods went into production. I need to find that article in my 32 books and stuff.

Nice looking fenders too ...
Look like they fit pretty nice.

 

Yeah,,I sent you a PM asking if you had them or could get me one,,,your answer was yeah,,,2 days later it was no,,,not in stock,,,and not in the near future,,

I didn't stop with you ,,,several other HAMB alliance venders said the same thing,,,

One phone call to Rootlib and exactly 31 days later we had the hood,,,,we were told they make them on a special order basis,,, HRP

 

Danny,

The truck is looking good. Like that hood.

JH

 

I called Rootlieb and that was their answer to me. Glad you didn't give up.

 

there wouldn't have been a problem with the fenders if'n you left them off...

 

Let's put it like this,,,it was about 5,937 bucks cheaper than the original one that sold on E-bay,,,

A Hamb Alliance vender would have saved me some bucks,,,but,,,,HRP

 

Wow is that looking nice. After seeing so many 32-34 trucks with no fenders, I forgot how absolutely killer they look with all their parts

 

Better view of the louvers,,,all open,,, HRP

 

Coming along nicely. That's going to be one sweet PU. I agree that too many lately have lost the fenders and running boards.

Frank

 

I love the full fendered and hooded look, love it... Nice work on the box as well. Very tastful little pickup!

 

LOOKIN REALLY GOOD!!! - i can relate with the "fitting" treatment you have to fight to get anything to fit. (apart/together apart/together.......!!!)
BUT theres proof in your pictures that a fendered truck is worth the 'fitting fight!"

 

I can't sell what they won't sell me. Should have let me know they would special order it because they told me "NO!"

 

I was curious about the price & called them. Said they had 25 louver hoods in stock & could ship today.

JH

 

Yes- they have their old style 25-louver in stock. When primer called I called Rootlieb and they confirmed that- but ask about the "new" correct style. The answer I received was "No we don't make them yet- and we don't expect to anytime soon. He obviously got a different person who made it happen.

 

looking good as always

 

After a long hiatus the my pal Dave has started back to work on the confused 32-34 pickup.

Dave has helped me with the wagon,he built Jim's Model A,Steve's 32 pickup and repaired & update several friends hot rods not to mention a bunch of upholstery jobs.

This is the engine freshly painted and ready to be installed.

Dave,also made a new frame structure for Brenda's Flower shop,,it's in the background.



For those that don't remember the name came from using a 34 truck cab on a deuce chassis.

A couple of the old photos.







The frame is apart and has been sandblasted and it's in primer. HRP

 

Very nice!!

 

Full fendered pickumups is the only way to go..

 

Looks like that grill shell needs leaned back a bit. One more round on those support rods and another round of profanity I guess.

That really looks nice !

 

I love em all, well cept for RR ones...
Wait a minute, no one would be crass enough to use a 32/34 for a RR...
Sweet truck, the engine is some eye candy.

 

Danny: The truck is looking real good. I read over the post's about fitting the hood (with a big smile on my face). I'm re-doing the hood on my cabrio. I didn't like the way it looked the first go around. I had to put a hinge repair kit on it (cut and weld the length of both halves), fit it at the cowl (top of cowl was moved forward during sectioning process) and remove the belt line molding due to the sectioning...that was the top(s). Both sides were made from scratch. I just re-did how I mounted the hinge kit, trimmed the lower sides and trimmed it at the cowl. Now to start in finishing up the side panels. Kinda feels like the re-build on the doors. Yep, I know what you'all been through. We call this fun ya know!!! Tim

 

The last photo is taken after we moved the truck from my shop to Dave's and at the time we had installed a 40 Ford Flathead engine,the engine was pulled and sold and radiator,shell and hood are just laying in place. HRP

 

This is the pickup Dave built for Steve. HRP

 

Very Nice!

 

That day everything went wrong there was no mention of beer That may have been the problem Anyway cool looking Pickup