Projects 1932 Tubs 32 Phaeton.......... The Steel Out

In 1962 I started buying Car Craft magazine, at the time about the only Hot Rod magazine available at our local bookshop. I was already a fan of Model A Fords and early V8's. Car Craft ran an article on Dick Schritchfields 32 Phaeton that he imported from Eddie Ford in Australia. That car really fired my imagination and a 32 Phaeton became my dream car.

Fast forward to 1987, we were at a rod run in Ashburton and Harry Wright and I were talking in the car park. Harry was driving his 33 Roadster an I had my newly done 34 Roadster on its maiden voyage. Harry said to me I have a new project for you. I asked what it was and to my surprise he said a 32 Phaeton. It turned out that a club mate of Harrys, John Ross had imported the Tub from Australia and was returning back there to live so wanted to quit it.

The next weekend my wife and I drove to Dunedin, bought the car, loaded it onto my 8x 4 trailer and returned to Nelson (our home town).

A couple of years ago I met Johns son Brendon at the Beach Hop, and at the LA Roadsters 50th met up with John, Brendon and Harry all at the same time.

I wasn't going to post up anything on the Tub at this stage but have started work on replacing the wood with steel. Thanks to a few pics from guys on Ford Barn a while ago I was able to establish that from the front seat forward, the sheet metal sub frame on the US tubs was the same as a roadster. I had already done this sub frame fabrication when I unchannelled my 32 5w so I knew where I was going.

My problem now is details of the rear tub area, the front seat riser and the seat back.

The car came without a front seat and the wood which helped strengthen the rear tub area and supported the back seat are well gone. From what I can see there is a pressed channel that supports the bottom of the back seat and strengthens the rear door pillars. I will also have to make the back for the front seat. I would be grateful if anyone can supply photos of these areas. I will post picture of progress as we go.

Here we go with a few pics of the car as I got it. Apparently it came from up around Alice Springs from what I can remember, it obviously spent its life in an area rich with "Bulldust " which is a red dust found in parts of Australia, this became apparent as I started to take the car apart and the dust fell on the floor in heaps.

Overall the body was in pretty good condition with no rust in the usual places, sills bottom of cowl etc. Most bolts to my surprise just undid. It had obviously spent its time in a super dry climate.

At some stage the wood had given up or the ants had eaten it and the body took a bit of a beating without the support of the wood. The back of the tub section suffered a few large cracks due to stress and vibration. easily fixed though . One back fender is perfect, the other will take some work to repair. Fronts are reasonable. One rear door had come unlatched at some stage and swung back on itself denting the panel in.

 

Hi 1932 tub I can send some pics for you mine still has a bit of timber in it but steel where needed give me a couple of days and I'll post them up
Cheers Paul

 

Just curious where you stand with progress on the car. Do you have any current build pictures?

 

Dude I love that. How many more of those could ya' find down there ? And could a basket of vegamite sandwiches buy a couple ?

 

I'm another one who could supply you with some pics if you need them. Had my "tourer" since 1966 and purchase was instigated by the fact that if Scritch needed to source one from Australia then they must be worth having. Rode in Scritch's when it was new in 66 and again recently when Eddie and I visited him in Hawaii.

 

The tub is pretty much stripped down and parts ready to go out for media blasting,
The rear section of the tub had had a bit of a punt at some time and a couple of cracks that were stress related.

 

What I would like to see is how the American tubs were steeled out, particually the rear door post back seat area.
Thanks to any one that can help.

 

Mines a '29 so maybe different than a 32. In stock form it used a lot of wood too... We replaced the wood with steel tube. Door fitting is a nightmare... fyi. I think mine still needs more reinforcement.

 

heres how it looked stock...

 

Thanks, I am also trying to get away from any wood at all.

 

Thanks Paul, the only wood I will be using is around the top of the rear tub section

Have just started

And a sack of Puha

I spoke to you about this on Ford Barn a while ago, I remember the article in Eddies mag about your trip

 

Here are some photos of a new Brookville unit that is being built here in LA. I don't think there was enough interest to bring it to market but you can see the rear portion real good.

 

Thanks for the photos Lynn ( I am actually friends with you on face book through the Model 40 page )
I have been sifting through your Hot Rod blog and pinched a photo of a 32 Phaeton from there, its in oxide primer,
it has given me the general idea how the rear floor goes but the photo is not close enough to see much detail.
Those are great photos you have taken of the Brookville Tub, but its on a Roadster floor. I was interested to see the inner structure of the rear door, something I will have to tackle soon. Heres a pic of the rear of my Tub, the Aussie
Tubs rear panel is one piece compared to the USA Tubs 3 piece.



The tub section came off today and is on its way to the media blaster on Monday.
I would be keen to see anything else you may have in your library, thanks for the input.

 

Yeah Pew,
That Tub is John Carambia's, He was looking to see if there would be any interest as Brookville was helping out with some of the stampings. I'm not sure if the project has gotten any further, I spoke with John & his father Tom I think at Bobby's Open House this past June, I asked about this project, can't remember what was said?????

1932 Tub,
Ya might Talk to Brookville and see if they have any structural drawings, if not them Karl Wescott in Boring OR. I know that they've built a a grip of 32 tubs, and Karl had many structural drawings when they developed their tub. Dee used to run a Body Shop that still carries that name when he performed metal work on many different types of cars.

CK

 

hell yeah..a deuce tub!!

 

here's a shot of the rear floor

 

Hi Scruff thats the sort of thing I am looking for is the body in the pic yours?
I would like to get

A The dimensions of the rear seat riser
B How the seat riser joins the door pillar reinforcement and how it sits on the floor.
C The dimensions of the brace that goes over the inner guard.
D Dimensions of this post that the doors bolt to.

Thanks if anyone can be of help.

 

No this car isn't mine,I've got a long term project aussie tub but all the wood in mine was there and anything soft made great patterns. I may have some more saved pics of US tubs but no dimensions of those.If you look on Brizios site under the archived projects you can see more pics of this car I believe.

 

Here's another saved pic.

 

Thaks Scruff, every picture tells a story.

 

Just don`t take any `selfies` eh Bevan?.....If you need me to ask Karl Wescott if he has any info, just let me know and I`ll call him...

 

I got an Aussie 32 tub im building for a customer, just gonna start digging into the body too

the rear section is heavily beat.

 

Did that come from Bruce's ?

 

I've been a fan of old Ford tubs for years, and always wondered when your 32 would show up.
Guess the wood in Aussy usually goes to the Termites, such as the reason for Hudson's having used wire wheels, while we had wooden here.
Can't help with your question, except to say you could just make it up, being a hot rodder n all.

 

Yep, this is made up of parts collected from Bruce, ill be putting together a roadster out of stuff from bruces too probably this winter.

jeff