A friend Tim heard about this 32 Ford barn find a few years ago but could never get the guy interested in selling it. Last year he finally got his hands on the 32 Coupe. Now Tim wants to build a driver and has become the hard headed guy with no interest in selling this car to anyone. When fellow H.A.M.B member 33WIRE is not busy working on his own or helping some of us with our projects, he has been masterfully helping Tim with design and fabrication ideas. The chassis is almost complete. They finished the layout for an interesting exhaust system design that may look tight but clears everything that will be under the car. Once the chassis design was done, they put the dummy block and tranny in place then dug out the body and set it on the frame. Tim is liking what he sees and after a few car events we attended with him this summer, he has come very motivated. Most recent progress was to align the body and refit the firewall with the frame and weld the floor in place. Some fabrication was needed for missing or damaged areas. The aftermarket floor pans are being installed with some minor modifications. A redesign for a drip gutter inside the trunk and building the tranny tunnel are currently in the works.
The firewall fit is set. Work continues on getting the front part of the floor and tranny tunnel finished. Check out the cool vintage metal cutting shears one of the guys owns . They are Mighty Midget Unishears. Super quiet, they smell like your mothers old food mixer when they run and they do a nice smooth job cutting the steel. The tunnel should be finished up in the next day or two.
Yes, the body is in great shape for its age. Body was found in Bergen, NY. Not sure about any previous history. They narrowed a Chevy Luv truck seat frame that fits great. Steering column position and mount design is also now set. Had some nice weather so Tim did a little sandblasting to clean up some of the surface rust.
Recent work has the guys finishing setting up the steering and brake pedal assembly. The inside of trunk lid was missing so some reinforcement was added. This was originally a rumble seat car. The deck will be now hinged from the rear with a stock style hinge design and the handle will be relocated. The cut down Chevy Luv truck seat fits great. Now that the steering is located the seat mounts can be designed. One of the other guys in the shop is close with the finishing touches on his Chopped 53 Chevy Custom.
The cowl vent had the air deflector cut off so a new one had to be made. About 1/4 inch of the original piece was still on the vent cover, and the ears were still under the cowl. We had to use a Vintique hinge which of course didn't fit and had to cut it up into 4 pieces.
Tim found a seat he liked better than the Chev Luv. Located a '70 Ford full size pickup in the junk yard and we set out to make it fit. 19 inches was cut out of the base and 19 out of the lower part of the back and 16 out of the upper part of the back. Cutting less out of the top kept gave more shoulder width and conforms with the taper of the body.
No dash came with the body so had to go for a new steel one. Fits real nice. The insert is an original brass one with some well used Stewart Warner gauges.
Years ago someone thought he might go a little faster if they cut the window crank mechanisms and inner door skins out of the car. so now I had to rebuild the whole thing...worst part being the raised portion holding the new cranks. The new sheet metal was stiffened with some 3/16 round stock along the edges. This should be the end of fixing all the butchered up weight saving (floor, trunk inner shin, cowl vent air dam and door shins) .
The Jalopy Journal
