I was 11 when I saw my first hot rod. We had just moved and across the street was this red hot rod with no fenders and a Mercury engine. I had to check it out. Thats when I bought my first magazine and found out the car was a 32 Ford roadster with a Mercury Y-block in it. Simple car but I knew then and there I was hooked. It was perfect. I have since seen a lot of hot rods but that first Deuce was the standard by which all the others were judged. I later got very very lucky in finding and buying my 32 coupe. Other cars are nice, but ole Henry came up with the perfect style in 1932.
growing up I didn't know the difference between a model A. 32 ford,gm, mopar or whatever. I just thought all old cars were cool. I still feel that same way but having grown older and having worked on some of these, the ford bodies just look sexy. How many cars frames just by themselves look as sexy as a 32? The ford designers just seem to get things proportioned on the 32s better than the others. With that said Im supper stoked at the chance I have on grabbing a 29 roadster cowl and doors and no it wont have a 32 grill, not out of hate to a 32s beautiful grill, I just like the look of the A shell better for those cars.
I bought my first in 1951 at age 12. I am now close to being able to drive what I tried to build then. Photos in addition to those in my intro will follow in a week or so.
In 1955 my family bought a house here in Hurst, Tx. I went to school and was in ms. Gossetts class. Across the street set a 32 5 window. It started it for me. Move ahead 40 something years and met the man who owned that car. He's is old now and still owns the car.
The day you fall inlove with something is magical and the memory will last a life time, this is true of many things including a 32 Ford. That day occurred for me on a trip to a neighboring city , on the way out of town I passed a parking lot empty of all cars but one. In the center of the lot parked under the light post stood a beautiful dark blue 32 5 window unchopped full fendered coupe. I stopped to admire, inside was a long haired cat looking at me through the back window. The memory is like yesterday, I was 18 at the time , now 54. A five window has never been the same for me... Since that day I have vowed that when $ and a car met, I would own one , I now have 2!
Deuces are like your favorite candy bar, why would you buy something you don't like just to be different.
I bought a full fendered 32 3W in 1966. I had only seen one 32 before that, a 5W. I pulled it out of a barn. I was pulling it home and stopped to put some more air in the tires. The gas guy said I was nuts for buying it and I should just buy new muscle car. I told him I just liked it and would keep it. I still have it. I would look out the back window at it every morning and evening. I thought it was the most beautiful thing in the world.
I knew i wanted a 32 in 1952-53 and it had to be a 5 window.just like the ones i saw in hot rod magazine.i bugged my dad to drag me around to look at old fords.i turned my nose up on roadsters and pheatons and roadster pickups.My dad said forget the 32 and we will go up to Amherst n.s. and get the duzenburg he knew of stored in an old barn. no way!! i wanted a 32 5w and we finally found one about 10 miles away.the guy was having trouble with the engine and we got it for $13.00.Still love them;I`ve had a few.got a few stached;the dream never dies!
Baaaaaaaaa! Walking to HS in NJ in the early '60's, I'd see a chopped, primered '32 5W Hiboy go by almost daily. Never saw it parked, or knew who owned it, but it was seared in my mind forever!
Im growing up with old cars in the family(im a teenager). my granddad and uncle own and have owned of deuces, (coupes, roadsters, sedans, the whole lot..) i always saw the cars at ''the barn'' and they were cool but i didn't know the difference between any of them and i knew nothing mechanically. i have a soft spot for Vicky's. more specifically Vicky tubs because i got to do a lot of work on my granddads Vicky tub. i learned a lot and more importantly it got me interested in the hobby.. and got me totally hooked on 32's. that to me is the power of a '32.
I always preferred the 36s but a Famous friend of mine in Hampton, VA was always going on and on about 32s. A little over a year ago, I stumbled across an all steel 32 three window with a documented gasser history from 40 some years ago. My Famous friend greatly encouraged me to buy it so I did. I have to admit that while I'm still partial to 36s; preferably without tops, and 40 Ford pickups, too; that damn gasser is a blast to drive and seems to put a grin on everybody's face that sees it! Yep, my buddy Jack was real happy to help me spend my money! I have to say he did give me some good advice. He would probably bought it himself if he wasn't so dirt cheap!
I have always wanted a 32 5w. As prices sky rocketed in the early 2000's I thought I would never be in a spot to afford one. I bought A's instead and came to grips with reality of the moment. Few years pass, financially things change, and my ability to build cars improve and now I own two real 32 5ws. There is something about a 32 when built right, it lures my full attention. However, I still like my Ts and As too.
The 32 bug started for me when I helped my dad build his first deuce when I was in high school. He had a roached out 3 window body that we called the eggshell. It was in white primer, no doors, no firewall, no decklid, no wood, and the wheel wells were cut out. Looked like an old race car shell from the 50's. It was fun gathering all the parts and building that car. After he got it built, he had a change of plans and decided he wanted a new Harley...car sold to a guy in Washington... I wanted a 3 window ever since. We then built a nice 30-31 model A, but it just wasn't the same. Sold the A to a guy in Australia and since have become good friends. Took the money from the A and bought a true basket case 32 3 window (I thought it was the last one on earth at the time...lol ) It all fit in the bed of our truck with the camper shell on... We started the build three years ago and we are getting close, it's the car in my avatar...There is just something about a real henry 32, especially a 3 window body that is unexplainable for me...
I've told this story before. I owned a 5 window Deuce coupe for a couple of months when I was 11. My Dad bought me an early Christmas present in about October, a 32 five window. He paid $25 for it. Every day my buddy would borrow some of his older Brother's Hot Rod magazines and we would sit in the Deuce and dream about what we were going to do with it. On Christmas morning my Dad took me to the garage and showed me a 50 Willys Jeepster he had bought for me for Christmas. He paid $ 225 for it and thought he was doing me a favor by getting me a better car than the 32. I cried and told him I wanted the 32 back and he got mad and told me I was ungrateful. Dad just wasn't a hot rodder and didn't get it. Don
Don, is this when you were living in the Irwin area? Whatever happened to the 32? Sorry for high jacking the thread. Dustin
It began for me in 1955. I was 10 years old and the fifth grade went on a field trip to Kitty Hawk on the coast of NC. Nearby was one of the defining features of the landscape of the outer banks; the largest sand dune east of the Mississippi, Jockeys Ridge. At the foot of Jockeys Ridge was an Esso station (remember them?) and we stopped there for gas. In the parking lot of this station was a black primered three-window Deuce. I begged the teacher to let me off the bus to check it out, and wonder of wonders, she did. It was channeled and fenderless with no glass in any of the windows or windshield. It had a flathead with finned heads and two carbs. It was absolutely the coolest car I had ever seen. A couple of older guys were standing around it and talking about how the owner had recently tried to drive it up the sand dune and got stuck near the bottom. Before they could finish their story I was summoned back aboard the bus, so I never found out how they got the Deuce unstuck. Jockeys Ridge is still there but the Deuce and the Esso station are long gone.
I had the 32 bug ever sence I was born? My dad always talked about them that's all he wanted kind of grew on me. He had the car in my avatar that was the closest thing he could find so he built that but always wanted a 3window ford. We both built glass ones when he turned 50 that was 21 years ago still his favorite car and mine also. We couldn't afford real ones so this is as close as we will ever get still have fun driving them been to 7 different states in them. Dad just finished his newest 32 a red roadster with a 354 hemi next is a 5 window another glass one to him it's all about the look so glass is okay guess when your 71 and just finished the nicest car he ever built I'm not going to knock it for being glass.
This is my first 32 and I was just lucky it was a 3W. I was out looking for my first car my dad had bought me which was a 48 Dodge coupe that I had during high school. I sold the car for $650 when I graduated high school in 80. My father who was a baptist minister passed away in 92 when I was starting my career in Federal Law Enforcement. When my father passed away, I went out searching for my first car that he had bought me and I promised my dad i would restore it and pass it down to my children. I never did locate that car, but while looking I stumbled across this 32 ford 3W and asked if it was for sale? It wasn't , anyway long story short, years later I asked if the gentleman if he would sell me the car, we settled out some terms and I bought the car. When I brought the car home, I showed it to my family and I was reminded that our father was born in 32. That made me feel that some way, some how this car and I connected in a way that they were both born in the same year. I'm currently restoring this car to its original condition to keep a sons promise that he made his father. And I will pass this car down to my children. God is Great. Thanks for reading this. G-man (Gabriel)
Now, now Larry don't be so unkind. Perhaps the poor man doesn't OWN a hat. Could a shoe replace it then?
I too was smitten by the deuces in my first rod magazine. November 57 R&C, I was 12 and my dad brought it to me in the hospital where I was spending an extended time. Later in life I told dad that book probably at that time had cost me a couple 100 grand. Still have the mag protected forever from the elements. I go back and look every so often. I've had a bunch and currently have 4!
The Jalopy Journal
