History History (and Build) of Just Steve's 1932 Ford Three Window

Thanks Lance, I think you are right.

 

Thanks for sharing.

 

so cool!

 

For the most part I finished organizing and putting stuff away, so that I have some space to work.

I pilled the heads on the 322 to see what it looks like inside....and well it looks like it ran Pennzoil...Prett Nasty but the bores looks clean, and it should be a good core.


The 264 was rebuilt and never refired. If I use this it should be dissasembled for inspection cleaning...A lot of iron for only 264 cubes, I would really like the 322.






This is the 40 box bolted in. I think the plan was to use u-joints, and not the tube, to get around the Buick starter. I need to drop the motor in and see where things line up, but the column is coming in low to the firewall.
I was thinking about having a bearing support cup machined about 2.00" long that would set-screw to the box, and machine the shaft to accept a DD joint. Any threads on this?




Those two huge cans in the background are advertising cans that were on a gas station roof in the 50's. There hand painted.

The firewall doesn't look too bad.


And I put some headlight bars on the 34 yesterday.

 

I'm glad to see that Steve's 3-w stayed in the family, and that you're finally getting the opportunity to build it and put it on the road. That's what Steve would have wanted.

 

This is why I like the HAMB. I need to thank "sport fury" for sending me a PM last night and telling me he had some information on the Rhythm Rods car club in Minneapolis. He scanned and emailed this to me tonight. This mentions the Jim Rauch as member with a 36 Ford and later a 32 2dr that could have been the 32 3W. Another member had the mustard gold 48 Chev owned by James Cavanaugh that is picture behind the 32 at the Robbinsdale outdoor car show. This give a few more names to research.

Thanks again Jeff!

 

How cool is that ^^^^ !!!

 

Awesome

 

Steve and I hit it off the first time we met at that party. He made everybody else there wait 'till I went through the box of his extra magazines to pick out the ones I wanted. I only need a few more to complete my complete collection of Rodder's Digest magazines thanks to Steve.
The pedal assembly for the Deuce came from me. I sent it to Steve after finding it at a local swap meet. I believe it's N.O.S. as it had no wear on the bushings or the linkage clevis pieces. He sent me a R.D. hat which is almost completely worn out. I patched it up with contact cement to keep it alive. Steve also sent me a light blue R.D. shirt that I wear very seldom so it will last.

 

Well, I am back from 6 days on the road. As for the Valve covers. I saw them at a winter swap here. Lynn Findlayson (he has since joined the board, I forget his tag)from the Panhandle was selling a car trailer full of old Nailheads. Most of which had cool vintage speed equiptment, intakes dress up etc. I came home and mentioned the find on the board. AND I mentioned the valve covers knowing they were kind of rare. Steve got in touch with me ASAP. I did not have a contact for the seller but Rocky did since th3e same engines were at a Lincoln? swap a few weeks earlier. Lynn wanted to sell the whole thing, nobody but Steve asked him about selling off one piece! Steve sent Lyn some Offy covers I believe in trade for those. All in the early years of the board and the 3 of us would not have got the deal done had it not been for the internet.

 

Rocky, Tman. Thanks for filling in a few gaps.

I also received a pm from a Rhythm Rods member. They get together bimonthly and katman1 previously shared some history with Steve. I'm hopeful that I can meet up with them and pull some more history together

Eric

 

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Damn, Trent....I'd forgotten about the valve cover ordeal.
That night at Paso Johns Christmas party, Steve and I walked out to John's garage and we verbally "built" John's 59 ElCamino that was parked there. It was funny, swappin ideas with a guy I'd read for years. It was weird, both of us had the same ideas for the car. At the time it was either stock green or in gray primer..don't remember but I saw the 59 a few years later at BTT50s and it came out gorgeous. I stood there looking at it and remembering that night Steve and I "buiilt" it together. I think about it often...

 

This story just keeps getting better!

 

I remember that conversation as well. That was before Junkyard Dog (Joe) showed up with those huge Venison steaks.

 

Eric...how ever you build the coupe, I'm sure Steve would have approved. He always wrote nice things about you [and Roger] in the magazine. Having met Roger hanging around the R.D. booth at one of the midwest rod runs [Street rod nats-Madison?] I see where you boys got your enthusiasm for hotrods.
BTW, Personally, I'd see that beautiful body got a proper paint job. Yeah, I know it's the current trend to leave old paint on them but damn! There's very little left of that old black lacquer left and a lot of rust....nope, gotta have a new paint job IMHO with the fenders/running boards. Buick engine/manual tranny should stay tho...good luck with it
PS...having owned several cars with the old GM selecta-shift 3 speed manual trannys, I'll bet after driving the car, Steve would have yarded that thing out and replaced it with a muncie 4 speed with Hurst linkage.
Those 3 speeds are slow shifting, fragile and have terrible gearing! Not to mention the hassle finding a decent floor shift for one. I know, I went through 4 of 'em in a row with my first 57 Pontiac [6 bolt top cover] 'till I scored a 1959 bellhousing to accept a muncie trans...made a completely different car out if it!..just sayin.

 

Another short update. Katman1 sent this link to the former Rhythm Rods members and heard back from Jim the previous owner. He lurks on the HAMB. More to come once I make contact.

Rocky. I hear you on the paint . I could see the car finished to a high standard but it could extend the build time and the budget. The roadster or 34 would have to go down the road......

If I "give in" on the tranny the next fuse in the link will be the early ford rear, and then we would have to move this over to the traditionally inspired part of the forum

I'd like to pick Jim's brain on this too

Thanks everyone!

Eric

 

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Great Stuff! Thanks

 

The red buick trans that you have is very stout and has good
Gearing!!!
If you set up the banjo correct and use firestones ,you will not
Break the rear end
Problem is that people dont know how to rebuild these properly
Or try slicks...

 

Ohh, and i would like to buy the red buick trans if you dont use it

 

I'd like to tell you a story about the white wheels on your car.

Steve was on a messageboard called The Rodders Roundtable. Many of the original guys from back in 1997-8 that were on that board also became members of the HAMB after the year 2000... (long story)

Anyway, back then your brother Steve used the name "Steve at RD" for Steve at Rodders Digest.

We became friends on line in the late 90's and shortly after I bought some body panels that would later become The Roach Rod... Steve and I began to correspond regularly about the build up of ol' Roachy.

Another early RRT member that I corresponded regularly with on the build up of The RR was Mike Bishop. Everyone here knows him as av8 and the man who wrote the book "How to Build a Traditional Ford Hot Rod".

It was probably around 2001 that I mentioned that I wanted to run black rims with no caps and thin whitewall tires.

It wasn't THAT rockabilly at the time... but Mike schooled me on the history of the look. In short, it was something that the wanna'be hot rodders did to their stockers when they ran them at the drags. He may have suggested that I pull the air cleaner too and cut my muffler off with a hack saw...

Mike then told me about his favorite look... which was a white early Ford "solid" wheel with a baby moon. He sited a hand full (maybe three) of SFV hot rodders who ran their cars with white wheels, and that convinced me that I needed white wheels.

It was also around this time that Steve lost his gig with Rodders Digest. When he broke the news to us on the RRT, I remember writing him and instead of writing "Steve at RD," in my note... I put "Just Steve". He sent me a note back saying he thought it was funny. He then changed his name to Just Steve.

I felt like we were best friends with all of the conversations we had via e-mail and on these message boards. But we had only really hung out in person once. I can't remember the date Steve came to visit me... but it was just for an afternoon and I BBQ'd burgers for he and my family. If I remember correctly, his wife and kids had all come out to SF and he was able to get away for an afternoon. Regardless, I snapped this shot of him in the Roach Rod when we made a grocery run.



After getting the groceries at Safeway... I took the "white knuckle route" home. Steve was telling me about the little sports car (Bug Eye ?) that he had just bought. On one of the turns on the way home, I can remember doing my best "Heal Toe" downshift into a corner... Steve loved it! I don't want to sound like a braggart... but the Roach Rod left an impression on him.

As for the white wheels, I still recall the conversation we had regarding him wanting the same wheel tire combo on his '32. I'm not sure if he ever bought a set of baby moons, but it's my feeling that Steve would have ended up with a set on his '32...



Sam

p.s. Some day I'll tell you guys about Ms. Ryan...

 

Nice Sam! Steve left his mark on a lot of us.

 

Great story. I remember that the Sparks & Bonney Racing Team were pictured on the cover of R&C wayback, and they had the same wheel treatment. I always liked it and took it to be "competition style".

 

Sam thanks for chiming in. I recall the white wheel reasoning and his discussions regarding it. It does have a more "competition" style, and it does look great with the caps.

Steve and I talked about the Roach Rod a lot and he and I were both laughing like crazy when the donut video was circulated. I have a lot of parts that could could be put towards a similar build...some day.

Thanks for posting up the picture, the family will enjoy seeing the pics. So often Steve was behind the lense.

I am also slowly going through some RD archive materials, as time permits, although I did not find the Ms. Ryan pics...

 

Oh, Ms Ryan! Everyone's favorite school teacher.

 

Ya'll just had to mention "Ms. Ryan" didn't ya. Haven't thought of her in years! Dang I miss that mag!!!

 

I can't wait to hear the rest of this story about Ms Ryan!

 

This is a great thread on a car many of us wondered the fate of. Nice that the 3-window is staying in the family! I too am a great fan of RD and all that were involved in one of the best rod how-to mags ever!

Someone mentioned Ms Ryan...



Don't ask me how I found the pic so quickly.

Dave

 

Ok, perhaps we can get back to MS Ryan a little later, In the meantime I have been able to compile some additional information this week regarding the history of car and some history on the Rhythm Rods when they were featured in the Minneapolis based Cars and Club Magazine.

Recently Rodders Journal ran an article on the Cars and Club magazine. In that spread was a local New Ulm car that I created a thread on:
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=248902

And Rodder Journals did a follow up on-line article on:
http://us1.campaign-archive2.com/?u=4a901c25eb18819b5c27d49b7&id=35018af894

This is the May of 1958 Cover. And as a side note I created a thread looking for this car a few months back. It was last known owned in Minnesota by Mankato Rodder named Ken Thiele. He sold it to someone in Milwaukee. This was a really cool car , running a quickchange, nailhead and real agressive chop. It should be out there somewhere..
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=824959





This is a nice write up on the club. When I was talking to Jon who was a member he said they were pretty serious. Note the article states the dues were $137 per year. It does seem high but it appears it afforded them some nice work space, and equipment. Membership was limited to 15.





Check out the 34 3 window in the background.





The 32 Sedan was a full on drag car.


One year later they were re-featured, and this is where the 32 three window shows up.



Here the 3 window is mentioned as Chevy powered (it changed from flattie to Chevy, and in later years to Buick)




Here are pictures of the 32 when it was receiving the Chevrolet 265 (or possibly a 283 we need to confirm this) transplant, and after. Jon said Jim drove the hell out of the car after swapping the motor, this included a trip to California and back. Hopefully in the near future I'll be able to meet up with these guys and put some stories together.



I'd like to reproduce some of these shirts...


Heres the 32 sedan a year later looking good. These guys had some seriously nice cars.



More to come!

 

SportFury sent me some GSTA information tonight that I thought I would post up too. This has some great history, and some neat old adds from Hot Rod suppliers in the MPLS area.



Note the price of Nitro, Benzol, and Acetone, for the time.








Check out the cars of the Month. One is Rhythm Rods member Chuck Rice 50 Chev.