Thread: 1550 some Henry Ford 32 roadsters (and counting....)

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PS: I should be more specific and say that my doors currently are warped, meaning the top aligns but the bottom sticks out.

One last question (yeah right! ) : I need to install my 1932 plates and I bought oversized license plate frames last week-end, took the current standard size frame off, only to find that of course the holes will not match (fine), but also that someone already drilled a extra hole (a mistake) in the body's rear and it will now probably show above the new plates. it is small, what do I use to patch it?

I thought about bubble gum, but then worried my car would make bubbles when it's windy Just kidding of course...

About bubble gum though: Don't ditch it until you try it !

I do carry chewing gum in my first aid tool box and was able to fix something thanks to the chewing gum on sunday (while at a car show), while the knowledgeable dude hotrodder parked next to my car, and who was trying to help me had ran out of suggestions on how we were going to get the washer back inside the tiny hole of a metal bar to screw the plate back on LOL... Nothing would fit inside that hole and the rumble seat set-up got further in our way in terms of access. So I said : "wait" and pulled out the chewing gum, chewed it and then pasted it to the tip of my little finger and then pasted the nut to it and then I was able to get them in the tiny opening and line them up with the end of the bolt and rebolt everything back together. He was impressed by my creativity and what can I say: It got the job done!

now I can officially say that my car is held together with duct tape and chewing gum LOLOLOL.

There have been debates regarding steel vs. fiberglass FOREVER and will continue so. The Cobra guys have the same argument with the same results....(theirs is aluminum vs. fiberglass)...and one side is not going to change the other side's mind. The general feeling is that you should choose the one that suits your specific need.

Quality is probably a more important consideration than material....some fiberglass bodies scream at you from 100 feet...they look really bad at the reveals. BUT, some of the new repro bodies look equally funky. Both take work when you get them from the manufacturer....and Henry's bodies were probably worse.

Brookville builds the most faithful body for the steelies...and they are about $10K or so. Glass ones are all over the map in price and quality.

Old, original bodies have 75 year old metal in them and can be difficult to work or at least expensive to work.

I suggest going to as many shows as possible and eyeball bodies....ask the owner what kind it is, etc. You'll get so that you can recognize the different materials and makers pretty quickly.

I would rather have your old Wescott ... than a new Brookville ... and I am a old time original steel Henry Ford 32 Roadster steel body owner for a long time ... ( 30 years and counting )

The Wescott is more correct looking ... IMHO ...
The Brookville doe not have the wooden tack strip around the rear of the passenger compartment and all of the true Wescott bodies I have seen in person have it ... NOW ... some folks say their Roadster body is a Wecott ... because the Wescott is considered by many ( or most ) to be the best fiberglass 32 Roadster body made ... and they say theirs is a Wescott to attempt to make it more valueable ...



Yours has the wooden tack strip ( photo from your blog )



It has the correct looking firewall ( like a Wescott )

If it is going to a reproduction bodied Roadster ... I would rather have the old Wescott and the character it has ...

I'v heard that the Brookville bodies need far more work to get right, than Fiberglass bodies, if all your body needs is a door adjustment, just have them adjusted, it will cost way less than getting a new body. for the extra drill hole in the panal for the liscense plate, easiest and simplest way would be to take a small bolt and put it in the hole and tighten it up, you could paint it flat black b4 you put it in.

Randy, just so you know Wescott also makes a version w/o tack strip and no top iron lugs on the B pillar along with several other changes from stock; http://www.wescottsauto.com/32-ford-...roadster-1.htm

That's interesting ...
I know years ago they only offered the closer replicas ... even now the special ones have the lip for the wooden strip ... in their photo ...

I almost never go to their site ... as I am not a buyer ... But I considered buying their 32 3W coupe body ... if I could not ever get one of the 5 or 6 original 32 3W bodies that I knew of. Getting someone to sell was always the problem. I can actually thank Brookville for helping me, in a indirect way, to get the 3W I have. The guy who did own mine sold it because he was afraid the value would go way down when Brookville production started ...

Deuce, you are probably right, because many many people, when I go to car cruise night, think my roadster is all original. When they ask I tell them it is an old Wescott body and they usually comment on how faithful it is to the real thing.

OK, so if I want to have the body worked on, how would I go about finding a rod shop that does fiberglass body work? i did ask Hollywood hotrod and they do not deal with fiberglass "It itches" said the owner with a smile.

I would like to get an idea and a quote to see what it could cost to get the doors back where they should be, and also realign the trunk hinges, which curently are also not truly aligned (trunk is sagging down a bit, causing it to get stuck at the bottom seam, and making it hard to open (I have to puch the bottom "in" with one hand and pull the handle with the other LOL). Also, because the trunk is sagging a bit, the top part is a little further away from the latch then it should be (gap). As a result, if my foot really hits the gas pedal, the sheer acceleration causes the rumble seat trunk to fly open.

What can I say, I'm too fast for my own good LOL. Currenrtly I rigged up a latch that seems to be holding the trunk close, but I am also not being too aggressive with my "take offs" and being a good girl (sigh).

Hiboygal wrote: "I visited Hollywood hotrod's shop and he showed me a roadster that was having his original tub repaired. he said they spent TONS of work/hours to try to restore it. In the end, almost nothing of the original body was left. the owner then decided to scrap this idea and get a brookville body instead and start from scratch (do people actually have that kind of money?????)"


Actually they do. Not me of course, but a lot of other people . After all the winner of the 2005 Ridler Award (Ken Reister's 36 Ford Roadster built by Chip Foose) was rumored to have cost a cool $1.5 million to complete. Obviously nice cars and trophies are very important to some people. Again not necessarily me, I just like to own and drive them - not much fun driving inside a trailer.

hey Deuce,

talked to Eric, the guy who rebuilt the rod back in 2000, I was just told my grill insert is the original one (as well as grill shell, radiator, and possibly front axle). However, I do not see a crank hole in the insert. Do you have a close up photo of an original grill insert that I can use as a reference? Didn't they have a crank hole in them?

Gas tank is also the original 32, no wonder it is so beat up and rusted LOL

Originally Posted by Old Hippie

I was also reading a Rod history book and according to it, an original serial number would start with 1 (4 cylinder) or 18 (8 cylinder). I do not think there is a way, except MV or Ford records to tell which body was on frame. My title states it was a roadster, but that may not be common.
Jim

OK, the title also read 1932 roadster and serial number starts with 18. Eric said that when he got the car it still had its minnesota title which read 1932 Ford Roadster, and he checked the vin nb and it matched the title. Could that mean the frame did come from a roadster? Since the front is all from the original car (grill shel, insert, radiator and possibly axle) and so is the gas tank, seems that what was replaced was the body. there is a slight chance I might be looking at a real 32 roadster that was restored with a body replaced... but then again, hard to know for sure... GRRRR if only I could go back far enough to find the first owner!!!!

If you are wondering why i want to know, it is because it fascinates me. I wonder what secrets untold hide behing my roadster - it adds a certain "romance" to the car.

You might try an internet search for the Minnesota DMV and see if they offer a history of registered owners. I got one from CA DMV. It only shows previous owners by name and date but I was able to track some of them down using Google.

Originally Posted by HiboyGal

Since the front is all from the original car (grill shel, insert, radiator and possibly axle) and so is the gas tank, seems that what was replaced was the body. there is a slight chance I might be looking at a real 32 roadster that was restored with a body replaced.

Your shell looks to be a original 32 Ford piece ... but the insert does NOT have the crank hole ... as it should.



This is a photo of a repro ... but you get the idea.

If your chassis has the original transverse springs ... the number of leaves is a clue as to what it came under ... but as it is a Hot Rod ... it does not really matter ...

18 in the number means it was a V8 car ...

Deuce is right, V8. Just a thought to confuse the issue, if it is really a Wescott body, why not buy new doors from them if yours are really bad? That might solve your prob. less expensively and allow you to continue to drive your car. I like the history you have found, and maybe you could find out how old your (roadster) body is and have a kool historical ride. Wescott advertises their first body as still being on the road.
Jim

Originally Posted by Deuce

Your shell looks to be a original 32 Ford piece ... but the insert does NOT have the crank hole ... as it should.

Hi deuce, I was wondering about that too, but yesterday I closely looked at the grill insert with a couple other hotrodders. I noticed the bottom part of each insert is lodged inside the insert metal 'frame' However I also counted 5 inserts that are not "inserted" but rather welded at the botton. We then compared with another 32 grill, and found that these 5 inserts would be the exact ones that would hold the crank hole. Inshort, if I had removed the crank hole, replaced the inserts and welded them back in the grill, this is exactely what I would have ended up with. In light of this latest 'discovery', I am concluding that this may very well be the original insert, minus the crank hole. As a matter of fact if you take notice of the grill insert frame, at the bottom, where the crank hoel would be, you can see that it does not connect. A crank hole would have covered this, but since it has been removed you now can see it not connecting at the bottom (look at photo and it looks like a red spot instead of a metal color). A new grill insert manufactured without a crank hole would go all te way around the grill and connect, wouldn't it?

PS: I forgot to mention that I closely looked at several original 32 grill inserts at a car cruise night and found them to be consistent in craftsmenship to my grill. however comparing new inserts I found they were not 'built" exactely in the same manner. The metal inserts are also very old, showing rust and have many layers of different paint on them.