Larry Ayers was not one to be denied. Who can blame him on this sweet ride?

“I discovered it on YouTube, a Ford Deuce 5-window coupe. It was staring at me from an 8-year-old video walk-around, the coupe had a SOLD sign on it and listed the seller’s phone number. I called him to inquire who bought the car and he told me, so I contacted the owner and asked if he might wish to sell it. I live in the San Francisco Bay Area and the car was in Louisville, KY. No matter, it was what I desired. We haggled prices and came to an agreement.” 

“The Deuce was built in 2012 at Autovision Performance in PA and hustles down the road with a 351 Windsor, all-steel body, modern suspension, auto 4-speed, disc brakes all around and many other nice appointments. It’s really a show car, but I bought it to drive and it’s getting exercised. Just over the weekend, it logged 90 miles round trip from a car show. What fun!”

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The post Old Cars Reader Wheels: 1932 Ford 5-Window Custom appeared first on Old Cars Weekly.

By Eugene Crisman

When I was in high school in 1946, I yearned for a 1932 Ford roadster. A couple of my friends had Model A Ford roadsters, but my dream was a 1932. They were as scarce as hen’s teeth then and the same holds true today. You can find all kinds of “kit car” ’32s, but few real Henry Ford originals. When you do find a real ’32 Ford, they want big bucks for them — if they are even for sale. In my 75 years of looking, I have only seen eight original 1932 Ford roadsters, which is odd as Ford manufactured 9000 of them in 1932.

We moved to Gooding, Idaho, in 1954 and after a couple of years, I found two Ford Model A roadster bodies that I ultimately restored, but they were still not ’32 Fords. Then, in 1956, I was looking around an old scarp yard and came upon 1932 Ford roadster remains buried in the weeds. Closer examination showed a body with both doors, a rumble seat lid and the frame, but nothing else. I tried to buy the body, but it was not for sale. For about six months, I tried and tried to buy the ’32 but to no avail. One day, I went back to try again and the owners of the yard were sitting around a table and about two-thirds drunk with an empty bottle. I hightailed it back to town and bought a bottle of booze, wrapped a $10 bill around the neck with a rubber band and went back to dicker. The end result was I now owned a badly burned-up 1932 Ford roadster frame and body. The was no way for me to get the body home, so I scrounged around some more and finally found a front end, motor, transmission, differential and wheels and tires from other 1932 and ‘33 Fords. I traded my partially built 1929 Ford Model A roadster for all of these parts. The 1929 was driveable but needed lots of work to complete it.

In the dirt and weeds, I finally found all the components and bolted them onto the frame so I could tow the ’32 roadster home. How I did it, I do not remember, but the scrap yard must have had a wrecker that I used to haul the parts around.

When all that was completed, I took Bev with me and went out to bring home the ’32. She drove our Cadillac and I sat on a 5 gallon can for a seat while steering the ’32. The distance was only about four miles so it was not a great feat. When I got the roadster home, I took the first picture of it and this was after countless hours to get it into towable condition. Now I finally had my ’32 after 10 years of searching!

This was in the fall of 1956 and since I was fresh out of money, little was done to the ’32 roadster until we moved to Nampa, Idaho, in the spring of 1959. I still had a 1931 Ford roadster as a second car so there was no big rush. We made quite a caravan moving from Gooding to Nampa. It was only 118 miles, so Bev drove the Cadillac towing the ‘32 and I drove the 1931 Model A roadster towing our Glaspar boat. We made quite a show as we drove down the highway.

Once in Nampa, the first order of business was to get the ’32 roadster body sandblasted as it was severely burned and needed sandblasting inside and out to get rid of the burnt paint and rust. Next stop was a body shop where I had it primered inside and out to stop future rust.

The next project was the motor and drivetrain. The transmission was OK and when I checked the differential, I discovered it had a 4.33 gear ratio, so it must have come out of a truck. When I tore the motor down for an overhaul, I found I had a 59Y industrial block instead of a 59AB car block. The 59Y was built stronger than the 59AB so that became a definite plus in the years to come. About this same time, Jim Dillon called and asked if I would like to buy his flathead speed equipment. Jim raced at Meridian Speedway and he was converting to s small-bock Chevrolet V-8 like most of the other racers. He had blown out the bottom of the motor, but the bolt-on parts were all good so I bought everything he had. With speed equipment in hand, I tore down my engine, took it to Wood’s Machine Shop and had them do their magic. I had the block ported and relieved and the ports polished so the motor could breathe easier, and then had the rods, pistons and crank shot-peened and fully balanced. They lightened the flywheel and balanced that, With all that work out of the way, it was now time to assembly my full-race flathead engine.

Here, in a nutshell, is what I ended up with: a standard bore and stroke 239-cid engine with three-ring short skirt racing pistons, Iskenderian 2007 track grind cam, lightened valves with adjustable lifters, Harmon Collins dual coil distributor, Offenhauser 10.5:1 finned aluminum heads, Offenhauser three-carb intake manifold with three Stromberg 97 carburetors. Couple this with the 4.33 differential and I had a real mover.

I put a 5000 rpm tach in the car and found the engine was turning faster than that so I bought a 7500 rpm tach and that was still not enough. Finally, I found a 12,000 rpm tach and learned I could turn 10,000 rpm quite easily. A trip to a dyno showed 350 hp at 10,000 rpm, which was quite a feat then, but not so much now. And actually, I found the motor would turn 12,000 rpm, but each time I tried that, I ended up with disastrous results that were also quite expensive. Thus, it was wise to stop at 10,000 rpm.

Now 10,000 rpm might sound like a lot of fun, but it did present some problems. First off, Ford flathead engines had an inherent heating problem in bone stock form and when you jack up the horsepower as I did, you magnify the heating problem As a result, a 4-in. core radiator was needed to partially solve the heating problem. Cooling fans do not like that kind of engine revolutions and right off the bat, it cost me a new radiator when the fan ate up the old radiator. The solution was an electric fan. 10,000 rpm will also throw the windings out of a generator, so I had to rig up a quick-disconnect on the generator if I was going hot rodding. The water pump pulleys were pressed on and after spinning a couple of them off, I had to spot weld them on. I would also blow off the top radiator hoses so I welded flat washers on the water pump outlets to restrict water flow. Then I was ready to rock ‘n’ roll. It was fun to come up behind someone on the freeway at 70 mph, throw the Ford in second gear, and then blow by the car like it was standing still with the carburetors roaring and the dual pipes bellowing.

About this same time, I received word that the Heap Herders Car Club in Caldwell was stripping down a 1932 Ford five-window coupe to make a hot rod out of it. Since I needed a multitude of body parts to complete my ’32 roadster, I made a deal with the car club to buy all the body parts they were taking off. This included a dash panel with all the instruments, a firewall (mine had large gaping holes cut in it), hood, grille shell, running boards, frame end covers, gas tank, spare tire holder and several other small parts.

With all the motor work done and the body parts from the Heap Herders installed, I upholstered the interior in blue Naugahyde. Since the body was still pretty rough, I painted it white so the roughness would not show so bad.

I had completely rebuilt the mechanical brakes but one trip down Winther Boulevard convinced me that I needed to convert to hydraulic brakes if I wanted to be able to safely stop. I bought a wrecked 1940 Ford and took the brakes off it along with the column shift transmission, steering column and steering wheel and then fit them to the ’32. Now I could go and also stop. Then I tried to sell the motor out of the 1940 Ford but got no buyers as they could not see it run. I pulled the motor out of the ’32 Ford, put the ’40 Ford motor into the roadster and sold the motor to the first man that looked at it. I pulled the motor back out, put my motor back in and all was done. I was pretty fast at putting motors in my ’32 and I and Jerry Labrum had the ’40 Ford motor out and mine back in within an hour.

With the motor work all done and all the body parts installed, it was now time to think about getting the body work completed and the car repainted. I went to Honstead Motors and got a quote to have the body work done and the car repainted. This was in 1962. I selected a 1962 General Motors metallic light blue paint — it came out beautiful. And it lasted until 1976 when the beautiful blue paint deteriorated to a dull gray.

During this time, I once drag raced down Yale Boulevard in Nampa (this was a bout 1963). I tried a full-throttle power shift at 10,000 rpm and the result was a blown clutch, transmission, drive shaft, differential and a broken axle. Witnesses said the front end came off the ground a good 2 feet. Since we were taking my folks to South Dakota in about two weeks, we just towed the Ford home and put it in the garage. When we got home from our trip, I went looking for a replacement parts to put the ’32 back on the road. I found everything I needed except the differential. I could not find a 4.33 ratio so settled for a 3.78, which was not near as exciting.

We moved to Kona, Hawaii, in 1967 where I worked on flood control for four years. One day, in the spring of 1970, I was checking flood damage when I came upon an old 1936 Ford body laying upside down in a kipuka. I checked the numbers on the differential and, joy upon joy, found it was a 4.44-ratio rear end. I recruited the whole family and with the combined efforts of all, we got the rear end over about a quarter mile of rough lava and then down to the highway. I took the differential home, tore it down and found it to be just like new inside so under the Ford it went. Wanting to try it out, Bob, Gary and I went to Kailua, turned around and headed back up Kuakini Highway. This is a steep hill which goes from sea level to 1500-feet elevation in less than seven miles. I punched the throttle and away we went: 50 mph, then 70 mph, then 90 mph. The numbers stopped at 90 mph but the needle kept climbing around back to 0 again, then 10, 20, and finally 30 mph on the second time around. About then I blew the oil dipstick tube out of the motor and had to shut it down. Oil flew everywhere and the smoke was so thick that I thought we were on fire. Never had I traveled so fast in a car and probably never will I do so again, but what a thrill it was that one time. I have been to 120 mph many times but never in anything as small as a 1932 Ford. To this day, our son, Bob, still recounts that experience.

I fought the heating problem with the 1932 until 1974 and finally decided that something different needed to be done. A friend of Bob’s by the name of Johny Azereli rolled his 1955 Chevrolet. He had no title to it, so I bought it for $125, mainly for the engine. Bob says if he had the ’55 Chevy today, he would restore it. The ’55 had an unbuilt 283-cid V-8 so I bought a motor adapter and installed the 283 in my ’32. What a disappointment that was. While I no longer had the heating problem, I had also lost a whole lot of power. It was OK, just not as thrilling as the full-race flathead.

Finally, in 1976, the blue paint that I put on the ’32 back in 1962 had become so ratty looking that I went to Mountain Home Auto Body where my son worked and Bob painted the 1932 a 1976 Ford red, which it still wears today.

Sometime after that I was out to Barger-Mattson wrecking yard and found a blown 350-cid Corvette engine in the inventory. I bought the camshaft, heads, distributor, intake manifold and carburetor and commenced to put them on my engine. What a difference in power that made. It still didn’t match up to the flathead I used to have, but it was about 50 percent better than the stock 283. The only problem was that the carburetor was a 750-cfm Quadrajet and while a 350 might handle that, the 283 would not. I ultimately pulled off the intake manifold and carburetor and put a 4GC Rochester in its place, then everything worked like it was supposed to. Later on, I pulled the manifold off again and put a 2GC Rochester carburetor on it as the 2GC was easier to work on than the 4GC. Since I only drive the ’32 about once a year and I don’t do much hot rodding anymore, that is about all I need. When I put the Chevrolet motor in the ’32, I found that, while the flathead with its high revolutions handled the 4.44 differential OK, the 283 did not so, again, I changed differentials and went back to the 3.78 ratio, which the 283 handles OK.

After all these 64 years, I still have my dream car. Now it’s bright red and powered by a 283 engine built with Corvette parts and coupled to a 1940 Ford drivetrain. It still goes like crazy, but not like the old 239 used to go. At least it does not overheat anymore though.

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The post The long haul Deuce appeared first on Old Cars Weekly.

Mike Mast sent us a pic of his impressive “Deuce Gasser.” Here is the rundown…

– All steel five-window Deuce 

– ’32 Chassis

– Ran with Midwest Gassers at Union Grove Drag Strip

– 351 Cleveland (keeping a Ford in a Ford)

– FMX transmission

– 3.73 out back

– Ran 13.0 @ 100mph flat on street tires

– Driven to and from the strip!

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The post Old Cars Reader Wheels: 1932 Ford “Deuce Gasser” appeared first on Old Cars Weekly.

By Frank Scheidt, Editor, Foundation News

When Joe and Elaine Floyd of South Dakota bid on and won an incredible one-of-a-kind 1932 Ford chassis at the recent January Barrett-Jackson auction, they never intended for it to be theirs. All along, they knew it was destined to be in to the Early Ford V-8 Foundation Museum.

Bob Lichty of Motorcar Portfolio in Canton, Ohio, acted as the agent for the Floyds at the Barrett-Jackson auction in Scottsdale, Arizona, and did the bidding for them. It was an exciting night of watching the bidding, and even more exciting when the winning bid went to the Floyds. Lichty took care of all the paperwork and also arranged transport of the running chassis to Auburn, where an excited Collection Coordinator, Josh Conrad, took delivery on February 12.

Floyd said he saw this unique piece at the famed Harrah’s in Nevada several years ago and it left a lasting impression on him. “When we saw it was going up for auction, both Elaine and I said it has to be in the Foundation’s Museum,” Floyd said.

It’s now on display at the Early Ford V-8 Foundation Museum for all to see, examine, learn from and admire. It’s a thing of beauty!

This 1932 chassis is a bit of a mystery. In the past, it was reported that it was removed from the assembly line, along with possibly 20 or so others, before the bodies were added. Then they were shipped to Ford dealers in larger metropolitan areas to be displayed in showrooms. But many 1932 Ford experts have not been able to substantiate that theory. Some say that Ford was not known for sending dealers this type of display. Display chassis used in various auto shows were of the cut-a-way type, with lots of chrome and special paint jobs.

Another theory is that Ford pulled them off the line and used them at Ford Branches to train technicians on the all-new chassis. Without the body, a chassis would be much easier to study. It’s felt by ’32 Ford aficionados that Ford must have had chassis like these available for training. Using actual examples right from the assembly line makes a lot of sense.

In any event, all agree that this chassis is quite valuable as a display piece in the Early Ford V-8 Foundation Museum, giving visitors a unique look at the workings of a ’32 chassis without the hassle of climbing under a car to see what makes it run!

Related Resources
Early Ford V-8 Foundation Museum
Standard Catalog of Ford

The post One-off 1932 Ford chassis donated to Early Ford V-8 Foundation Museum appeared first on Old Cars Weekly.

Story by Angelo Van Bogart
Photos by Bob Chiluk

A single shot from a BB gun may have saved one of the most historic 1932 Ford Deluxe three-window coupes in drag racing history from completely rusting into oblivion.

In 1954, Francis Fortman and Kenny Kerr decided to build a car for the 1954 World Series of Drag Racing, the first such event hosted by the Automobile Timing Association of America. The event was held at Half Day Speedway in Lawrenceville, Ill., about 20 miles from Chicago, none too far from Fortman and Kerr’s home. Other young participants included Arnie “The Farmer” Beswick driving a new Oldsmobile, Art Arfons in the Allison airplane-engined “Green Monster” and Fred Lorenzen in a Cadillac-powered Ford convertible.

Fortman and Kerr did not become big names like some of their fellow competitors that day. However, the 1932 Ford three-window coupe they built and raced for that event placed first in the A-B class with a 105.88 mph speed.

After that day of racing, Fortman and Kerr hung up their helmets and parked the Deuce for good. As driver, Kerr took home the trophy from the track. As the builder, Fortman took home the Deuce as his own trophy. He then parked the car outside until fate intervened and the car became a bona fide barn find in 2012.

“[Fortman] told me a ’32 Ford race car was worth nothing in 1954, so instead of selling it, he put it in a field and put a tarp on it,” said Ken Robins, the 1932 Ford’s new owner. “So it spent 20 years under this tarp until one day, kids were shooting the windshield with a BB gun, so he put it in the barn. But from the day he brought it home in 1954 to the day I bought it, it was never touched or started.”

The Deuce Robins bought in the summer of 2012 is the ’32 every hot rodder dreams of finding or building in their head while lying awake at night. The car is a simple, purpose-built car with several period go-fast tricks, and the fact it’s based on one of the rodding world’s most lusted-after cars is pure luck.

“He was just looking for a good car to race and it just so happened he found a ’32 three-window,” Robins said.

“[Fortman] owned a frame repair shop in Chicago and Kenny Kerr came to him and said, ‘Why don’t we have fun and build a drag car?’ Fortman was reluctant, but he said OK.

“[Fortman] purchased the car in Chicago, made a deal and put down a deposit and when he came back, he found the seller had taken the radiator out of it. He got back in his car because he told him he wasn’t going to buy it without a radiator, but he reluctantly went back and bought the car.”

The car was brought back to Kerr’s shop, where it was channeled over the original frame. An alcohol-burning flathead Ford engine with four Strombergs was mated to a stock Ford three-speed crash box that led to a standard 1940s Ford rear axle welded to make it a “locker.”

The car had other modifications standard to hot rods of the day: a 1940 Ford steering wheel and a filled roof and cowl vent, a rollbar, custom interior door panels, and a metallic red spray job with a white-painted grille insert and firewall. It was a race car, however, so a rollbar was installed and the deck lid was secured using screws. A hand-operated fuel pump and fuel tank were installed in the passenger compartment, next to the single driver’s bombardier seat obtained from a salvage yard.

“The fuel system by today’s standards is absolutely suicidal,” Robins said. “Keep in mind, they had nothing to go by. This is just what they did.

“I have a couple hot rods, and people have now built ’32 Fords with the bomber seats designed just like this car is designed, but when [Fortman] did it, he didn’t have a car to by. It just all fell into place.”

A search for the car also fell into place for Robins. His friend, a fellow Model A enthusiast, stopped by Robins’ business at Restoration Plus in Cary, Ill., and mentioned he knew of an old Ford race car in the area, although he wasn’t sure of the type of Ford or exactly where it was parked.

“We went in the area and we knocked on doors,” Robins said. “At the third door, an elderly gentleman came to the door and I said, ‘I don’t mean to bother you, but do you have an old race car?’ and I asked if there was any way we could see it.”

The gentleman was Francis Fortman, and since he was acquainted with Robins’ friend, Fortman showed them to the barn where the Ford had been parked since the mid 1970s.

“We went into the barn and we go in the back corner and there was a 1932 Ford drag car with an alcohol-burning flathead,” Robins said. “Because my buddy was into Model A’s, he said, ‘I have no interest,’ so I took him home. I asked the gentleman if I could come back, so I came back and he pulled out the original sheet from the first World Series of Drag Racing, and in it he showed me how he had won his class with another gentleman.”

While Robins and Fortman visited, Fortman told of how the Deuce would not start once they arrived at the track. A fellow racer noticed their troubles and explained the problem was the ignition. He happened to own a shop that sold the parts Fortman and Kerr needed and would supply it.

“They drove to Iowa that night, bought the ignition and they installed it the next morning,” Robins said. “It got the car running and they ran it twice down the track. When Fortman built the car, it had all new gauges in it, and the odometer now shows 8/10 of a mile because the car went down the track twice.”

Robins eventually asked if the car was for sale, and after Fortman conferred with his wife — “She said, ‘Absolutely don’t let the man out of the house,’” according to Robins — a deal was made for Robins to buy the car, but he had to wait until after Father’s Day.

Since purchasing it, the only work Robins has completed on the car is a tire change and a thorough cleaning. Despite the deterioration the car suffered while parked outside, Robins said the crowd “went nuts” over the car at the Iron Invasion traditional hot rod show in Woodstock, Ill., the only place the car has been shown.

“This is a true time capsule,” Robins said. “Basically, this car is the Holy Grail of hot rods, but to Francis, it was just another car. He was actually a pioneer that built the car that everyone tries to copy today, which is really amazing.”

Although the car is certainly restorable, it has considerable rust in the lower portions of the body. Robins has no plans to restore the body or make it run.

“I would never restore this car. It should be untouched, because if it is restored, it’s just another ’32 Ford,” Robins said. “Where are you going to find a car from the first World Series of Drag Racing?

“It is more of a piece of Americana and artwork and hot rod history than it is a car.”

While Robins has realized the dream of many hot rodders, he has hopes the dream lasts long enough for him to find the trophy from the car’s day at the track, and to perhaps find it a more suitable home.

“I would like to find a museum interested in it. This is a true time capsule that should go down in history as drag racing folklore.”

Enjoy more photos of Robins’ 1932 Ford…

Ford fans should check out these Blue Oval resources from Old Cars Weekly:

• Standard Catalog of Ford 1903-2002
• Just Fords: Fascinating Finds & Great Machines From the Blue Oval

The post Champion barn find: Long-lost ’32 Ford was drag-racing star appeared first on Old Cars Weekly.