One of our viewers Ed emailed us many months ago about the 1932 Fords that were owned by his father, both with New York drag racing history. Ray Stillwall purchased the 1932 Ford Roadster in 1948 and built the car in stages over the next 10 years. The roadster was raced at many local tracks, and even at the Allentown Fairgrounds back in 1955! Ed’s father was able to purchase the car back in 1970 and after a few other owners it ended back in the hands of Ed. The blue 1932 Ford Tudor was owned by Ed’s father and was also raced all over. This one stayed in the family and Ed continues to drive and race the car today. We enjoyed spending time with Ed and hearing all of the stories of the two 1932 Ford’s in his shop. Thanks for watching
Category: 1932 Coupe
Sisters, ages 20 and 18, youngest winners of The Great Race – Larry Edsall @ClassicCars.com
Sisters Olivia Gentry, 20, and Genna Gentry, 18, of Newnan, Georgia, became the youngest winners of The Great Race, winning the 9-day, 2,300-mile cross-country competition for vintage vehicles. The 2021 time-distance rally, which began in San Antonio, Texas, ended June 27 in Greenville, South Carolina.
The sisters, competing for the fourth time, earned $50,000 for their performance in a 1932 Ford 5-window coupe. Olivia drove and Genna navigated. They had finished seventh overall in 2019.
The competition drew 120 entries in the time-distance rally that precludes the use of modern navigation or electronic devices while competing in various stages at precise time and speed averages. Teams can use only a map, stopwatches and “old-fashioned reckoning,” event organizers note.
“We are thrilled that the Gentry sisters won the race after several impressive showings over the past few years,” Wade Kawasaki, president and chief executive of event owner Legendary Companies, was quoted in the post-event news release.
“These young ladies and their beautiful ‘32 Ford have shown that the spirit of competition, a drive to compete and excellent math and navigational skills live on in the youngest generation.
Uniquely American: THE ONGOING STORY OF THE 1932 FORD “LITTLE DEUCE COUPE” – Jack R. Nerad @JDPower
Not only were songs written about the car, most famously by the Beach Boys, but the ’32 Ford became the basis of a cultural phenomenon (hot-rodding) that spawned a movement (the Youth Culture of the 1960s). And that demonstrates the remarkable “staying power” of this car because even in the early Sixties, it was an antique car enjoying a new life as the emblematic hot rod. Who would guess that the popularity of the ’32 Ford Coupe would still be going strong more than five decades later?
How popular is it? Evidence of that is as clear and direct as the value NADA Guides lists for a ’32 Ford Coupe today. The car that sold new for $485 in 1932 now commands a retail price as high as $54,000, which turns the term “retained value” on its head.
From Model T to ’32 Ford Coupe
The story of the 1932 Ford Coupe started in the mid-1920s when uber-industrialist Henry Ford decided that his company would have to replace the Model T, the car that put America on wheels. It was a bold decision because, in 1924, Ford would not only sell its 10 millionth car (in June), but by the time October rolled around, it would sell its 11 millionth, representing an unheard-of sales rate.
Commanding a solid 50% of the American car market, Ford Motor Company was riding high as its Model T “Tin Lizzy” outsold everything else that moved. Yet Henry Ford could see that the competition was gaining ground rapidly as the company’s signature and only car model became more and more antiquated. The contemporary Chevrolet offered a more powerful 4-cylinder engine with a more modern drivetrain and better chassis than Ford’s rapidly aging Model T, and more expensive mid-priced brands like Nash, Dodge, and Buick were selling cars that were even more refined yet within the price range of middle-class Americans.
These facts weren’t lost on the public either. In 1926 Ford’s market share plummeted to just 36%. So, even though it had successfully sold nearly 15 million Model Ts, Ford began to develop a new model.
Since they were starting all over again, Ford decided to call the new car the Model A. As development continued, Henry Ford’s son, Edsel, became the driving force behind the car. He insisted that it have a conventional three-speed, sliding-gear transmission instead of the Model T’s planetary gearset. He pushed for substantially improved engine performance. And he closely directed the chassis and body design to make sure the new car wasn’t just better than the old one but more attractive, too.
Detroit’s Greatest Barn Find: 1932 Ford Drag Car From The ’50s Reappears –
When the first legal drag race in the Detroit area took place in Livonia in 1953, the Michigan Hot Rod Association began making plans for the construction of a drag strip. MHRA was started as a partnership of local hot rod clubs. As part of their fundraising strategy for the strip, they put on a hot rod show, the Detroit Autorama, in an arena at the University of Detroit.
Dave and Al Tarkanyi belonged to the Downriver Modified Car Club, one of the clubs making up the MHRA. The brothers drove a chopped and channeled 1932 Ford three-window coupe with a hopped-up Flathead engine. The car was at the 1953 Livonia race. Five years later, when the Motor City Dragway in New Baltimore held its first race, the car was there too. It also continued to show up at the annual Detroit Autorama
Fish’s Valley Custom Hot Rod | Burbank Choppers -Ben Kahan@FourSpeedFilms
Ben Kahan at Four Speed Films does some great work, here’s the latest
The film features Jon Fisher and his Valley Custom 32, along with his other cars and some cool history.
Check out Ben’s websitehere
1932 Ford Roadster Has An Original Ardun Head V8 – Shane McGlaun @FordAuthority
The car you see here is a 1932 Ford Roadster, and its biggest claim to fame is that it has an original Ardun head V-8 engine equipped with a blower. According to the seller, one of the biggest questions he’s asked is how he found an original Ardun for the car. He says that you don’t find them, they tend to find you. He found the engine in the 1932 Ford Roadster from a guy in Illinois who had pulled it from a 1933 Ford roadster.
The goal of the build was to create a vintage 1933 Ford roadster hot rod with correct vintage hot rod parts from the 50s in combination with original Ford and Brookville parts to create a Bondo-free car. The seller says that it took many years to round up all of the rare parts in the vehicle. Those parts include vintage Halibrand Quick Change magnesium wheels, Hilborn injection 471 blower, a one-off Art Chrisman intake manifold, Duvall windshield, and a close drive transmission with overdrive so that the car was streetable.
1932 Ford Roadster Custom Hot Rod – Shane McGlaun @FordAuthority
Fans of old-school hot rods will appreciate this 1932 Ford Roadster that’s for sale with an asking price of $37,500. The car is beautiful, wearing a flat black paint job with a tan vinyl interior. The car is a real vehicle produced by Ford, not a kit. The 1929 Ford steel body rolls on a 1932 Ford Model B chassis.
On the exterior is cool custom paint in a WWII bomber-inspired theme, and the vehicle has a custom multi-pane windshield. The whitewall tires are Commander and are 6.5/15-inch front and L78/15-inch in the rear. The car has a V-8 engine of some sort, but the exact type isn’t called out. The car has 1800 miles on the odometer, and presumably, that is since the restoration was completed.
Interesting Alternatives to the 32 Ford! – Jive-Bomber @TheJalopyJournal
Let’s say you’ve been saving for a few years, and really have your heart set on building an original Henry Ford steel ’32 Coupe or Roadster… Nice choice. But then you hit the classifieds and get some serious sticker shock at what a rotted-out body sitting on some bent rails with a frozen Flattie will cost you. Hmmm. So what cool coupe or open car from the late 20s/ early 30s can you get for about the same money as a Deuce? Leaving aside the more common Chevy or Plymouth alternatives, here’s some very unique offerings from the era that are about the same size as a Ford, wouldn’t be a bad start for a hot rod, and probably wouldn’t break the bank either! Unlike the big luxury cars from Packard, Duesenberg, or Auburn, these were all entry-level cars made in reasonable numbers, and if you look around long enough you might find some bargains out there.
What makes the ’32 Ford so iconic? | Foose on Design – Ep. 1
What makes the ’32 Ford so iconic?
There are only a select number of automotive designs that have an almost universal draw, and the 1932 Ford Model B stands near the top of that short list. Whether factory or heavily customized, the ’32 Ford has a gorgeous appeal, but why is that? Chip Foose sat down with a pen and our cameras to share his thoughts about how this 87-year-old design is still relevant today.
What makes the ’32 Ford so iconic?
Related – We borrow the ’32 Ford roadster from the Hagerty ‘library’
More on the 1932 Ford here at Wikipedia
We borrow the ’32 Ford roadster from the Hagerty ‘library’ – Larry Edsall @ClassicCars.com
We borrow the ’32 Ford roadster from the Hagerty ‘library’
Lately, they’ve taken to referring to the garage where Hagerty keeps its collector cars, maintains those vehicles, and even involves its employees in hands-on restoration projects, as “the library.” That’s because it’s gone beyond a storage facility and mechanical workshop to become a storehouse of knowledge, a place to visit and to learn, to study the evolution of the automobile.
Tommy Fitzgerald, “of most modest means,” reportedly spent a decade or longer collecting genuine parts for the creation in the early 1970s of his ’32 roadster, which was built around an original ’32 Ford frame and roadster body and a 255cid flathead Ford V8 engine. Many other parts date to that era as well.
The build also included a genuine S.C. o T. supercharger (made in Italy specifically for American hot rodders), two-speed Columbia rear end, twin chrome Stromberg 97 carburetors, a beehive oil filter, Eddie Meyer aluminum heads, Stellings & Hellings air filters (with the original decals still affixed), the 3-speed transmission from a 1937 Ford with Lincoln Zephyr gears, Stewart Warner gauges with early convex dome glass covers, a Banjo steering wheel, 1937 Ford tail lamps, 1940 Ford brakes, 1932 I-beam front axle stretched by Ed “Axle” Stewart, 1940 Ford hubcaps, 1946-48 Ford 15-inch wheels, and the list goes on.
Read the article here
We borrow the ’32 Ford roadster from the Hagerty ‘library’
Related – Lew Thompson’s 1932 Ford – from Kustomrama