Barnfind: German 1932 Convertible?

[Capn John]

A friend recently left town and has built a'32 Ford roadster out of reproduction parts. One year and about $50,000.
Most everything is currently available. As are books and articles on restoration. Same as constructing a hot rod from scratch.

http://www.fordgarage.com/pages/germanbcabriolet.htm MORE PHOTOS

http://www.fordgarage.com/pages/dearborndeuces.3.htm
http://ascrails.com/1932_prices.html
How to Build a Traditional Ford Hot Rod (Motorbooks Workshop) Paperback – October 1, 2000
by Mike Bishop (Author)
Store Home > Ford Books > 1932 Ford Book, softbound ALL NEW

1932 Ford Book, softbound ALL NEW FROM DAVID G
Product Number: 2012
Description: The 1932 Ford Book, softbound: an all new look at the 1932 Ford in a two volume, 620 page, paperback book loaded with over 900 photos, illustrations and drawings, many in color. Great reviews in several current car hobby magazines and periodicals. (Plus S&H)

http://model-a-ford.org/products-page/general-technical-manuals/
shows how to restore various parts

http://www.fordgarage.com/


Please post more pictures.

 

[rotorwrench]

Selling a treasure like that shouldn't be a problem. Folks that work the high end cars will jump on it like it is. It should be valued at a substantially higher value than a standard 1932 model 18 car in a similar category like the convertible coupe. Getting hold of a stock 1932 roadster might be difficult in Europe unless you are willing to have stuff shipped in from overseas. Difficult and maybe expensive but not impossible.

Having 90% of the hard to find parts is 90% of the battle. It may not be as expensive as you might think to restore that car. Someone with experience in building seats like Snyder's Antique Auto hear in the US or someone with European car experience may be able to make you some seat spring boxes at a reasonable cost. The wood work can be expensive unless you do it yourself. Having patterns for rotted stuff is a very big plus in your favor.

 

[rockfla]

Rotowrench
The front seats are not anything like the US made seats. They most likey would have had a chromed seat frame with the springs attached to them. Now with that said, ones from a Tudor either Model A or 32 Tudor could most like work (Or made to work) and "MOST" wouldn't know the difference. As for value.....that depends.....Most people (even in the V8 club) don't seem to care so much for the European V8's. Most at car show's don't seem to interested in them either. Like anything...Value is in the buyer and sellers agreement.....Suffice it to say, what has been pictured of the car looks in very good/workable condition and looks to be a very promising start.....with that said, I see NO pictures of the parts and pieces that are the "HARD" to "NEXT TO IMPOSIBLE" parts to get and to be as close to correct as possible, the front seat "COULD" pose a major problem if you are going to restore this car to original!!!

 

[rotorwrench]

They all generally still use spring boxes of a sort but they may be thin enough to just use pads. The photos of the coach built cabriolet seats are likely the same set up as the cabriolet limousine. If an owner of one of these cars was willing and able to allow dimensions to be taken to re-engineer them, it would be possible to fabricate a new set. I've seen quite a few European cars that had plated metal seat frames similar to those.

 

[rockfla]

@Rotowerench
As the owner of two German Cabriolets, 1932 & 1935, what you say is "somewhat" true. The seat frame in our Deutsch 32 is extremely heavy duty made frame, as most German products, over engineered and folds, adjustable height rear feet, and moves forward and aft and yes we could take measurements and pictures but A) all this must take place "before" the seat is upholstered, mostly the back half and B) each coach builder used a different design, the few Drauz 32's we have seen are far different than what Deutsch used. And C) I can only imagine what the cost of such a venture might be as the cost to replicate other small detail pieces that are missing have run in the "thousands" of dollars.....WE speak from experience!!!!!! AND right now I know of three potential cars in which you could possibly get the info you need, two are restored cars the other is an unrestored car with "GOOD" upholstery on it so would they be willing to dis-assemble a good seat????

 

[rotorwrench]

I guess it just depends on whether a person wants to go all out on a project or trade for another more easily completable project that is more to their taste.

If a person wants exact dimensions for accurate reproductions, then I agree it would be a much bigger project. If you get ballpark dimensions with substitutions for items that are covered by trim then disassembly of pattern assemblies should not be required. With my small machine shop and walking foot sewing machine, it would mostly just cost me the time. Materials are getting higher priced but still affordable. Folks that don't DIY would be farming the work out and the cost would be substantial for both labor and materials.

A person may opt for workable substitutions until they can get the information or original parts/patterns to go further. If the substitutions don't alter the existing structure, the car can be easily put back to original condition at some point. The car can at least be enjoyed while searching for parts/patterns.

 

[rockfla]

Absolutely it can be put back together, as stated above, looks to be in very good starting shape and as stated with seats from a Tudor, there are possibilities and very period looking solutions to many problems and there are few around that would "possibly" know the difference. But as also mentioned there are some pieces that could be missing, that, if you didn't know, you "may" never know unless you go look at another German built cabriolet. There are some hardware pieces, unless you have one to copy would quite possibly never find them!!!! Again, speak from experience!!!

 

[rockfla]

case in point rotowrench, here are the windshield locks, of which there are two and the rear window guides from our German Cabriolet. The second represents thousands of dollars of computer work before the first CNC machine hit brass.....then we can talk about the pivot pin, spring and cap to cover it all......next the windshield locks.......that's before you get to the windshield opener mechanism which takes all of this to the NEXT level!!!

 

[rotorwrench]

I don't use CNC equipment and I tend to recast stuff if it's brass. More of an old school way of doing things. Some wood & filler work to style the pattern for the cast box. If the sand cast comes out good it only takes a little bit of hand & machine finish work. The sand boxes can be reused for a lot of different parts of similar size. It always depends on how far a person is willing to go to get the job done. The old ways rely on an artistic eye but that's the way the old coach makers did it.

 

[bob miller]

Thank you again guys!
I did some more research on the internet with your info. Found a hand full of 1932 Drauz-bodys still existing, but none of it had them had suicide doors. Or has somebody other information?

Today we put it to together to find out if there are any parts missing. But it seems like all the parts and most of the wood is still there, i only miss the seats, as far as i can see. The landau irons are still there.

But now i wll have to decide, what to do with it!?
I wanted to use the 1932-chassis for a prewar-hot rod with a 1931 roadster body. But now i have to admit, that the car is a rare piece of history, that i would like to save as a complete car. But i think that the restoration might exceed my budget and my skills

I will try to post better pictures, if you are interested

I'm a hot rodder too , but keep this car stock please . and look at the post "euro deuce " on the hamb .
bob french deuce friend .

 

[Brad in Germany]

It is a 1933 German built Ford.

Geutzi Entlebucher,

What you have hauled home is a very scarce 1933 Ford Limousinen-Cabriolet with chassis built by Ford
and body built by Drauz (under contract for Ford).

Here is a close up of the photo from the 1/2 1933 issue of "Ford Im Bild" magazine:

....and the Ford factory photo with the top down:

Will you be going to the OTM, Fribourg this weekend? If so, PM me. I'll be there too both Friday afternoon and Saturday.

MfG aus der USA,
Brad in Maryland