When did the 32 become so special?

blucar said:
The mystic surrounding the '32 Fords is very hard to explain. Kind of like a mans preference to women.
The '32 Ford was not that popular in '32, Chevy and Plymouth actually out sold it. It has been written that Ford dealers left Ford in droves in favor of the Plymouth, because Ford was having a lot of trouble supplying vehicles to their dealers, and when they did supply the vehicles they experienced a lot of trouble with them.
Ford had made a huge mistake in the late twenties, they had not invested any effort in product development, being content to ride on the laurels of the Model T..
The '32 did have some big features over the Model A, reputedly the styling was patterned after the Lincoln. And of course the V8 engine proved to be a real winner once the problems were ironed out.
I never cared that much for the '32 or the '34, never had a desire to have either. The '40 actually leaves me quite cold. Because I have a '36, which I have had for over 61 years, it could be assumed that I like the '36 Ford, not so, I bought the car to save it from the wrecking yard. The original owner had bought a new '52 Ford, he had planned on sending the '36 to a wrecking yard, felt the mechanical brakes were unsafe in "modern traffic".. The car had 52k on it.. I kept the car because it never let me down in over 94K..
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If you don't like the 36, give it to me and I'll like it for you.
Martin.
 
FL&WVMIKE said:
The 1933-34 Roadster has long been considered to be the best looking Ford, ever built.
It is much prettier than the 1932 Roadster. The '32 looks like an "A" Model.
MIKE :) (mikeburch)
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To the untrained eye the 32 ford does look a lot like a model A.
 
When I was bout 12, I had a sort of unfocused interest in any sort of elderly car I could get a look at. I didn't know much, and hadn't yet found any good reading matter or comprehensive resources to sort things out...though, with the Family car being my '48 Ford, I was a bit partial to Ford sounds, smells, and handling.
Then...at a gas stop in Alabama...I ran into the first large sized issue of Rod&Custom with TWO '32 roasters on the cover.
Bang.
That was IT.
Hooked forever.
Any other car was just an experiment aimed at this culmination, or a parts donor...


https://ci3.googleusercontent.com/p...oadedbyh-a-m-b-1379201861-154442-jpg.2029553/
 
I sure am glad not everyone is enamored with the "glorified Model A"...as I'm kinda partial to them. I wouldn't want to have to fight over the 32's still out there, because I still need a few more.

Neal
 
To me they are like women. I go bonkers over a beautiful redhead. I like the brunettes and blondes, but a redhead makes me think different. The 32 Ford does me the same way. Perfect is perfect but its different for different people.
 
When I was a kid of about 10 years old we had a new neighbor move in across the street. They had a teenage son who had a '32 five-window coupe. It was maroon with white vinyl interior. I thought it was the coolest thing I'd ever seen. He would park it on the street and I would go over it with a fine toothed comb......without touching it of course. I have had a sweet spot for '32 five windows ever since. I can still see that car in my mind's eye. Wow.
 
NealinCA said:
I sure am glad not everyone is enamored with the "glorified Model A"...as I'm kinda partial to them. I wouldn't want to have to fight over the 32's still out there, because I still need a few more.

Neal
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They seem very expensive when you can find them. I guess there was not many made. Were there many model B's made?
 
I think I have a picture and story from the front page of the local news paper when the cops were going 95 MPH and couldn't catch me.

GM, Please, please, put that up- the article. We all wanna see that story!!
 
Many many years ago, when I had a 32 five window, my girl friend at the time
used to always say "you like your '32 Ford more than you like me" and I always
said "ya but I like you more than my '63 Rambler" ,,,, then the fight started. :D














.
 
Brian said:
I think I have a picture and story from the front page of the local news paper when the cops were going 95 MPH and couldn't catch me.

GM, Please, please, put that up- the article. We all wanna see that story!!
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Brian, I think the article is in Pa., I'm in Fl. 1,200 miles away until early July. I'll dig it up when I get back but will tell some of the story as I remember from about 65 years ago. I built this hot rod and it wasn't titled or had tags yet. I was working in Lee's Atlantic gas station at State and Sproul Roads and a buddy came by and talked me into taking it for a ride on Rt. 320 in Springfield, Pa. We headed up 320 (the road we raced on at night) and was going 65 or 70 MPH when a light gray 1949 4 door came up behind me blinking it's head lights. I asked my buddy is that the cops and said he didn't know. So I floored it and pulled way pretty fast. I got about a little over a 1/4 mile ahead and made a flying left turn on I think was Packs and Hollow road. This road went straight for about 1/4 mile and took a sharp 90 to the right. There were corn fields about 6 feet high on both sides of the road so it must have been late July or August. I flew down that road and made the bend before the cops got around the corner from the highway. This was the head of the Penna. state police and his next 3 in command. They were going to a safety meeting in Harrisburg. They figured I was hiding in the corn field because they didn't believe I could have got around the curve before they got there. They searched the corn fields for several hours and couldn't find me. That really pissed them off. We hid the car in a barn and a few other guys took it out on wild rides at night for a few weeks. One night they went into HO-JO's and the cops saw them and they spun around on the grass and got away. Finally the cops found the car and impounded it. I never got it back. I don't think they could ever proved I was driving the car so I don't remember any big fines. G.M.
 
Maybe I should rephrase my story regarding the '32 Ford:
In 1951 I helped a friend of mine build a '32 Vicky that became an "iconic" car of Eastern Idaho. The car was dead stock when my friend Stan bought the car, as I recall he paid about $100. for it. The engine, etc., was about worn out so we put a built up '41 engine w/dual carbs, etc., in the car. The trans was a '39 and the rear end a '33. I remember we had some difficulty getting the '33 rear end into the car.. As I recall the '32 was basically a warmed over Model A in the power-train department.
We put a dash unit from a '37 Packard in the center of the '32 dash, it looked great.
After driving the car around for a few weeks getting the bugs out, Stan had the car painted a medium blue metalic... The color did not look good on the car.
I did not remember until my memory was refreshed in 2012 by a guy that was part of our group, who I had not seen for over fifty years, that the mechanical brakes were never upgraded to hydraulic. Of course that was typical Hot Rodding in the "Old School Days"..
Sometime in the early '50's the car fell on hard times, Stan developed a drinking problem, got religion and left town. The car sat in front of his mothers house for quite some time, the front fender had gotten crumpled up, then it dropped from sight, and reappeared in the early '90's. The car has been redone with a CSB, later model suspension, however, it is still referred to as "Stan's 32".
At the time I had a '38 Chevy 2dr sdn with a 270 GMC in it. There was not a rod in Eastern Idaho that could catch that Chevy. Well that was until a kid from Pocatello that had a '36 Ford coupe with a well built 24 stud engine got tired of me blowing him off of the road. His dad owned the Ford dealership, the kid cried to his daddy so his father had the shop put an Old's 303 Rocket in the Ford. My Jimmy was toast, I sold it.
I had a '32 coupe for awhile in 1955 when I lived in Vegas. On Friday afternoon we would pull the well built 59AB engine out of my '36, stick it in the '32 and head out to the drag Strip in North Vegas. The '32 was stripped down for racing so it did pretty well against like vehicles.. Come Sunday morning we had to put the engine back into my '36 so I could drive it to work..
The good ole days when we were young and foolish, however, at least our foolishness was honest, and somewhat legal...
 
Ford originally designed the 1932 for the new v8 engine, right?
But they made some model B's in 32 with the four cylinder engine, which they had to squeeze in to get the longer model B engine to fit in the space of the designed for V8 space. Or am I wrong and is it only the 1933 design that had trouble fitting the longer Model B engine?
 
According to published data, Ford built 1,912 Model B's (4cyln) in all body styles in '32.
A foot note on the page states "For the first time since 1930 Ford made a profit of $3,759.311. in 1934".. Kinda shoots down the theory regarding how Ford was such a sales leader in '31, '32, 33 & 34.
 
blucar said:
According to published data, Ford built 1,912 Model B's (4cyln) in all body styles in '32.
A foot note on the page states "For the first time since 1930 Ford made a profit of $3,759.311. in 1934".. Kinda shoots down the theory regarding how Ford was such a sales leader in '31, '32, 33 & 34.
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Aren't being the sales leader and earning a profit two different things? Without being privy to accounting figures who knows where dollars from sales went in any particular year.
 
Actual profits went into the hole in '27-8 and in '32 because of the massive retooling each time Ford totally changed his product line...making the V8, as well as the general upgrading of everthing else, in '32 was pretty much a complete tear down and rebuild costing much more than a yer's worth of cars! Ford then punched out V8's on versions of that tooling for more than 20 years, paying for it all many times over. Henry was a long term thinker at a time when the whole industry was bleeding...'32 and '33 were I think the worst years of the depression for sales of all cars, and about all the smaller manufacturers died out around this time.
 
The question was; What makes the 32 so special. The one word answer is design. "But it's just a glorified Model A"..... take a closer look. Every square inch of a 32 oozes design elements. You don't think so...... Name for me a car with its frame as a design element. Look at the quarter panels, the flare of the rear wheel well. The gas tank is also more than just a tank, it's meant to be seen, not to mention the understated elegance of the grille. I know of non car people who have a 32 grille hanging on their wall. If the 32 was a woman it would be Grace Kelly. Who do we thank...Edsel Ford, he had the eye of an artist and hired the designers to bring his vision to life. This forum wouldn't exist if it wasn't for Edsel Ford. This is not an argument about which is the best looking Ford V8, that's like a dog chasing its tail. The prewar dry lakes racers picked the 32 for many reasons, the frame to accept their later V8 engines and the light body, even when they used an A body it was on 32 rails. The WII veteran racers just cemented the icon. By any metric you would want to use 32 Ford is more popular than any car on earth! Price, supply and demand and human desire prove the 32 Ford meets that statement. Why do Europeans, Australians, New Zealanders come to the US to buy 32 Fords? Do you need more examples, I've got more. NOSPARTSMAN
 
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