Besides the chop, firewall being wrong, any views on if this is an original Ford body etc? Was Brookville the only ones to make a 32 3W body?
Dearborn Deuce did one and it was hand assembled in Nebraska. It was slightly out of proportion, constructed from many pieces and the inner panels did not look like Ford. The one in your pictures sure looks like a Henry to me.
Im more familiar with 5w & other 32s but 'not 32 3w, By what shown in pic look to be a Original body , real body's have unique rivets ,welds and structure that repo does not have with out adding, Pics of dash rail,A, B pillar on inside ,trunk Area and drain rail ,under cowl , ext to verify
Sure looks like Henry stuff to me . Why worry ? There are about 3x as many titled today than left the factory in 32 , anyway .
I dunno. No rust, no dings, no pitting, no stripped paint residue and the wrong firewall... And if it is an original body, where are the rest of the original parts? Those parts would be near mint also.
Not sure on the body but these inner edges of the front fenders are either repop or heavily reworked The originals only have the raised lip around the fasteners on the front hole on the left and the front 2 on the right and the rest of the inner lip bears no resemblance to a stock fender
I believe the door opening, cowl, rear quarter and cab corner are all stamped in one peice. Having a lead joint in the "A" pillar looks like Ford assembly. This one does looked chopped though.
Thanks all for the feedback so far, will hopefully get some more photos soon and post them to confirm. Its VERY unsual for a 3W body to be available here in Japan so its worth pursuing if its OEM Ford.
It looks pretty good. If's in your country you should pursue it. You know what they say (You Snooze You Lose)
Looks nice, and original - could be hand made, but I doubt it, although There are some talented people in this world. Why has the fuel tank recess been removed from the rear panel ? looks like a nice start to a hot rod project.
The doors appear to fit well at the bottom front corner, so it's not a Brookville! Does it really matter anyway as long as it's not priced ridiculously high? Chris
Absolutely matters for me that its OEM Ford, for a couple reasons including long term value, something I think about with all my cars although I understand when others dont. If it wasnt an issue Id save a HEAP of cash and buy another glass car.
To answer part of your question, ( did anyone else besides Brookville make 1932 ford 3 window bodies ) Murray made the bodies for Ford.
I have no real knowledge of these cars, so just a guess. The body is in Japan. So who knows where it started life. How much different were the European made bodies and fenders? There were Australian bodies as well? That may explain some of the differences in the stampings in the fenders?
I believe they did….not sure of the name of the company though. It was slightly off, as the dies were not made from exact measurements off of an original. Don’t think they made/sold many bodies, as they were sort of weird looking! If I remember correctly, they had a metal man build a hand built steel 32 3W looking steel body and made the dies off of that body!
I pretty sure BV is only after market steel reproduction bodies. If you go to post 5, there are places that are some hidden unique & would be hard to duplicate, a Original. Even modern replacement screws are not the same as Original , unless some one took time source . BV & UP metal thickness is less then a Original. Yes there some difference in body in US & those that where elsewhere , No matter a Original will certain details that BV did not add / or could not. There a thread on here, European Deuces
Most of the Dearborn Deuce prototyping and even the final assembly was done by a small shop here in Nebraska. I'm not sure how many bodies they produced but it wasn't very many.
Europe never made a 3 window, and I don’t believe that Australia did either. So if original, it probably started its life in Canada or America.
Australia never made 3 or 5 window coupes, all we got were sport coupes. Some of those got turned into 5 windows by using 4 door sedan parts.
As nice as it would be to start with clean repop sheet metal, a new body lacks the soul of an original which is a big deal to me, so I understand your reluctance if it ends up being aftermarket. Hope it ends up being what you want, because that is a NICE little body. -Abone.
The 5W was the Standard and 3W the Deluxe. A lot more 5W's were made. Most desireable is a personal thing. If your desire is based on production numbers that's one thing, but a lot of people base their preference and desireability factor on looks. The bodies are totally different.
I'm surprised no one has posted a production number yet for the question by Bill above. So... I looked. Wikipedia says the 32 ford came in three models, the model B, the model 18, and the model 40 !!! So geez, no wonder the white house wanted a "dis information zar". I looked thru a few different articles, but no numbers. I probably have it here in a book some where, but that could take days. so to answer the question, 3 windows were the deluxe model, so in the height of the depression the cheaper 5 window would have out sold it by lots I would guess. Desirable? 3w for sure over the 5'ers, but that just me.
Ford built 51,794 B-45 Standard Coupes, 20,682 of which were 4 cylinder cars. The B-520 Deluxe Coupe totaled 22,148, and 970 were four cylinder.
The Jalopy Journal
