Hi folks , First post from the other side of the pond in England . I recently was lucky enough to get my dream car ( well lots of pieces of my dream car ) After a bit of a roller coaster of events I have ended up with the very rusty remains of one of Earl Wagners 1932 5 window coupes , fortunately still wearing its race numbers (77) Earls name written on the roof and still mainly painted in his trademark Pink . I believe it was originally purchased at a swap meet in America nearly 30 years ago and has been hidden away in a garage over here ever since . Its in lots of pieces and the body is in a sad state but I do like a challenge . the first challenge is to work to how to post some pictures regards Jon
heres the how to post pics tutorial. don't forget to select "full image" when posting https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/how-to-post-images-on-a-thread.922350/
I do hope you knew where that picture was and you didn't spend all day looking for it !! Yes that's the body I have , its not been touched since that photo , but now work has begun.
As you can see the body needs an huge amount of work which I'm looking forward to . I have started on the chassis and have stripped it down to just the rails as there had been some changes done in the past and I want to keep it as a fairly traditional mid to late 50s hot rod . as such Ive replaced the cross members with original rear and K member and fitted a model A front crossmember so it sits a little lower .
Interesting project ya got there. Looks like you’re off to a good start. Here’s to hard work and umm, hard days nights. He he.
So, what are you going to do with the body? Full reconstruction, including repaint? Painting in the same livery? Or something totally different? I have a similar (but not famous) 32 5-window stock car body. Cut, beat, missing pieces, but still looks like a 32 if you squint just right. I'll be watching your progress.
WOW.......I bought that body at the estate sale in Iowa back in the 1990's. I have a file folder on it somewhere. Not being a Ford guy, I thought it was a Model A and not a 1932. I sold it to someone from Davenport Iowa for way too little $$. I remember hearing that it ended up in a shipping container headed overseas. The story behind the body was......guys used to race sprint cars at the Iowa State Fair......but there were also "coupe" races which were not as fast and restricted to an actual car body. Supposedly this body was used to simply mount on top of a sprint car.......and you instantly had a "coupe class" eligible car to blow everybody else's doors off !! I will see if I can find any other info from my purchase ........WOW
Yes......now I remember......that was from the Slim Gutknect estate sale in Pleasantville ? Iowa. I was going to be at Indy that year and could not be at the auction. I put in multiple absentee bids with the auctioneer. Got some other stuff......ironically a really nice original Halibrand quickchange center section........which I later sold to Bob Trostle a the Goodguys swap meet in Des Moines. He was putting it in a street rod that he was building for someone. Those were the days !!
Yes.......I just went to the basement and found my file folder on the #77 coupe body. I bought it at the Slim Gutknecht estate sale in Pleasantville Iowa in 1995. I have the original sale flyer that was posted somewhere ? prior to the sale. I have a receipt from 1999 where I sold the body to Terry Mattly (sp) in East Moline Illinois. I think that he was a well known Ford and flathead flipper and hoarder at the time. I think there are some folks on here who knew him. My pictures show a piece of plan sheet metal for the trunk lid and the cowl shows as being pushed down and kinked in the cowl vent area. There is the STP sticker shown in the same position. I also have in my notes that there are some scrap books in the Gutknecht family as well as a video of some races. I think I may have actually gotten a video from the family ?? The actual sale was at Slims Garage as the establishment was known. I have a picture of the body sitting in the woods in the back of a Chevrolet pickup.
This is painted on the side of a building 3-4 buildings down the street from my shop in Iowa It says Thanks for the memories …Earl Wagner is to the left just out of picture view.
Maybe the Wagner coupe raced my coupe (known back then as the Zip Gas car)? My car was from around Waverly, about an hour and a half from Pleasantville.
I just finished Bob Trostle’s autobiography and I got the feeling all dirt racers knew each other in the Midwest in the 50’s. So I’ll bet any Iowa racecar raced every other Iowa racecar at some point. They all ran at the same tracks all summer every weekend. Bob had an amazing memory, like could remember who finished top 10 in every heat, trophy dash and Feature on any random night you wanted to pick. Too bad we lost him in 2015 I’d bet he’d know stuff about your coupe @alchemy.
Dan.....that is so ironic that you mention the amazing memory that Bob Trostle had. I was totally blown away once by that gift of his.....as were about five other bystanders. I was actually selling some stuff at the Goodguys event in Des Moines in the early 2000's. One of the items was the Halibrand center section that I bought when I got the #77 coupe body. Some guys were looking at it....they started talking sprint car racing.....Doug Wolfgang....Sammy Swindell etc. etc. They were talking about a specific race at Knoxville. I saw this guy walk up behind them.....looked like Bob Trostle....he listened for about 30sec. ......then immediately chimed in something to the effect....."no, that was 1979 on the second to last lap in the 3rd. turn when Swindell bounced off the cushion and Wolfgang had his left front in the infield and slid right up in front of him etc etc. Everybody just stared at Bob and immediately shut up !! He went on to gather a small crowd and school everybody on the good ole days........priceless !
Yep, that's Bob. He stayed with us when he and Dortha would come out to AZ, and I rode back to Iowa with him once from AZ. A memory like a steel trap.
Im quite amazed at the knowledge people have about this old thing . please please keep it coming , id love to know as much as I can about it .
The plan is to put the body in the original colour ways . complete with name , numbers and the STP stickers etc . I will then want to run at Pendine and Normandy Beach races along with a 32 Daimler special I'm building - more of that as it progresses .
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