Questions on Brookville 32 Roadster bodies.......

Has anyone here got one? If so, what is your opinion on em? I'm trying to compare them to the Reprosteel bodies being made in Sweden, anything on either body would be helpful
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I have a bare Brookville sitting right behind a real B roadster in my garage(surrounded by claymores and Dobermen). I like the Brookville--it really does look right. I believe that the quarter panels, the most difficult piece, on all three current bodies--rod bods, Swedish, and BV-are all made by Brookville, but I'm not 100% sure. I think for me the main appeal of the Brookville is that the floor and insides are right. For many purposes, the modern construction bracing of the others would of course be irrelevant.

 

AV8, C9, I know you guys have dealt with re-pop bodies before, anything I should know going into this?

 

Not sure which Deuce roadster you're going to build.
IE: full fendered, highboy etc.
Or if you have settled on a Deuce for sure.

Give a little thought to doing a 30-31 A on Deuce rails.
It's a whole lot cheaper. About half as far as body cost goes.
The A on 32 rails makes for a better looking car than the ever popular Deuce in my opinion.

I have a Brookville 30-31 A body on 32 rails and it's a quality piece in my opinion.
Course, I like aluminum and have been known to run gl*** and even drink Corona's with limes so there you go....

Anyway, it's my understanding the body parts to the Brookville A roadsters will interchange with a factory FoMoCo built Model A part with no problem.
Build techniques seem to be identical.
I hear the Deuce bodies are the same way.

One little story I heard making the Resto rounds was that some guys were pulling the bodies off their restored A's and installing a nicely painted Brookville body and fenders and winning best of show trophies.
At least they did until they were caught.

Last I heard there was a one year wait for a B'ville Deuce body and about four months for an A body.

 

Jay, I've decided on the 32 body, it's for a spec project a buddy of mine and I are working on, I tried to talk him into an A body, but he's hellbent on the 32. Thanks for your input, it's a lot of money to spend and it's re***uring to hear from someone who has the knowledge you do, and also owns one!
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My roadster is a Brookville 30-31 on one of their 32 pinched hiboy ch***is'. Very nice craftsmanship. I have been to the factory with fab32 and Brookville is a top notch deal....EVERYTHING they make is as good as it gets. I like the fact that they reproduce ford bodies exactly the way henry did them. And yes, parts do interchange with originals. When I was looking for a roadster body, I looked at a bare original and a bare brookville...after bumping and painting since 1975, I honestly couldn't tell any difference in the stampings.

 

Spec project.
I understand.
I got one of those.
Been driving it about ten years.
I think I'll be ready to let it go in about another ten years....

 

Dont worry, talking to Luke in Chat I convinced him I was his father and he is letting me have said Duece

 

I have bodyworked and painted one of the Brookville 32 bodies, and worked on a couple. I have also worked on some original 32 roadster bodies, I would honestly take the Brookville over the original. The body took very little work to get straight and ready for paint. It also took very little to get the doors and decklid fitting right. If you are running a hood, I found original hood tops fit the body best. The repop tops I tried, the body line was about a quarter inch too low to line up. Hope this helps.

 

When I did my model a, the character lines varied on sharpness and depth...the deuce bodies are much better stampings. Everything will need work (depending how fussy you are) no matter what you are building.

 

For what I have seen original bidies go for on Ebay I dont think the Brookville price is all that far out of line..what about $5000??? for a 28/9.And just think you wont have to hunt for doors or fix any rust!!!

 

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I'm trying to compare them (Brookville) to the Reprosteel bodies being made in Sweden.

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Well, you can get the Reprosteel in kit form, which slashes the price in half.

 

But with Reprosteel you get NO inner structure!!!??? Thats what I know, correct me if i am wrong.

 

[ QUOTE ]
...EVERYTHING they make is as good as it gets. I like the fact that they reproduce ford bodies exactly the way henry did them. And yes, parts do interchange with originals. When I was looking for a roadster body, I looked at a bare original and a bare brookville...after bumping and painting since 1975, I honestly couldn't tell any difference in the stampings.

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In my opinion .............Ray Charles can tell the difference between Brookville and original Henry Ford 32 roadsters. Model A's maybe the same.......Deuces NO.

The area around the rear p***enger compartment has NO WOOD strip nor a place for it. Original 32 Ford Roadsters have a wood strip that the upholstery is tacked to. Wescott tupperware 32's have it also. On Brookville cars ......no such piece.

When I was at the LA Roadster Show with my roadster.......SoCal had their Brookville body set up dirrectly accross fom the RodBods 32 display and I could compare the two....then look at my Henry Ford original and make comparsions. The Brookville is very nice and is the closest reproduction in steel. The RodBods was way different inside the car (bracing and such) but was pretty nice also.


I have not seen the bodies from Sweden




In the above photo ...you can see the area where the seat upholstery is tacked to the wooden strip. All stock 32's have it



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i used a brookville `30 body about 15 years ago and was not impressed by it,just about every panel needed some work,maybe they improved them by now. the roadster i built this year i used brookville's 32 body and was very impressed,the quality was excellent. the only thing i did notice was that both rear quarters were not identical. the driver's side was a little flat along the body line on the wheel well compared to the p***enger side. i compared them to an origial body and the p***engers side was correct. i then checked out two more brookville 32 bodies,and they were the same as mine,unidentical quarters! not real noticable,but if you stand about 5 feet in the back of the body so you can see both sides you will see it.

 

Deuce Roadster - Does the Brookville Deuce body have the rear of the ****pit set up to take the wood strip?
I did read your post and I understand there could be the flat area missing where the wood settles into, but is the rear ****pit rail cut away for the wood?

I think the wood strip is an aftermarket re-pro item available several places.

I note the Brookville body catalog shows an option for a steel deck former around the back of the ****pit similar to what's on my Brookville A body.
Fwiw - I like the steel former better than the wood strip although it would make it a little more difficult for the upholstery guy with a steel strip instead of a wood one if it was desired to wrap the seat upholstery over the rear of the ****pit.
Which is a more than good looking way to do it.

It does seem a little strange that the body would be missing some of the sheet metal where the wood strip goes, but I'm guessing that most opt for the steel former.

 

There is NO PLACE in the Brookville body for the wooden strip. It is rounded (or curved over) on the Brookville. On a original 32 Ford Roadster from Henry.......it is raised with a flat top area (and holes every so often) and the body has a recessed hole on each quarter panel for the wood strip to fit into.

I also noticed the quarter panels being shallow but just thought it was my lying eyes. Also..........in a 2 or 3 year old catalog from SoCal......they list three different "DuVall style " windshields.

1) for Brookville
2) for Wescott
3) for original 32 Ford Roadster bodies.....

WHY ?
Because the cowls at not the same shape.

 

A buddy of mine just took delivery of a Brookville 32 body. It's real nice, the only thing I see on his is the Brookville applied primer is peeling off. I could s****e it off with my fingernail.I'd order it bare steel if it was me. Check there web site, I thought you could order it with or without the wood tack strip, maybe I'm mistaken. Also you can get a Brookville in kit form, that's how SOCAL does some of theres. Dean

 

C9....the brookville 32 body doesn't have anything cut away from the rear ****pit sheetmetal....they just fill the notches on the sides of the rail where the ends of the wood fit in to

 

I took this photo from the Brookville site.

See how the rear is rolled over. Not so on a original Deuce. Also there is no cutout area for the wood strip. It is a few inches to the rear of the top hinge piece on Henry's Deuce.



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http://www.brookville-roadster.com/mag_article/mag%20artical%20pg1.htm


This is the link to Brookville site



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This is a photo of the area that takes the tack strip that Deuce was talking about,,,,this is on a Wescott style 32 roadster. HRP

 

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C9....the brookville 32 body doesn't have anything cut away from the rear ****pit sheetmetal....they just fill the notches on the sides of the rail where the ends of the wood fit in to



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I see what you guys are talking about.
Both with Deuce Roadsters Brookville pic and HotRodPrimer's Wescott body pic.

I looked at my Wescott bodied 32 last night and it has the flat topped piece running around the back with the notches like HRP's pic.

I wonder if the aftermarket wood piece would work on the Brookville Deuce body if you cut the front corner undersides away so it laid flush on the sheet metal.

Laying the upholstery over the rear of the ****pit is a nice way to go.

On my 32 the tack strip proper is upholstered and top hold down snaps/pins whatever you want to call them are screwed into it, but the back cushion is all inside the car and can be easily removed as a unit.
The way I wanted it at the time, but it doesn't look as good as the rollover seat back.

 

The quarter panels on the three new steel bodies mentioned in this thread are all different, and like all of the panels on all of these three bodies, are all made by that particular company. Of the three companies, none use any panels made by anyone else.

RodBods bodies use two-inch-longer doors, so their quarters are shorter. Brookville and Reprosteel quarters are similar, but the B-pillar (the rear of the door jamb) on the Brookville quarters are made like the originals. Reprosteel quarter panels are stronger, because they use one less piece than the originals did. This unretouched picture of a Reprosteel quarter panel shows how the door jamb is built into the front of the quarter panel, stamped all in one piece.



Several people who know a great deal about '32 roadster bodies have told me that the Reprosteel quarter panels are the nicest reproduction '32 quarter panels that have ever been made.

As far as the wood tack strip to anchor the bottom of the roadster top, some of the Reprosteel bodies that we will start building here in Phoenix in October will have the tack strip installed to look like an original body, and I may have most of them built this way. After all, it's pretty hard to fasten the back of the top to the body without a tack strip.

As far as the availability of the Reprosteel body kits, when I called Lars Lundstrom a few days ago, he told me that he was going to ship me seven steel body kits, plus all of the floors and body panels that are back-ordered, and all three of the aluminum body kits that he has made so far, sending it all by air freight (which he got a good deal on). It's supposed to be here before the end of September. A month or so after that, a larger shipment of steel body kits will be arriving here.

Between running my business, working on my new shop, my roadster project, and my coupe project (and spending too many hours on eBay), I'm not here very often. If you have any questions about Reprosteel bodies, please phone me, and I'll be happy to help you.

Dave Mann
Roadsters.com
P.O. Box 5100
Phoenix, AZ 85010
(602) 233-8400
http://www.roadsters.com/

Edited to update mailing address

 

The primer on Brooksville is only to keep from rusting.
I washed mine off with lacquer thinner when I was ready
to finish the body.
JR..

 

Another thing,Brooksville is coming out with a `32 RPU
body.
JR...

 

This is from the Wescott catalog.......


You can see the wooden tack strip.

I like them either way.........
The way that HotRodPrimer has his looks good. If you want to tack the upholstery......the original works GOOD.


Brookville and RodBods have good bodies. As does Wescott (and others).

I really do not care whose body someone uses..........just get one and get it on the road. I just love Roadstering.



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I like the stretched Abone RPU that they sell. (Only seen two in person, the blue one that Brizio did and a body only). I was leaning that way when I had the 32 ch***is.

 

Wonder why they dont do a Coupe ...no one has ever said anything good about the (only??)repo. steel coupe around.Would the roadster body look right with a 3 window top on it???? Just thinkin out loud........

 

[ QUOTE ]
Wonder why they dont do a Coupe ...no one has ever said anything good about the (only??)repo. steel coupe around.Would the roadster body look right with a 3 window top on it???? Just thinkin out loud........

[/ QUOTE ] Every panel on a 3 window is different than a roadster. The only steel top that would look right would be a 5 window top. The Deucesteel coupe body looks to be real nice. The price of it will keep it in the hands of the rich and famous. For a coupe I'd do gl***. Dean