I'm looking to buy a 32 5W coupe and was wondering how do you guys tell if something is real Henry or reproduction. How does one determine if the garnish mouldings are real or repro. Same thing goes for the hood, grill shell, grill, dash, window frames, door/trunk handles, firewall, frame etc. I know sometimes people try to pass off reproduction Rootlied 25 louver hoods as the real thing and have heard about guys getting burned buying a fake. The difference in $$$ is big between the two. Thanks to the HAMB, I've learned that the front louver lengths are wrong on the Rootlieb sides and the front and rear louvers are closed along with the louvers being more open on the real thing. I'm confident I can tell them apart. Although I heard Rootlieb is coming out with a new improved hood that has the correct length and closed louvers. Don't know if they are going to open up the louvers more but it's definatly going to confuse a few people. What about other parts? I'm trying to learn as much as I can so I know what I'm getting for my money
As far as I know, no one is making a steel reproduction '32 5W body. On original frame has a small, angled indent where the cowl is pulled down and inward around the fire wall. On the Rootlieb 25 louver hood, all of the louvers are the same size. On an original the end louvers are smaller than the center lovers...
As far as I know, Rootlieb isn't able to manufacture a spot on 25 louver hood side, something with the stamping splitting the metal. A Rootlieb 25 louver is a 20 louver with 5 louvers added.
Door and trunk handles are stamped and crimped stainless steel over a mild steel form and shaft. The escutcheons of the handles are also stainless steel. The window mouldings have only just become available for the 5W Coupe so that shouldn't be an issue for several years. As for the rest, you just have to know the specifics of each piece and their variations to KNOW for sure.
I think it just comes from experience - you understand the workmanship behind how the parts were made, and you can tell the difference - I bought a pair of '32 tail light stand at the LA Roadster Show swap meet last summer - they were chrome, with a little pitting - but they were real '32's...they were cheap, and a few of my friends laughed that I would buy that repro junk in such bad shape. I carefully showed them how they were made, rolled tubular portions,an formed flanges, cloth wiring inside, etc...
With repro or gennie parts, if you can find a 32 5/w at a good price-buy it! You can always swap out the repop parts for gennie's (if you can find/afford them) during the build if that really bugs you, but once it's a painted, all steel hot rod it wouldn't matter to most.
Real 32 parts are for bragging rights only. You will soon learn that the sellers of Deuce parts are not always honest and may rip you off if your not careful. I would suggest you find a nice gennie 5 window and take lots of pictures. The hood deal is becoming quite a pricey mistake for some buyers. Rootlieb has redone the 25 louver hood to raise the front two louvers and improve the design but the trained eye can tell the difference. The V8 club has a great new book out on Deuce's and there is a section on hoods which which tells the various hood changes Henry made. The book is called The 1932 Ford Book by Dave Rehor and cost $75 books but worth it. A 5 window, whether repo or original is a super hot rod. Watch for a metal one being produced real soon. Here is one of my favorites.
Watch for a metal one being produced real soon. Oh yes...do tell, inquring minds want to know. I sure hope you know something. 5W's are my fave!
If you look at the money that has been invested in Deuces and model 40 metal bodies it won't be long before the 5 window will be produced. I don't think it is Brookville ( I asked at the Roadster Show) but someone who has watched the popularity of 5 windows increase in the past few years will make the leap. Wescott, prior to Dee's death had a glass one in the works with roadster quarter panels. I think the economy is stopping anything today but give it a year or so and they will become available. I don't know about sedans but they could be spun off the 5 window with a little work. I talked to a builder in Washington who is building Vicky and sedan bodies from scratch. Stay Tooned.
You need to get hold of Ed "axle" Stewarts son, grandson or nephew I can't remember! but he has Ed's old car. I had a conversation with him at B'ville a few years ago when I was there in my 5w. I had some drip rails made here in the UK and we had a long conversation about them. Mine were missing the very small and difficult to recreate swage along the top edge and he told me he was set up to make them 100% accurate. I had his business card but lost it. I think he was out Utah way.
Brookville HAS shown interest in producing 5W bodies, I don't know if they're developing it or not, but they have said it is a possibility in the near future, although the Tudor WILL NOT get any love from Brookville.
With the help (incouragement?) of a couple guys on here I'm working on reproducing Duece drip rails at an affordable price. The HAMB will be the first to know if I pull it off!
Some parts already are being made ... 1 ) Windshield frames 2 ) deck lids 3 ) dash 4 ) floor 5 ) panel below the deck lid 6 ) garnish moldings 7 ) cowl vents 8 ) all the window and door handles With the state of the economy as it is ... I see nothing else major being reproduced ... BUT ... if the economy gets turned back around ... it is just a matter of time before it happens ... IMHO.
I thought I read somewhere that the Swedish company that makes repop '32 roadsters is tooling up for a 5W - can't recall where I saw it exactly but I'll look for a link . . . yep here it is : http://www.ourducesarewild.com/ That's "Tin" Jim Allen, he's a/the US rep for Reprosteel out of Sweden and assembles their body panels into complete cars. About 1/2 way down his page it states In approximately one year, we will have a 5 window CHOPPED 32 Ford Coupe available! Steve
64, IT'S ALL IN THE BODYLINE DEPTH AND PROFILE, MY 32 5 WINDOW HAS ONE COAT OF PAINT AND THE BODY LINES ARE MORE PRONOUNCED THAN YOU WOULD THINK. ALSO THER IS AN 1/8th INCH BEAD ABOVE THE DRIP RAIL CHANNEL THAT THE RAIL FITS INTO. ON THE INSIDE LOOK FOR SERRATED HEAD RIVITS FOR THE BRACES AT THE FLOOR FOR THE DOOR JAM...........RICH
In approximately one year, we will have a 5 window CHOPPED 32 Ford Coupe available! Steve[/quote] Steve, you just made my day! I hope they can pull it off. I want a 5W in a bad way.
You need to crawl around an original old Ford and lots of parts. You can't learn all the details in less than a very expensive lifetime, but you can learn the feel...the type of polish on the stainless, how edges and insides of pats look, methods of fabrication...once you have the feel in your bloodstream, you will know what is real the way a bloodhound knows which socks are yours. Original surfaces, inner structures, and details are distinctive whether patinated or NOS. As an excercise, try looking at an early V8 hubcap and a good repro...it is hard to identify any different details, but the overall finish somehow deliver different looks. Then flippemover and see how insides are made... All original is getting to be nearly hopeless without a lot of money. I was lucky enough to find my stuff before the prices got wildly beyond me...I could not get far if I tried to replace it now!
Early 32 roadsters quarters are different on each side. One buldges out a little more then the other. Mel(Dirtyest Devil)
What if the body is rustfree and has never had rust? I'm actually looking at a 32 5W California car with absolutly no rust, rust pits, or even patch panels. I know the body is real. The metal is as smooth as can be, including the drip rails. It's just a body with an original seat, I'm trying to work out a deal so hopfully my 32 search will be over soon. One other question how close it a Brookville trunk lid compared to an original. I've heard different stories, that's it 'close', that it's 'thinner', that it requires work to look right and of course that it's perfect. Why so many different opinions.
WRONG!!!!----Original quarter panels are IDENTICAL---UNLESS body damage has preceeded & body man did not do a good job!!----Don
Its highly possible that qaurters are different in some small way side to side. the dies were different, and hand finished in 1932, and do you think each strike of the press was within a lb. of every other of the thousands of strikes made? IDENTICAL is a pretty confident call Don. i say production variations could be expected.
they may not be different side to side but they can be different depending upon where they were built, back in '32 I mean. not all origional roadsters are the same.
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