History 1932 Ford Boattail Speedster

I thought one of the Ford Family had an actual 32 boat tail built. Not the red Edsel racer either. The car is currently in a shop in Knoxville TN awaiting restoration.

 

Bob Gregorie built a '32 boat-tail for Edsel and then the Model 40 Speedster. Here are some pics of both (with the first and second grilles on the Model 40):

 

Yes, that unrestored boat tail was the one at the shop in Knoxville.

 

I wasn't around when this thread first posted, but I have to agree that it's a fairly recent abomination of a roadster pickup body and a 40's hood. Be it Willys or Hudson, the end result is very amateurish in its design.
Well designed boattails need more than a 106" wheelbase chassis and the rear of the body needs to flow off the passenger compartment, not glued onto the backside like an afterthought.

 

it's not a roadster pickup body. true 32 roadster pickups are different. looks like a regular roadster cowl and doors, with the back of the "cab" from something else, maybe a sedan... front fenders are a bit unusual.

I think it's pretty cool. wonder what kind of motor it has.

 

On the other hand, the one you posted Big Cheese...That really looks good! Have any more Pics? Kinda a junior Auburn, sorta.....

 

Alas, I do not. I saved that from some show coverage on the HAMB years ago, and I asked for more pics too, but none were available. I’ve often wondered about that car and wished to know more about it.

I thought it was more Duesenburg (“Deucenberg”?) SSJ, than Auburn, personally.

-Dave

 

It is simply based on a modern pseudo roadster pickup body, available from a number of sources.

 

I'd rather have a regular old 32 roadster. I'd go with Mckee though on guessin the boat tail is a 47 Hudson hood.

 

There was a spread on this car in the mag 'Collectable Automobile' about 15 - 20 years back. Always liked the look.

 

Here are a couple more of Edsel's first speedster by Bob Gregorie- the car was originally thought to be totaled in a wreck, but apparently it just went lost/hidden for a while:

 

Hey Mack, where were the pics of the un-restored boattail taken??

 

The tail looks like a hood from a 41 hudson---I had one once /

 

I forget, but it was a show- they had both the '32 and the Model 40 together... maybe Detriot OR it was the 75th Anniversary of the '32 show?
I found them in a Google search.

 

... 2007 LA Roadster Show (just checked)

 

the best boattail ever executed was the 1935-36 Auburn IMHO, if there was a was to recreate a similar boattail on a 33-34 Ford Roadster body you might have a good combo.

 

This speedster spent most of its life here in Connecticut. A friend found it and really didn't know what the true history was. Two owners later it is hopefully getting fenders fabricated to match the long lost originals.

 

The rear fenders were made by the late John Cox when he owned the car in the late 1940's. I believe he used two late '30's Plymouth rear fenders to make each fender. You can see the wheel cutout on the inside of the left fender.

 

Seems like a very hard design to pull off on a '32, somehow the squareness of the front on a '32 doesn't look right when trying to blend in the flowing lines of a boattail. Looks much easier to do with the model 40 cars with more slope to the front that blends in with the slope on the rear. This all would make a great HAMB project with all the artists and talented people on here it should be possible to come up with a design that would be appealing. I have a special interest in this as I currently have a '32 I'm building that has no back end, I was doing a Doodlrod but have had that nagging idea in the back of my head that I should come up with some sort of tail for it in the future, this would be even more of a challenge because of the very short wheelbase but the rear axle tubes can be reversed and gain about 11" in length. I'll try to roll it out today and get a good side shot of it and maybe some of the photo shop guys can come up with some ideas. In the mean time here's a pic. of my old modified that is pretty much the same idea.

 

With a stubby car like that, consider a trunk that is basically square with lid in top only like an early Lincoln Continental...it could be executed as free-standing or integrated with body like the first two feet of a boattail. Could even be started from a circa 1934 accessory trunk. Needs to be late enough to have rounded top edges.
I saw an ancient Nash, circa 1929, bodied that way long ago un the fabled Rhode Island junkyard/jungle, and it really impressed me.

 

Bruce, Funny you should mention that, the first Model A hot rod I did I used a trunk on the back and put a universal fuel tank inside of it. Two reasons for the short wheelbase, 1 my garage is about the size of a walk in closet.. 2 I saw a pic. of an A hot rod owned by a guy name Lucari sp ? out in Calif. that has an Ardun and Scott blower and a short wheelbase and I really liked it, turned out to be hard to copy. Here's the trunk A




And a couple of the doodlrod from today, maybe some of the photo shop guys can make a boat tail out of it.

 

I remember the Ardun "doodlebug"...1970's build, I think.
When you get down to it, there is surprisingly little difference between rod, speedster, doodlebug, and real tractor...gear ratio mostly!
I'm think bigger trunk, perhaps most of width of body or even better made like a real boattail continuing body sides...but cut off short.

 

Other side.

 

yep, it's in knoxville.

 

The 35/36 Auburn Speedster was the factory using up all the old Speedster bodies left over from the early 30s. Al Leamy did the original design and Gordon Buerig (of Cord fame) did the update).

 

Ahh,

Don't forget the Packard 734 Boattail or the 33 Auburn (two of my personal favorites)...

 

All of the good looking ones seem to have a nice slope from the windshield area down to the back end giving them a nice rake plus the longer hood helps, the Edsel boat tail would have probably looked better if the back wasn't so high and boxy.

 

I'm liking this. I had a similar idea myself. It's a sort of corollary alternative to stretching the hood to get the A-pillar to the middle of the wheelbase.

There's something bulldog/Gee Bee air racer about it, which suggests that it should almost diminish in scale towards the back. How about a bucket-like roadster body cut down something like the door-top line on a MG TC but continuing at that sort of level around the back? The impression of the car should be that it's mainly engine.

 

The wedge shaped gas tank on the T MG's was also a very effective ening point.

 

Personally, I think that the wheel base of the '32 is too short to do a proper boat tail. I think that the BB chassis would be a good starting point for a '32 based boat tail roadster. Boat tails need a lot of chassis length to give the car that luxury feel/look. Think '32 Lincoln boat tail.