History History (and Build) of Just Steve's 1932 Ford Three Window

copycat!

 

Hahahaha!

 

Damn! How am I just seeing this for the first time?

First off, Roadsir, I have to say that your brother was without a doubt one of my favorite writers of this stuff - ever! I can't remember if he wrote it for RD or Street Rodder, but his story about trying to start a Chevette in a Minnesota winter and losing multiple cans of WD-40 at the same time still makes me laugh until the tears come. Same for the story about the tail lights on the truck on the way Kalamazoo, and buying another pair simply to occasionally "show" them to the other tail lights to keep them in line... He truly was good at this stuff. And, I had no idea until today that you are his brother.

I too remember the story of the deuce find and always wondered what happened to the car since his passing. Very glad to see you end up with it and continue. For the record, A BIG yes on the fenders!!!

I read through a big chunk if the thread, but will come back and read the balance after getting in from louvering stuff later today. The thing that just zinged me though was when you described the location of the car and it's long time shed... I knew where that car was!

See, I lived in Minnesota, in Vadnais Heights along the same interstate you describe all of the year 1981 and into a bit of '82. Over that year I attended White Bear Lake High, and I drove my bright orange '39 deluxe coupe, and a stock driver '26 "T" coupe all over that then semi rural area. Because of the cars, I got some invites onto properties to see and talk about old cars, which were still fairly abundant at that time. I saw that car from a far that year when I stopped in at a local farm and asked about an international KB truck that was parked next to an old barn on the property, and saw the deuce in the shed but was told in no uncertain terms that it wasn't and would never be for sale, "So there is no use looking closer". Funny I never put 2 and 2 together back in the early nineties when the car came out of hiding! I didn't end up buying the International either...

Glad to see this deal goin' down!!!

 

Those are some good memories of Steve. He worked for Street Rodder and when he came back to Minnesota from the west coast he worked for Midwest Rod & Machine, and then Rodders Digest. Steve's had a few different offices, One between E Lake and Franklin that was pretty tough, then an office in the WBL near the of 36, and then an office in Mahtomedi, before moving to New Ulm, and then to Wisconsin.

It's remarkable that the car sat there as long as it did, Like you I think others were aware or had heard about it.

Do you have pics of your 39 and A?, I 'd like to see them. You and I must be similar age.

 

Eric - thanks for the progress reports. You are doing some great work on the coupe!

 

I don't. At least, not readily. Back in those days the only camera I had was a polaroid kinda deal that cost way too much to put film in. That and I never remembered to pick it up. Somewhere in my magazine closet I have a box of treasures left over from the early eighties that has a snap or two of the '39 and the '35 five window that it replaced. The "T" was sort of a "target of opportunity" type buy that I did several of that year. I bought it from an old guy by the name of Charlie Harvey up in Forest Lake for 500.00 and drove it home on farming roads AFTER he taught me how to drive it! In reality I only had it about six months or so before some one from the MSRA offered me 1000.00 or so for it and I sold it.

That was funny about the deuce though, especially to put it together after all these years. I had never got close enough to know what model it was at that time. had I known it was a three window I might have worked a bit harder!

 

I've decided not to paint the firewall white and nailhead bronze.

I think I will stick a little closer to the original appearance when the car was in the GSTA show with a black firewall, gold engine,******* and rear. In this picture the car had gold bones, drums, and there is evidence the rear was red at one time and then gold. I'm thinking black on the bones, and front axle...Im open for feedback though.

Monday the frame, firewall, tank, axle, bones, dash, and misc. components will go the painter. so I need to lock it down quickly!

I think I will follow this wheel/tire combo too. Not sure if these are 16" or early 46-48 Merc 15" wheels. Any thoughts?

 

them wheels ain't 16's...pardon my grammar

 

That what I was thinking, and they appear to have an early Ford Cap, which would probably make them early Merc. right

I think I located a set, and the rears are already reversed. I need to check them out...hopefully this weekend.

 

I like the color scheme.

 

Keep the paint scheme simple like the old pics. All the engine and suspension gold, and all the sheetmetal black. You get too many colors and change-ups going and things look mottled.

 

Great story. Keep the good work and thanks for taking us along.

 

Great build, I always enjoyed your brother's writing.

 

Could be Merc, but don't forget that Ford pickups used 15" wheels that accepted Early Ford caps from about, what '51 to like '64 or so. The Mercs might be a bit narrower though. The point being, don't go crazy looking only for Merc wheels, as the price will climb rapidly.

Actually, several times now for 15" early Ford wheels I have run the pickup stuff stock on the back, and popped the center out on the fronts and welded them into VW outer rims to narrow them up a bit. Both are still pretty common in this neck of the woods, but might be a bit more troublesome to find up there.


If I'm guessing at the photos on tire sizes, I'd say it was running 5.60 on the front and a 7.60 on the back, 'cause they just don't look wide enough to be 8.20s to my eye.

 

Thanks Everyone...Good tip on the wheels. That's about the wheel and tire sizing I was thinking of.

After all the work building a set of headers for the car as I never thought I would find a mate for my Belond, a pair showed up in the classified for a price that was too good to pass up on. I'm going to stick with the headers I built, but if the Belonds fit I may make a change them down the road.

 

I forgot to take more pics, Dad had a take home****ignment to fill a few old shock mount holes in the axle and help came back to plug a few holes in the dash.

I welded some bungs in the frame for the shock mounts, did some final fab work on the firewall, smoothed up the axle.

I had yesterday off and finished breaking things down, modified the******* crossmembers (one to make some room for exhaust, and the other to raise the motor 1/2"), and bead blasted some parts.

I fought two shackle bolts in rear wishbone until they were laying on the floor in pieces. I used everything I had....PB blaster, hammers, chisels, hack saw blade.....

Everything was loaded and delivered to the painter. I have a small box of stuff to plate. I can continue to work on the transmission, rearend, and painting / detailing of some small parts.

Heres a pic of the dash, and the two crossmembers behind it.

 

The machine shop called this week. The block checked out good, but one of the heads has a crack. I was hoping to keep the spare 264 in tact but I had to pull those and will get them checked out for the nailhead.

The better new is that one set of the rocker****emblies (that were completely caked) turned out to have the aluminum rockers versus cast iron and are in nice condition.

 

You win one you lose one!

 

I had to switch gears and get some work done around the house in preparation for a graduation party in a few weeks...Ive been cleaning out the house garage, painting the ceiling and doing some landscaping.

The second set of heads checked out at the machine shop. Things are moving slowly there. I need to prod them along every week, around here it seems like the farm equipment takes precedence over hot rods.

A few progress pictures of the blasting and painting. It looking looking good so far.



Everything in the booth is primed and some of the small parts painted black.

 

Cool. I follow along whenever you post news, Eric. I think you're doing a bang-up job on the ol' coupe and Steve would be proud.

 

Don't you just hate it when home projects get in the way of working on your hot rod!!!


Ago

 

Great thread and a shout out to your dad who was kind enough to provide me with build info on his 40 coupe, as well as to stop by and show it to me in person. As he'll see from my avatar, I finally acquired one like his, with a pedigree to boot.

 

Thanks!...I've been watching your 34 build, obviously my 34 has been backburnered, but hopefully I can get it back on track and we can have a match race somewhere..

ago, yes. My family is very understanding, and many of my other projects are self imposed.

Lucas, My parents and were discussing that visit not too long ago. Dad lurks so he'll probably see this. Looks like you found a great coupe. What is the history? Is this a car that was in black primer for awhile?

 

To cool. I kind of had to laugh at rocky and Trent having multiple stories about that hamb Christmas party a decade or so ago. I talk about that party/trip at least once a month I bet haha. Good times.

Looking good on the build and looking forward to seeing it come together

 

Thanks Tim,

Well I got out today and went parts hunting. I found a set of set of F100 brakes, backing plates and hubs.

I also picked up two sets of wheels from a Hot Rodders attic. The first is a set of 15X5 Early Merc / F100 style. The rears are mildly reversed. I think I will blast and paint these black and run them with medium whitewalls, and small baldy caps. I really like the look of the rears.


I also got a set of early 15X5 and 15X6 Reversed plated wheels. The fronts are original Ford split, plated and re-welded. I think the rears are aftermarket. These are really nice condition and would look cool on the car too. I also picked up a 49-51 Merc wheel.

 

Damn nice collection of wheels there! It's good to see someone going with 15" wheels and being true to the sixties ethic of a car.

It's kinda funny, back in the nineties I started reading the Don Montgomery books and getting serious about learn the roots of this stuff. I had always had a kind of passing knowledge, but the availability of his books really got me going. Back then I used to bemoan the fact that you just flat couldn't get the cool 16" Firestone type tires that were on all the cars in his books, and how cool it would be if guys would start building them like that again....

Here it is 2014, and now I'm wishing to see 15" wheels on cars that claim to be from or patterned after cars from the sixties. The 16s have almost become cliché', especially on cars from the wrong era!

 

You're comments are spot-on, a lot of the late 50's early 60's Hot Rods had 15" tires. I think it will be a neat look, lots of rake, the rears sticking out a little past the fenders, with or without caps, or maybe just front caps.

Years ago, locally in Mankato there was a Sierra Gold 32 three window, and I looked at those wheels and tires today and they were same similar 15" F-100, reversed rears with 7.50's, and the fronts were 5.10's

 

Ok, trying the new site out. A few progress updates, the rebuild kit is on order for the Nailhead from Falcon. Charlie is very knowledgable there and a great help. It will be .040 over, .010 / .010 on the crank. I am going to run larger 364 intake and exhaust valves. The chassis is in final primer, and ready for paint, and the hardware for reassembly is on the way. Hope to have some more progress pictures soon!

 

Well it's been a few weeks since I last posted some progress. I got the chassis back last week but haven't had a chance to work on it. I have some house and yard projects done and some much needed maintenance to the Hendrickson fleet of daily drivers(3 vw's and a chev).
The machine shop is slooooowly making progress on the engine

Hope this uploads. First time from an app





Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!

 

Hell that was easy here's another



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