Projects 32 5W Build - The $4K Swapmeet Body / The Old Chrome Coupe

Chroming one of your steering boxes too?

 

I'm loving everything about your coupe! From the chop and chromed '32 banjo, to the fantastic history of your boyhood dreams with real artistic ability. It shows your attention to detail was present at such a young age. I can't believe you still have those drawings after all these years!

As for settling for a '32 instead of Model A, my friends with those "late model" 33's and 34's tell me a 32 is just a barely improved Model A, but then they're just jealous!

 

Thanks for the reply, I appreciate the kind words. It's funny you mention the "late models", as my brothers both have 34's and that is what I refer to them as...and they talk about my glorified Model A's. All in good humor.

 

Amazing. It's time for me to start this as well. Those. Brake line brackets are amazing. Now I want to do mine.

 

1956, 3 15 year olds decided how hard could it be to chop a $35 sedan. 4 months later my parents had it hauled away to get it out of there driveway.

 

Yep! I love them all! Nothing better than a Ford V-8!

 

Loving it. Just got caught up! Dig the vibe.

 

Just checking in on the awesome progress. Neal, where did you get the chrome done?

 

Mike at New Age Metal Finishing, Fresno, CA

 

@NealinCA this is coming along nicely, this will be a stunning car when finished, I'm looking forward to future progress, It'll be a long time before I could finish a car as well as this one is, but it's nice to watch it happen. I can't remember have you discussed paint colour?

 

I have been away from it all for a minute and to see this as one of the first posts i read today it got me excited for hot rods again. Neal, as always, awesome job.

 

As many of you probably know, I dabble in steering boxes. Ive been working on a newly cast 37 Nash/Hudson style box for a while. The next step in that project was to produce a sector shaft.

I had these bkanks forged from 4140 ChroMo steel

 

Very cool

 

The next step finding a machine shop with the capability and willingness to take on the next step.

I found a local shop, but he is a one man, part time shop, so this has taken a loooong time to fet to this stage, but I picked up a sample part yesterday.



We still need to work out a few kinks, but this is a huge milestone on this project. Some friends have commented that " you must really want to build steering boxes" as it seems to be one road block after another, but i have stuck with this project. Hopefully one day I will have all the components. This project consumes my life at times, so the 5w project ends up on the back burner. Good thing I have friends like Josh Carrillo that can make that project move forward

 

His chopped window wood looks so good.

 

Your dedication to this hobby/industry is above and beyond.

 

I've been wanting to ask if the deep-set Lincoln backing plates combined with the 32 tie rod ends required steering arm weaking to provide needed clearance

 

Yes, the steering arms had to be heated and bent, not only for the dropped axle, but needed to bend inwards to clear the backing plates.

 

Thanks Neal, recall wanting to retain the 32 tie rod ends some time back using circle 4 backplates I'm assuming I used the later type of tie rod ends, & now years later find I'm doing a similar project.

 

I picked of the 5w from Josh today. We rolled it outside for a few quick pics before it went in the trailer.

Garnish moldings and wood are done


The man in charge. Josh Carrillo, Carrillo Customs. I can't thank him enough for making this happen.


And a few more shots


I think that rear 3/4 shot definitely says hot rod. I can't wait to get it all assembled with fenders, hood, etc and see what the whole package looks like with the chop.

 

Wow! Looks fantastic!

 

I think that is the perfect chop, not too little, not too much. Excellent workmanship, also
Tom

 

It doesn't look like a 4k body any more! It looks like a million bucks!

 

Ain't that the truth!

 

Just a reminder from where it came...

 

Magical work by skilled, talented people. Another one saved. Great job.

 

Perfect chop for a full rendered 5W. Great progress, have you decided on color?

 

Well, I can tell you it won't be a cross between Piss Yellow and Puke Green...even though that car was a major reason I am building a chopped 32 5w. It will be a dark metallic....stay tuned for more.

 

Don’t take it off the trailer the same way you did the chassis………

Every thing about this build says Hot Rod !

You have done an outstanding job, as per your other builds.
Thanks for the thread, the story, the numerous photos and the updates.
.

 

More from my other "hobby". I have been working with the pattern maker and foundry for over a year to get a new batch of steering box housings run. We had to switch to a new foundry after the last two runs, which required rework of the patterns. Finally today we have raw castings that look really good. Now off to the "new" machine shop...as we are starting from scratch there too because the pandemic closed the old shop we were using.


Fun with old cars...right?