The thing that's kind of ironic is that the wood bodied cars were considered superior at the time, and they were. The doors closed with a solid thunk and the bodies were very quiet. Fords were considered tinny and cheap. The GM cars were mechanically superior in almost every way too, featuring overhead valves on several of the lines and they were quicker to adopt such advances as hydraulic brakes. Funny that the cheapo car ended up being the survivor.
i have to agree with ajmopar,i have a 33 ply with a hemi,even though i still like chevys,i have two of them,but,if i had the cash,id buy my friends 32 ford chopped sedan.
Your definitely correct on the "thunk". Closing a Ford and a Chevy side by side is almost a joke. The chevy sounds like a new Lexus (alright maybe not that good) and the Fords sounds like a screen door on your Grandmas cottage. Chevy definitely had a more refined car in just about every way but it's those things that steer most away now.
The same amount of work to build either hotrod would yield a more valuable end with the Fford.That being said I can't wait to start on the 32 chevy 5w in the garage.
Survivability has to do with construction, wood-framed vs steel, and continued popularity. The construction issue contends with Mother Nature, rot and rust, and human nature, American haven't been the most religious of car maintainers since day one. The combination of human nature (allowing the top material to deteriorate and not be correctly repaired so water intrudes into the wood structure) and Mother Nature (taking advantage of human nature's bad points) make survivability of wood structured cars very difficult. The continued popularity issue is only human nature. If a car has a large audience of appreciative owners and want-to-be-owners when introduced and keeps that audience over the years and the decades, and now nearing the century mark for some, it will survive in far greater numbers than even other steel structured cars of possibly superior quality or styling.
Chevys look better. Yes the wood ****s to replace, but i did it in my 31, and looking forward to stepping into my 32 soon. Fords are everywhere, which is not a big deal, but the amount of complements i get with my chevy made the extra work worth it. not to mention i'm a chevy guy
Find a car that you like the overall look and start building. Ford, Chevy, Mopar, whatever, it's gonna be a hot rod and to me hot rodding means doing your thing within your means and ability. Build it safe and enjoy the **** out of it when you get it runnin. Not everyone can afford to build a 32 Ford, but everyone can afford to have fun.
I THINK that this statement is a bit too general.... Old Henry had some "eccentric" ideas (egocentric if you prefer) that were carried over into his cars, but this in no way should be confused with "cheapo"..... Admittedly, had Henry not not been so stuck on some of his "better ideas" Fords would have been better, but still, they have proved to be the cars that have lasted, and,,, it seems as if Ford has outlived GM as a company as well..... Who would have thought....
[ I see all of these bad*** Ford's with Chevy engines and think why not put a Ford motor in your Ford, or just build a Chevy and throw your 350 in it? big block chevy. big block indeed.
fords are easy to build...back in the day anything up to 48 ford would bolt onto a 32 -48 with very little modification , you want to put a 53 merc motor in a 32 ford ...it would bolt right in ....chevys can be cool but they are not what the m***es want ...if you want to build it for yourself build what you like but unless you are a hell of a carpenter ,or fabricator,i wouldnt tackle a chevy, and when your done its still worth half of what its ford counterpart is
NuzzyFipples.......Thirtytwo knows what he's talking about. I know because I bought a 32' 5 window Chevy that he built (and it awesome).......from a pile as he describes it. Looking at the amount of fab work put into the interstructure it's definitely not a first timers project. Having something different draws just the right amount of attention. Those that don't know think it's a Ford....and those who do want to know more.
rtomss....do you live near Mick (9 ball)(own's a 38 chev)? I was over there the other day and he said something about a guy owning a 32 chevy up the road....gotta be either you or Mike B.
Of course the chevy wood rotted out, which left the sheetmetal to just fold up on itself. That is how I bought my 32 chevy 5 window, and my 28 coach, in pieces. $200.00 for the coupe and $400.00 for the coach. But the benefit to this, is starting with a blank canvas which I like to do. And I don't replace wood, I'm not good at it. Adding the metal structure is not as bad as everyone thinks, and allows you to be a little creative with your build. Just think about 6 steps ahead and you will be fine. You would think that with all these chevys just rotting away that the price of a 32 ford would be a little more reasonable, cause they should be more plentiful. But for every chevy that rotted away, prolly two fords were lost to circle track racing. Cause the steel structure did not explode when hit like a chevy, fords were the car of choice for the dirt tracks. Here is a couple pics of my 28 in pieces...John
PBRmeASAP.......yep, that's me. I live in Franklin and talked to Mick yesterday. I might be headed over by him this weekend. I remember talking to you on here last year.....what's new? Are you getting ready for Big Carl and Cheater's gig?
The information and advise you all have given me is awesome. I really appreciate the input. THANK YOU!!! RTOMMSS (or anyone else, please... thanks for some of the other pics) do you have some pictures of the wooden structures, your builds, or step by step's you can post? I'd just like to see some of the work you put into YOUR Chevy. The more and more I read, the more challenging this seems to be, and I am leaning real hard towards a 32 Chevy rod. I love a good challenge.
Here is a 32 5 window that I built awhile back. (Not for this board). but I liked it. Full 92 corvette suspension, motor, and trans. chopped 4 inches front, and 1 inch through the rear window, suicide doors, and converted to 3 window. running c5 corvette wheels. And again replaced all the wood with steel. This car was real quiet and solid, body wise going down the road...John
do you hit any of the local weekly shows? Wend at McD's on 76? Tue at HD mesuem? if ya ever head out to those PM me let me know...I'd like to take a good look at your 32. here's a few wood replacement shots to inspire you.... and a few in progress with wood in place
It was mixed, some was original some was replaced, but as far as what kind, i have no idea Do you have a coupe lined up? or just looking? post up some pics if you have one please
possibly lined up. still debating based on the thread info. The body there is no wood. all has rotted away.
As far as I know most of the general motors cars were coach built with wood. Cause I heard that general motors, or there parent company owned a lumber mill and required fisher to use the wood products from this mill for there bodys. And that is why they stayed with wood structures until 37. Correct me if I am wrong. But as for your question I think all makes used wood in different amounts until the late 30s, chevy just used more of it....And yeah go get that 32 chevy coupe.
I know little about early Chevy cars,but 37 Chevy trucks were full steel cabs.The only wood was a small piece on each side at the bottom of the door where the lower sills got hooked together. .I think 36 1/2 low roof trucks were also all steel? Standard model Chevys of the 30's had a beam axle,same as the pu truck.Deluxe models had the independent front suspension that was said to handle worse than a straight axle.Some also say the Ford buggy springs handle better than GM parallel leafs,probably a judgement call though. By the late 1940's a Chevy with a GMC 6 was faster than a Flattie V-8 but not many built the GMC engines.The Flathead tradition was strong,ya know,the SBC of it's day.
It's 1940 and you want to build a hot rod. In 1940 - this means you want to go FAST. You go down to the junkyard and start eyeballing project cars. Are you going to pick up the big heavy Chevy coupe with an inline-6, or the little Ford Roadster with a factory V8? The answer is pretty obvious. At first, almost all gow jobs, jalopies, hot rods, whatever you want to call them, were Fords because of the V8. The roadsters were the obvious choice for speed. The 1932s were desirable because they were stylish, with strong frames, suspension and brake parts interchanged with newer cars, and of course most came with the V8. The same reason they're popular today. Keep in mind, when this hobby started, there weren't a million different directions to go. If you had money, you already had a Cord, Auburn, etc. If you were poor, you made do with what was cheap and plentiful. No one ever bothered to hot rod the early Chevys because they were inline-6 powered, had ugly parallel leaf suspensions and bulky frames, and were considered cheap old man cars.
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