The body lines on the 3W coupe are very similar to the 33 and 34 coupes (3W and 5W). Such as no roof drip rails like the 5W, suicide doors and the body lines are similar to the 33/34's. The 32 5W body looks more like a model A as far as body lines, roof drip rails, door opening etc. That made me wonder if the 32 3W was built at the end of the 32 year run.
They were built by Murray Body Company ... for Henry Ford. They were available all the production run. A few 32 3W bodies were made in Canada ... by a different company but they look just like the USA models. Each 32 3W had a body tag ( NOT a serail number or vin number ). It was a number from Murray body Company. They range from #1 to #22,**x. Here is a example And here is where the tag was originally located from Murray ... You can tell from the number that this tag came off a early car ... most likely a April or early May coupe.
Technically, it was a little late, but only by a month: "production of the 1932 bodies was started at the Rouge Plant on December 1, 1931, but less than a week later, Henry Ford stopped everything with his announcement of plans to produce a V-8 engine. When production resumed in March 1932, body changes had to be made to the floor pan and dash to accomodate the new V-8 engine....The all new deluxe three window Coupe was not introduced until April, 1932" quoted from "The Early Ford V8" by Edward Francis and George DeAngelis. They certainly did appear to be forward-looking to the 1933-34s. Another quote: "As soon as the 1932 p***enger cars were off the drawing boards and in production, Ford engineers started designing the 1933 models."
Wish I could drive right over there and go through all their "old" files to find more info, but I don't think the guards would let in..
The Jalopy Journal
