While studying the ***le for my 32 this morning, several of us were discussing the early cars. Does anyone have an American ***le with a one, two or three digit number? Mine is lower than *18 2500* and I was curious about the survival of the early deuces.
Look in the new '32 resto book if you can! It covers this stuff well. The very earliest lot were p***ed out as demos to the dealers before serious levels of V8 production were happening...they remained Ford owned, and were subjected to many revisions of early parts. I think they were believed to have been eventually sold as used cars after their role became unnecessary and after the early parts were removed. I'd have to go check the book on the range of numbers. Yours would for sure have lots of early frame and engine features.
I have one with a number lower than 2350 and a friend has one in the 1900 range. I also have one in the 20 thousand range
I got a frame from a drag racer which was a 32 3W COupe. It was a B with a 4digit number beginning with 1. I wrote it down somewhere but that would be difficult to find. HA
speaking of low vin numbers, what are all the physical differences between early and late production?
Usually on the driver's side, on top of the ch***is above the steering box. While we're on this subject, four cylinder '32s had serial numbers starting with 'B' but I've also seen some reported as starting with 'AB': is this correct, or a misread of a *star*B ?
Early production AB, later '32--34 B. Numbers are all in sequence. "All the physical differences" fill a LOT of space in the resto book, service bulletins, etc.
Not to highjack the thread, but what about the upper end of the serial numbers? I have seen listings that show 203,126 or thereabouts as the last serial number for '32 cars. Is this really correct? I have seen other evidence of serial numbers higher than that. In other words, what would you say about a car that appears to be a late production 32 that has a serial number and paperwork that is several thousand higher than 203,126?
That would depend on the year of the ***le turned in when it was transferred to you and how the clerk in whatever courthouse over the years had been taught about body styles and whether the previous owners ever noticed when, or if, it was changed to 2dr from coupe or cpe.
I've seen Texas ***les with "coupe", cpe" for coupe but never a designation like 5W or 3W or Sports, but occ***ionally a "bus. cpe" or "business coupe". When the clerk types "2dr" it opens the door to using the paper on coupes, and 2door sedans or, in FordSpeak "Tudor", which I have seen on Texas ***les, but oddly, never have I seen "Fordor"(FordSpeak) on a 4door sedan ***le.
The book also discusses the LAST serials, which are a bit fuzzy. And remember some '32's were ***embvled into '34 or 5 from leftovers in tiny overseas plants, and the English produced a variant for a couple of years, and B's were produced for decades longer, and there were AA/BB and BB ****rels produced in several plavces for a bunch of extra years, and....
My father has a low mileage (48K) 4dr sedan that is matching #'s 203120. We always wonder if it's the newest '32 Ford surviving.
Mine was so low it wasn't there. I was hoping to find a vin to ***le and went over the rails in the sun inch by inch and it wasn't stamped. It had the extra supports in the rear though so it may have been a late replacment frame. I was bummed.
And AB numbers are very shaky as date indicators, because Ford apparently built a substantial number of B engines while the V8 was still being debugged. These were warehoused since no cars were built for sale until the V8 could be released, and order of use of these B's depended entirely on what was yanked out of the warehouse first. All USA engines were built at the Rouge plant and shipped out to ***embly plants all over the country and world, so some engines went into vehicles long after build. An engine could conceivably gone into a car the day it was test run if ***embled in Michigan plants, or it could have been shipped out to Argentina and ***embled months later.
Christmas list: 1932 2-volume resto book, V8 club. Recent Thacker book, also even more interesting Thacker book from about 1989...both en***led "Deuce". Less than 100% accurate on details, but good stuff and good pictures! One of my friends and I are working on xeroxing all the wonderful David Cole "Model 18 notes" columns from the V8 times...amazing detail stuff in there. Repro original stuff: 1928-32 parts book 1932 service bulletins 32-6 Manual (reprint of an old NAPA book!) That'll get you going. I've spent most of my life hunting '32 literature, and there is a hell of a lot, all of it hard to find and wildly expensive in the original!
i had a frame under the panel that is thought to have been an export, it has two vin locarions this is being type laying on my side because of a major back problem, usikng one finger the laptop was brought be a wonderful son who knew ik needed a hamb fix, this was a very good thtrad and most niknteresting, bruce are you going to off the notes for sale to the rest of us, by the way it was bruce the madee me lea n the panel was an ex olrt, kilo speed was his clue, i nope he is haappy wth the odd ball speedo, again guys this good reading for a guy flat on his back, life ****ed there for a few days but a loving spouse kick strated somethingd and nolw the pain under control and i kn ow the fix is near, thaks for liksting and forgive th e typing,
That speedo is going into a '32...my main old driver was my export '48, so I know how to convert and enjoy scaring speople cornering at "100"... '32 Frame should have 2 or 3 number locations, the rear ones usually rusted to hell because of being trapped under the webbing of body mount. A Mexican '32 would have been USA made stuff, in general. I don't know if it would have originally had any other mods besides the Kilometer speedo...an extra spring leaf or two would likely have been a good idea! Export cars built with RHD had an "F" for "Furrin" added to serial, as in "18F". The Model 18 Notes would not be saleable because they are copyright property of the V8 club...I am just xeroxing the copies we have into a readable/findable form. This stuff is also a LOT of work and time spent staring into the horrible green light of the xerox. The club should realize the market for putting Cole's stuff into a book! Stuff like 10 pages on the clips and sockets holding the carpet to the floorboards, m***ive 3 part essays on hood variations, etc.! 325, dig into the search and advanced search stuff on here...you can keep yourself entertained until your back recovers!
An easy way to spot an early frame (first month of production?) is there are no recesses/depressions in the front crossmember for the motor mount biscuits to sit in, just the one inch dia hole for the thru bolt.
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