The 1932 Ford is one of the most desirable and sought-after cars of the pre-war era. However, the 1932 Chevrolet is a much rarer car for one main reason, which will be discussed later. Found here on Craigslist, the seller is asking $10,500 which seems pretty reasonable. Thanks to Barn Finds reader Ikey H. for the tip on this great car!
As mentioned above, the ’32 Chevrolet is rarer than its Ford counterpart. While actual production numbers were fairly close, the Chevrolet incorporated a lot of wood in its construction. As you can see above, the floor, doors and other components were all made of wood. This proved to be a pretty major design flaw with regard to longevity and Ford’s mostly metal construction has proven to be a better choice in the long run. This car is located in Burlington, Michigan and probably hasn’t seen much snow over the years.
The car is said to have been stored in a barn for decades. The ad indicates the engine is original and the transmission “shifts through all gears.” There is no indication if the engine runs, but it doesn’t look like it would take much to get it running again. Hopefully, a catastrophic engine issue wasn’t the reason the car was parked in the first place.
Overall, this car looks like a decent project. The seller is honest about the fenders being beaten up and a bit of rust in the running boards and one inner fender. It will be a challenge to restore, but when done, you will have a ’32 that is pretty special. If everything was equal and you had the opportunity to buy a ’32 Ford or ’32 Chevy, which one would you choose?
I’d take the chevy just because there are less of them. If the wood frame was shot I’d replicate it in 1″ HHS tubing and then mount the body parts on that. A metal sub frame would be so much better than the wood. JMHO.
I think that the frame referred to was the door frame, not the car frame which was made of steel.
I was not referring to the frame rail or chassie rails but rather the inside body frame were they not still wood in 32?
Renewed the wood door frames on a ’52 Mercedes convertible years ago. Never worked on anything for so long in my life. Beautiful and original but the tube frame would have been tempting as a substitute. At least we charged by the hour on that one. Neat car. Rare to see all the parts on it.
Howard A. commented in the past that most of the folks on this site are “armchair enthusiasts”. Not really a problem, for example, football fans don’t participate in the games, but are an important part of the process that keeps interest in the sport alive. That being said, actual participants in the old car game often have a different perspective than the fan.
To the question that Montana closed with, if I could buy ’32 Ford 5w coupes that looked similar to this Chev for around $10k I’d buy them all day long. It’s not about making money, on the deal, it’s about knowing that someday the vehicle will need to be sold for whatever reason(s). Relatively speaking, the line of potential real buyers for the Ford always has been, and always will be longer, regardless of the money. As a practical matter, after the initial purchase, the cost to restore/refurbish/hot rod/whatever is going to be about the same. A gallon of paint, a hide of leather, a set of tires, new glass, etc., costs what it costs given like for like choices.
How funny it would be, to put a FORD engine in this? It would only be fitting, seeing how blasphemy is committed, in 32 Ford’s with Chevy 350’s, all the time!
I just changed my answer to Montana’s question from the Ford to the Chevy. Mwaahahahaha… or however the Mad Scientist evil laugh is spelled.
I had one with a Chrysler hemi. It could do a small wheel stand.
While I don’t disagree that the use of wood helps to explain the relative scarcity of these vs 32 Fords, I’m not sure I would call it a design “flaw”. It was just the construction method used in horse drawn coachwork that carried over into the early days of the automobile business. GM’s planned obsolescence via annual styling changes had a hand in it too.
And for the record not all 32 Ford bodies were all steel. Though the higher volume body styles were made in house, they still used outside suppliers for some styles. I’ve been in a 32 3 window Ford with an unfinished interior. It was a bit of an eye opener for me as I had assumed all Ford bodies by then were all steel but it had quite a bit of wood structure.
One more thought. In the earliest days of the car, it was not uncommon in some of the dustier parts of the world for engines to need overhauls every 20K or so. If so the wood bodies just might hold up as long as the mechanicals and through a couple of major engine rebuilds. By the time this Chevy was built, depending on where you lived the engine might outlast the body. The best example of that is in England with Rolls Royces. Given the dampness there in England, it was quite common for the wood structure of the RR bodies to rot out leaving behind engines and chassis with lots of life left in them. So what did they do? More than one company offered shooting brake conversions for older RR cars. Now you could take your older Rolls Royce fowl hunting and have a place for your dogs in the back.
I always thought that the number of RR shooting brakes around was simply an indication that there were a lot of hunters in England. This explanation seems to make a lot more sense.
Montana, the seller referred to engine as being “set up” from being in storage so long. I suspect he’s referring to the engine being seized from rust. The exterior of the engine does not appear to be too rusty so, hopefully, it is not seized too badly which would mean that it should be salvageable. If it is not, a 455 would be an acceptable power source.
455 would twist this car in half it would make way more sense to put in a 250 inline six.
I agree, I used to have a high-school friend who put a Chevy 409 into a 1965 Volvo 554. Normal driving was fine until he decided to drag it, and the whole vehicle including the roof (a roof! Volvo!) was twisted to the point it was a 3-wheel Volvo.
I recently added this 1930 Chevy to my collection. It is done up to a high standard. I paid not much more than the asking price of this project. I wish him luck.
Do you hot rod a prewar car or not? I have a simple standard to propose.
If the car in question comes out of long term storage on its original wheels it gets restored. If the wheels are no longer on the car its ok but not required to hot rod.
What ate the seats ?
Great rod. Price too high
Every time I see one of these it reminds
me of a baby Cadillac. In fact, the last
one I saw was a Confederate pheaton,
the Confederate model being top of the
line. With its twin sidemounted spare
tires, external trunk, and accessory
windshield behind the front seat, that
car looked like a pint-sized version of
a Cadillac dual cowl pheaton. This
coupe would look great with some
sidemounts and an external trunk.
In fact, these cars literally beg to be
accessorized. That’s what I’d do with
this one–after I did the body and fender
work, replaced the wooden floors with
steel units, 3-D print the wooden frame
work to make the structure to make it
rot and termite proof. Since you have
the seat springs, an upholstery shop
can whip up an interior to suit your taste.
Mine would tan or cream leather for the
seat and door trim. For power, I’ll have a
235 6 banger mated to a 4-speed tranny
from a Chevy pickup truck. These are
fairly plentiful especially when young
people discard them in favor of 350 V-8s
and automatic trannies. If it’s gonna go,
it’s gotta whoa right? Therefore, you’d
have to whip up a juice brake system
to deal with the extra power the later 6
will generate as the Chevys of this era
used mechanical brakes instead. A 12V
electrical system would also be added
for even more reliability. Oh sure, it
sounds like I’m hot rodding this car,
but I’m not. I’m only making it over to
suit my tastes. And when I’m done, I’ll
have a nice daily driver for half the cost
of a full -blown street rod. That’s how
we built ’em in the ’70’s.
WOW! 3-D print the wooden frame, half the cost of a full blown street rod, that’s how we built’em in the 70’s ?
In 1958 just before I turned 15, I bought my fist car to, build into a Hot Rod. The car was a 1932 Chevrolet 5-window Coupe and I paid $125 for it and drove it home. I bought it for many of the reasons you would today, I couldn’t afford a 32 Ford. I had it on the street driving, and driving it about a year and a half later. It had a 265 SBC , 58 Chevrolet 3 speed, and a 57 Chevrolet rear end, full fendered painted Porsche Red. It actually looked pretty good and ran OK, but it wasn’t a 32 Ford. Although, I think for a kid my age it was actually an easier build, than a Ford would have been. It also was in good enough shape that the wooden infra structure was not a big problem. I did sell the car to get a 55 Bel-Air, sold it ,and bought a 34 Ford Coupe, that I still own. In all fairness, I know that the 32 Chevrolet is still around and running as a Hot Rod. However, today is no different than then, Fords are worth more money. I know there will be many Nay Sayers, but facts are facts, just ask Uncle Bob.
The featured 32 Chevrolet is not a bad buy ,but it will cost more to build than a Ford and never be worth as much money, no matter which way the market goes on these type and style of Hot Rods or even restored cars. Just like Tri- five Chevrolets will always be worth more than the same year Fords.
The first car I can recall riding in around 1948 was one of these in blue with black fenders. It got relegated to the side of the garage (outside) around 1950 when the family vehicles were a 1939 Chevy Station wagon and a new 1950 Ford Tudor sedan. Shortly thereafter, dad paid the neighbor $15 to tow it away! Double EEK!, now. Just another old car back than. The 39 got replaced by a 1960 Renault Dauphine to accompany the family 59 Ford Fairlane 500 fordor. Hey, that’s how Ford spelled their model names back than. A few years ago I saw a 32 restored (restomod) perched on a Chevy Blazer frame, complete with varnished wooden bumpers with “32 X 4” beautifully carved into them. Bright yellow with black fenders. This was at Old Town in Kissimmee, FL.
My first car was a 35 Chevy standard 4 door. It was 1960, the car had sat outside a neighbor’s house for some time. He was a logger who lost his left leg in a work accident a few years earlier. So I stopped by to see if he would sell the car, I was 13 and he knew it, so he said if I brought my dad or an older brother he would sell it for $35. So I ran the mile home to tell my dad, he immediately said no, so when my older brother came home from work I told him, we went and bought the car. It had to be towed home because it wouldn’t start. It needed an engine rebuild. The car never got the repairs, it just sat at my dads farm for years to come. When my dad sold the farm and retired to Honolulu in 72 I put the car in storage where it remained until 1980 when I gave it to my step son who promised to restore it. Divorce happened and I don’t know what happened to the car, last I saw it was in the garage at my ex wife’s house at 5801 Lombard, Everett, Washington. That was 1984.
God bless America
My dad bought one when I was around 8 years old ,it had been parked for 17 years because the previous owner hit and killed someone with it ,it had a wooden type truck bed in the back of it that my dad took out and put on a horse trailer, he was always trying to find someone selling a new deck lid called a rumble seat for it, I remember we worked on it got it running it had a Chevrolet 230 in line 6 spoke wheels it was pretty nice car years later after my dad passed away my mom had tried to give it to me but I would have hot rodded it and ruined it ,y recently I was telling a friend of mine that story and he told me it was a delivery pickup that was made for the post office they only made less than 100 of them, I can’t seem to find any images or examples of them I know that he was telling the truth though.