Elegant simplicity is one way to describe the eye-pleasing beauty of a 1932 Ford roadster.  Long the staple of hot rodding, builders have amazed us with endless variations of these once basic cars.  Differences in paint, mechanicals, stances, and custom touches have made many of these hot rods as individual as snowflakes.  The artists who build these cars have a unique medium on which to construct their masterpiece, and now you have that opportunity as well.  Nestled away in a Delafield, Wisconsin garage is this 1932 Ford roadster project waiting for someone to finish it.  Being sold here on eBay with a starting bid of $25,000, this stalled project is more than just an original frame with a Brookville body resting on it.  With it comes a comprehensive mix of new and vintage parts to turn this bare beauty into a traditional hot rod masterpiece.  Would this be the kind of project you would like to complete?

What you get is an original 1932 roadster frame with a title based on the serial number stamped on the rail at the Ford factory.  On top lies a Brookville body ordered with a flat floor and a tack strip for a convertible top.  The windshield frame has a 2″ chop, and a custom set of chrome and bronze stanchions fasten that frame to the body.  The rest of the parts collected for this project are listed in the eBay ad.  The price and/or value of this list is documented as well in this ad on the HAMB in the classified section.  The HAMB (Try to figure out what the acronym means!) is the premier web forum for vintage hot rods and is a place you can spend days wandering around gathering inspiration for any build you are contemplating.

In building a 1932 Ford roadster, the sky is the limit.  Like a 1957 Chevrolet and a 1965 Mustang, nearly any kind of part you can imagine is available for these cars.  Original style frames are being reproduced alongside completely modern versions.  The modern frames can be custom built to accept a modern independent front suspension and nearly any kind of rear end your heart desires.  If you decide to keep the car traditional, as the seller appears to have planned, various suppliers offer dropped axles, hairpins, and other pieces to get the stance of the car to your liking.

The interior is also a place where the builder’s creativity can be on full display.  From bomber style metal seats to fine leather seats and door panels with alligator inserts, the cockpits can be as much of a work of art as the exterior.  As a Christmas present to myself, I signed up for a subscription to The Rodders Journal.  This expensive and beautifully printed magazine is known for spectacular write-ups and photographs of hot rods both old and new.  In a back issue I ordered, a painter built one of these up as his personal car.  Some of the more impressive touches were Chrysler Airflow art deco styled door handles and knobs turned from the thick layers of paint that had built up in his shop for over thirty years.  The polished swirled paint made perfect knobs with a uniqueness all their own.

Looking under the hoods of past builds can reveal anything from a hot-rodded Ford Model B engine to a big block Chevy.  However, traditionalists will demand only one type of powerplant for a 1932 Ford roadster: a built-up Flathead.  While a Flathead can’t offer the amazing horsepower that modern engines put out, and they have a well-deserved reputation for overheating at times, the sounds and smells of Henry’s masterpiece cannot be duplicated.  It looks like the seller of this car felt the same way.

It is a shame that the seller was unable to complete their vision for this roadster.  However, their loss is your gain.  You almost have everything there to complete one heck of a traditional roadster.  The immediate postwar period in Southern California was an amazing time to be a car lover.  These cars formed the backbone of the early hot rodding movement.  If you are not familiar with this incredible time and place, then you owe it to yourself to read about the pioneers of this era at the American Hot Rod Foundation website.  They even offer recordings of these pioneers in podcast form to listen to on the way to work tomorrow.  I dare you to not want a car like this after hearing about the early days.

So, after you have spent most of the day looking through the HAMB at the amazing project cars being built with vintage parts and hearing the tales of long ago on the AHRF website, what type of 1932 Ford roadster would you build?