1932 Ford Coupe Project Thread

[patfromjersey]

I finally shrunk all the pics I took while working on the Coupe at my Dad's in NJ last week. We did alot of work on it, and it's looking nice! I think after my next trip back to NJ, I can tow the rolling chassis back to my house in Maryland and start taking it apart to sandblast and paint. We are going to have the body painted in NJ near my Dad's, while everything else is down by me. Here's some pics of the progress and I'll let you know what I'm doing.

I posted pics of my exhaust, but here's how I indexed each piece to take off and weld while on the garage floor. I only had a day home to do the whole exhaust, so I wish I could have spent more time during daylight hours welding this. It was dark in the garage and sitting on the floor with this wrapped around my legs stooped over. LOL I will clean everything up when before I send it to get hot coated.





I finished up the fuel tank and fittings. My cousin Dan TIG welded the stainless steel bungs, and then I installed the fittings. I had a huge boo boo. I thought I had 4 inches of clearance between the body and tank, but it was only 2 inches. If I only had Dan weld those bungs in flush, I would have had plenty of room. Luckily it will work with the short one piece 90's, but I will put the Dremel round sandpaper fitting on these spots to add a little more clearance once the webbing for the body is on, and I put an insulator for the tank to to chassis.









I installed my old B&M Quick Silver Shifter from my 66 Fairlane in the Coupe too. I have a new black plastic housing to form for the Coupe, but the old one from the Fairlane is pictured. I used tape to help mark out where I need to trim the new one. I have it mounted so the seat doesn't hit it when we pull it all the way up, but it's set at the half way point for my Dad and I to shift comfortable.








I also installed the Lokar parking brake. This works great as well, and on the second "click" it locks up the rear wheels. Note to self, make sure you adjust the drums brakes before adjusting the parking brake. LOL The fiberglass body floor was a 1/2 inch thick, and I could only put it in one spot on our Coupe, due to the roll bar chassis underneath. With our 521/C6 combo, the trans tunnel had some different curves that we had to work around. This was the only spot we could mount the parking brake, and I had to make a "dog bone" cut out to even get it to fit right. The carpet and sound deadner will make it look flush. I had shim the right side of the handle to make it look even. I will use spacers on the final build instead of the hex nuts.











I have a transmission cooler on the radiator, but with a 521/C6 3500 stall converter, I wanted to add an additional trans cooler with a fan. Room is tight on the 32 as you know, so I found a little cubby hole under the tailshaft of the transmission. This is a B & M deal with a fan that pulls air through the cooler and it has a sending unit to turn the relay on/off for the fan at 170 degrees. I made a mount that I welded to the tubular chassis support above the trans, and made a round cutout to weld to that and welded it to two pieces of 1/4" steel that I bolted to the cooler mounts with rubber insulating bushings from old shocks. I think this will work okay. I put the driveshaft in there (which will only be 23 inches long LOL), and it had 3" of clearance. I will come out of the trans to the trans cooler in the radiator, into this auxilary cooler, back into the trans. I will let you know how cool things are.









Here's some final pics of my Coupe outside, and my cousin Dan came with his original steel body 32 Coupe two Saturdays ago.



























This is the first time we had the body on with the wheel/tire combo and we just love it!!! I can't wait until it's all done.

[Dave Severson]

It all looks really nice, Pat! It certainly takes a lot of thought and planning to find a home for all the components on a Deuce!!!! The red car looks really nice, too, should be fun cruizin' with the pair of them! keep up the good work and the updates.

[stovens]

Ditto what Dave said. Looks really nice. Some close clearances on those gas fittings, such tight spaces to work in!

[34_40]

Thanks Pat, it's looking good. It's good to see your progress.

[63futura]

Lookin really good Pat. Glad to see you were able to get back to NJ to get some work done.

[rumrumm]

Nice work, Pat!

[sunsetdart]

You have the epitome of what a hot rod should be........well done!!! gonna be one nice ride and can see you are doing things the right way.

[patfromjersey]

Thank you so much! I should have my garage here in MD wired up next weekend to fire up the compressor and MIG welder, so I can bring the Coupe down here to finish up before painting. My Dad is going to have the body painted up there, so I'm bringing down the rolling chassis here with the engine and trans, to finish up. After we put everything back together up there, I will wire it up down here in my garage. I should have it done by the start of the summer. I'm so glad I'm only 3 hours away from my Dad. Counting on the days!

[Dave Severson]

Great news for sure Pat!!!! Nothing worse then interrupting a project and having to move!!!! It will sure be good to have the car back at your own place and able to work on it more often, I'm sure!!! Anxious to see the paint and other progress on your build as a Big Ford in a Little Ford has always been something close to my heart!

[jerry clayton]

Pat-------was looking at your pics of the fuel tank fittings----------couple of thoughts---

first, it appears that you have a 90* pipe thread fitting into the tank bung but from the amount of threads showing---it either isn't threaded down into the bung or------the bung has a different thread????????????you could tap the tank bung deeper??????? or if the tank has an AN thread, the proper fitting would give a better fit=====also, there are a series of hose end fittings for close tolerances (clearance issues) available----------

I also would suggest that before you paint the frame---to lower the front brake line fittings that are now on the top side of the frame to either the bottom or a thru frame fitting that will lower the hose to an level below the bleeder screw s in the calipers------

looking good--now I better get to work on my wife's 33---

[patfromjersey]

Thank you Dave! I will keep the pictures coming when I get back on her again.

Jerry - I remember you were the guy that thought my heater would take off the legs of my passenger, but I do respect all replies, because I'm not an expert.

First thing, those 90* fittings were installed as tight as my AN wrench would let me. I hated to go anymore, because I didn't want to break that 90 in that 304 stainless bung. I could possibly get a bigger adjustable or pipe wrench to try more threads to lessen, but I'm afraid I'd break the fitting inside the bung. I did re-tap the stainless bung with a 1/2" NPT tap, and it did go through the bung like a hot knife in butter. I put the anodized fitting on the wire wheel to remove that, but the same old "half way down the threads" until I couldn't turn it no more. It is what it is on the clearance there. Keep in mind, there's no webbing on the body to chassis, and I can put a seperate tank to chassis thin rubber to make more clearance. I do still have the old Dremel tool to make more. I'm not too concerned about my fuel fittings. One is for the pump return, and the other is for the tank vent. I know my -12 AN line to the pump, and then -10 AN to the regulator will be fine.

Can any one else chime in about bleeding the air out of my top frame mounted front brake hose tab? I know it's slightly higher than the bleeder on the caliper, but if I have to move it lower I will. I will give Jack all his props for letting me know. I don't want the frame through fittings to make it lower. It's either tabs on top, or tabs on bottom. Thanks again Jack for your reply. This is what Hot Rodding is all about. I post pics for readers help to show what I may be doing wrong. I'd rather fix it now than later.

[1bad32]

Pat that's one BAAD ASSS looking ride,,I love the way you built it!!
Congrats,,,

[patfromjersey]

I trailered the Coupe Monday to my garage in Maryland, so I can finally finish this thing each night when I come home from work. She sure looks great sitting in my workshop!

Here's some pics from Dad's house before I trailered it down.





Moving dollies make great tools for spinning cars around.



Just use them in this orientation to prevent the dollies from shooting out from under the tires. LOL



That blue piece is where I will place the body when I need to finish the chassis welding and painting.



The Crown Vic towed this thing like it wasn't even there. I gave my brother Joe my Bullitt rims and tires, so I just leave the Blizzaks and steel rims on all the time. Since I have a new 2013 Dodge Truck, I only drive the Vic on Sunday to Mass downtown Baltimore. I'm only putting on about 60-75 miles a month now. I will leave the snow tires on all the time.



Here she is in my garage, safe and sound. I took a week's vacation next week to spend some time getting it done.

[34_40]

Great pics and thanks for sharing them! And it's great to see you back and ready to start on the project again.. Some of us were having withdrawals waiting on ya!

Just kidding!! Just kidding!!

[patfromjersey]

This move to Maryland was a great one for me, but not good for the coupe. lol I will be making some progress now. I will be posting a lot now with updates. Stay tuned