1932 Ford Sport Coupe advice needed

[Deuce-Addict]

Is there an upper door panel on a '32 sports coupe? If so has anyone any close up pictures they could post up or send me?

Also - how did the rain channel affix and what to?

Thanks for help in advance Keith

[DavidG]

Keith,

The exterior rain channel above the doors was a two-piece affair. The outer channel snapped over an inner strip that was nailed to the wood roof rail above the doors after the top covering was installed. I'll try and find a photo for you, although I'm still away from most of my old car stuff for another week.

[Chisel]

Since the 32 sport coupe uses a 5 window door I am using a 5 window repo upper door panel from United Pacific to replace the missing ones on my sport coupe.

[DavidG]

Keith,

This is the best I have at present. I can e-mail this and others that I have so that you may enlarge them and not lose too much detail.

Also, I am unclear as to what you refer to as a "upper door panel".

[Deuce-Addict]

Thanks so much both.

David, just trying to make out the pics on page 11-25 of your superb book. It is the inner retainer and outer body-color moulding that is referred to on page 11-27 that I am missing along with the rain channels too. Am trying to establish what they look like to fabricate and replicate.

Many thanks Keith

[V8COOPMAN]

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A little larger........! DD

[gz]

Hi Keith-
Here are some photos of George De Angelis' 1932 sport coupe which I sold for his estate last year. I am not sure if these help you or not. I have A LOT of photos of this car, if you would like me to send them to you, email me directly and I'll forward them along. Email: [email protected]
Good luck with your project. GZ

[rotorwrench]

My old 29 sport coupe had the 2-piece molding that wrapped around the lower back of the top. Most of these types of trim rusted to dust a long time ago and they are very difficult to find in good condition or reproduce as they originally were. It looks like those drip rails might be more do-able than the others but still not easy by any stretch. I can see making jigs, bucks, and bending tin in your future.

[Deuce-Addict]

Those pictures are brilliant thank-you, an immense help showing the detail on the rain channel. I am hoping it is a similar profile to that made by United Pacific for the 5 window (standard) coupes?
GZ - if you have any pictures with the door open of the part that goes above the door, ie where it shuts to I would be most grateful. I have reproduction wood and the original capping that goes over the B post but am missing the moulding / tin part that goes on the wood above the door (if that makes any sense!). My e mail address is keith.abrehart @ lenham.com (there are no gaps in the e mail address). Many thanks Keith

[gz]

Keith- I am sending you four separate emails with about 100 photos of the 1932 sport coupe.Hopefully some of them might be of help to you. Good luck with your project. GZ.

[Fordors]

Keith, I think you may be referring to what are commonly called door tins. Probably not the correct name but I wonder if they are described in the 1932 Body parts Price list as B-46532-A Windlace (front body pillar and door opening) and retainer assy. R.H. and B-46533-A for L. H.

eBay listings will have them known as door tins as seen here-

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1932-Ford-5-...lWspmu&vxp=mtr
I did not look at the United Pacific catalog but it looks like Chisel has mentioned what you need. Maybe DavidG can shed some light on whether or not "wind lace retainer" is the proper name.

[DavidG]

Keith,

The parts referred to in the third paragraph in the left column on page 11-27 are B-52388 & 9, moulding (roof drip), R.H. and L.H. and B-52390 & 1, retainer (roof drip moulding), R.H. and L.H.. All four of those components are unique to sport coupes. The R.H. outer component, B-52388 is shown installed in the illustration at the bottom of page 11-25. The L.H. outer component, B-52388 is shown in the photo above of a sport coupe that still has its original fabric top covering (albeit in poor condition and covered with numerous coating of topping sealer. The inner retainers are not visible in any of the above photos as the visible mouldings snap over the inner retainers.

The contour of the standard coupe drip rails (rain channels) is the same as that of the sport coupe given that both body types use the same doors and therefore the door opening dimensions would be identical. If you purchased a pair of the reproduction standard coupe rain channels, they should serve as a good substitute. Obviously they would have be trimmed at the rear (extensively) and the front (slightly) to replicate those of a sport coupe.

Finding pairs of the original channels (mouldings) and retainers would require a minor miracle to occur and short of ordering engineering drawings of the part numbers cited above from the Benson Ford Research Center to make the four required pieces, the standard coupe reproductions are your best bet. The challenge will be their attachment above the doors over the finished top material as original. That function was served by the original retainers which were attached with wood screws through the top material into the underlying wood roof rail. Short of stud welding tacks to the back of the standard coupe reproductions, what I would likely do in your situation is to use a suitable waterproof glue to attach them.

Here's a side view photo of that sport coupe with the original top covering and drip moulding intact.

[Deuce-Addict]

GZ - thank-you so much for taking the time to email me such helpful images, really appreciated.

David - that is great advice, I have been struggling to visualise how the two snap together and what the under part looks like, how the top fabric covers it etc. Welding tacks to the rear of the reproduction rain channel definitely sounds the way forward.

Thanks so much again.

[RB]

Just following along with this thread & was curious as to the top side iron finish, mine appear to have been plated by the previous owner & by the thread photo content should be painted black ???

[rotorwrench]

I know little or nothing about the 1932 but I know a bit more about the Model A cars. The landau bars were painted on them but only on the curved parts. The ends and centers were plated or other shiny finish depending on year. It seems like the curved tube sections were painted the color of the reveal. Since that car in the photos is a dark color, it seems the bar color matches the body. The photos that David G posts show the center (what would be a hinge on a cabriolet) is shiny metal. Model A bars were made up of several pieces so some pieces were polished stainless on some Model A cars if I remember correctly.

The snap together parts featured the base pieces that had the raised lips on the upper & lower edges that fit into the top trim pieces that snapped on to cover the nails or screws that held them to the body. These parts were likely stamped out with special dies and presses using relatively thin gauge steel. The thin stuff captured moisture and corroded within a few years if the car was not protected from the weather so few good examples survive now days. I've seen all sorts of home spun molding to replicate the Model A trim parts. They are usually one solid piece attached with tacks or very small screws and skim coated over with polyester filler to paint. It's not easy to paint a part that fits over a soft top but that's the only way to make it appear correct.

[DavidG]

The '32 sport coupe landau irons were unique. They were manufactured by butt welding the upper portion, a heavy stamping, to the lower portion, which was a forging. In those two photos I provided above, the original finish of the irons had been removed. The irons on the George DeAngelis car in the GZ photos are finished in accordance with the original engineering drawings, namely painted the main body color. (I previously owned that car back in the mid 1970s and it did not have the correct landau irons on it when I bought it. It did have the correct irons on it when I sold it and still did the last time I saw it at Deuce@75.)

[rotorwrench]

The Sport Coupes had lost a lot of their popularity in the later Model A era. I imagine that the 1932 version is relatively rare. Especially now days. The example in the photos on post 7 shows that it had lost the zipper on the back light panel and has less shiney stuff than in the Model A era. I wonder what the production numbers were between the cabriolet models and the sport coupes in 1932 production? They were both on there way to obscurity by that time frame. Even the cabriolets had lost their pretty landau bars.

[DavidG]

The top on the car in post #7 is a replacement. The original had a zippered back panel like a cabriolet to permit conversion with rumble seat passengers.

There were 3,538 '32 sport coupes produced worldwide and 7,847 cabriolets. I suggest that you meant roadsters fading in popularity rather than cabriolets as the production of the latter kept rising while that of the former kept receding to the point of disappearing after the '37 model year (in North America). Once the cabriolet morphed into the club cabriolet with a back seat instead of a rumble seat, it has been with us ever since. Volkswagen even uses the cabriolet moniker.

[rotorwrench]

I kind a meant soft top cars in general. The ones with roll up windows would have been more user friendly though so that does make sense. The UK cars were referred to as drop head coupes with some exceptions. Most folks in this country just called them convertible coupes or just plain convertibles. Without the landau bars, it's harder to ID them as Cabriolets.

[DavidG]

Although that's the model designation Ford used through the '37 model year. The functional landau bars went inside for good with the '37 model years and before that their exterior presence and appearance was like a lot of things about cars, young or old, namely a matter of personal preference.