1932 cabriolet

[carbuilder]

do I have the earliest existing cabriolet #19

[Terry,OH]

You May?? Do you know if the engine is original to the car, or the intake manifold? I'm sure Dave will be very interested. Could you post some photos? Does the car have a body number plate on the firewall, what is that number?

[carbuilder]

36 LB engine everything eles is as built

[carbuilder]

intake and oil pan all 36 all else good

[Henry Hopper]

Is that the one just been on ebay?....looks like a nice old survivor.

[DavidG]

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Given the specific body number, presumably this is the car that sold very recently on ebay. Unless Murray made a mistake at the time, presumably this was the nineteenth '32 cabriolet body they produced for Ford. I share Terry's opinion that it may be the earliest of its kind, but by that I mean the body itself and not necessarily the whole car. I say that because the matching engine and chassis numbers of 18-9xxx are not those of super early '32 passenger car production. There's plenty of archival evidence that Ford (and maybe Murray) did not ruthlessly adhere to the first-in, first-out system of inventory control and perhaps this instance is another example.

The engine/transmission of this car was produced in the first half of May, 1932 according to Ford's Rouge Engine Plant log, which was the better part of two months after Job #1 on March 10th. Even assuming that was no further significant delay between when the engine/transmission was produced and then installed in a chassis during final assembly, there were hundreds of cabriolets that had been produced previously which reduces considerably the odds of this one being the oldest surviving example of '32 cabriolet in the form of a complete vehicle. (I'm away from most of my research materials for the winter so I cannot provide an exact number of how many cabriolets were assembled from March 10th through the end of April, 1932, but I have confidence that number is in the hundreds.)

In the ebay seller's photos where parts of the chassis are shown, the details are consistent with a vehicle produced in May or even early June, 1932. The chassis frame does not appear to a super-early version by virtue of the legs on the center cross member and the brake and clutch pedals are not the early version and their attachment to the chassis frame is the third iteration of that attachment. The transmission case is consistent with the engine number, which means that it is not the earliest version. It has an early firewall, but so did thousands of other '32s.

In my years looking to the history of the '32 Ford, including before the fire at The Henry Ford which put a real dent in the amount of surviving archival material, I have not encountered any record showing anything that ties specific body numbers to engine (and therefore chassis) numbers. Since there's no obvious business purpose for doing so, it likely wasn't done. A record of which engine/transmissions were used in the various assembly plants hasn't surfaced either and while some of the plants did stamp the #1 floor cross sill on the body with an identifying code, it would seem to have been a hit or miss practice, with only the Twin Cities assembled vehicles showing any sort of consistency.

In the final analysis, what does it matter? It's a really nice surviving example of a fairly early car with a super early body and a great project to undertake. Have fun with it!

[carbuilder]

Actually it was a no sale.. non paying bidder. The bidder made three bids and never made any atempt to contact me before or after the bid despite posting my home phone. I bought the car to make a Hot Rod. I feel the car is to rare to screw up. I have other stalled projects so before I retire to my second home in central Florida, I need to set my priorities. If I do deside to list the car again any additional information will go with the car. I've used " the 1932 Ford Book" as my primary guide. Thanks for the feedback BOBv