1932 Ford 5-window Coupe Build-Up
From Bill Neumann
Camarillo, CA
February 2010
Page 3

The last couple of months have been real slow for the Coupe build. Alan Palmer at Palmer’s Custom Paint & Body has been completely tied up finishing the details and paint on this year’s AMBR award winner.

Now that the show is over, it’s full speed on painting the coupe. Body has been smoothed and fitted and all the gaps set real close. It’s off the chassis and on the rotisserie for the final detail on top and underneath. It’s really looking good!

I have the chassis back at home to strip down, grind smooth all the welds and get it ready for painting. As I go, I’m sorting out all the parts for painting, or chroming, and polishing at The Polishing Shop. So as soon as I get the chassis back it can all be re-assembled – the FUN part! I have everything I need, so it should not take long before the body can be dropped back on.

I’m using the Ron Francis Bare Bones wiring kit – it’s got everything! Whenever things are a little slow, I always try to do something – in this case I wired up all the Classic gauges into the Knecht gauge panel. When the body goes on, all I have to do is just extend the wires to power and senders.

I just finished the Ron Davis radiator/grille set-up with special mounting brackets just like Jack Lentz (builder of the Golden Rod) made for my original roadster – no radiator-to-firewall rods are used – take a look. It’s clean and super strong. I did not have a detail photo of this mount, and I can’t see it in any of my old photos, so Jack sent me a drawing to copy

In the last part of this story, I painted the engine block. So now that it’s out of the chassis, I’m doing the final detailing and adding the Billet Specialties single belt drive system. Last to go on will be the polished, finned valve covers and the Automotion Tri-Power carbs. I can’t wait! These items are a gorgeous set-up

April 5, 2010
The latest up-date on the Coupe build…

For about two weeks now, I’ve been grinding, sanding and filing to radius the welds and smooth  the Kugel chassis. It’s looking great, and the more work you put in here, the better it will look when painted.

As soon as I was finished, I took the chassis to Applied PowderCoat for sand blasting, and then promptly back to Palmer’s Custom Paint and Body for primer. Now it’s getting the final sanding, ready for paint.

While the chassis work was being done, Alan Palmer was completing the final sanding on the body. The fit and finish is great, and I can hardly wait to see it painted.

To keep things moving, we’ll paint the chassis first, get it all rubbed out and polished, and then I can start assembling it into a roller. By then the body should be ready to drop on.

You’ll see it all here first on Hotrodhotline. 

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