That fazed him to seal the deal and we all divyed up and scraped enough for the agreed purchase price. A rope was brought out of my buddy’s trunk, tied to the bumper and away we went only to realize at the end of the street it only had one wheel brake working which made it pull to the right. It turned out to be a hairy ride home to say the least. I lived in Barrington R.I. with my parents and already had the 40 coupe sans engine in front of the house and the Henry J in one side of the driveway and down the road I come in this old wire wheeled coupe on the end of a rope. My dad flipped out naturally and stated that two must go before one more arrives. I towed it over to the gas station I was working at and my boss reluctantly let me store it behind the station. I have a picture of my wife to be and myself sitting in it. My wife and I recently celebrated our 46th wedding anniversary so I have had the car before I was married but not before we were dating. The actual purchase date was winter of 58/59 so it has been in my possession for 48 years.

   First thing I did was to remove the old four banger motor. Most 32’s had Henry’s new flathead V8 but mine was a 4 cyl. The car sat for a couple of years while I did my service in the navy and my wife Judy and I married and started a family and the first opportunity it was towed to our driveway. I had been building a Chrysler Hemi for it before going in the navy around 1960 and it was installed along with a 6-71 GM supercharger. I had also installed a Caddy rear end and was attempting to paint the body with spray cans from Benny’s. The car never quite got done due to many overriding reasons including going racing with Jim King from Warren. I had a shop within his shop and machined his motors and built the superchargers for the race cars.

   In the late 60’s my wife and I had a son Christopher who was born with a genetic disease which really occupied our lives for his whole life of 12 years. It was during this time I decided to redo the coupe and really get it running. It would be a financial hardship so I had to depend on swapping parts and doing everything myself. I was fortunate to have a lot of friends and facilities to perform all the work. When the car was done and first on the road I had a grand investment of $3700, not bad for the time. This meant using what ever I could to keep the cost down such as modifying the original 4 cyl. radiator which is still in the car today. Just about every single part on the car was made or modified by me. I fabricated the nerf bars out of hand polished aluminum hydraulic tubing then bent and welded them to brackets. The rear rolled pan was made when I was about 17 years old, my first try at fiber-glassing and it stands the test of time. The dash was hand carved out of walnut by myself and my bench partner at work who had really taken to Chris. Late in Christopher’s life he took an active interest in the build so whenever possible I’d accommodate him in letting him help. He was quite ill by the time it finally hit the road and we made sure he went with us whenever the car went out. He was a little guy and took great pleasure in riding lying prone on the shelf behind the seat looking out the windows. Treasured memories like that keeps me from ever wanting to sell it.
Judy and I attended many street rodding events around New England in the coupe and I used it quite frequently to drive to work in Providence. I even got caught in a snow storm once. In the 80’s I built a 40 Ford Convertible and that sort of displaced the coupe as a daily runner, but after wearing that car out I’m back to my old friend. It’s time worn now, showing it’s age, never was a show queen, but it’s got character and tons of memories, guess I’ll keep it as long as I can.

Specifications:
Body: 1932 Ford five window coupe painted 1937 Ford Cordovan Brown
Drive train: Chassis is boxed with a model “A” front crossmember. dropped 3” dago front axel with Monti Carlo disc brakes, rack and pinion steering, 350 GM automatic trans with shift kit installed in a custom x member. 1965 corvette independent rear end with hand made torque arms. Wheels are Chevy Rally’s Chev II fronts and Corvette rears
Engine: modified 350 small block Chevy, Crower blower grind hydraulic roller cam, reworked heads, Crower SS roller rockers, 4-71 GMC blower with a homemade drive, MSD distributor. Modified Holly 850 spread bore carburator.
Interior is a LeBarron Bonny kit I installed. The steering column is Cadillac tilt-telescoping. Some gauges are installed in the header panel. Hand carved walnut dash with a walnut sub dash under steering column.
Jeff and Judy Howe
 

How Lucky Jeff and Judy are to still have this great old car !

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