Car Owners; Brian and Vicki Osbon       Words & Photos: Chadly Johnson

Have you ever attended a car show and had a car literally stop you dead in your tracks? While attending the Rose City Round Up show with my wife, I hit the brakes hard on my Converse when I caught a glimpse of faded metal flake and chrome out of the corner of my eye. The car looked good from afar and only increased in awesomeness as we approached it. We found ourselves standing in front of Brian and Vicki Osbon’s survivor ‘32 five window, and it was obvious the wild coupe had a story to tell. With cracked metal flake paint, dripping in chrome and displaying a fantasy list of era accessories, the coupe is every hot rodder’s dream.

As with many early show cars, the ‘32’s history is mostly a mystery. Brian and Vicki purchased the Ford in 1995 shortly after purchasing their first home, and with two toddlers. Brian already had a pair of early F1 trucks and a ‘71 Mustang, so he thought it was not possible to buy another car, but luckily for him Vicki was persistent and made the dream purchase happen. Sounds like a great lady!

The coupe’s purchase occurred while their family was living in the Tigard area of Oregon. They bought it from a buddy who owned a glass shop. A customer at the glass shop noticed classic cars around the shop and mentioned he had a relic of his own at home. When the elderly gentleman showed the shop owner a photo, he instantly recognized it as a ‘32 Ford. The customer stated that it was a project he picked up for his grandson, but that he showed no interest in it, so the coupe has been sitting for around 30 years. The shop owner told the gentleman that if he had interest in selling to please contact him. A short time later Brian’s buddy passed the opportunity onto him, and with Vicki’s determination the coupe was theirs.

As I mentioned, not much of the coupe’s history is known, but it’s obvious it was built strictly for show and not as a street driven car. Fixing the coupe’s lack of driveability was on top of Brian’s list when the family relocated to central Oregon in ‘97. With his boys, now three and five years of age, at his side learning, Brian got busy transforming the five window into a driver, taking great care to keep all aspects of the hot rod’s era correctness intact.

I should pause here to point out that show cars often need to be altered every year to keep them fresh and interesting. Cars will go through paint color and interior changes yearly to be ready for the next year’s show scene. Brian’s coupe went through countless changes over the years without any real consideration for whether or not the car could actually be driven, as it was strictly a show piece. Brian had to take all those many changes from over the years and actually make them not only functional, but capable of working with each other as well… He really took on an incredible amount of work, and managed to accomplish it without altering the coupe’s physical appearance. Brian pulled off a task that very few builders can or would be willing to attempt in making a pure show car into a street car.

Most of the functional components of the coupe’s drive train, such as the clutch, were missing all together when Brian took ownership, so a lot of rebuilding and re-engineering was required to actually make the coupe move under its own power. In fact, the coupe’s odometer read seven miles upon purchase, likely from years of being rolled around at car shows and onto trailers. Brain rebuilt the ‘50 Olds 324 engine, which is topped with an Edelbrock log manifold and six Ford chandler grove 2bl carbs tied together with Eelko linkage. The Olds is mated to a ‘39 Cadillac La Salle side shift three speed adapted to a ‘48 Ford enclosed driveshaft that delivers power to a banjo rear end running 4:11 gears. Exhaust exists through hand made headers utilizing ‘57 Ford driveshaft tubes for exhaust dumps with threaded caps.

The heavily chromed engine sits like a jewel inside the 4” chopped and 7” channeled body. The body’s roof and cowl were filled, the door handles shaved and the grille shell with custom insert sectioned. 1962 Pontiac Bonneville taillights were turned and frenched into the body along with the license plate. The shaved firewall is custom built from aluminum and the rear pan has been recessed and extended. Appleton spotlights have been converted to headlights and sit upon the Cal Custom quad front headlamp stands.

The chassis consists of the stock ‘32 rails, with the rear frame rails bobbed. The rails are tied together with custom rear and tube transmission cross members. A stock plated ‘48 Ford front axle handles suspension duties with un-split front and rear wishbones. The coupe rolls on Ansen cast five-spoke wheels with chrome outers wrapped in absolutely incredible Prowler Eliminator triple 1/4” wide red wall tires. These tires are some of the wildest I’ve ever come across.

Moving inside the coupe we find a narrowed ‘51 Ford dashing adorning Stewart Warner gauges. Ansen swing clutch and brake pedal assemblies handle the driving duties alongside a homemade brass shift handle atop of a Hurst shifter. Vintage photos of the coupe reveal a bench seat which made steering nearly impossible. The coupe had been converted to bucket seats during its last show transformation, but again purely for looks; it would have been nearly impossible to drive. Brian cut and dropped the floors to fit the buckets and allow for proper steering geometry and head room.

When Brian put the coupe on the road, it wasn’t just for quick runs down to the local cruise in… He and Vicki hit the highways along with their buddies. The pair have logged thousands of miles on the 30 year dormant coupe. In fact, their run to the Rose City Round Up show was 170 miles each way, and I gotta admit I assumed it arrived on a trailer. Now, one would think when an old show car from the same state hits the road again, it would be remembered and Brian and Vicki would be mobbed with stories and memories… Not the case at all. The coupe’s history is still a mystery, and the main reason, as I stated before, is that the coupe was altered each year for the next show season. When the ‘32 received its new metal flake paint job and latest updates it was never shown again. No one had ever seen it in its current “look,” so the coupe is not recognized even by people who may have seen it in a previous styling many times at shows. The coupe was known at some point as the “Fastination Coupe,” but even the name is a mystery. Perhaps you can shed some light on the old Ford’s past, but until then Brian and Vicki will be out making new history for the coupe on the highways and back roads of the USA.