Longhaul Deuce
When I was in high school in 1946, I yearned for a 1932 Ford roadster. A couple of my friends had Model A Ford roadsters, but my dream was a 1932. They were as scarce as hen’s teeth then and the same holds true today. You can find all kinds of “kit car” ’32s, but few real Henry Ford originals. When you do find a real ’32 Ford, they want big bucks for them — if they are even for sale. In my 75 years of looking, I have only seen eight original 1932 Ford roadsters, which is odd as Ford manufactured 9,000 of them in 1932.
We moved to Gooding, Idaho, in 1954 and after a couple of years, I found two Ford Model A roadster bodies that I ultimately restored, but they were still not ’32 Fords. Then, in 1956, I was looking around an old scarp yard and came upon 1932 Ford roadster remains buried in the weeds. Closer examination showed a body with both doors, a rumble seat lid and the frame, but nothing else. I tried to buy the body, but it was not for sale. For about six months, I tried and tried to buy the ’32 but to no avail. One day, I went back to try again and the owners of the yard were sitting around a table and about two-thirds drunk with an empty bottle. I hightailed it back to town and bought a bottle of
