By Steve Craig

In the summer of 1953, I got a phone call from a friend who wanted me to go look at a 1932 Ford 5-window Coupe that was in a wrecking yard in Berkeley, California. He wanted to buy the frame and drivetrain and wondered if I wanted the body. Up to this time in my life I had not been interested in '32 Fords but the idea intrigued me. After seeing the car, I became very interested and we agreed to buy it together. I put up $10.00 for the body and he put up the other $20.00 for the rest of the car. The car didn't run so we towed it to his home using his father's 1941 Lincoln Continental.

I removed the body and borrowed a trailer to haul it home. I had no plan for a next step but I really liked the body. Not more than a month later, I got a call from my friend saying he had bought a running 1932 Ford 3-window coupe hot rod and wanted to know if I wanted to buy the rest of the 5-window? I did and that was the beginning of my love affair with my 1932 Ford 5-window Coupe.

There were many missing parts, but in 1954 parts for 22-year-old cars were plentiful. I soon located parts from various sources but getting it back together and running was a challenge. I persevered and was driving it to summer school in 1954. (Picture 1)

After graduating from High School in January of 1955 I went to work and spent all my earnings on my car. I installed hydraulic brakes, a Mercury engine, a dropped axle and had it upholstered. I painted it myself with white lacquer and made it look as good as possible on a very limited budget and very little prior experience. (Picture 2)

I joined the Army in February of 1956 and loaned my car to my best friend, Skip. During my 3 years in the service, Skip had the body repaired and painted in white enamel with red wheels. (Picture 3)

After returning to civilian life in early 1959, I modified the car some more by installing a Studebaker V8 engine, a Lincoln overdrive transmission, and an Oldsmobile differential and brakes. Surprisingly, the parts I used were both compatible and reliable. Though I modified the center crossmember on the original frame, I made no changes to the body. (Picture 4)

I drove it to college and work for the next 8 years. In 1967 I stopped driving it and began the long project of restoring it back to as close to original as I could afford. Up until this time I had done almost all of the work on the car myself and I was determined to do all the restoration work myself, too. Almost every part in the car is an original 1932 Ford part but the one item I was never able to afford was an original 1932 engine, so I installed a 1937 block with 1934 heads and intake manifold. (Picture 5)

In 2003, I retired from my 43-year carreer as an Administrator, but continued to do body work. My plan was to work on the ´32 and other peoples´cars at the same time. That didn´t work as well as I had hoped but the COVID 19 pandemic provided me the uninterrupted time to finish my project.