John Cherry's 1932 Ford Five-Window Highboy Coupe - A Cherry Deal

Here's something about fate finding us when we Least expect it, but when fate found John Cherry He wasn't expecting it at all. In fact, you could Make the case he didn't even want it. A full year into A Model A sedan project, John explained, he already Had his hands full. Curiously enough, the postal service Delivered the news of his fortune.

"I was talking to a guy who had a Model A out in his Front yard," he explained. "the mailman came by and goes, 'there's a guy up here that's got one of these for Sale.' When he told me about where It was at, i knew what it was."

But what it was wasn't a Model A; it was actually a '32 Ford, a harder-to-find-nowadays coupe body. The asking Price: $4,200-year 2005 dollars at that. So what's not to Like about a super-cheap Deuce coupe body? Plenty, John Will tell you.

"The body looked like somebody had just cut it off the Floor and the sills and the frame-there was no floor or Firewall," he recalled. "Because of the way it'd been cut off The frame and had been sitting, the cowl was kicked way out At the bottom, and that split the A-pillars.

"The B-pillars were gone completely and a lot of stuff was Missing off it-garnish moldings and so on," he added. "the doors-somebody had cut out the insides so there was Only about 6 inches of panel on the insides of the door. The Decklid was in good shape, even though we had to recover it." Still, "i immediately drove over there and caught the guy and Bought the body."

As the story went, a bad case of arthritis prompted the Prior owner to sell the car to John; however, speaking from Personal experience, i, too, would've had second thoughts. This much is apparent: John sure did; "i sort of sat on the Thing for a while," he explained. "i didn't quite know What to do with it."

The first direction, it seems, came in the form of probably The hardest part to find: the B-pillars. "i kinda stumbled On to them," John recalled. "i was down at Wescott's in Portland and was talking to the boy, Carl, and he goes, 'yeah, well i got a pair of those out of a Vicky.' i don't Think there was any way we could've made those B-pillars, So what kicked off the project was finding those. That was About a year ago (December 2006)."

The second ingredient to that direction happened to come A few years earlier, when John met yakima's Bill ross. Bill, if You don't recall or never knew, is an amateur builder with a Pro's touch who's built a series of high-profile cars over the Years, hot rods and customs alike. "he belongs to a car club Called Aces and eights, and i know a lot of them guys," John Noted. "that's how i met him." Though he knew Bill's reputation As a builder, "i was kinda leery going in on a deal with Him," John cautioned; however, "after we got started it was Pretty obvious: he's a really skilled fabricator."

First order of business: a platform on which to recreate The body. Starting with a set of American stamping framerails, Model A spring crossmembers, and a grip of rectangular Tubing, Bill fashioned a chassis for the car starting in December 2006.

Luckily a five-window's subrails and floor sections are Similar to those under most other Deuces. "All that stuff Came from Brookville," John instructed. "it's for roadsters; Nobody repops anything for those five-window coupes, you Know." How John came to the chop-that delicate balance Of attitude and utility-was simple: "A guy i know down in The tri-Cities has a '32 and it's chopped 2 1/2," he explained. "i can get in it and sit in it and have plenty of headroom, so I figured i could go another half-inch."

How John stumbled into the engine, a short-tail 331 Chrysler industrial engine, was similarly fateful. "A friend of Mine has several, but he's kinda stingy with 'em; he didn't Want to part with 'em," he noted. Another friend had a couple More, though. "one of them was in one of those Darigold Milk trucks; the other truck was a dump truck," John recollected. "he used 'em down on the farm-he lives down in Prosser-so he let me have one of the motors."

Lucky? Yes; however, not entirely. You see, Chrysler's Industrial engines-ones that did in fact come in heavy Dodge Pickups, in case you doubt us-are elephants of a different Breed. "those engines have great big gears on the front for Timing and the cams turn backward from the typical ones Because of the geardrive," John explained. Luckily, hot Heads research & racing has the solution. "We had to Change the oil pump, the cam, of course the lifters, and Then put a timing gear on it from a small-block Chrysler. They got a special timing cover and you put a small-block Chevy water pump on that.

"It also came with two one-barrel Carburetors on it," John recalled. "the Manifold alone weighs about 100 lbs!" In its place is another hot heads part, An aluminum dual-quad manifold, this One with two 500-cfm edelbrock mixers Atop it. Though the engine itself wears Chrysler Fire Power valve covers, a tag on The firewall denotes that the engine was Once upon a time a 220-horse model. Oh yeah, and if you're really beginning To think John struck pay dirt with this Engine, consider this: it still sports its Original pistons, rings, bearings, and so On. "We didn't even rebuild the thing," He enthused. "it's stone-assed stock!"

Behind that engine hangs a Borgwarner t5 transmission, courtesy Of a Wilcap adapter, flywheel, and Clutch. Behind that, there's a quickchange. "the guys in Portland (Dutchman Motorsports) put that Together," he noted. "it's a Winters; I Supplied the tubes and they supplied Everything else and put it together for Me." Among other things, it sports A set of plug-in axles and late-Ford 9-inch-style drum brakes.

If you've ever mated a quickchange With a Deuce tank, you know It's not a marriage made in heaven; The forward edge of the tank and the Trailing end of the spur gear housing both want to occupy The same space. The solution came from Bill, who notched The tank; the tank, from Don storey. For that, "i had to Buy him breakfast one morning," John mused. "he's got a '32 two-door sedan and he didn't feel safe using that so we Cleaned it all up and resealed it and everything."

The remainder of the car went together similarly Casually. The dash, for example: "Well, everyone else is Running a '40," he said, "but i had one hanging on the Wall so i thought i might as well use it." The top insert, for Another, started as a steve's Auto restoration panel; however, Instead of welding it to the top, Bill welded a series of Tabs to its underside. "When you set it in there, you screw it Right into the wood around the opening," John explained. To preserve the car's early feel, trimmer Jamie rice padded The panel and wrapped it with a vinyl that roughly approximates The stock insert's feel.

As for the rest of the body, "it's kind of a challenge just Finding the parts for 'em," John admitted. "like the pieces For the doors-they don't even reproduce the door latches, So a friend of mine down in the tri-Cities gave me a set of Latches out of a '34 Ford truck. We had to modify them Slightly to make them work, but they did work.

"the garnish moldings, though," he added, chuckling, "i hate to say this, but they're fiberglass. I was talking to [Dee] Wescott and he repops them. They're still expensive As hell, but the originals are just out of sight; there just aren't Any more cars around." So, too, is the windshield frame Reproduction, albeit in painted steel as it would've been in The standard model. The hood is likewise a reproduction Steel piece from rootlieb; however, unlike the 3-inch-shorter Windshield frame, this one's 2 inches longer to span the Larger gap created by pushing forward the crossmember and Its attendant radiator and grille.

While Bill ross took care of the major metal fabrication And fine tuning, he's smart enough to know he's A better fabricator than finisher. To get the car straight Enough for a base/clear black, yakima's tim Ueltschi Massaged the body before spraying it with the DBU-series PPG urethane. Jamie rice, the guy who finished the top, Also trimmed the car in a vinyl that recreates the look of Distressed leather so well you'd swear it even smells like it.

To add to the list of seemingly impossible attributes to This car, we'll propose the following. You may recall that John Cherry said Bill ross started construction on the chassis in December 2006. When we shot the car, the first flakes of the Following year's fall season hadn't even begun to fall. In fact, the Car was finished enough for John, Bill, and a few friends to take It to the nhra hot rod reunion in early october 2007.

So what is it that led a $4,000 Deuce coupe body to John Cherry? That linked him up with a builder who could Finish it within a year? That resulted in such a bitchin' car In less than a year? "oh, i don't know," John reflected. "it Just happened."

Remember this? It's the sedan from the cover. An old hot rod in its own right (it has black paint and pinstripes under the primer to prove it), it's a car Bill ross wrestled away from custom builder roger o'Dell. While the car was robbed of its goodies when he got it, roger reassembled it to reflect its heritage. Its early '38 engine-reconditioned decades ago and adorned with nothing more than a single carburetor-really moves the sedan around, likely due to 4.11:1 gears and the absence of interior. The finish on those Arrow sealed-beam conversion headlights stands as testimonial that hot rodders half a century ago didn't run Deuce and Model 40 headlights after all, nor did every car have a dropped headlight bar. The cowl lights are indeed a bit of a surprise on an old hot rod, but the twinmount antenna isn't; a radio was a badge of honor and a sign of refinement once upon a time. And who couldn't love the mismatched Mercury (painted '48 and chromed '49) wheels? Remember, hot rods of yore were mostly kids' cars and not the idealized and perfectly matched machines they are today, and to say you love 'em is to come to terms with the way they really were-warts and all.

What looks like a conventional top insert really isn't at all. It's a steel piece, hand-rolled by steve's Auto restoration. While sar intends it to be welded in place, Bill ross had other plans. Instead, he hemmed the edges and welded to its lower edges a network of tabs. Between those tabs and fasteners screwed into the wood around the opening are wire loops; the top pulls tight against the body by twisting the wire. Trimmer Jamie rice clad the insert in vinyl and welted its edge.