The Mirage Coupe is a Walden...
The Mirage Coupe is a Walden Speed Shop project being scratch-built for Fred Warren. Progress is continuing, with much of the body already fabricated. The cowl section and doors for the coupe will incorporate design elements from both a ’32 three-window and a ’33.
Walden Speed Shop, located in Pomona, California, has been busy these last few years building traditional hot rods and supplying their own line of products, which include roof inserts as well as replacement doorskins for Model A’s, ’32s, and Model 40 ’33s and ’34s.
But to really test their skills, the shop has been building a coupe from scratch for Fred Warren—a former winner of both the Ridler award and the America’s Most Beautiful Roadster trophy (an accomplishment achieved with two different cars—with Warren being the first of only two people to do so).
Most of Warren’s cars have been handbuilt, but this is the first time the talented team at Walden Speed Shop has built an entire car from scratch from the ground up. But that’s the danger when you have the talent: you can hand-make all the parts, so why not build an entire car?
Warren’s Mirage Coupe—a 1932 Ford three-window coupe with ’33-style contours—is moving along and, after fabricating the roof, quarter-panels, cowl, firewall, and most of the interior pieces, it was time to start on the doors. But because everything is scratch-built, Walden was able to create a cowl and doors without any of the kinks found in the original ’32 coupe design. Walden’s doors follow the factory design on how they fit into their opening, but the door structure and exterior skin is one-off for just this car. And, because they turned out so nice, much of the structure’s design will be incorporated in future scratch-built doors Walden’s builds. The guys at Walden Speed Shop are pros and they make it look easy but, trust us, it ain’t! The following is an account of how they got it done.
The rear jamb of the suicide...
The rear jamb of the suicide setup features only two hinges instead of the original three-hinge design.
The top hinge (top photo)...
The top hinge (top photo) is an original ’32 three-window steel hinge with an extra plate to contain door flex. The bottom hinge is a Walden hinge, which uses extra webbing and gussets to provide added strength, thus eliminating the need for a middle hinge.
The top hinge (top photo)...
The top hinge (top photo) is an original ’32 three-window steel hinge with an extra plate to contain door flex. The bottom hinge is a Walden hinge, which uses extra webbing and gussets to provide added strength, thus eliminating the need for a middle hinge.
Here is a detail of how the...
Here is a detail of how the structure fits to the opening. At this point, without a doorskin, the gap is 5/16 inch.
This shows how much arc there...
This shows how much arc there is to the door top as well as the channel to draw water away. On a stock door, the seal attaches to the door opening but, on a hot rod, it will be attached to the door.
The doorjamb post was taken...
The doorjamb post was taken from a Brookville door, and Walden modified it to fit their application.
If you build it right, just...
If you build it right, just the door’s perimeter should open and close like a finished door.
An inner panel was made to...
An inner panel was made to support the window regulator and latch mechanisms. The panel is slightly recessed because an upholstered door panel will fit into that space, leaving a raised area around the panel that will be painted.
A hand-crank window regulator...
A hand-crank window regulator gets installed (electric windows were not used because, with such small door glass, just a couple of cranks will get the job done).