1932 Ford Closed Cab Pickup

[Phildaupho]

I could find no record of how many Closed Cab Pickups were built in 1932 but I assume they were pretty popular and many still exist.

My starting point was the venerable ’34 Ford Pickup kit, which I first built soon after it, was released by AMT in the early ‘60’s. It was the first model I chopped and channelled. At some point AMT transferred the moulds to Lindberg and it was re-released many times in different colours of styrene.

The ’34 pickup was similar in many ways but on close examination differed significantly in a few characteristics and specifications. Most noticeably the wheelbase was 6 inches longer so on ‘32’s the pickup bed hangs out behind the fenders much further and the gap between the front of the rear fenders and the back of the cab is much less. So the first modification necessary was to shorten the chassis and running boards a 6 scale inches. The cabs on the ’34 and ’32 were pretty much identical except the ’34 had an extra stamped moulding across the back of the cab, which was easily removed with some filing and sanding. Up front the grill shell on the ’34 leaned back and the hood sides were distinctive so the shell and hood were replaced with ’32 items.

The stock configuration suspension with ’34 kit dropped front axle was lowered as much as possible. Because the kit utilized a straight across plastic [originally metal] axle, I reversed the dropped axle to move the wheels forward a bit to give a more pleasing look of how the wheels and tires fit under the fenders. The stance was established with recent Revell ’29/’30 tires over Revell ’37 Ford PU/Panel wheels. The Revell ’37 Pickup Street Rod kit provided the flathead hop-up parts as well as the side mount which was modified for the ’37 stock artillery looking wheels. The openings around the rims on the wheels were opened up to make them more highlighted with the black of the drum brakes. Although not stock, I have seen a few full scale pickups with rear bumpers and liked the looked so I added one to the model,

The body was painted Testor’s Maroon enamel with black fenders, leather interior and Wimbledon White  wheels.

[cobraman]

Looks great, nice work.

[crazyjim]

Good looking pickup.

[bbowser]

Very nice.  The subtle changes to the wheelbase and fenders make a big difference.

[D. Battista]

Very nice...!!   Love the color..!

[ChrisR]

Looks great!!

[Koellefornia Kid]

Nice work, great paint job!

[Phildaupho]

21 hours ago, cobraman said:

Looks great, nice work.

 

21 hours ago, crazyjim said:

Good looking pickup.

 

20 hours ago, bbowser said:

Very nice.  The subtle changes to the wheelbase and fenders make a big difference.

 

19 hours ago, D. Battista said:

Very nice...!!   Love the color..!

 

11 hours ago, ChrisR said:

Looks great!!

 

9 hours ago, Koellefornia Kid said:

Nice work, great paint job!

Thanks everyone. I appreciate your comments.

[christian-w]

Nice one!

 

[slusher]

Very very, nice!

[Dennis Lacy]

Love it! Great color scheme and I dig the wheel and tire combo. Can't go wrong with a rodded flathead, either.

There were 13 thousand and change closed cabs produced in '32. Happy to say one of them is in my garage.

[Phildaupho]

44 minutes ago, Dennis Lacy said:

Love it! Great color scheme and I dig the wheel and tire combo. Can't go wrong with a rodded flathead, either.

There were 13 thousand and change closed cabs produced in '32. Happy to say one of them is in my garage.

Thanks Dennis for providing the production numbers. I looked everywhere and the production numbers for the '32 Closed Cab were the only one of the 15 varieties of '32 that were not listed in all the sources I checked. 

You are a lucky man to have one. I imagine you have seen that a Union Pacific Cab pickup was built as the Street Rodder Road Tour vehicle.

[Modelbuilder Mark]

Really sharp, not sure how I missed it. 

[DumpyDan]

Well done, this is gorgeous looking truck.  Thanks for all the detail writing to tell us what you have done Phil.