THOSE DARN 32 FORDS - dragracealberta.com

THOSE DARN 32 FORDS
------------Bob Cantin
I was just 12 years old when I bought my
first car, and it cost me a whole $5.00!! It
was a princely sum of money for a kid my
age, for I had saved up for about half a
year to buy this beauty, mainly by cutting
lawns, washing cars, and saving what I
could from my meager weekly allowance.
The car was about as nice a 1926 Model T
Ford 2 door coach as one could find, even
back then (the year was 1952).
I had bought the Model T from the
grandson of the original owner, who had
bought it new in the summer of 1926, from
Dominion Motors, a large Ford dealership
in Edmonton. Yep, it was so cherry that I
drove it straight home to show the family,
and then continued on to my dad’s
machine and welding shop, where I
promptly whacked the top off of it!!! I
figured that an open car not only looked
better, but should also run better! With
the top removed, I proceeded to drive that
little Ford all over the west end of
Edmonton,---- giving the local kids rides,
learning some things about Model T’s and
their cranky habits, but mostly just
cruizin,--- polishing my newly found
driving skills as I went!
I had the local kids donating their weekly
allowances for the privilege of cruizin with
me, and believe me, that was real sweet
for me, because although not realizing it
at the time, I was actually in business! By
purchasing the old Ford, I had overnight
become a driver, (although certainly not
licensed), and was in business for myself
to boot! Best of all, I had also acquired
some bragging rights! Yep, and bragging
rights like these were hard to come by for
a lad just entering puberty. Heck none of
my friends had acquired a car yet,-----geez THEY were still messing around with
bicycles!
Author and T coupe circa 1955. One of the many cranky Model T’s in
his life
So for the entire summer of 1952, right
after supper, I would crank that low-mile,
topless T coach up, and start my cruise of
the neighborhood, picking up my eager
young paying customers as I went. If
business got a little slow, I could always
stop by either of the 2 local gas stations,
(after they had closed of course), and drain
their hoses of fuel. Gas was about 30 cents
per gallon in those days, the average kids
allowance (at least in my neighborhood)
was 10-25 cents a week. The old Ford was
seldom out of gas, but if the hoses at
either of the stations were empty, then my
dad’s fleet of new welding trucks was
always a good alternate source for an
“emergency” fuel supply. I quickly found
out that a 4 foot length of rubber hose
placed into the top of one of those welding
machines fuel tanks, would, with a couple
of quick sucks on the end of said hose,
supply me with enough fuel for another
couple of hours of running. I was always
careful not to drain any of those tanks
completely, lest my dastardly deed should
be discovered. The last bloody thing I
needed to happen, was to discover the fuel
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tanks had been secured with locking gas
caps! This could only happen if dear old
dad were to suspect one of the older
neighborhood kids of helping himself to
some free fuel, and taking the needed
precautions to discourage them in doing
so, by locking the tanks. I don’t think that
my dad ever noticed the shortages in the
fuel tanks, and he certainly never queried
me as to where the fuel for the Model T
came from. By the time I was 13 years old,
I had become a real pro at siphoning gas,-- always being careful not to get a
mouthful of that foul tasting substance.
The key to that success of course, was to
always use the same siphon hose, and to
know just when to quit sucking!
Author’s twin boys on running board of brass T circa 1979
Bob Cantin photo
That summer I never encountered any of
Edmonton’s “finest” while driving that old
Ford, although I had always kept a look
out for them .With my cargo of eager
paying riders aboard, we just carefully
“chugged” our way through west
Edmonton’s quiet residential side streets.
Traffic was real light, and for the 3
months I ran that little Ford, I never did
spot any “fuzz”, true testimony I guess, as
to just how quiet my neighborhood must
have been! No one in the neighbourhood
ever questioned my little after supper
operation, and that darn Ford, although at
times a bit cranky, never quit running!
I’ve owned over 100 Fords since then, and
in looking back at my taste in the certain
models and various years of same,--- I
realized that my preferences for certain
years of Henry’s automobiles would
change about every 10 years! First it was
the Model T’s,-- I had become very fond of
them and their cranky habits since that
first topless, 2 door experience, a fondness
that would stay with me for over 50 years.
(I did however sell my last Model T in
2001, swearing never to own another one)!
The authors last Model T, which he sold in 2001. It had
optional wire wheels, Ruckstell rear end, -----was great
parade car, author swore to never own another one.
Bob Cantin photo
In the middle 50’s I went through my
Model A period! Model A’s were extremely
cheap to buy, and they seemed to be
everywhere! It didn’t take me long before I
had filled the vacant lot next to my
parents home, with an assortment of
Model A roadsters (there were over a
dozen of them by the time I hit high
school). It was also about this time, that I
discovered my preference for open model
cars, a preference that I confess I still
have to this day!
The Model A infatuation was quickly
followed by 32’s , (which I recently
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realized had been quite numerous in
numbers over the subsequent years). With
2007 being the 75th birthday of this model,
I decided to recount (at least in my mind’s
eye), some of the 32’s that were in my life,
from the early 50’s to present. There were
so many of them, that I’ll have to refer to
them all by number! To record my
association with this truly unique, one
year model of Ford automobile, I had to
dig through several old bills of sale,
hundreds of photos, and the various
memorabilia that I had accumulated over
the years.
My first real “encounter” with a deuce,
was a car that actually belonged to my
Scoutmaster, the year was 1953! I was
working at getting a proficiency badge in
scouting, which involved my trekking to a
camping spot in the country, carrying only
what I needed for the trip, and camping
out overnight. This was a pretty big deal
back then, for there weren’t any modern
day camp ground facilities one could use.
The camping part of this trip would
involve finding a suitable camping spot,
and setting up a comfortable overnight
camp. Hopefully, I could find such a spot
on some Crown land, (there was still some
of that on Edmonton’s western outskirts).
I figured that with the help of a couple of
fellow scouts, we could head off and find a
suitable spot (which the scouting manual
stated had to be some 7 miles distance
from our homes, ----and of course, be in
the country). We would have to carry
enough food, sleeping gear, and a tent, to
spend at least one night, in the
wilderness?? Problem was we would have
to hike there, carrying what we required
for the overnight stay in our back packs,
or on our pack boards.
In order to check out some possible
camping sites, and essentially speed
things up, the scoutmaster decided he
would take myself and my 2 fellow scouts
on a search for some potential camping
sites, a couple of weeks ahead of time. He
wanted to be assured that we wouldn’t be
trespassing on any private land, but if we
had to do so, he wanted to obtain the
required permission needed for us to make
a camp before we left on our big 2- day
adventure!
He picked the three of us up from my
parents home, driving one very “cherry”
deuce 4-door sedan,--- complete with V-8
power (remember they built them with 4bangers too). The 4-door was his everyday
set of wheels which he used for driving to
work in downtown Edmonton. The 4- door
model must have come in handy when his
3 kids, dog, and wife traveled with him on
frequent weekend outings. I remember
thinking that this really was neat car, for
compared to the low-mile 1930 Model A 4door sedan, (which I had recently
purchased from the shop teacher at
Victoria Composite High School in
Edmonton)--- this puppy was quiet---like
REAL quiet!!! It had none of the 4 cylinder
engine vibrations inherent to a Model A,
and best of all, that little 4-door could
really haul some serious ass! Yep, it was
during that short trip looking for that
campsite west of Edmonton, that I was
hooked on Mr. Ford’s eight cylinder
marvel! I decided that afternoon that I
was going to have to get busy and try to
find me one of these neat cars!
After returning from what turned out to
be a successful campout, the official search
was on for my first 32 Ford! An 8 cylinder
engine would be replacing the vibrating 4bangers that I was just beginning to
understand, and yep, the V-8 model 32
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Ford was going to be my choice in doing
so!
Down the street from my parents home,
was a Texaco service station, (one of the 2
stations that had kept me in gas with the
Model T). So what shows up there one day,
but a REAL hot rod 32 Ford coupe!(car #1)
A guy named Denny Stanford had just
started working there, and he’s driving
this pretty little channeled 5-window
coupe! It was painted Spartan Green
Metallic, had a full-dress flatmotor, a
hand-formed half hood, and a set of wide
whitewall tires. A full custom red and
white naugahyde upholstery job finished
the car off. When he exited the parking
lot, and “jumped on the spoon”, this thing
could light up the back tires and could go
like stink!! For me, it was love at first
sight, and I immediately knew what I
wanted MY first deuce to look like. It
would have to be fenderless, channelled a
whole bunch, and have a later model
flathead with a whole lot of “go” in it! It
wouldn’t be too long after my first
encounter with that car, that into my life
came MY first 5-window coupe, (car#2).(
car #1 would appear again, but this would
happen a few years later)!
I managed to acquire car #2 from a guy a
few years older than me, who also lived in
the west end of Edmonton! After towing it
home (it had no engine in it), I set about
channelling it, and removing the fenders
(just like the Stanford coupe,-- car #1.) I
went to the Texaco station on several
occasions to get measurements off the
Stanford car, and it was during this time
that Denny Stanford and I got acquainted.
I’m sure he was flattered to have this
younger kid asking him all these
questions about the car, and he was
always patient with me in answering the
many questions that I would throw at him
on those visits.
Stanford coupe was one of the few finished hot rods on Edmonton’s
streets in the early 50’s. Car was used as model for authors first
channeled deuce coupe.
Stanford photo
Denny Stanford and Car #2 circa 1952
Stanford photo
It was fortunate for me that my dad
owned the welding and machine shop, for
it made the channelling operation on my
coupe fairly simple. I had by that time,
acquired some of the necessary skills
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needed to channel the car, and if I were to
encounter any problems during the
construction, I knew I could always seek
some expert advice from dear old dad. I
swapped a pair of Model A roadster bodies
from the vacant lot “stash” of Model A’s”,
for some “as new” used speed equipment.
The deal included a set of Edelbrock
cylinder heads, a dual carb manifold with
rebuilt Holley carburetors, and the
complete throttle linkage, required to
make it work.
At this point, I figured that I was well on
my way to having a clone to the Stanford
car (car #1), however, I was now faced
with the fact that for me to continue
construction on this joy of my life, I would
have to spend some MONEY on big ticket
items like a decent engine and
transmission, new glass, some kind of
upholstery job, and paint (which would
probably just be some good old Red Oxide
primer). Other incidentals like tires,
battery, and new gauges, etc, I was pretty
sure I could always horse trade some of
my other newly accumulated “stuff” for.
This was all quite overwhelming for a 13
year old kid! I mean, up till now, I had
been able to trade and scrounge parts for
the various cars and parts which I now
possessed, but this MONEY thing I just
knew was not going to be as easy to
acquire! A kid in school would need a
pretty good part time job to earn this kind
of money, and after all you just couldn’t
quit school at 13, even though the thought
of doing so was at times certainly
attractive.
My life at this time was pretty good, and
the thought of spending time doing
tedious stuff like working part time , had
me simply putting the project on hold, at
least for awhile! So I just kept on doing
what I liked doing, wheeling and dealing
in cars and parts----and the job thing , well
it would have to come later----and what
the hell, ----for that matter, ----- so could
the hot rod!
Car #2 was channeled 5”. Parked for lack of funds, it formed a neat
backdrop for picture of authors younger brother and his pals circa
1953 Bob Cantin photo
So car #2 ended up being parked behind
my dad’s welding/machine shop, with the
much needed construction work coming to
a grinding halt---all because of the lack of
funds.
With the decision to temporarily park this
thing, my dreams of a cool channelled
deuce coupe hot rod were put on hold for
the next couple of years. The closest thing
to owning a REAL hot rod for me, was to
trek down to that Texaco station and drool
over the Stanford coupe! Later that year,
Denny Stanford would hire me to wash
and wax that little beauty, a weekly chore
I eagerly looked forward to. About all I
was able to afford at this time on my
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meager weekly allowance, was the
monthly editions of Hot Rod, Car Craft,
and Motor Trend magazines. From these
publications, I learned about dropped
front axles, hydraulic brake conversions,
and hopping up the popular Ford and
Merc flat head V-8’s. They contained lots
of pics showing how to chop, channel,
section, paint and weld up the various
body panels, while making some of these
modifications. Hell, it all looked quite
easy----all I was going to need, was---- that
damn MONEY thing—(the tools and shop
stuff as I’ve mentioned before, I was
already fortunate enough to have ready
access to)!
Enter into my young life, 1932 Ford(car
#3). I saw it parked on the street just
down the block from my parents home, it
was the summer of 1956. There were some
older guys standing around talking,---their focus was mainly on this 32 Ford
roadster. It was bright purple, full
fendered, had a 3 carb manifold, chrome
air cleaners, and a good old C59A Merc V8 engine. It seems these older guys had
just rented the big 2-stall garage behind
the house the car was parked in front of.
Then I noticed that 2 of the 3 guys were
wearing car club jackets with “Drifters
West Edmonton” crests on the back! The
roadster was stunning to say the least,
and as I approached them, I could hear
that these guys were talking some serious
hot rod talk! I heard for the first time in
my life, terms like 3 and 5 by 4,(which is
flathead talk for an engine that is 3 5/16”
bore by 4”stroke)---1007B Isky camshafts,
and “hey kid, get your ass away from that
car”. Yep, these were the guys that ended
up teaching me about hot rod “stuff” in the
years to come! And they not only taught
me hot rod “stuff”, but as it turned out, all
3 of these guys would become lifelong
friends in the process---a bond that all
started with our mutual admiration for 32
Fords!!
The older guy that owned that roadster
was a guy they called “Racer Ray”. Seems
he was well known in the Edmonton area
for building hot flatheads. Ray would later
in the year win the Alberta Provincial
Drag Race Championships----(an event
that was held for the first time that year
(1956). This event took place at the old
Shepard abandoned air strip, just south of
Calgary). It was the first year for
organized drag racing in Alberta, and yep,
he won that event driving that same
purple flathead powered deuce roadster!
In doing so, he was pitted against several
other hard core hot rods that were there
for the event.
Racer Ray worked for the original Ford
Engine Rebuilders shop in west
Edmonton, and he always had what
seemed like an endless supply of
“hardcore” internal flathead parts. He
owned the first Scintilla-Vertex magneto
set up for a flathead ever seen in the
province (an item I eventually would
purchase, and an item I still have). He had
raced and blown up more flathead engines
than my young mind at that time could
imagine. I remember him being so very
upset after blowing up one of his “killer”
engines, one that had a rare POTVIN
ELIMINATOR camshaft in it! Some say
these camshafts were probably the finest
camshafts ever developed for the old
flatmotors, but personally, I think that
Isky’s 404 radius tappet “Constant
Acceleration” camshaft (which I later ran
in my flathead dragster) was a whole lot
better. Yep, old Racer blew that engine so
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hard, that the camshaft ended up in 3
pieces---the block literally exploding when
it cratered! He kept those 3 pieces of
camshaft for several years, proudly
displaying them whenever the subject
came up! I doubt that the engine had 200
miles on it at the time of it’s demise, and
the camshaft pieces were all that he was
able to salvage from it!
Ray was the guy that would teach me
about offset grinding the Merc 4”
crankshaft to end up with a 4 1/8” stroke.
He showed me how to change rods and
install full floating bearings on the
reground crankshaft. I learned how to
drill the lifter bosses, enabling me to use a
nail to set the Johnson adjustable lifters,
(eliminating the use of those horrible little
curved wrenches that were so difficult to
use)! He also showed me how to install
larger intake valves, which he said would
help the old flatmotor breathe a little
easier. Finally, he helped me port and
relieve one of my first flathead blocks,
which he assured me would help make the
big valve swap really work! All this
“classified” information Racer fondly
referred to as his “Speed Secrets”--- (some
serious information and tricks these old
guys seemed to guard quite jealously).
This knowledge he assured me would be
helpful in winning---or perhaps losing
THAT big race against one’s rival’s
worked over “piece”. If you were careful
while drag racing on the street, and knew
about when to shift, you might just be able
to keep your favorite flatmotors innards
intact!
Over the years Racer Ray managed to
share most of these “speed secrets” with
me and a couple of my close buddies. To
this day I’m still not quite sure why he did
this, but what the hell, the information
was FREE---so I took it!! A lot of this
information I still find most useful, and I
have to say that it certainly has worked
for me, because after many years of racing
Old Henry’s flatmotors, I never ever, blew
one up, even though they would get revved
to 6 thousand rpm plus! This was an rpm
range that wasn’t supposed to be
attainable with a flathead, however, I still
remember a famous little flathead rhyme
of the era that we often quoted:
A Man is a man who fights with a sword
Or conquers Mount Everest in snow
But the bravest of all drives a 32 Ford
And tries for six thousand in low!
“Racer” Ray Legris and the purple 32 roadster circa 1956. Chopped 34
coupe belonged to Jim Dykes. The coupe ran a rare set of Elco Twin cylinder
heads. Author still has these heads in his collection of flathead speed parts
T.Lauder photo
The second one of those original guys
wearing a Drifters jacket, was a guy
named Richard “Red” Chevalier. He too
owned a deuce,-- his being a bright red 3window coupe, a car which I would
eventually end up owning! It was a car
with an interesting past---- and as it
would turn out, would have an even more
interesting future! “Red” went on to open
the first real speed shop in the Province of
Alberta (Pioneer Automotive in
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Edmonton), a venture which was actually
an extension of his fathers existing auto
repair shop. Richard also built Edmonton’s
first REAL dragster, (a blown Chevrolet
gas car), which his brother Ross drove.
Our car club later bought the chassis from
this race car from Richard. We would
team up with Freddy Ladwig, a successful
drag racer from Red Deer, (a small city
south of Edmonton), in running
Edmonton’s first top-fuel dragster,---but
this didn’t happen till a few years
later(1965-67.)
After proving he had the fastest
accelerating car in the province in the fall
of 1956, Racer Ray put the word out that
he was going to sell the purple roadster.
He wanted to build a 31 Model A roadster
pick up that he had tucked away, and
would need some cash to complete it. A
school chum of mine, a guy named Denny
Arnold, had just inherited some serious
cash from his grandmothers estate, was
looking for a fast sporty car. An
introduction to Racer Ray was made, and
a new hot rodder was about to make the
scene! Racer Ray’s deuce (car#3) would
soon become a part of my life over the next
few years. Denny Arnold l went on to work
as a stuntman in the movies, and was
later inducted into the Hollywood
Stuntman’s Hall Of Fame. He worked in
many Hollywood movies, becoming close
friends with guys like Burt Reynolds and
Charlton Heston, and ended up marrying
well known actor Slim Pickens’ daughter!
Denny hired me to rebuild the roadster
into a showcar, still wanting to retain it’s
“ass hauling” capabilities(a reputation the
car had already earned). I have written a
couple of stories about Denny and I, and
our various adventures in that car, and
like so many of those early hot rods that
graced my life, this car too would manage
to survive the many owners/builders that
would own it over the next few decades.
The last known owner of the roadster has
had it stored away for over 25 years, but I
have to admit that I’ve lost track of it’s
exact current whereabouts. Rumours
though have it parked in a warehouse
somewhere in the Edmonton area!
The ultra rare Elco Twin cylinder heads on Jim Dykes’ 1934 Ford coupe.
Unique heads have 2 spark plugs per cylinder, used Nash distributor and
dual coils
Lauder photo
While rebuilding the Arnold roadster (car
#3), I purchased another 5-window coupe
from a farmer west of Edmonton, (car#4). I
discovered the car while deer hunting, and
the purchase price on this one was a whole
$25.00! The car was by 1957 standards
fairly inaccessible. The farmer that owned
it had removed the engine, transmission,
and the complete undercarriage, parking
the remains of it on top of a small hill, a
short distance from his house. None of us
had car trailers back then, and without
wheels, moving the car was an almost
impossible task. With the farmers
permission, I simply chose to cannibalize
the car right where it sat.
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I needed to rebuild the original frame on
the roadster(car #3), so I ended up
removing the frame from this otherwise
pristine little coupe. One weekend, my
buddy and I loaded the frame onto my
dad’s Jeep truck, and took it home! The
coupe had a nice set of fenders on it, so
they too, along with the bumpers, gas
tank, and rear frame covers were also
removed and loaded up. Over the next few
years, I would get other needed parts from
the little donor coupe, the dash board and
instrument panel being the last items to
be removed.
I had almost forgotten about that car until
the fall of 2002, at which time I returned
to that same farm to see if it was still
there, only to find out that the farm had
been sold! The new owner remembers his
kids friends removing the car body, and
taking it to the small town located about
10 miles south of his farm. He said they’d
planned to take it to the high school,
where with the help of the shop teacher,
had hoped to build a hot rod. Well,----hopefully the remnants of the car did get
rebuilt, and maybe ended up being
someone’s new ride in the latter part of
the 20th century! I wondered what it might
have ended up looking like, or if it had
even made it to that stage. Either way,
car#4, was gone from my life,---or was it!!
Author figures this coupe to be the same one as car#4 in story.
Car is missing the exact same parts that were removed from it in
the late 50’s.
Present owner said the car came from the same area that the
author had originally found it
Bob Cantin photo
In 2001, I came across a 5-window coupe,
about 5 miles from my acreage. It was
sitting in amongst some used farm trucks,
next to a small river. A closer look
revealed that it was missing all the exact
parts that I had removed from car #4. The
body was sitting on a Dodge Dart chassis,
and hadn’t been worked on in years. I
tracked down the owner, who told me his
dad had bought the car from some kids
from the same small town that the farmer
had said it had gone too many, many
years before. I’m pretty sure it’s the same
car, and if so, it’s another example of a
true survivor! I hope that one day soon, it
too may finally get rejuvenated by some
ambitious Ford enthusiast.
An interesting side note to the Denny
Arnold roadster story, was that Denny
had bought the roadster with money his
grandmother had willed to him. He bought
the car from Racer Ray without his
parents knowledge, using some of that
money. After I had the car basically
rebuilt (it was all done except for paint
and upholstery), Denny’s dad somehow
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found out about the car (which Denny had
kept stored at my house, while the rebuild
work was being performed). The fact that
Denny had “blown” part of his inheritance
on this damn old car, infuriated the senior
Arnold, and some serious lectures to the
both of us soon followed. I of course got
blamed for getting his boy interested in
these damn old cars, with the end result
being the proverbial brown stuff hitting
the fan. Shortly afterwards the senior
Arnold “took possession” of the nearly
finished roadster, and then to add insult
to injury, the old man up and sells the car
to a couple of our hot rodding archrivals’
father! This guy was the head of the
newly installed Ford Plant in West
Edmonton, and his two sons, well, they
had been constant pains in our backsides,
especially when it came to hot rods! They
too had been building some hot rods, and
as they had much deeper pockets than we
did, they had a serious edge in the quality
of the cars they were building. We tried
hard to try and forget the fact that these
two guys might soon be driving the much
prized roadster probably just as quickly as
they could get their grubby little hands on
it. We were spared the humiliation
though, for before they got to pick the car
up, their dad got transferred to Ontario.
The two sons were going to go back east
with him, so we figured it was good
riddance to all of them! The cherry deuce
roadster would end up accompanying
them on the long trek across Canada to
Oakville, Ontario! We figured that “being
out of sight” would be as good as “being
out of mind”, and although we were both
saddened by the loss, we decided to try
and forget the car, the 2 sons, and
concentrate on getting on with our lives!
Well, about a year later (it was going to
be Denny’s 18th birthday), his old man has
a change of heart, and buys the car back
for Denny’s birthday! The details of this
little transaction were never disclosed,
and we never asked. We were informed
however, that the car had never been run
since leaving Edmonton, and was in
storage somewhere in Ontario! This was
great news for us, for at least the two sons
wouldn’t have had a chance hurt anything
on the car! I thought it was real cool of his
dad to go to the trouble to buy the car
back, (maybe guilt pangs were haunting
him) however, the car was in Ontario, and
we were now faced with getting it shipped
back to Edmonton. After shopping around,
it was discovered that the cheapest
method of getting it back to Edmonton,
would be to ship it by flatcar via CN rail.
So, the arrangements got made, and the
car was loaded on a CN flatcar, for the trip
west. Here’s this really neat 32 roadster,
dressed up engine, no hood, lots of chrome
stuff everywhere, a neat custom hand
formed chromed grille insert, no
convertible top, and it’s all sitting in the
open on a CN flatcar! Remember in those
days, railroads didn’t use sideboards or
screens to protect automobiles while being
shipped. A week or so later, we got the call
to pick the car up at CN’s Edmonton
freight sheds. Much to our surprise, the
only thing we could find missing was the
car’s windshield! We felt mighty lucky
that no one had used the car for target
practice while enroute, for they could have
used either rocks or guns on the roadster
as it sped by, but there it was in pretty
much the same condition as we’d last seen
it, without a scratch on it!
A 32 roadster windshield in 1958 was
about as rare as a set of hen’s fangs, and I
suspect the only reason whomever took
Page 11 of 37
the windshield, was that it was the easiest
chrome piece to remove from the car.
Denny was forced to drive the car without
a windshield, for the rest of the several
years he owned the car. He was always
optimistic that he would be able to find a
replacement, but sadly that never
happened.(remember there were no repros
available in those years).
I remember Denny and one of his other
pals, driving the car to Spokane,
Washington from Edmonton, in 1960.
They put some 1500 miles on the car on
that trip, and they did it without a
windshield or a convertible top!! Must
have brought a whole new meaning to the
phrase “bugs on the teeth”, and they were
also very lucky not to encounter any
rainstorms on the trip! The hopped up
flatmotor never missed a beat, although
the trio of 97 Stromberg carbs occasionally
liked to flood, a situation brought on by
the use of a healthy electric fuel pump.
I was driving a channelled 31 Ford
roadster at the time, which I had named
“Lil Mau Mau”, ( named for it’s deep black
lacquer paint job). It’s windshield was
chopped, and although it was different, we
found that the Model A windshield would
sorta work on the deuce. Whenever Denny
had a date that was worth impressing, he
would come by my place and put “Mau
Mau’s” windshield on the 32 for the
evening,-- hopefully returning it the next
day .That chopped windshield made the
32 look pretty mean, but with or without
that windshield, it was no understatement
to say that this purple puppy could-- and
did “haul some serious ass”! Somehow that
32 roadster never managed to hurt the one
really weak link in these things all
powerful, that of course being Henry’s
puny 3-speed transmission! Ford
transmissions were notorious for blowing
low and second gear, this usually
occurring after you had hung a serious
shift from low to second gear. Many a
night after some serious street racing, you
could get to drive home with one of those
damn Ford transmissions going “clang,
clang, clang. High gear was the only safe
option, and one hoped and prayed that
loose teeth, which were now lying in the
bottom of the transmission case, wouldn’t
get picked up by spinning transmission
gears!
Bob Cantin’s “Lil Mau Mau” Ford roadster was a
common sight on Edmonton streets in the late 50’s and
early 60’s. Car ran hot flathead engine, saw lots of drag
race action
Dahlmer photo
In 1958, I was able to buy the old Denny
Stanford coupe (#2). It had traded hands
several times by then, and was now
painted red. Someone had moulded a set
of rear fenders to the body (doing a very
nice job), and extending the rear pan
below the trunk. They had incorporated
the dual exhaust pipes into this panel,
mounting a set of 50 Pontiac taillights in
Page 12 of 37
the same panel. The hopped up flathead
engine was now almost worn out, God only
knows how many miles had been put on
the car since Denny Stanford had built it.
The coupe racing Dan Sorenson’s DeSoto powered T- pick up at
Edmonton’s International airport circa 1959 Bob Cantin photo
Stanford car featured in CARS magazine 1965
Chalmers Photo
All the speed goodies were still there, and
best of all, the price was right---$150.00!
So car #2 would become car #5 in the story
of my 32’s. (This car would eventually
change hands many more times, each new
owner adding even more modifications
and mechanical improvements to it)
Denny Stanford car now with rear fenders added. Car was in
primer getting some new mufflers. Photo taken circa 1958, behind
Bob’s house
Dahlmer photo
While I owned (car #2/5) I rebuilt the
flathead, boring it to 3 3/8”, and installing
a 4” crank, giving it a healthy 286 cubic
inches. I had just got started to do some
work on the steering and brakes, when
good friend Billy Orchin comes along with
his pocket full of money, with a desire to
own a channelled 32 Ford coupe. As I had
a few other projects on the go, I was quick
to accommodate him. And so deuce #2/5
would go to a new home, although again,
not out of my life,- at least not yet! I
helped Bill get the car basically finished,
and except for paint, (it still had a decent
upholstery job), he started driving it. The
coupe was a pretty strong runner, and old
Billy had lots of “clutch off” action during
the few months he did drive it. Then for
some reason, Richard Chevalier, decided
he too wanted the coupe real bad, and
surprisingly, Billy just up and sold it to
him! A guy named Al Trammel bought it
from Richard a few months later,---- with
Richard never ever really driving the car
much!
Trammel repowered the little coupe with a
hopped up 283 Chev V-8. Overhead valve
V-8’s had just begun to replace the trusty
old flatheads, and the local auto wreckers
Page 13 of 37
hadn’t yet accumulated very many of the
relatively new Chev V-8’s. Trammel
considered himself lucky to find an engine
at the wreckers, and snapped it right up.
$200.00 seemed like a lot of money at the
time for an engine, but after all, the
engine was only a year old! The swap
retained the original Ford transmission, a
standard practice in those early Chev/Ford
conversions. Trammel figured his new
ride, with that newer overhead V-8 was
unbeatable, for he was constantly
bragging how fast this thing was! As it
was Trammel’s first hot rod, he really
wouldn’t have had much to compare it to,
his mother’s new Cadillac would have
been a slug compared to the coupe’s
performance.
One night in 1960 as I was heading home
driving “Lil Mau Mau”, (which was still
flathead powered). The roadster’s engine
was now equipped with some of MY “speed
secrets”. It was sporting a new C&T
stroker kit (296 cu. inches), an Isky
400JR. camshaft, the Vertex magneto, and
dual carburetors. It was 2am in the
morning, and what pulls up along side me
at a traffic light, but Mr. Trammel and his
Chev powered deuce (my old car # 2/5) At
this hour of the morning, there really
wasn’t any traffic around, however I was
reluctant to “have a go” with him, even
though he was urging me on to do so! It
wasn’t that I was afraid of being beaten by
a car with a newer generation of engine, it
was just that both the cars by now had
become well known in and around
Edmonton. I figured an encounter with
the local constabulary at that time of the
morning, wasn’t exactly on my list of
things to do that night!
We were both heading west on 107th
avenue in Edmonton’s west end, and 2
blocks ahead of us, the road had some
turns in it, where it wound through a
large cemetery. Not exactly what you’d
call an ideal site for a drag race! What to
do,-- I’ve got this guy yipping and yapping
about how hot his new overhead valve
engine is, and how he could, in a
heartbeat, beat my “old water boilin”
flatmotor ! I figured I’d better save face
and oblige him, with both of us agreeing to
shut off just about where the road
straightened out,-- which was about a
quarter of a mile ahead! The light turned
green and away we go! Trammel who was
relatively new to the world of street
racing, didn’t realize just how quick a good
flatmotor could get launched. The roadster
quickly jumped a car length ahead of him,
my tach was reading nearly 6 grand, when
I shifted into second. The coupe was still
in low gear, and was starting to sound like
it might hurt itself. About this time
Trammel shifted,---and over the scream of
both engines, I heard this tremendous
“bang”. Suddenly I was all alone, with the
little flatmotor still pulling hard in second
gear! I got off the “spoon” and started to
slow down, for I was now approaching the
straight stretch of road beyond the
graveyard turns. I knew HE must have
blown something major, for the roadster
was still pulling hard and sounding good! I
figured it must have been his new Chev
engine that had “come apart”,-- cuz that
really was a loud bang!
I got turned around, and slowly retraced
my course. There parked next to the curb
a couple of blocks back under the street
light, was my poor old deuce coupe, (car
#2/5). A huge pool of oil was underneath
the car, with a very disgruntled Mr.
Trammel mumbling something about
“goddam flatheads” and Ford *!**
transmissions!. He then actually had the
Page 14 of 37
nerve to ask me if I could tow him home!
He didn’t want to leave his broken pride
and joy sitting on the side of the road
overnight, especially in the middle of a
damn graveyard!
Being the true gentleman that I was, I
would kindly oblige him. I had to go home
and get my flathead Merc powered Jeep
(which I had nicknamed “Gillis”), to tow
him home. Trammel lived with his
mother in the “posh” district on top of the
river bank near Edmonton’s Government
House, so I wouldn’t have to tow him very
far to get him home. About 2 blocks from
his house, a police cruiser stopped us and
asked what we were up to. Seems the
young cop that stopped us was mostly
interested in our 2 interesting vehicles, for
he neglected to even ask us for our drivers
licenses or registrations. After a short
informative chat (at least for him), we
proceeded on to Trammel’s house,-- trying
to be quiet, for we didn’t want to wake any
of the neighbors.
Well, the old flathead had done real good
“blowing off” Trammel’s new Chev V-8,
and I was feeling pretty good as I drove
home. I knew I would have some serious
bragging rights for at least the next
month, and I was hoping my win would
help shut Trammel up!
The little coupe got a new transmission
the following week, and as I suspected,
things were REAL quiet from the
Trammel camp. As for me---well--!!
My gesture of goodwill that night, would
in the near future pay off big time for me,
for it would be Mr. Trammel, who would
be selling me the remnants of a very nice
deuce three window coupe, and at a very
affordable price (thank you in advance--Mr. Trammel)!!!
Well known drag racer and hot rod
builder, Geoff Goodwin, owned the
channeled coupe (#2/5) for a while,
repowering it yet again with a Y block
Ford engine of 312 cubes. Dragster chassis
builder, Wally Protz bought the car a
couple of years later, removing the Y block
Ford, and repowering it with another
Chev V-8 ! Wally had the car for a few
years, showing it at various car shows in
Alberta and Saskatchewan. I guess he
must have gotten tired of it too, for he
ended up selling it to a guy who he thinks
lived in or around Winnipeg. Sadly, none
of us have seen the car since! It was a
great little car, and I just hope someone
out there is having as much fun with it
today, as we all did back then!
Car #6 has a most fascinating history
indeed! Of all the 32’s in my life, this
was/is my all time favorite! The car came
to Edmonton from Oakville, Ontario about
1954. I was in my high school parking lot
one day when it came cruising by, driven
by an older dude, who as it turned out
lived only 2 blocks north of the school. I
managed to find out the owners name, a
nice older guy (of course any one over 25
was considered old), named Bill Chisholm.
Bill was a professional musician, who was
usually home during the day, mainly
playing his gigs at night. When I knocked
on his door, (I had skipped a class from
school that afternoon), he politely
informed me that the car wasn’t for sale, -- it was his daily driver! He told me that
while he was still living in Oakville, he
had driven the car to Los Angeles, and
had the almost new C69A Canadian
flathead hopped up by a famous engine
builder down there, and that he’d just
never ever consider selling the car---end of
Page 15 of 37
conversation,--- nice talking to you young
fella!
Pictures in a recent OLD AUTOS
newspaper article, show the coupe, (circa
1954) drag racing another deuce coupe at
Ontario’s famous Cayuga drag strip. I
assume it was Bill Chisholm driving it!
first piece of asphalt to get used for drag
racing in the late 50’s in the Province of
Alberta. It was here in those early years,
that a dozen or so hardy souls would line
up and “clutch off” against whoever, and
driving whatever, that showed up that
particular day! There was no real timing
equipment involved, a guy at the finish
line with a red flag would simply
designate the winning car by waving the
flag in the winning cars lane. This method
would declare the winner only, no speed or
elapsed times were recorded . A genuine
set of Chrondek timing clocks wouldn’t
show up until a few years later.
My favorite 32 of all time, seen here drag racing at Cayuga’s drag strip
circa 1954. Owner Bill Chisholm would bring car to western Canada in
1956. Hot flathead engine was built in Los Angeles. Coupe had unusually
small cowl lamps, making it easily identifiable. Same lamps are still on
the car today
OLD AUTOS photo
It was a nice original 3-window, had all
body and paint work done, sporting 40
Ford hydraulic brakes, and 4” dropped
front axle. The hopped up flathead was
286 cu. inches, had tri-power, Hellings air
cleaners, and Edelbrock aluminum heads.
The original upholstery in the car, was
still like new!!
Well, as the man once said---“nothing is
forever”, because less than a year later,
my old buddy, Richard Chevalier shows up
driving the Chisholm deuce coupe!
Richard, as I mentioned earlier, belonged
to the then fledgling “Drifters-West
Edmonton” hot rod club. He, along with
fellow club member “Racer Ray Legris”
and a few other hard core hot rod club
members, would make the 180 mile trip
south to the Shepard drag strip, located a
few miles south of Calgary. Shepard, was
an abandoned WW2 air strip, and was the
Richard Chevalier and coupe on way to drags in Calgary
circa 1957
Lauder photo
In 1959, Richard sold the 3 window to a
guy named Jack Ondrack, who would later
become a successful sports car racer. Jack
didn’t want the coupe’s killer flathead
engine when he purchased the car, so
Richard got to keep the custom Californiabuilt flathead engine. He put it in the
cherry 39 Ford 2-door Deluxe that he took
as part payment from Ondrack for the
deuce. Ondrack put a stock 283 Chev with
tri-power in the coupe, keeping the
original Ford trannsmission and 32 rear
end intact. The car showed up one day at
my dad’s machine shop, to have a set of
Page 16 of 37
motor mounts for the new Chev engine,
and a custom generator mount to relocate
the generator installed. When the
installation was completed, Ondrack drove
the coupe to Calgary twice to race it at
Shepard, both times blowing up the puny
32 rear end!
When it was running the car ran real
strong, however, Ondrack wasn’t
impressed with cars that broke parts and
had to be towed home, ---especially when
it was the 180 miles back home to
Edmonton from Calgary! So it was right
after the second rear end blew, that the
car got sold to my old friend---Al Trammel!
To this day, I’m not sure just what it was
that prompted Al to dismantle the coupe, --but dismantle it he surely did! There was
not a nut, bolt or a screw on that car that
he didn’t take apart. Scattered about on
his mother’s garage floor, was this once
fine 32 coupe, all in a zillion pieces! Al put
the word out that the car was for sale--(piece by piece), but by the time I heard of
the sale, half of the car had been sold off!
Another west end guy was building a
channeled 5-window coupe, and had given
Trammel $400.00 for the complete, rolling
chassis! For $400.00 the guy got a cherry
frame, the 4” dropped axle, hydraulic
brakes, the 283 Chev V-8, a 39 Ford
tranny with Lincoln gears, and a 32 rear
end that was “hatched”. It all rode on a
nice set of 15” wheels with wide whitewall
tires. Wow, that was a big dollar for hot
rod stuff in 1959!---So “what’s left” I
asked? Well, scattered about the garage
was this sorry looking 3 window coupe
body (stripped even of it’s pristine
upholstery). Several other guys had been
over to look at it, but had passed on it,
saying it wasn’t worth the asking price, as
it didn’t even have a frame under it!
Trammel had paid $600.00 for the
complete car and had figured that by
parting it out, he’d easily be able to double
his money. By the time I got there, I think
he was quickly beginning to realize that
this wasn’t going to happen! So, a deal
was struck, and car #6 came into MY life!
For $200.00 I bought the totally
dismantled, but still complete deuce coupe
body, along with a decent frame Trammel
had found lying out behind his garage. It
took 3 pick up truck loads to get all the
stuff home, and after unloading it all, I
stacked everything behind my parents
house.
Bill of Sale dated 1959, shows purchase of bare body and frame, all that
was left of original Chisholm coupe. Over the next 2 years, author rebuilt
car, finally putting it back on the road in 1963
Bob Cantin
photo
Over the next 2 years, I was able to obtain
another 32 rear end, a set of 15” wheels
and tires, and a new I-beam 4” dropped
axle. By the summer of 1962 I had the car
Page 17 of 37
reassembled and looking like a deuce
again. The only thing missing was an
engine, and that too was about to come my
way---in a rather unusual way!! In 1963,
Chevrolet introduced a 340 hp version of
their 327 cubic inch engine! There were 3
crate engines of this model sold in
Edmonton by the local GM truck dealer,
Western GMC. One of these was sold to
old friend Richard Chevalier, who would
supercharge it, and install it in a new
dragster. The second engine was bought
by a guy named Earl Lewis who would put
it in his 56 Pontiac, and the third engine
was bought by an unknown guy in town
named Billy Matheson!! Yep, turns out to
be the same Billy “floppin in the net”
Matheson that currently writes a bimonthly column for the popular Calgary
Foothills Street Rod Associations
newsletter. Billy had bought and paid the
big dollar for this engine (remember this is
1963). He had Pioneer Auto install a set of
Gotha rocker arms, an Edelbrock tripower complete with chrome air cleaners,
and of course had the Corvette valve
covers polished! He had planned on
putting the engine into his 40 Ford coupe,
but after he had bought the add ons, he’d
simply run out of coin!!!
The engine sat in Pioneer Automotive’s
show room for a few months, but
apparently no one could afford the price of
$1600.00! Sitting next to it for sale for at
least 2 years, was an Ardun engine, --complete with a Norden 180 degree crank.
A nice runner it had been freshly removed
from a local stock car racer, and placed in
the showroom for sale. It too, couldn’t even
fetch the $750.00 asking price! After all,
it was really just a trick flathead with a
fancy set of heads, and in 1963, who in
hell wanted flathead stuff? The Ardun
engine belonged to well known circle track
racer, Eldon Rasmussen. Eldon had
recently replaced the Ardun with a Chev
V-8 in a car which he would race
successfully for a number of years at
Edmonton's International Speedway
Park. (Eldon would later go on to race at
Indy)
Page 18 of 37
Some interesting ads from popular Benchracer magazine from the early 60’s, showing the Denny Arnold roadster listed at $800.00. There were no
takers, ------probably because car was still flathead powered. Arnold installed a Hemi- DeSoto engine in the car to sell it! Ardun engine was a no sell at
$750.00. Price was dropped to $600.00, engine still didn’t sell! Race cars for sale in same ads didn’t list any prices, author remembers race cars cars
being bought for less than $2,000.00!
Page 19 of 37
One day, I get a phone call from old Billy,
and he’s wondering if I’d be interested in
trading my channeled 1931 Ford roadster
(Lil Mau Mau) for his new 327 Chev V-8
engine! I could keep the flathead that was
presently in the roadster, Billy would take
any flathead engine in the roadster as
long as it ran,---- stressing he had to have
the roadster running! So I’d end up with
the strong running flathead from the
roadster, and a new V-8 Chev engine,
Billy would get the keys to the roadster! I
would hate to see the old roadster go, for I
had seen a lot of action with the car! I had
even driven the roadster through several
winters, and although it had a pretty good
heater in it, it was still damn cold in there
on those sub- zero trips! I had often
thought that if I had a permanent roof
over my head and some roll up windows, it
might make winter driving a little less
challenging. So suddenly the deuce 3window coupe that I had squirreled away
in the back yard, looked like the logical
solution to the problem,--- plus,--- I would
have my choice of the two quite different
engines to repower the coupe with should
I choose to rebuild it. After some serious
deliberation, I grudgingly did the deal
with Billy. I was feeling sad the day he
came to pick the roadster up, and drive it
to it’s new home. He got a reliable little
show and race car, and me I got this damn
Chev V-8 engine that hadn’t even been
fired up yet!
We did the deal in the fall, so I knew I
would have the whole winter to get the
coupe finished in time for spring. I set my
mind on getting the coupe built in record
time, for I needed a new set of wheels
totally completed if I was going to make
the scene at any car shows in the coming
year!
A neighbour had just parted out a nice 51
Merc sedan that had overdrive in it. I
knew the rear end would have a set of 4:
27 gears, so I bought the complete rear
end and both leaf springs from him to
install in the coupe. No one at that time
had ever put a set of leaf springs under a
deuce,(at least not in my town), and so
with the help of good friend Dan Sorenson,
(whose dad also had a machine shop) we
installed the new style rear end and
springs under the coupe. The car sat just
right with the 4” dropped front axle, and
the Merc rear end and springs. A set of
8.20-15 boots in the rear, some 6.40-15’s
up front, and the chassis was about
finished.
Now came the time for me to choose a
tough transmission for the car. Sorenson
had a rebuilt 1937 Packard transmission
in his shop, so I bought it and we adapted
it to the standard Chev V-8 bellhousing. I
was quite sure this would cure any weak
transmission problems that I might
encounter by using an engine with as
much muscle as this mighty Chevrolet
was supposed to provide.
Page 20 of 37
All time favorite 32 3-window back together again in Edmonton car
show circa 1963. Car ran 340hp small block Chevrolet, Packard
transmission, 51 Merc rear end.------ With 4:27 gears, car was very
quick
Bob Cantin photo
I took the complete month of February off
work that winter to finish the new car. I
wanted it ready for the Red Deer Igniters
annual spring car show, which was held
every May. The night I fired the car up for
the first time, there was a small crowd of
well wishers on hand for the event. I was
encouraged to take it out on the back
street behind my shop, and “jump on the
spoon”. After all it was the first high
horsepower 327 in town, and the boys
wanted to see what this new powerplant
could do!!
I have to admit that new overhead
definitely sounded good as I idled the car
to the end of the street and got it turned
around. My main concern was whether the
new Packard tranny would be able to
handle all the horsepower this new V-8
was supposed to be capable of producing. I
took a deep breath, brought the R’s up a
little, then promptly changed feet! The car
leaped ahead, but before those 4.27 gears
could get to work, there was a horrendous
bang, a lot of dust,----- then nothing!!“ Yep,
I must have blown that damn Packard
tranny up”! I shut the engine off lest I
hurt anything, and got one of the boys to
tow me back to my shop. I steered the car
into it’s stall in the shop, while the
onlookers, (now turned car pushers,) were
chuckling up a storm. Although I was
embarassed to say the least, I couldn’t
help wondering just what in the world all
that damn noise was! A quick look
underneath and I discovered that the new
custom built driveshaft was missing! That
night I learned an important lesson while
running rear leaf springs,---- especially if
the car has a lot of horsepower! “INSTALL
A SET OF TRACTION BARS”!! -----Yep,
right there in front of all my pals, I blew
the damn driveshaft clean out of the new
hot rod, not a half block from my house!!
My trusty old flatheads had certainly
never done anything like that! I knew
that I was going to have to be careful for
awhile with this new car, for I was
certainly lucky this time, as I hadn’t really
hurt anything! The damage was minimal,
with the u-joint snapping off clean. I was
able to retrieve the undamaged driveshaft
from the street, where one of the guys had
found it laying next to the curb.
Authors favorite 32 coupe on street prior to being parked for some
30+ years. Picture taken circa 1976
McLaughlin photo
In 1963, there weren’t any factory muscle
cars to speak of on the street, and that
Ford coupe with those 4.27 gears, would
come off a green light like a bullet! Many
a Saturday night I would cruise the
streets of Edmonton looking for a little
action, but I think the cars reputation for
being fast must have preceded it, for I
could never find any action for it at all, ------well except for that one night!
A guy in town had a near new 62 Corvette
which he had just finished hopping up. He
Page 21 of 37
had bored the engine out to get 301 cubes,
installed a newer generation Duntov solid
lifter camshaft, and a Mallory dual point
ignition. By 1963 standards, this thing
was pretty darn fast! We happened to
meet up one night after leaving a party at
a buddies place. It was about 3 AM in the
morning, and he was most determined to
put my 32 coupe away in a race. I’m sure
he’d probably heard how quick my coupe
was supposed to be,---- and well, he did
have this near new Vette, -----and we all
know how fast a hopped up Corvette is
supposed to be,--- right?
I had my girlfriend with me, and it was
agreed that she would drop her scarf from
inside my car, thereby signalling the start
of the race! I suggested that as I was still
lacking a set of traction bars, (I hadn’t
installed any yet), the start would have to
be a rolling one. “No problem” was his
reply, a big grin on his face! We stopped in
the middle of 107th Ave, (again in
Edmonton’s west end), and checked both
ways for any traffic. With no other cars in
sight, my girlfriend drops the scarf, and
away we go! It was new Corvette against
old Ford coupe, both engines screaming!
We had run for a little over a quarter of a
mile, and when I looked in my rear view
mirror, I could see that the blue and white
Corvette was a LONG ways back!! I got on
the brakes to slow down, as I had one of
Edmonton’s infamous traffic circles
quickly approaching me. Moments later
the Corvette pulls up alongside my coupe,
and the driver yells at me---“Man I gotta
get me one of those 327’s”! And that was
that!!!---One damn good drag race with the
car and that engine, and the rest of the
time, the coupe was just plain old reliable,
everyday transportation. When I had it
completely finished, it turned out to be a
fine little show car! I never ever did put a
set of traction bars on the coupe, for I had
figured that without them, I wouldn’t be
breaking any more parts. It also
discouraged me from participating in any
more after- midnight street races!
The old coupe has been parked in this same garage since 1976. Car was
repowered in the 70’s with small block Ford.
Bob Cantin photo
A couple of years later, I was approached
by a guy who owned a low- miled 55 Chev- 2-door post. Seems he wanted the coupe
REAL bad, and would trade me the coupe
(less this wonderful 327 engine) for his
pristine little Chevy 2-door! I figured it
was maybe time for a change, so after
some deliberation, another deal got
struck! Again, I must say I was kind of sad
to see the coupe (car#6) go,--- for like the
roadster,---- I had also grown quite fond of
this car too! So what was to be my favorite
32 of all time, would be off to another new
owner!
I planned to put the still low-mile 327 to
work in the new full size Chev, after all, it
had the luxury of a back seat, room for
more than one passenger, and best of all,
it had a really good heater and 2
windshield wipers!
Over the next few years, the old coupe
changed hands several times, eventually
Page 22 of 37
getting repowered with a small block
Ford. A bright yellow paint job replaced
the Cardinal Red paint job that I had
painted it in 1963, and a new chocolate
brown leather upholstery job replaced the
black rolled and pleated interior that I
had been so proud of.
A couple of years ago, I decided to try and
track down the cars current whereabouts,
or at least see if I could find out what had
become of it! I figured if I were to be lucky
enough to find it again, who knows, it just
might be for sale, and maybe I could buy it
back!
After some lengthy detective work, I
ended up telephoning a man who was
quick to assure me that he indeed had
what sounded like the same car!! He told
me he had bought the car in the mid 70’s,
but had driven it very little. When his new
bride got pregnant, he had decided to put
the coupe away till his new family was
established, and some of the financial
burden of married life had eased up a bit.
Well, it seems the car got parked in his
mothers garage in 1976,--- it was still
there,--- and yes he’d be happy to meet me
next day and show me the car!! It took us
a few minutes to remove all the cardboard
boxes from atop what was soon to appear,
as a very bright yellow, 32 Ford 3-window
coupe! Although it was dusty from a
quarter centuries storage in that garage,
there it was,--- fully intact, ---looking
pretty much the way I’d last seen it,
almost 30 years ago!
He was grateful for the copies of the
various pictures I’d collected of the car
over the years, and until the day of our
meeting, he was not aware of much of the
cars previous history. As a matter of fact,
other than the previous owners account of
the car, he wasn’t aware the car even had
much of a history! He told me he wanted
to keep the car, and that he hoped to one
day get around to getting it running again.
He assured me though, that should he
decide to part with the old coupe, the
logical home for it would be in my garage!
This car is truly a survivor, for I know of
only a handful of hot rods in this province
that have remained in the same city for a
half century. The amazing thing about
this car, is that except for a basic color
change, it still looks pretty much the way
it did in 1957 when I had first seen it
cruising past my high school.
After I sold the coupe, my desire to be
driving a hot rod every day seemed to
wane a bit. With the freshly traded 55
Chev as my new mount, my energies were
soon directed towards another of my
unfullfilled passions----drag racing!!
Fellow hot rodder and good friend Ken
McLean and I, bought an unfinished
flathead powered dragster which had been
commissioned to be built by the then
defunct Roadents Car Club of Edmonton.
Old buddy Dan Sorenson had built the
chassis, and other than some minor work
to finish the chassis off, the car needed
only an engine, a body and some drag
slicks. Well, by then, I’d also acquired the
California built “killer” flatmotor that
originally came to town in the Chisholm
coupe (car#6), so it was a natural to find a
new home for it between the rails of the
new dragster. This flathead dragster
proved to be a reliable little car, requiring
very minimal upkeep. We were fortunate
not to break many parts in the 3 or 4
seasons we ran it. The D/dragster
designation was for dragsters with in-line
six and Ford flathead engines only. This
meant we were at the bottom of the
dragster pile so to speak, and major race
Page 23 of 37
meets would have us competing in Middle
or Competition Eliminator brackets. There
were a couple of meets however, where I
was pitted against some of the Top Fuel
guys running for Top Eliminator! It was
here that I was to learn what that “AMF”
painted on the rear of some of those
American cars meant! I had thought that
AMF stood for AMF Voit, a well known
American company, which manufactured
basketballs and various other sporting
goods supplies. Several of the top cars had
this “AMF”painted on the rear of the cars
bodies. When I had asked these guys, how
they had managed to get a large company
like that to sponsor their cars, they about
split a gut laughing! When they had quit
laughing, they explained the “sponsor”
abbreviation to me! The first 2 letters
stand for Adios, and mother. Your
imagination can fill in the last blank
space! I got to read that sign a few times
while racing a lot those American cars,
and I would chuckle everytime one of
them went thundering past me. I liked it,
so I had my sign painter paint the same
letters on my future race cars, optimistic
that someone behind me in a race, might
get to read those letters on MY sign. 40
years later and I still have those letters
painted on my current hot rods front
license plate!
Flathead dragster and crew circa 1964. Crew
members Bernie Fedderly and Terry Capp would be
later inducted into Canadian Motorsport Hall of
Fame. Capp’s Chev V-8 powered Ranchero was
push vehicle
Bob Cantin photo
I turned the controls of the little flathead
dragster over to an up and coming young
fella named Graham Light. Graham had
never drag raced before, and he would get
to cut his teeth driving that reliable little
car! Graham went on to be a world renown
Top Fuel car racer, and today is the Vice
President of NHRA’s racing operations.
D/Dragster in pits at Calgary’s Shepard Raceway. NHRA’s Graham
Light would later drive this car,----- his first ride!
Montgomery photo
The second dragster we built ran a blown
nailhead Buick engine, which we ran for
only one season. We then dropped in a
blown 392 Chrysler, and switched to
burning nitro methane. This engine had a
brand new Enderle fuel injection set up,
(most fuel cars were still running Hilborn
injectors), a 6-71 huffer, and a pretty good
load of nitromethane in the tank! Talk
about hp in a can! These were pretty scary
rigs to drive, for you could smoke the tires
from the starting line right on through the
traps! Of course the trick in getting there,
was in trying to keep the damn thing
Page 24 of 37
straight! Long wheelbase cars were just
beginning to make the scene, and with the
longer wheelbase, the driver had the
mechanical advantage in the length of the
chassis, to better steer the car. My car was
quite short, and seemed to prefer to try
and run off the track more than on it. I
think that destiny may have played a part
in my decision to retire from the sport in
1967, for up till then, I hadn’t experienced
any personal injury! A serious drive line
explosion though, had my co-driver losing
half his right foot on his third and final
pass for his fuel license. Seconds after the
drag chute was deployed, a safety shield
covering the driveline came loose,
mercilessly chewing away at his right foot!
As it was the end of the season, I parked
the car, selling off the chassis the
following year, ----never actively returning
to the sport!
Author smoking the hides with the top fuel car at Edmonton’s
International Speedwayin 1967. Driveline explosion retired car and
driver later that year
Edmonton Journal photo
Meanwhile, street rodding in the 70’s had
almost died out! There were very few new
cars getting built, and the sport was going
through it’s “resto rod” period. It seemed
the younger guys were buying “muscle
cars” from Detroit, and their focus seemed
to be mainly on drag racing them. With
my drag racing career behind me, I had
again set about picking up neat old Fords
and parts thereof. Throughout the 70’s, I
accumulated so many early Fords, that I
ran out of places to store them all. It was
during this time that I acquired several
more 32’s, and for the next decade or so, it
seemed like they were everywhere!
My dad’s welding/machine shop was a
popular hangout for many of the stock car
racers of the period. A seasoned circle
track racer, Duke Adzich, approached me
one day and asked if I could find him a 32
Ford coupe for his new circle track car. He
had just cut a deal with Prodor
Construction of Edmonton to sponsor him,
and the new car he wanted to build, was a
32 coupe! As fate for this next deuce(car
#7) would have it, I had just run across
this nice 5-window coupe sitting in a body
shop’s yard south of town. I acquired it
and traded it to Duke for a freshly hopped
up flathead that he’d built and never used.
His new car was to be updated with a 283
Chev motor, making the new flathead
surplus to his needs. I bought the coupe,
which cost me a whole $40.00, and made
the trade. I also knew that Dukes previous
sponsor had spent over $300.00 rebuilding
the flatmotor. It was a sweet deal for me,
and so the next weekend I hooked my
towbar on the coupe and dragged it home.
For the next few years I got some good use
out of that fresh flathead, running it in my
39 Ford 2-door deluxe. I can remember
watching Duke gas welding that cherry
trunk lid shut on the deuce coupe, and
then helping him gut the original pristine
interior, to make way for an unwieldy
looking roll cage! Car #7 became a stock
Page 25 of 37
car racer, and was yet another 5-window
coupe that I would own but for a short
period of time. It got painted Prodor
Construction Orange and Black, and after
just a couple of racing seasons, ended up
on someone’s scrap pile! Sadly to say,-that it was probably the only 32 that I
have owned, that actually got destroyed!
It was also during the 70’s that I was
concentrating most of my efforts in
establishing the family business. My dad
and I had joined forces, and were now in
the commercial diving, machine/welding
shop, and off-highway vehicle leasing
business. In the main shop, hanging on
the walls, was my collection of 32 Ford
grilles and grille shells! We had a lot of
“walk in” customers, and it was through
those grille shells (there were about 3
dozen of them) that new leads on more
32’s would be generated!
One of these customers had mentioned
that there was an old 32 Ford coupe
sitting next to a house just down the alley
from him on Edmonton’s south side. I was
there the next day to look at it, and it was
almost as the customer had described it!
Sitting next to a residential garage was a
mostly restored 32 3-window coupe. It had
a newer flat head engine in it, and was
complete save for a missing front seat!
Bodywork and paint had been finished,
and the coupe was pretty much ready to
drive. The young fellow doing the rebuild
on the car had decided to get married, and
yes, the car was for sale! Some money got
exchanged and 32 Ford coupe (car# 8) was
towed across the river to my shop. Again,
because of business commitments, that
coupe got parked in the yard along with
several others.
About the same time, another hot rodder
in Edmonton, called me to tell me that he
also had a complete full fendered 32 3-
window coupe (car #9), that he wanted to
sell. It was in his parent’s garage, and
$650.00 could relieve him of it. I made
arrangements to have a look at it, and
yep, parked there in his parent’s single
stall garage was yet another very pristine
little coupe. It had recently come north
from Calgary, where this guy had bought
it from. Someone in Calgary had
inspirations of building a hot rod and had
installed an Olds rear end and recessed a
radio antenna on the rear of the body.
Other than those two basic modifications,
the car was original and mint! Another
deal was struck, with the understanding
that I would return that following week
end to pick the car up, and pay him for it.
He indicated that there was no hurry, for
as the winter snows hadn’t receded from
the yard, he didn’t want me “chewing up”
the driveway while extricating the coupe
from his parent’s garage. I was of the
understanding that the deal was done, a
handshake had sealed it,-- or did it? Over
the years lots of my deals have been done
on a handshake, and as I knew this guy, I
figured he was credible. With this in mind,
I had gone home to wait for him to contact
me when the driveway was dry enough to
remove the car. My big mistake, as I soon
found out, was in not returning
immediately and paying him the agreed
upon sum for the car. Seems that he
wasn’t from the same school of honourable
horse trading as I was!
After a month of me waiting for THE
phone call, I decided to call him, only to be
informed that he’d sold the car to some
university student, (I later found out for
more money) a few days earlier. To say I
was pissed would be an understatement,
for as far as I was concerned, we had
consummated the deal! Over the next few
years, I found out that there were a few
Page 26 of 37
more of these dishonourable types that I
would encounter while buying and selling
old Fords.
3-window coupe #9, resting quietly in present owners garage. Car
was originally from Calgary,and was authors first encounter with a
“less than honourable” car owner. Present owner hopes to someday
build it as a street rod
Stew King photo
So car #9, was another 32 3-window coupe
that showed up in my life! This car I have
managed to keep track of over the years,-changing hands again a couple of times
before the current owner obtained it! The
amazing thing about this car, is that even
today, it too remains unchanged, never
really being touched since I had first seen
it, more than 3 decades ago! The present
owner has owned the car for more than 2
decades, and I tend to believe him when
he tells me that he’s intending to “one day
get around to rebuilding it”, a story I
guess we have all heard at one time or
another! I have tried on several occasions
to buy the coupe (car #9) from him, but he
just chuckles and says----- “Bob, stand in
line”! One couldn’t find a more pristine
coupe than this one, and I do hope he will
find the time and monies to complete this
very worthwhile project.
Cars #10, and 11, were another couple of
3-window coupes would add some color to
this next chapter of interesting cars in my
story! Car #10, I found by accident while
hunting pheasants one Saturday
afternoon, east of Red Deer, (a small city
in central Alberta). I was with my drag
racing partner Fred Ladwig, who owned
and wrenched-on the Chrysler engine in
the Top Fuel dragster I have mentioned
earlier. Sitting in this farmers yard was a
pretty decent 32 3-window coupe,
complete with a nail head Buick engine for
power! Seems the farmer’s son was
building the coupe as a hot rod, and had
got as far as installing this Buick engine
in it. The call of the bright lights had the
kid moving into the city and starting a
new job, putting the hot rod for the time
being on hold. The farmer politely told me
the car wasn’t for sale, and upon hearing
that, we carried on in our pursuit of the
wily pheasant! A couple of years later, I
was picking up a 35 Ford coupe, which I
had purchased in the same general area,
and thought I would check in to see if the
32 coupe was still there.
Well, the car was gone from where it had
been sitting in the yard, but I decided to
drive into the yard, knock on the door, and
at least ask about it! I had my tandem
trailer complete with this newly acquired
35 Ford coupe onboard. When the farmer
came to the door, he was more interested
in the coupe on the trailer, than he was in
inquiring as to what we wanted, stating
that he’d owned a coupe like it when he
was first married! When asked about the
3-window I had seen a couple of years
earlier, he stated that his son had given
up on it, and that to get it out of the front
yard, they had towed it across the road,
and parked it behind the pig barn. The
front fenders, hood, grille shell and fuel
tank had been removed for construction,
so he had decided to haul them to his
personal garbage dump, located on his
own property, a short distance away. We
Page 27 of 37
drove to the dump in his pick up truck,
where we loaded all the parts in the back
of his truck. Most of this discarded
sheetmetal was in excellent condition, and
I quickly found room for them on my
trailer for the trip back home! Oh yeah,
did I forget to mention it, but he GAVE me
the rest of the coupe too?
After loading and securing the new parts
on my trailer, I stopped for a soda pop
with him and his wife, and we had a nice
visit. I told him I would endeavour to get
back as soon as possible to pick the 3
window body up. He assured me that as
the car was out of sight across the road
and behind his old pig barn, there really
was no immediate hurry for me to pick it
up. He was right, it was indeed out of site,
for I figured the only way one could spot
this thing, would to be flying low in an
airplane! With this in mind, I went back
the next spring to pick up 32 Ford (#10).
As I got close to the turn in the road
approaching the farm, I was surprised to
see a new road allowance had been cut,
with the new road going straight ahead
instead of following the winding course
the original road had followed. The newly
surveyed road allowance had now cut
through what was once land occupied by
my recently acquired Ford coupe, that site
being just north of the farmer’s old pig
barn! Actually, the new road cut through
less than 100 feet from where I had last
seen the coupe, a bare patch of ground
marked the outline where it had been
parked. When asked the farmer said he’d
thought I’d come sometime during the
winter and picked the car up, evidently
not seeing who did pick it up! It could
have been a local junk snipe, or maybe
even someone on the road construction
crew with ambitions towards building a
hot rod! Either way, car # 10 was gone, the
only consolation for my efforts being a set
of fenders, hood, grille shell, and fuel tank.
I hope the car didn’t make it to a car
crusher for it’s scrap value, however as the
farm is several miles from the nearest
city, I somehow doubt it, the nearest
crusher being several miles away. I can
still visualize that little coupe sitting
behind that damn pig barn,--- out of
sight,--- no hurry to pick it up-------!!! “If
you should be reading this story, and did
pick that car up,----I just happen to know
a guy with some parts that might fit it!!!
Car #11, was another experience with one
of those dishonourable characters,
mentioned earlier. I had gone on a garage
tour with some members of our local
Antique Car Club, and it was the last stop
of the tour on a Saturday afternoon. We
had gone to a guy’s place with a large haytype shed, located on the outskirts of the
city. He had been buying and storing cars
in this building for several years, his
preference being for the larger cars like
Buicks, Cadillacs, Lincolns, etc. I
remember the tour group being excited
and looking forward to seeing the many
cars he’d said were in his collection! I
figured it would be a boring stop for me, as
I was of course interested mainly in old
Fords!
The cars were jammed so tightly in this
building that you had to literally crawl
over one car, to get to the next one. Most
of the tour members were content to just
stand in the small doorway, and gaze at
the collection, rather than having to crawl
over the dusty inhabitants for a closer
look. But to my amazement, there sitting
in front of the small man-door, was
another what appeared to be, very cherry
deuce 3-window coupe! The car appeared
to be complete and in an extremely well-
Page 28 of 37
maintained original condition. Stepping
outside with the owner, I asked him if he’d
be interested in selling the coupe, and was
surprised when he answered yes! He
stated that he’d sold the land and building
to a developer, and that come spring, he’d
have to vacate the property! Sadly, all the
cars in the building would have to be sold!
After a bit of haggling, we settled on a
price, and the deal was sealed with a
handshake. I had my business partner
with me that day, and he was witness to
the transaction. He too was interested in
buying one of the cars in that shed, a
customized 1939 Lincoln Zephyr
convertible, which was sitting just a few
cars away form the deuce! My partner had
recently finished restoring a 1941 Lincoln
Continental convertible, and was looking
for a new project to work on, hopefully
another Lincoln. He had wanted to get a
better look at the Zephyr convertible once
it was removed from the shed! The price
tag quoted for this rare convertible, was
certainly not cheap, and a closer look was
a must. I offered to give the guy a cheque
for the coupe the next day, as I didn’t have
my cheque book with me. He assured me
that he would feel better accepting the
money only after he’d removed the car
from the building! As the coupe was
sitting nearest the small man-door in the
building, it put it furthest away from the
sliding barn doors that were the only way
of removing it. Thus the coupe would be
one of the last cars in the collection to
make it out of the building. We would
keep in touch regarding the removal
progress, I even offered to give him a hand
moving the other cars out of the building.
I figured he could probably make use of
my tandem trailer and it’s heavy duty
electric winch in loading some of the other
cars, as they were all immobile.
About a month later, I was in our local
early Ford parts suppliers shop buying
some parts, when I spotted the same 3window coupe sitting in the back of the
shop! As this shop is close to my acreage
in the country, I figured the guy I’d bought
it from had kindly delivered it to that
shop, saving me a trip across town to pick
it up. Imagine my surprise when the parts
store owner informed me that he’d just
bought the coupe, and what the hell was I
talking about referring to it as MY coupe!
32- 3 window car #11 in local Ford parts dealers shop. Car was sold to
author on a handshake, then sold again for more money to local Ford
parts dealer. Car has been recently sold again, and is presently
undergoing a full body-off restoration
Bob Cantin photo
I told him the story of my buying the car
from this other guy a few weeks before,
and the conditions of the sale. Well, the
proprietor of this old Ford parts store got
pretty upset! Being an honorary gent and
not wanting to have any hard feelings
between friends and customers, he
immediately phoned this guy to find out
what was happening! After a brief
conversation, the owner of the shop
started chewing on this guy, and then
hung up! He told me that our guy had
stated that he’d decided sometime after we
had done the deal, that I was going to
Page 29 of 37
build a hot rod out of the car! With this in
mind, he supposedly decided to look for
another owner, one that would do the
honourable thing, and restore the car! My
parts supplier friend told this guy in no
certain terms, that if he had felt that way
about my owning the car and modifying it,
that he at least owed me the courtesy of a
phone call stating his reasons for backing
out of the deal! He also mentioned
something about he should be expecting a
thorough ass-chewin from yours truly!
Of course this guy knew I would be
building a hot rod out of the car when he’d
sold it to me! I found out later though,
that he’d offered the car to the parts
supplier after HE too had expressed some
interest in it. Turns out though, that the
new selling price was $1,000.00.00 higher
than what we had originally done the deal
at! The courtesy phone call, I of course
never got! I finally figured out that I’d
learned a hard lesson in buying desirable
old cars!! “After you have consummated
the deal,--- pay the man immediately! Get
your bill of sale, and leave,--- preferably
with the car”!
I’ve made a living over the years, buying
and selling equipment of all kinds, and I
firmly believe that you can only lose your
reputation once! This guy probably had
lost his long before I came along that day,
and I’ll have to say I was super pissed at
his actions in this deal! Later I had
silently cursed him for his two-faced
actions, but then simply got on with my
life, figuring that if I were to win a few,
then I’d probably have to lose a few!
Terry Capp’s chopped 32 pick up on starting line at Shepard Raceway,
Calgary, Alberta circa 1964
R.Vickers photo
Sadly to say, within a few months, the guy
was diagnosed with cancer, and died
within the year! The car eventually got
sold to a man in Edmonton for some big
dollars, and is presently undergoing a full
body-off restoration.
L to R: Terry Capp, Bernie Fedderly, “Chuff” Bramhoff. Chopped 32
pick up truck ran B/Gas with authors new 340hp Chev V-8 circa 1964.
Capp and Fedderly are now inducted in the Canadian Motorsport Hall
of Fame
Bob Cantin photo
I still had the low-mile, 340 hp Chev V-8
from deuce coupe #6 sitting in my shop. I
had decided I liked the way the stock
engine in the 55 Chev ran, and decided I
wanted to do something with the unused
Page 30 of 37
engine. Drag racing buddies Terry Capp,
and Bernie Fedderly, were running a
chopped, full fendered 32 pick up truck in
B/Gas class at the drags. The car had a
strong running 301 cu. inch small block
Chev, but it was getting a bit tired. I
offered to loan them the 327 engine from
the coupe to finish out the current drag
racing season while their 301 got
freshened up. Once again, but for but only
for a short time, I would have another 32
Ford in my life! This time though, it would
be in the form of a drag race car! With
Terry doing the driving , and Bernie
wrenching on the engine, the truck proved
hard to beat that season! The next season,
the pair set about building the soon to be
famous Capp/Fedderly Anglia gasser. This
crowd pleasing, wheel standing terror,
burnt up racetracks in the Pacific
Northwest for the next few years, and
then later switching to racing Top Fuel
dragsters. Terry Capp and Bernie
Fedderly were inducted into Canada’s
Motorsport Hall of Fame, and are both
still very active in drag racing today.
Terry is officially Canada’s fastest Top
Fuel jockey (319.37mph), and Bernie
Fedderly is co- crew chief (with Austin
Coil) on John Force’s Funny Car.
Terry kept the deuce truck in storage for
many years, finally deciding to sell it in
the early 80’s to a guy who put a V-6
Buick in it returning to driving it on the
street. I guess the old nostalgia bug maybe
caught up with Terry, for a couple of years
ago, he was able to buy the truck back.
2007 should see it on the street again,
sporting complete sheet metal restoration,
and a new contemporary hot rod chassis!
A new GM crate engine will power the
ride, and I expect we’ll see a lot more of
that truck in the years to come. Terry and
wife Rachelle, when not partaking in
major drag race events, still somehow
manage to find time to participate in
various rod runs in Western Canada.
Terry was recently fitted for a new and
exciting Top Fuel Funny car being built by
another Hall of Famer- Ron Hodgson. It’s
due to make it’s debut in this the 75th
anniversary of the deuce, so watch for it to
be burning up North American tracks in
the near future! Although I didn’t own this
vehicle, it did for a time keep my
association with 32’s alive. For purposes of
this article, I’ll refer to this deuce as
car#12. Again, another local 32 that has
endured the ravages of time!
In the sixties, I acquired two of the nicest
deuce 5-window coupes a man could ever
only dream of owning (cars #13 and 14)!it
was while driving to my shop in west
Edmonton that I had noticed a nice 5window coupe parked in the parking lot of
the old Charles Camsell Hospital(car#13).
It was parked in the middle of the
hospitals huge parking lot, where only a
keen eye constantly on the look out for
such old tin might spot this thing! It was
surrounded by some newer vehicles, but it
was pretty evident the car hadn’t moved
in months! At first I thought someone was
driving the little coupe to work at the
hospital, and it had simply broken down.
It appeared to have been recently
repainted, and had an amateur attempt at
reupholstering it, the new material being
a slippery sort of oil cloth! I had left my
business card on the windshield in hopes
of contacting the owner, but after a month
or so of waiting, no reply had come forth. I
decided take a more direct route, and
made some inquiries in the hospital itself.
It was here that I was informed that the
owner of that car had indeed worked at
the hospital, but had taken a new job
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elsewhere some months before, and no one
had seen him since. Worse yet, no one I
spoke to, seemed to know how to contact
the man.
So, I did what I should have done first. I
opened the unlocked drivers door, and
looked for a vehicle registration for the
coupe. It had a new set of antique Alberta
license plates on it, and sure enough,
there under the seat was the current
registration slip for the car, which
supplied me with an address. Well, the
timing was perfect, because after
contacting the man, he informed me that
he had no place to store the coupe, and yes
he would surely like to sell it! An
exchange of $300.00 was made, and a
Model B coupe got parked behind my
shop! The battery had been frozen while
the car was parked at the hospital, but
after installing a new 6 volt battery, the 4cylinder engine started right up. The
coupe ran well, and everything mechanical
turned out to be real tight. Only thing
wrong with this car was that it wasn’t a V8!
I didn’t have that coupe more than 2
months, when a customer told me of
another 5-window sitting in a garage,
about 10 minutes away from my shop(car
#14). The car belonged to a young banker,
who had recently been transferred to
Edmonton from Calgary, and that he was
in need of some money to help with his
relocation. I contacted the man, and met
him one Saturday morning to have a look
at what he had. Inside this old single stall
garage, sat yet another cherry deuce
coupe! It had been painted red oxide
primer, the odometer showed 38,000
original miles. Other than the primer job,
the car was basically untouched! The
owner while living in Calgary had taken
the rear fenders off to clean and primer
them, and when finished, had stored them
in his bedroom,---- at the foot of his bed.
He said his reason for doing so, was to
decrease the chances of them being
stolen,--- they really were that nice! A
new battery, and a fuel pump, and the
little 21 stud V-8 flathead engine fired
right up! The engine puffed a little white
smoke out the tailpipe, but other than
that, it ran like a champ!
Cars #13 and 14, a matching pair of original deuce coupes! Car on left is
4-cylinder Model B, car on right has aluminum oil panned V-8.
Bob Cantin photo
During the week, I would park the pair of
coupes(cars 13 and 14) in front of our skin
diving shop, in hopes that their awesome
presence might attract some more cars for
the collection,---- which they certainly did!
Shortly afterward, another old drag racing
buddy happened by the shop for a visit,
and informed me that he had found a
deuce cabriolet in Northern Alberta. It
was on a farm well off the beaten road,
next to a site he was working at as an
electrician. He said he’d take some
Polaroids of the car, and drop them off at
my shop the following weekend. Well, this
he did, but the surprise of the day came
when I realized that the car wasn’t a
Cabriolet as he had figured, but an ultra
Page 32 of 37
rare Sport Coupe! I had never seen one,
but a check of the production figures
showed only 2,169 V-8 models of this body
style ever being built. Compared to over
6,000 Cabriolet models produced that
year, the coupe was indeed a rare find! I
called the gentleman that I was told
owned the car, and was informed that it
actually belonged to his father. Seems his
dad had been the Ford sub-dealer in the
area, and had taken the coupe on trade on
a new 1949 Meteor. He had kept the little
coupe because he had liked the car’s
ability to navigate Northern Alberta’s
muddy and deeply rutted rural back
roads.
Someone had installed a set of General
16” wheels on it, but other than that, the
car was completely stock. The original V-8
engine was still sporting the original
aluminum oil pan, and Detroit Lubricator
carburetor. Well, $250.00 later, and a trip
to the family farm in a place called Teepee
Creek Alberta, and yet another 32
coupe(car #15) was also parked behind
my shop. The car hadn’t been run for a few
years, but after removing and cleaning the
fuel tank, installing a new battery and fan
belt, this one fired right up too! Years of
hard use in Northern Alberta were
showing, and although the V-8 ran
smoothly, it too was pushing oil. The
steering and brakes left a lot to be desired,
but I didn’t mind, for I had just acquired
one of the rarest deuces ever built!
Being a member of the V-8 Cub of
America, I made inquiries with other
members of the club (which has an
international membership) as to the
known wherabouts of any other Sport
Coupes in North or South America. I was
amazed to find that there were only 12
models known to exist at that time, mine
would make 13! I’m sure there were a few
more, but like the hen’s fangs, there
definitely weren’t very many of these
things surviving the ravages of time!
Rare 32 Sport Coupe was found in Northern Alberta. Car had
accessory General 16” wheels, original V-8 engine. After years of
sitting, engine fired right up
Bob Cantin photo
During the 70’s, I was made aware of the
“Keep Alberta Green” program, a
provincial program promoting the clean
up of Alberta’s rural countryside, mainly
by removing unsightly old car bodies etc.
Notices were posted in rural newspapers
to encourage farmers to haul any old auto
and truck bodies to the nearest landfill
sites. Portable crushers would show up to
crush them, supposedly ridding the
countryside of these unsightly blemishes. I
befriended a fellow working on one of
these crushing crews, and he would give
me a “heads up” when any of what was
considered “real good stuff” was slated to
be crushed. The trouble with this plan
however, was that the lead time was very
short, and I would have to be ready to
head off to the next site with my truck and
trailer, at a moments notice! I was still
extremely busy trying to run my various
business ventures, but somehow did
manage to pick up about 4 dozen old
Fords, along with a few pretty rare other
good pieces.
Page 33 of 37
essentially in HIS back yard. Well the
stuff continued to “grow feet”, and I soon
quit hauling and storing anymore vehicles
there.
Some of the many cars retrieved during Save-A-Car program in the
70’s. Over a dozen deuces were rescued from the crushers
Bob Cantin photo
While accomplishing all of this, I now had
a real problem, that being the lack of
storage space for all this tin! I know that
had if I could have had more time and
about 20 acres of good storage, I could
have accumulated several hundred really
choice pieces! To this day, I still feel bad
about the cars I had to leave behind for
the balers. I was able to cut a deal with a
local restoration shop, whose shop and
yard were on the eastern outskirts of
Edmonton to store all these new found
bits of tin! There was so much tin that I
even named the project “SAVE-A-CAR”, in
hopes of writing off the mounting
expenses incurred while traveling around
Northern Alberta picking all this stuff up.
I was assured that the area I had these
vehicles stored in would be secure, and I
took the man at his word. I noticed almost
immediately though, that some of the
smaller items like headlights, taillights,
windshield frames, instruments, and even
one 32 firewall had gone missing. He tried
to assure me that no one would have
access to my stuff, after all, the cars were
In this lot of SAVE-A- CAR tin, there were
several 32-34 Fords, most of them 2 and 4door models. I did sell a few of them off to
some of my hotrodding buddies, but after
that first year and the mounting thefts, I
decided to dispose of them all, for they had
gone from being a great asset, to an even
greater liability! A car collector from
Montana bought them all, and several car
carrier loads later, had them relocated in
his yard south of the border. All in all, the
project turned out to be a huge waste of
time, money and energies, my only
satisfaction being that I did save a bunch
of neat old Fords from the baling
machines! There were at least 6 or 8
pretty nice deuces in this bunch, but as I
never got a chance to do anything with
them, they’ll escape being formally
numbered for this story.
32 Ford #16, was “berry picking” car of local lawyer. Another nice
original, low-mile Ford
Bob Cantin photo
In the 80’s, I did some business with a
local lawyer, who mentioned in passing
one day that he owned a 32 Ford 2-door!
He called it his “berry-picking” car, and
had recently taken it to a local body shop
Page 34 of 37
(right in downtown Edmonton), to have it
cosmetically touched up. He had taken all
the chrome and stainless pieces to the
plating shop, to have them rechromed, or
polished. He had also told the body shop to
cease working on it, as they had now
exceeded his projected budget for the
rebuild, and I guess he figured he’d be
putting the proverbial $1,000.00 saddle on
the $20.00 horse! But when the plating
bill came in and it was over $1,000.00, he
ultimately decided to sell the car to me!
This 32 was another B Model, the body
and the original interior being in fantastic
condition. When he had asked me if I
wanted to buy the car, I jumped right on
it, and the following weekend, I was
trailering yet another 32(car#16) home to
my acreage west of Edmonton. The
fenders had been removed for painting,
the britework was still wrapped in the
brown paper from the plating shop. It took
a few evenings to reassemble it all, and
after installing a fresh battery, the little 4banger started right up!
My business partner Hugh Dunnigan had
seen car#16) and approached me with an
idea he had in mind to build a really
unique 32 Ford! The plan involved cutting
the body up to make a Waterhouse
Convertible Victoria clone out of the Ford
body, ----a style never actually built by
Ford, but was used on some of the fancier,
elegant cars built in the 30’s. This
particular 2-door (car#16) was just too
nice to cut up, but I knew of another car
that I had recently found just north of
Edmonton. It was just a bare body, and I
thought it would be a much better
candidate for his project! I had bought this
car about the same time as car #16, and
hadn’t picked it up yet. So on a cold
October Saturday morning, we headed
north with my trailer to load this car#17
up. Once loaded, we were surprised as to
the condition of this body, and we had
some more reservations about him cutting
this one up too! After much discussion, it
was ascertained though, that it would still
be the best candidate for his project. Once
unloaded at his shop, work quickly began
on this unusual project.
Car#17. sitting quietly in farmers pasture, awaiting what was to be
an amazing transformation. After sitting in farmers yard for many
years, It would take only 6 months of dedicated hard work to
rejuvenate.
Bob Cantin photo
It took just six months of dedicated hard
work to create this very special 32
Convertible Victoria! With a new
supercharged small block Chev V-8,
contemporary chassis, and workable
convertible top the car is certainly unique!
The wheelbase was lengthened 12” to
118”, and the new car rides and handles
like a dream! The many trophies and
awards collected the past decade are proof
of the quality of workmanship and classic
design that went into the car. I really
don’t think old Henry would be too upset
with us for cutting up and rearranging a
piece of his early V-8 tin!
Page 35 of 37
Car#17 on trailer prior to heading to new home. Body would
undergo major surgery to transform it to Waterhouse Convertible
Victoria styling
Bob Cantin photo
After 6 months of dedicated work, the Waterhouse style body was
completed. Stretched a foot, the car rides and steers like a dream!
The new supercharged small block Chevrolet, gets you there on time
Bob Cantin photo
In all my years of collecting 32 Fords, the
one body style that I was constantly
looking for but never found was a 32
roadster! Other than the roadster(car #3)
that I had worked on in the 50’s, I have
known of only 3 other roadsters in the
province of Alberta! I wish I had a dollar
for every wild goose chase I made chasing
down that “I know a guy that has a deuce
roadster in his yard” lead, only to find a
Model A sitting there! Practicality should
dictate a closed car being the better choice
of vehicles, in which case I guess I must be
a practical guy, for the open cars and I
just never hooked up! I’m still prone
though to chasing down any “rumours” of
perhaps another deuce roadster that’s
“still out there”. So it was early in the 21st
century, that I found myself searching
again for a deuce roadster that was
reportedly sitting in a guys yard on the
outskirts of a small town west of
Edmonton!. The car had apparently been
there for a number of years, and had been
covered up sufficiently as to not draw any
attention to it. It had recently been
uncovered, and a guy living a few miles
away had told me about the car. I knew he
was familiar with what a deuce roadster
looked like, and that was why I took off as
soon as I heard the story for a look!
Well, his directions to the site were
perfect, and sure enough, there behind an
abandoned house was the stark outline of
an area devoid of grass, where a vehicle
had been sitting. By the looks of the
remaining bare patch of dirt, it appeared
that what ever had been there, must have
been there for some time. I was ready to
put it in my “nuther wild goose chase” file
except for something that I spotted laying
in the tall grass,---- a near perfect 32 Ford
hood! Seems whoever picked the car up,
left in such a hurry, they left the damn
hood behind! The old house on the site was
abandoned, and when I asked the nearest
neighbor if she had seen any one removing
an old car from behind that abandoned
house, I was met with a blank stare and a
“what old car” reply.
I certainly hope that whoever got this one,
will find it a new home, not a quick trip to
the local crusher for a few lousy bucks! If
you should happen to read this and did
pick that car up, I have to tell you too
about a guy I know with a pretty nice
Page 36 of 37
deuce hood, that’s probably the same color
as the car you picked up. Oh and by the
way, “was that car really a roadster”?
As I was writing this article in 2006, I
mentioned to a few of my cronies, that I
had owned over two dozen deuces in my
lifetime. Over the years, I know a lot of
our local cars had disappeared to other
parts of the country, but I felt that there
could still be quite a few deuces left in and
around Edmonton. This statement was
met with some skepticism and a great deal
of guffawing from my peers, so inspired
again, I decided to poke around and see if
there were in fact any cars left. To my
astonishment, after looking around a bit, I
discovered that within a 10 mile radius of
my home in the country, there are six 32
Fords (count em, six 32 Fords)! My search
turned up four 5-window coupes and two
½ ton trucks! Another search on the other
side of the city, turned up an equal
amount of coupes and sedans, with a
couple of complete cars stored away in the
city itself!
Well, who knows, but maybe someday
soon, I’ll be able to buy my old 3-window
coupe (car #6) back from it’s present
owner. As I approach my 7th decade on
this earth, I’ve decided to build one more
deuce, and this car would certainly be my
first choice in doing so! I think it would be
nice to cruise the streets of Edmonton
again, looking for that bit of action I never
got with it back in the sixties! I think that
destiny will somehow put the two of us
back together in the same garage, one
more time!!! Who knows---maybe??
I know I will continue to check in on the
widow with that low- miled (24,000
original miles) 5-window coupe, that her
late husband was so proud of. Even
though it’s a 4-cylinder model, I think it
would be fun to take it on a 21st century
rod run, watching the faces of the young
guys drooling over such a pristine little
coupe!
So in closing, please join me in wishing a
“Happy Birthday” to all the 32 Fords left
in the world, ---my life is definitely a lot
richer in having known some of them!!
Here’s a glimpse of a few that are still out
there---
5-window estate car sits quietly in garage, 24,000
original miles on speedometer
Bob Cantin photo
Owner uncovered this one for picture. Car sits in garage
less than 3 miles from authors acreage.
Bob Cantin photo
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A lonely 2-door awaiting rejuvenation
Bob Cantin photo
A couple of truck cabs and related parts----below, a deuce coupe
awaiting owners granddaughter to reach driving age, recent
installation of portable garage now keeps it out of weather
Bob Cantin photos
And as for this guy, if I were to rummage through my spare parts and
find a windshield, a dash, and another frame, and I’ve still got those
fenders from that 3-window coupe that disappeared-hmmm!!!!
Bob Cantin photo
A rebuildable 3-window coupe awaiting rejuvenation.
Pratt photo
Or maybe I could use that spare windshield, and those
fenders on this one!
Bob Cantin photo