1932 FORD

Original , Traditionally Built , All Original Henry Ford Steel Body 1932 Model B Roadster .

Built in California in 1993 by Steve Rickets , using all the right parts and the original chassis , it was imported in 2020 , and subsequently correctly UK registered .

The all Henry steel body as it left the factory in 1932 , including the wings and running boards , making this an exceptionally rare car .

Under the bonnet sits an upgraded 1940 24 stud flathead V8 , running a single carburettor and offering the unmistakable soundtrack that made these engines legendary . I can confirm it runs , drives and stops as it should .

The 1939 gearbox, widely regarded as the one to have, was hand-picked for the build. 1940 hydraulic juice brakes provide adequate stopping power .

The car itself was constructed in California in 1993, using genuine Ford components throughout, giving it the stance , proportions and authenticity that set the best '32 Hot Rods apart . The stance is particularly well judged, with larger Firestone rear wheels giving it the classic period-correct attitude .

Traditional inside , with all gauges working , the car has been fitted with a retrimmed repo seat to allow more legroom , but we do have the original, which isn't in bad condition , and matches the dickey seat .

The paperwork includes the current V5C, showing only one former keeper since the car arrived in the UK in 2020, along with a copy of the California Certificate of Title, confirming its American origins .

Steve Ricketts kindly sent me this email which details the cars history :

In 2010 I became the third owner of this unbelievable 1932 Ford Roadster. Everyone who has seen it agrees that it is the most unmolested body they have ever come across. Even, the fenders are so good that I was offered $20,000 for them back in 2011 but I wanted to keep the car complete. I sold the car after 12 years because I felt more like a curator than an owner, to the point where I had even avoided drilling any holes in it, anywhere!

Pete Pederson was the founding member of the Orange County chapter of the Horseless Carriage Society. From my research I learned that Pete got the car in 1960 from the original owner. He put it through various guises as a hot rod in the 60’s, resto-rod in the 70’s and he was in the process of performing a sympathetic “resto-mod” rebuild when he died in 1991. At that time his plans were to return the car to original with the exception of juice brakes and retaining the 59AB Flathead. As a hot rod in the 60’s, it ran early Offy heads and twin 97’s on an early Weiand Manifold, all of which I sold with the car. The interior was a dark grey/blue naugahyde with SW gauges spaced out across a filled dash along with the 15” front and 16” rear steel wheels, all of which I ran on the car (although the dash is a replacement). The screen pillars were raked back, old school style, making the stock height screen look and feel like it is chopped. The subsequent owner swapped these out for vintique posts, stanchions and chopped screen. It ran a white top which I never restored but which I had the original irons for and included in my sale of the car.

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As a resto-rod, the color changed from Washington Blue to a metallic brown, the dash went back to original, which I had and the car ran very rare 15” Kelseys and all five came with the car (which I sold separately). It also ran a 40 Ford trans with a column shift, which was in the car when I got it, but created too many issues with the pedal assembly so it has been replaced with a 39 top loader, just like it had in the sixties (but more of that later). The interior was replaced with a labaron bonney kit but it seemed like Pete never threw anything away so I got both interiors and reinstalled most of the (tired) naugahyde version.

In the 80’s Pete began collecting for his restoration, which began in 1989. There were five crates of stuff that came with the car and many pieces found their way onto the car over time. Some items are original, some NOS and some are early reproduction items. Apparently, the body was so good that the only work on the body was the removal of the metallic paint and the replacement of the rear panel with another original because the car’s original had been drilled for Chevy taillights during its hot rod era. The body was painted in “Brookville brown” primer and Pete selected rose beige and seal brown lacquer paint for the color scheme. The 2 gallons of beige and 2 quarts of brown were bought (and came with the sale) but Pete died before the color was laid down. The frame was also in good shape and its restoration was almost finished at the time of Pete’s death.

When Pete Pederson died, he had a diverse collection of 35 cars. He was a well known used car dealer in Orange County California and every time he took a trade-in that he liked, he added it to his private collection! The story was that in his will, each of his four children were allowed to select two vehicles. The rest were left to his wife to sell off over time to provide her money to live on. The twist was that the children were not allowed their cars until Mom died, just in case she needed to sell those off too. In 2005, she passed away and ownership of the remaining cars was passed on to the children. One son got this 32 along with a 57 T-Bird. He always wanted to complete the car just as his Dad had envisioned it. By 2010 he realized that it was not going to happen and began the search for a new owner that would respect the history of the car. I was fortunate to become that person and one of the most gratifying moments of owning this car was when I was able to give that guy’s brother a ride in the roadster that he had not ridden in since he was 9 years old!

Once it came into my possession, I was determined to honor Pete’s legacy. After researching some family photos that came with the car, all the sheet metal was painted with a special mix of semi-flat Washington blue to reflect the color of the car back in the sixties and to stop all the dickheads from continuing to comment on “how good these Brookville bodies are now”, which was their assumption based on the brown primer that Brookville used to ship their bodies in. All the fenders etc. were then put in storage so the car could be run highboy style, in homage to its original persona. All the work to get the car back up and running was professionally handled at “Kiwi Steve’s Rod Shop” in Brea, California. He may not have his own TV show and multi-page build spreads in magazines, but he has been the SCTA chief tech inspector at Bonneville for many years, and was the original builder of the Thacker and Shine Roadster that went 200+ after he used to drive it to Bonneville from SoCal and run it. After all these years, the 59AB flathead fired right up so we decided not to reinstall the speed equipment. The 40 pedals that had been installed to accommodate the column shift were hanging forward of the original K-member in a pretty scary fashion so those were pulled out, a set of original 32 pedals were sourced and the forward leg of the k-member reinstalled. A kit from “we’re only 32” allowed us to run a dual master cylinder to the early ford brakes using the 32 pedal assembly. A “model A” front cross member was in the process of being removed when we got the car so that was replaced with a 32 X-member and the flathead is now front mounted from that. The front axle is a Heavy 32 mor-drop while the rear axle is a 46 (we think) and is mounted on the original 32 spring on the original rear x-member.

As I said, Kiwi Steve builds cars that can be driven and I drove this car everywhere in So-Cal for over ten years, as did many of my close UK visitor friends!

We would always take an interesting car in part exchange, and can deliver the car to you .

Please call Andrew if you need any more information .

Video available on the St Andrews Autos Youtube channel .