The best consolation in working on a car that everyone seems to have written off is the fact that nothing you do comes off as a big surprise. Just consider this, what car would you rather be driving down Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan when without warning it comes to an abrupt stop, and all you are left to do is find spare parts? Would it better be a 1932 Ford fitted with a Chevy V-8 engine, or would you rather want it to be a 1932 Hudson Terraplan with an engine we are yet to hear of?
Some may think being different is a great thing, but sometimes that just doesn’t cut it. If memories of Amelia Earhart are still fresh in your mind, you’ll remember she chose a 1932 Hudson Terraplan and her fate is something you wouldn’t wish on your worst enemy. In our case, let’s consider the curious case of Wesley Johnson from Gadsden Alabama, and his equally curious 1932 Ford Highboy roadster.
Wesley Johnson decided to somehow convince his son Alan, the owner of Johnson’s Hot Rod Shop, to rebuild the Ford Highway roadster. Alan was a smart guy. He’d previously built several Deuce coupes and roadsters, and practically knew what worked and what didn’t. He’s the kind of guy who studies a Deuce’s frame and immediately knows how the rear rails can be steeped inwards to make room for fatter tires, just about anything that such a fine ride needs to enhance performance. Wesley’s modifications on the Deuce’s frame were somehow minor: a slight pinch on the front rails by like two inches, giving room for two inches of wheelbase. He had the mind to add a little wheel base, which worked just fine in improving the ride quality.
1932 Ford’s suspensions work just fine with a straight axle, especially if you want to retain that good old hot rod look. The nose is easily dumped by a Super-bell 4 inch drop axle that comes with Johnson Hot Rod Shop’s unique dog-bone radius rods, not to mention the chrome telescopic shocks. The steering is another story too. The Deuce is steered through a Borgeson steering box complete with a custom made steering column, and an ivory painted steering wheel with the Johnson Hot Rod Shop Vintage brand label. If you expected juice drum brakes in the aft and fore, then you are in for a surprise. Front brakes are none other than the Johnson Hot Rod Shop Kinmont Safety Stop Brakes. If you know anything technical on brakes then you’ll understand the value of these 10.5 inch disc brakes that come complete with 4-piston calipers. Front wheels are 15x 5 Wheel Vintiques with 500/15 Coker Firestone broad whites.
Wesley’s 1932 Ford has a rear end like no other. It features Posies’ buggy springs dumped with, you guessed it, chrome telescopic shocks. Not to mention dog bone radius rods from Johnson Hot Rod Shop. A pair of 10 inch Ford drums makes up the rear brakes complete with a nice coat of Johnson Hot Rod Shop Kinmont paint. The wheels at the rear are 19×6 Vintiques 16 Series Gennie Chrome with baby Moons holding 850/16 Coker Firestone wide ones.
Wesley really dared to take the less trodden path in plugging a real powerplant in the Deuce. He did things a little different in fitting a Ford into another Ford, or something close to that. Old Ford Y-Blocks give better performance these days because there’s better quality oil than back then. Today’s oil doesn’t plug the oil galleys like it did in the early days. So what did Wesley do? He went to Matt Bishop of Bishop Machine, way down in Mableton GA, and makes him (Matt) rebuild a 1956 292 Y-Block engine by raising it up just a little bit. A fine upgrade for the Ford’s first try at an OHV engine’s induction is without a doubt through triple Stromberg 97 carburetors perched on an Offenhauser intake served by OTB Gear air cleaners. An extra wide cam works fine on the hot rod, so Matt installed a COMP 284 TH7 Thumpr cam to give a real rough idle. However, the hottest COMP Thumpr cams on Y-engines require the compression ratio to be increased to 9.5:1 and making sure the cooling system is upgraded to higher standards. So Matt fitted the car with a Walker copper and brass radiator complete with an electric cooling fan from Cooling Components. The exhaust too featured a finely polished 1956 T-bird head exit fitted into custom Johnson Hot Rod Shop exhaust pipes silenced by Borla mufflers.
The drive shaft has a story too. The Drive Shaft Shop, from all the way in Concord, NC, took care of connecting a Currie 9 to a Tremec TKO 600 made by Bowler that came with Bronze shift forks and a nicely polished plunger. The gears are changed by a custom built Johnson Hot Rod Shop shifter, while a Lokar gas pedal manages the 97s intakes feeding from Tanks fuel tank.
There is also a cleverly concealed six-point rollbar around the green and crème full leather interior made by Johnson Hot Rod Shop’s best trimmer we’ve come to know simply as Maria Garcia. She does a great job with leather interiors. The cozy interior features a green carpeting on the floor that is thick enough to maintain the warm temperatures inside thanks to a Vintage Air heater. The dashboard is all Auburn style with Lokar Goolsby aluminum complete with a Mother of Pearl dashboard inserts that feature 5 elegant instrument gauges.
Overall, the 1932 Ford’s body modifications focused on creating a perfect fit rather than dwell much on aesthetics. The car was painted in PPG Green by Wesley Johnson and Greg Chalcraft of W-J Body Shop. Older folks will associate the Willow Green color with the popular Ipana toothpaste of yester years. The hood features a 2 inch Rootlieb overstock well complemented by a Brookville grille. Johnson Hot Rod Shop is also responsible for the 1932’s chrome spreader bar. It is also notable that all of the car’s impressive chrome plating was done by Jon Wright’s Custom Chrome Plating from Grafton, Ohio. We wouldn’t fail to mention the rear plate frame made of stainless steel and a fancy LED plate lamp the good fellows at Johnson Hot Rod Shop prefer to call a Throwback.