Powerglide Magazine #24 My Graffiti Coupe in a French Hot Rod Magazine

Back on the 2012 leg of my coupe's tour of local Hot Rod Shops I was having VooDoo Larry and Adam straighten out some of the 70 plus years of Hot Rodding mayhem that my coupe had been through and I was lucky enough to be in the shop when Powerglide Magazine was doing a "Shop Tour"article on VooDoo Larry's Elk Grove Hot Rod and Kustom's Shop. Since they don't sell Powerglide in the United States It only took me a few years to track this down a copy on the French eBay site.

 
 
 

American Graffiti hooked alot of fans and Larry is no eception. But VooDoo wasn't all gaga for Milner's Coupe like me it was the Pharaohs' Merc that changed his life.

This is actually the second time my car has graced the pages of Powerglide Magazine's Shop Tour. The First time was at Hopperstad Customs of Belvidere. I am still hunting that article.. I don't even know if it has been published yet. Last I heard is it was still in the works.























 Though the article is not about me It is pretty cool that my car made it into a magazine and that American Graffiti was mentioned.

With some luck one day I may make it into English Magazine!!

Till then here is a little of my cars history.

When I bought my coupe back in late 2006 in Fremont Ohio I was told my coupe has had a lot of hot rodding and racing history in that area. I was told the car had had a few owners but they were all from that area. I have tracked the story back to the second owner Alvin. During a phone conversation he shared some stories he remembered about the car.

He said that he purchased the "all original and in pretty good shape" coupe in the mid to late 1940's for five hundred dollars from the original owners. He said they were an nice old local couple.

The tales Alvin told me that day makes me think the car was the car was a typical Jalopy. He talked about a racing at the local drag strip with a  Lassalle transmission and different motors and rear ends and then a breath later he talks about running it around town.

Alvin sold the car in the late 50's early 60's to another local rodder who gave the 32 a 1960's make over. Ten of so years later the coupe would under go yet another transformation when he passed the car along to his son who turned it into a 70's themed ride. Some time in the 80's the car was again passed on to the next generation who took the car apart and after 20 some years with the car still in boxes he ended up losing interest then sold the car. After bouncing through a few quick owners who were always cashing in on the rarity of a steel 1932 5 Window Coupe I acquired the car.

While building my own history with this car it has been fun learning of the cars past lives. Funny thing when I told Alvin I had his old car and was building a Graffiti Coupe out of it he informed me that he didn't like chopped cars.

Jeff     


My Coupe 9-11-2006

My Coupe 02-22-2015

To Be Continued...  . .








 

Coupe Progress Video 05-30-2014

Sorry Apple Folks I guess the video's won't play for you so go over to a Windows buddies house and check them out. JH

"I've been.. You know....... Busy"

Socal with an American Graffiti update!

Watching several "Graffiti Type" coupes slide thru eBay recently spurred a conversation with a SoCal brother. I asked him if he had noticed the rash of coupes for sale?

His Reply is priceless.


"oh yeah, sorry, we forgot to tell you, the whole "graffiti thing" is over.

We're all dumping our Milner coupes and building those bitchin '48 Ford convertibles from Grease."

"Grease is the word"

In the 70's they all sounded the same

How Do You A-Ford It?

VooDoo Time

I get it!

These 1932 bodys are a Steel

Like so many guys the first time I saw the American Graffiti Coupe I wanted it. You can't have the original so you must build or buy one. I am not big on glass cars. I went on the hunt and found an original 1932. It was in rough shape but I am bringing it back from the dead. I am better that a few years and several $$$$ into my build. I always figured about the time I finished mine they would have a steel reproduction body available. I was right!

There are at least 2 company's in the process of building a new 32 Ford 5 window body's from steel.

The First Company is Hot Rods 5WCoupe made is Sweden http://www.5wcoupe.se/en

According to their site the complete body's will bee for sale in April 2012 and delivered in June 2012

I don't know much about these body's. From what I see on the site they look pretty nice. It is weird to see these. I have a ton of work into my original 32 just to get it to look like this!



UPDATE!!!!2014 Since I wrote this article in 2012 I have bought a several United Pacific parts for my car and the Quality and attention to detail is impeccable. They also have a new catalog featuring even more parts to bring you 5 window back from the dead. Check it out at
http://1932.uapac.com/catalogs/content?catid=47

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 The Next Company is United Pacific Industries http://www.uapac.com/ant/

I know a bit more about these. I have a Buddy in the midst of rebuilding a rusty original 32. He has bought a few piece's and is amazed at the quality of these parts. He says the look and fit is dead on. Anyone working on a 1932 Ford knows that everybody and their brother makes 32 Ford repair panels and that none of them fit correctly! It's nice to hear that someone is finally filling the gap with some quality fitting parts. Once again it's to late for me but if you are in the need of some replacement parts for your original 1932 here is another option for you.

 It didn't surprise me when I heard they had bough an original 1932 Ford to take all of their measurements from.

 I was surprised to hear they have also bought a bunch of original 32 parts to double check their work with.

If you buy a complete body it comes with the windshield frame,door latches,widow regulators and garnish mlds.

You +1'd this publicly. Undo

So-Cal Speed Shop Sacramento is a dealer. All parts and not available yet. What is available they have in stock

I hear the prices of these are around 22K. Firewall and Dash are extra $. I know at first this sounds like a lot of money. It's not really. You can buy a nice fiberglass body for around the same price. I know if I started with one of these I would be driving it by now! Between the initial purchase price of a 32 and all of the parts you will need to track down and then restore. Add up the time and the money. I know these are not "Real 1932's" but if you don't mind reproduction steel and don't want fiberglass you may want to look into one of these to build your dream ride.  Jeff

Trust

Random Thoughts (old and out of date)

Alot of the information in this video is out of date as things have changed. This got lost in the old website shuffle. It does show some cool pictures and J-Money never got to see it so here it is.

Testing my new PC.

Testing out my new toy. The new video maker has a bunch of effects I have not used. I threw this together to see them in action. There are a few old pictures of my car but most are random 1932 Ford pics I used for reference while putting my 32 together.

Jeff

First Run (lost is the shuffle)

Somehow during the rebuild of the Web-site and my computer some of my older video's got lost in the mix. But now they are found. It's nice to look back and see where you have been. It makes me appreciate where I am now,and I can't wait to be....... Well you know. "Paradise Road"

Jeff

GR8 P10R

A pretender is a claimant to an already occupied position of honor or rank.

What's Wrong With Me.

Making it Graffiti Correct

 Getting things to look Graffiti Correct under the Coupe requires the correct tools to do the job.

                                                                             Jeff

Hamrick's "The Great Pretender" American Graffiti Coupe

Hamrick's "The Great Pretender"

With all the American Graffiti style coupes in the world it's easy to confuse them. Believe me they are all not created equal. Just because it's yellow does not make it a Milner car. People who are not die hard car people are easily confused. That why I guess it is time to hang a name on mine to set it apart from the pack. "The Great Pretender" The closest to the real thing that I can build.

Fade Back To Black

It's been a while. That means "Video Time" Turn up your volume and enjoy!!! ;)

Bits and Peices

You know as I work around on the car.....Section by section it's not just graffiti it's just a really cool period hot rod.

There's No Place Like Home

A lot has changed in the last couple months. Steering is complete, Floors and patch panels are in and the top is chopped. So it had to happen I am broke! So now it's time to bring my baby home. There are lots of work for me to do. Who knows I may get some more paint and chrome on her this year.

Jeff