Speedway Motors Traditional Homebuilt Heaven Winner – Larry Ashley’s 1932 Ford
Homebuilt rods, customs, and classics are the backbone of our hobby. Goodguys and Speedway Motors have a longstanding tradition of celebrating rides built in the garages and shops of their owners by hosting special Homebuilt Heaven parking areas at every event. From these areas, we select two awards at each event – Homebuilt Heaven and Traditional Homebuilt.
At the end of the year, photos of all the Homebuilt Heaven and Traditional Homebuilt event winners are posted online so the public can vote on the yearend winners. For 2019, Larry Ashley won the Traditional Homebuilt Heaven award with his 1932 Ford five-window coupe which came with a $500 Speedway Motors gift certificate and custom Speedway Motors jacket.
Larry Ashley’s sharp Kansas-based Deuce five-window coupe caught our attention for the event award at the Lone Star Nationals event last September and caught the attention of online voters in our end-of-year voting.
Larry tells us he bought the car in Ohio in 2006 and it has a hot rod history dating back to the ’50s. It was channeled when he bought it and had received questionable work through the years. “Some places there were three floorboards, one on top of the other,” Larry said. “We removed 15 layers of paint!” On the plus side, it was running and driving and had never been chopped.
After blowing the car apart, all the non-original brackets were cut from the frame and new Model A front and rear crossmembers installed. A Super Bell 4-inch-drop axle and Pete & Jake’s four-bar setup were used up front, along with a Currie 9-inch riding on a Posies spring out back. Buick drum brakes back 15-inch Halibrand magnesium wheels on Firestone tires, with power coming from a ZZ383 Chevy crate engine and 700R4 transmission.
Damaged and missing body parts were repaired or replaced with pieces from Brookville, including a new grille shell, firewall, cowl vent, sub rails, and floors. When the body was straight and square, it was treated to fresh finish of DuPont black paint sprayed by Larry’s friend, along with a fresh fabric top insert. The paint is contrasted nicely with torch red tuck ’n roll vinyl over a Glide bench seat, with Stewart Warner gauges, a LeCarra wheel atop a Limeworks column, and Vintage Air rounding things out.
Larry says the coupe was built as time and funding would allow, which resulted in about an eight-year process that wrapped up in 2014. Since then, he’s racked up more than 10,000 miles on the car he calls “Old Tin.”
Additional photos supplied by Larry Ashley
