This ’32 Three-Window is a Bare-Metal Bruiser With ’60s Style
The ’32 Ford coupe is one of the most storied American automobile designs ever created. Ford got so much right with the basic design, but it is also a fantastic canvas for customization. They can be chopped, sectioned, channeled, and smoothed into incredible works of art or built into drag racers or land speed machines. However, like any other car, a Deuce Coupe can be modified a bit too much or come out with the wrong proportions. This ’32 three-window owned and driven by Kim Meeks hit all the right notes and manages to stand out even after all the customized ’32 Fords have come and gone over 90+ years.
We spotted this clean, bare-metal coupe in the parking lot of the Nugget hotel and casino, always fertile ground for impressive hot rods, during Speed Week 2024. We found Cedric Meeks, Kim’s husband, and got all of the details on the car that he’s spent nearly three years building for his wife.
Kim is currently driving the “Touchë Away” 1932 Ford five-window coupe originally built by Ernie Martin in Portland, Oregon. The Chevy-small-block-powered coupe was shown at the 1959 Portland Roadster Show and went on to be featured in Rod & Custom magazine in August of 1960. The car was modified a bit, picking up a new paint job in 1964, and its 265 V-8 was replaced by a 282, but it remained clean and unchopped. It sat, undisturbed for about 40 years before the Meeks purchased it. Kim enjoys driving that car, and eighth-mile racing it, but she wanted a three-window hot rod for street duty.
The Meeks put the the word out that they were in the market for a three window, and they didn’t care whether it was a ’32, ’33, or ’34. The two were returning to Portland, Oregon, after racing their cars at The Race of Gentlemen when they got a tip on where they could find one. They didn’t make a deal on the spot, but after a couple of weeks they purchased the car and brought it home.
The stock body came with a chassis, although when Cedric and a friend mocked things up the way he thought it should look with the wheels he had in mind, the stance was all wrong. “There was no way to make the chassis that came with the car work with the way I wanted the car to sit,” said Meeks. Instead, they sold the chassis that came with the car and went in a new direction. Meeks had a friend build a frame to his specs.
Meeks originally planned to put an aggressive chop in the coupe, but a few things changed his mind. “It’s three inches in the back and three and a quarter in the front,” Cedric said of the chop. He went about the chop a bit differently than others. The upright A-pillars were laid back to match the lowered roof, which is rather common, but he opted to resculpt the roof’s B-pillars and tilt them forward 1-1/32 of an inch. “It made a huge difference, in my eyes,” said Cedric. The result looks great and the roof panel didn’t need to be lengthened, although it did make for a lof of work on the B-pillars.
The proportions came out great, and it all hinged on the engine. Cedric had a ’57 J-2 Oldsmobile Rocket 371 V-8 stored on the floor of his shop, already one of Oldsmobile’s hottest engines of the late-’50s. The engine was rated at 312 hp when equipped with a trip of two-barrel carburetors, but the Meeks had other plans. Cedric had never built a supercharged hot rod before, and he had a 4-71 in his shop that would be perfect for the Olds V-8. Once assembled, the blower and its quartet of Stromberg 97s were too pretty to be hidden beneath a hood. Cedric mounted it nice and high in the chassis to show it off. The engine’s placement created a cascading set of issues to be resolved, or as Meeks put it, “a multitude of sins I had to deal with.” The engine is mounted to a wide-ratio Muncie four-speed that sends power to a ’59 Olds rear with brakes meant for a Ford nine-inch and 3.89:1 gears in a Positraction differential.
“I wanted something that looked like it came out of thre late ‘60s or early ‘70s” Cedric said, and the supercharged engine, Muncie four-speed transmission, and magnesium American Racing wheels all have the right flavor for a build of that era.
The Meeks brought the car to Bonneville last year, before it was chopped. Kim and Cedric didn’t drive it on the salt last year because it was too soupy, and they had to be back to work before racing got underway, but they made up for it this year. “It turned red!” Cedric said, referring to the car’s flash rust. He kept it coated in Gibbs protectant, but there’s only so much it can do. He had to take the car apart and remove all the flash rust. “It was a mess, but well worth the 1700-mile drive,” he reported.
Another interesting design aspect of the coupe is at the very rear of the body. While the 1928-1931 Ford Model A had its fuel tank in the cowl, the tank moved to the rear of the car when the all-new 1932 Ford debuted. Although the fuel tank on the Meeks’ machine has been moved, the indentation on the left side that allowed a bit more clearance between the fuel cap and the body was left intact. Cedric wanted to keep a reminder that this is the real deal, and, for symmetry’s sake, he added a similar indentation on the right side. “I wouldn’t have taken that out of the left side. That’s kind of what signifies a real car from a ‘glass car,” explained Cedric. The plan is to build nerf bars that match those indents. “I’ve never seen a fuel tank indent put in the right side,” Cedric said. Considering 1932 Fords have been around for more than 90 years, it’s tough to find something to do that’s unique and still fitting the aesthetics.
Meeks has built most of the car himself, but several talented individuals have lent their handiwork. Schroeder’s Speed & Custom in Troutdale, Oregon, was a major help, as Kegan Young helped make the custom chop look as good as Meeks had hoped. Cedric has made plenty of progress over the car’s two-and-a-half-year build, and they already have lots of miles on it, but it won’t be bare metal forever. The plan is for a candy rootbeer brown paint job over Murano pearl, with lots of ’70s-appropriate paint effects. “I want to look like it drove out of a time warp,” said Cedric.
We were hoping to catch the coupe at Speed Week 2025 wearing new paint and an interior, but the plan has changed. “I was hoping to paint it this winter,” Cedric said, but Kim didn’t get to drive it much in 2024, and wants another year with the car in bare metal. Who can blame her?
