Noel Mauer's 1932 Ford

Photo courtesy of Noel Mauer, provided by Vintage Torque.

Noel during the chop. Photo courtesy of Noel Mauer, provided by Vintage Torque.

Photo courtesy of Noel Mauer, provided by Vintage Torque.

Photo courtesy of Noel Mauer, provided by Vintage Torque.

Photo courtesy of Noel Mauer, provided by Vintage Torque.

Photo courtesy of Noel Mauer, provided by Vintage Torque.

Photo courtesy of Noel Mauer, provided by Vintage Torque.

Photo courtesy of Noel Mauer, provided by Vintage Torque.

Noel with his recently chopped coupe in a photo dated July 1956. Photo courtesy of Noel Mauer, provided by Vintage Torque.

Photo courtesy of Noel Mauer, provided by Vintage Torque.

A color photo of the coupe in primer, awaiting its glade green paint job. Photo courtesy of Noel Mauer, provided by Vintage Torque.

Noel with the coupe at an indoor show in 1958. Photo courtesy of Noel Mauer, provided by Vintage Torque.

Photo courtesy of Noel Mauer, provided by Vintage Torque.

Photo courtesy of Noel Mauer, provided by Vintage Torque.

Photo courtesy of Noel Mauer, provided by Vintage Torque.

Photo courtesy of Noel Mauer, provided by Vintage Torque.

Photo courtesy of Noel Mauer, provided by Vintage Torque.

Photo courtesy of Noel Mauer, provided by Vintage Torque.

Photo courtesy of Noel Mauer, provided by Vintage Torque.

Photo courtesy of Noel Mauer, provided by Vintage Torque.

Photo courtesy of Noel Mauer, provided by Vintage Torque.

Photo courtesy of Noel Mauer, provided by Vintage Torque.

Photo courtesy of Noel Mauer, provided by Vintage Torque.

Photo courtesy of Noel Mauer, provided by Vintage Torque.

Photo courtesy of Noel Mauer, provided by Vintage Torque.

A photo of Noel's coupe dated August of 1971. Photo courtesy of Noel Mauer, provided by Vintage Torque.

Photo courtesy of Noel Mauer, provided by Vintage Torque.

Photo courtesy of Noel Mauer, provided by Vintage Torque.

1932 Ford 5-Window Coupe owned and built by Dubuque Slo Pokes member Noel Mauer of Dubuque, Iowa. Noel's project began with a hopped up 1951 Mercury engine that Noel got from his brother. Noel's brother had a 1940 Ford coupe that the engine came out off. When he sold the coupe, he gave Noel the engine. With the hopped up Mercury engine laying around, Noel began looking for something to put it in. In the summer of 1955 he heard about a 1940 Ford Coupe with opera seats for sale in Darlington, Wisconsin. Noel looked the guy up, but he had changed his mind, and decided that he didn't want to sell his car after all. Noel asked him if he knew about any other old cars for sale. The guy told him about a 1932 Ford coupe that was up for sale in New Diggings, Wisconsin. Noel and his friend Bob Willis went to New Diggings to check out the coupe. The guy who owned it was going to use it as a hunting and fishing car, but decided to sell it if Noel paid him what he had given for it. Noel said he'd take it, and asked the guy how much he wanted. $75 he replied. A deal was struck, and Noel drove his new coupe back home to Dubuque. On his way back home, he picked up a 1939 Ford transmission. He drove it home and tore the old 4 banger out before the engine had cooled down. He dropped a 1950 Mercury engine down into it and used it for a short period of time like this. In 1956, during his senior year in high-school, Noel was given the opportunity to go from a vocalational wood working course to a vocalational auto mechanic class. This gave him an opportunity to work on his car 3 hours a day, so he decided to chop and channel the coupe. Initially he was just going to chop it. He chopped the top 5 inches. During the chop, he moved the front section forward, and the rear section backward so the center post would stay the same. When Noel chopped the top he had to cut the wooden rail where the canvas top was attached because of the angle of the cab in the front and the back. He added another wooden rail around the inside of the original one and had to weld in about a 3 inch piece to close up the opening to cover the wood. A green plexiglas top was installed where the canvas used to be. After chopping the top, Noel decided that the fenders were pretty ratty. Not wanting to mess with them, he decided to pull them off the car. Since he was not running fenders, he found out that he had to channel the car. The radiator and grille shell were sectioned 7 inches so the radiator could sit in its stock position. After getting the bodywork all done in 1957, he didn't have the car up and running in the beginning. By the middle of the summer he had installed an engine, and he was running it in primer. In the late 1957 Noel painted the coupe glade green with added gold powder. After getting it painted, Noel heard about an upcoming car show in Des Moines, Iowa. A good friend of Noel went to school in Des Moines, and set up a good deal with a chrome shop in Des Moines to have them do all the plating on Noel's coupe. The friend also suggested that the Dubuque Slo Pokes should assist Noel in upgrading his car and getting it ready for their show. As Noel didn't like the glade green paint job he decided to repaint the car in another green color early in 1958. The Slo Pokes helped Noel, and they built the headers and got it painted and upholstered. The upholstery was done by a friend by the name of Bill Runde. At the time, Bill was working for the Flexsteel Furniture Company, and he had started his own business in a single car garage at his parents home. The front axle was dropped 5 inches. And the headlights were mounted by modifying the original light bar. The bar was cut off and reformed so it could be bolted to the frame rails. In the rear, Noel installed 1947 Buick taillights. He took the round lenses out, and routed the exhaust out through the taillights were the round lenses had been. The shock-brackets were off a 1949 or 1950 Ford. They were too tall for the coupe, so Noel had to bend them over a little. Juicy brakes from a 1948 Ford were also installed. The motor, a 1942 Ford 239 c.i. truck block was fit with Offenhauser heads and an Offenhauser 3 carb intake. Noel wanted to use a truck block because they were slightly relieved for better breathing. He found a block that had been bored out to 3 5/16" that he polished the ports in. The ports were matched to the manifold, and he finished up the relieves, borded it up a little more , and fitted it with a Mercury crankshaft. The new engine had a total of 286 c.i. The car was set up to drag in its early days, and it had a steel-plate floorboard so it was legal back in the late 1950s as a drag car.

In 2012 Noel still owned the old coupe, and it was basically untouched from the way it appeared in the late 1950s.

Vintage Torque Video Interview with Noel

A video interview Vintage Torque did with Noel about his coupe and the Dubuque Slo Pokes car club.

Part 1

Part 2