Sven Sandberg's 1932 Ford

























1932 Ford 5 WIndow Coupe owned and restyled by Sven Sandberg of Stockholm, Sweden. The car, also known as "The Glowing Coupe" is one of the most iconic hot rods of Sweden, and it started life as a plastic model kit that Sven built when he was 13 years old. At age 15 he bought a rusted out body that he based his full-scale build on. Sven's brother, Bo Sandberg found the car on a junkyard in Norway in 1961. He bought it for 225 Swedish kroners, brought it back home, and sold it to Sven. The build was started in a barn in Vendelsö, and completed in "Transhuset" in Täby 5 years later. Sven had little experience when it came to building hot rods, so his brother Bo "Gamen" Sandberg teached him how to weld. Sven started out by chopping the top 5 inches. With a lower top in place, he angled and boxed the frame.[1] The chopped top was then fit with a Crown Victoria plastic roof. Power came from a 1955 Oldsmobile V8 engine. The engine, transmission and rear axle came from an Oldsmobile that Sven bought for 250 Swedish kroners. The dashboard from the Olds was also cut down and fit inside the coupe. The steering wheel was taken from a 1959 Mercury. Bo Sandberg of Yankee Customs painted the car.
An early version of the Glowing Coupe was shown at a little hot rod show held in Stockholm in 1965, prior to the Hot Rod Show.
In 1965 The Glowing Coupe was shown at the first annual Hot Rod Show in Stockholm.[2] Once completed, Sven's brother, Bo Sandberg, told Sven that he had to give the car a name, as it would sound better with a name.
Sven's first visit at the vehicle licensing department in 1965 was no success for the young builder. They refused to approve the car, and he had to leave without license plates on the car. Sven went back home and installed fenders on the car before he also repainted it "Sierra Gold", a brown, more neutral color and more approval-friendly color.
In 1966 the Glowing Coupe won the best hot rod award at the 1966 Hot Rod Show in Marmorhallerna in Stockholm. The same year, it also won the best hot rod award at Show Time in Örebro.
The first organized drag race of Sweden was held October 1-2, 1966 just outside of Stockholm. Sven attended the race with his Glowing Coupe. Due to rain and a wet track, Svenne did the quarter mile in 16,6 seconds.
Sven sold the car 1970. In 1983 it was shown in Wheels magazine "Garage scenes", owned by "Hottis" Granberg. The chassie was rebuilt with Jaguar front and rear end.
The Oldsmobile engine was swapped by a bigblock Chevrolet.
In 1991 Sven bought the car back and started to restore the Glowing Coupe back to how it appeared in 1969. During the restoration, Sven decided to replace the body of the car as it was so rusted out.
Sven prepared a new plastic body. The whole driveline had earlier been replaced by a Bigblock Chevy engine and a Jaguar rear end.
The restored car was sold 2009 to Harald Sannum of Trondheim, Norway.
The original body is under restoration using another chassie somewhere in Sweden ... See pictures.
References
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