Sven Sandberg's 1932 Ford

The model Sven built. Photo by Mats Wallander

The coupe as it sat when Bo Sandberg bought it from a junkyard in Norway in 1961. Bo had to pay 225 Swedish kroners for the rusted body. Photo courtesy of Sven and Maude Sandberg, from Spoca.se.

An early construction photo of the Glowing Coupe taken in the barn in Vendelsö in 1962. Photo courtesy of Sven and Maude Sandberg, from Spoca.se.

Sven's coupe as it sat in 1963. This version featured a "goosenecked" frame that lowered the car 10 centimeters. Later on, Sven redid the frame and installed a dropped axle instead. Photo courtesy of Sven and Maude Sandberg, from Spoca.se.

The car as it appeared in the souvenir program for the 1965 Hot Rod Show.

An early photo of the Glowing Coupe, taken at a little hot rod show held in 1965, prior to the Hot Rod Show. This version featured polished Moon hubcaps and gear shifter knob made from a crystal chandelier. Photo courtesy of Sven and Maude Sandberg, from Spoca.se.

A magazine photo of the Glowing Coupe from the 1965 Hot Rod Show.

The very first spider web grille hanging in Sven Sandbergs garage. Photo Mats Wallander

The first version of the Glowing Coupe at the second Hot Rod Show in 1966. This version featured antennas in the front of the roof, like the Mercury Turnpike had. These were later replaced by turn signals. Photo by Kåre Söderholm.

Another photo of the Glowing Coupe at the 1966 Hot Rod Show. Photo courtesy of Sven and Maude Sandberg, from Spoca.se.

Sven with the Glowing Coupe at the first organized drag race of Sweden, held October 1-2, 1966 just outside of Stockholm.

A photo of the Glowing Coupe taken October 20, 1966 in Stockholm. The photo was taken by Bob D'Olivio of Petersen Publishing while touring the Volvo manufacturing plant. Photo by Bob D'Olivio, courtesy of Getty Images.

Another photo of the Glowing Coupe ny Bob D'Olivio. Bengt Wennergren's 1931 Ford Model A Roadster can be seen in the background of the photo. Photo by Bob D'Olivio, courtesy of Getty Images.

The Glowing Coupe at the April 1967 Hot Rod Show in Stockholm. Photo by Ryde Brundin, courtesy of Maths Pålsson.

Photo by Ryde Brundin, courtesy of Maths Pålsson.

Photo from The HAMB.

The Glowing Coupe at the 1969 Hot Rod Show. This version was fully fendered. Norwegian hot rod enthusiasts an Nor-Way Customs members Jan-Odd Jakobsen and Steinar Næss can be seen behind the car. This photo was printed in the Norwegian men's magazine Vi-Menn. Photo courtesy of Jan-Odd Jakobsen.

A photo of the Glowing Coupe from the Per Arne Knudsen Photo Collection. Photo courtesy of Per Arne Knudsen.

Photo from The HAMB.

Photo from The HAMB.

Photo from The HAMB.

A cropped version of this photo of the Glowing Coupe was printed in the Norwegian Ford-dealer magazine Ford Nytt nr.4 1969, in a story about the Norwegian hot rod and custom club Nor-Way Custom. Photo courtesy of Lars-Petter Kolkind.

Photo courtesy of Lars-Petter Kolkind.

The green version of the Glowing Coupe.

Custom Car Show 1972. Hottis Granberg brought over his '32 5-window “Glowing Coupe” which featured many body mods, Candy apple green paint and a 396 Chevy Rat (Vic Heffer pic)

The restored version of the Glowing Coupe at the 2009 Hot August Night meet in Trondheim, after Harald Sannum had bought it. Photo by Jon-Arne Belsaas.

Photo by Jon-Arne Belsaas.

Photo by Jon-Arne Belsaas.

Photo by Jon-Arne Belsaas.

Photo by Jon-Arne Belsaas.

Photo by Jon-Arne Belsaas.

Photo by Jon-Arne Belsaas.

The Glowing Coupe at the 2015 Oslo Motor Show. Photo by Sondre Kvipt - Kustomrama.

Version 1 of the body

Version 1 of the body

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.

In summmer 1961, 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. 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. 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.
The gear shifter knob in the first version was a crystal ball from a chandelier!

An early version of the Glowing Coupe was shown at the first Hot Rod Show held in Stockholm in 1964, prior to the Hot Rod Show in Ostermans Marmorhallarna.

In 1965 The Glowing Coupe was shown at the first annual Hot Rod Show in Stockholm. 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.

Sven and Maud used the car a lot on holiday travels to France and Italy. The car and couple draw attention wherever they showed up.
One example is when a crowd of Frenchmen surrounded the parked car (Glowing Coupe) in Monaco.
Sven and blonde Maud tried to get in the car to drive away when someone shouted: -" Brigitte Bardot!" .
The crowd got completely mad and climbed all over the car! Finally Sven could slowly drive away from the masses....

Another episode is when they stopped at a gas station in Germany and a rather fat man fell in love with the car (Glowing Coupe).
So when Sven went in to pay the man entered the driver seat without permission and got stuck!
He couldn't get out! With a lot of help from pushing personel he finally could roll out on the passenger side!

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 in the end of 1969 to a car dealer in town - Guy Lindström. It then went through another car dealer until it was bought by Sven "Hottis" Granberg in Bollmora.
In 1972 it was displayed at the Custom Car Show in London together with three other Swedish Hot Rods.

In 1983 it was shown in Wheels magazine "Garage scenes".
The chassie was then during a rebuilt with Jaguar front and rear end. The Oldsmobile engine was swapped by a bigblock Chevrolet. (This swap must have been done before 1972).

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 396 ci 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 1932 chassie with a flathead engine somewhere in Sweden ... See pictures.