They've been building cars for 71 years since Henry Ford introduced the body style that followed the Model T's 19-year run and the Model A's 4-year stretch. It was in production for barely a year, and yet to this day, no other car has been as popular among hot rodders as it has. It is the car that appears more than any other in hot rod enthusiast magazines. It is the car that has been treated to literally every conceivable form of performance and appearance modification. It is the car that appeared on the very first cover of ROD & CUSTOM. It is the car that has appeared at least once in every issue of this magazine going back as far as we can remember. It is the car practically everybody immediately thinks of when they hear the term "hot rod." We're talking about the '32 Ford, known to you and me simply as the Deuce.
In addition to marking the 50th birthday of R&C, the year 2003 marks the 71st Anniversary of the Deuce. All right, so it's not a milestone anniversary, but why not celebrate anyway? As you may have noticed, we've packed this issue with some of the nicest and most interesting '32s on the street today, in addition to info on some unusual coachbuilt Deuces.
At the end of 1932, America was in the middle of the Great Depression, but thanks in large part to Ford's development of the assembly line and to improvements in the production of sheet steel, the relatively new automobiles had evolved from a high-priced luxury to practical transportation affordable for Americans struggling to get through the hard times-which was most of them.
The styling of the Deuce is frequently credited to Briggs & Murray, which was contracted to build bodies for Ford. It is more generally agreed that Eugene Gregorie is the true designer of the '32 Ford's classic lines. Henry reputedly had little time for things like design. Fortunately, his son Edsel not only cared about how the cars looked, he also had good taste. It was Edsel who hired Gregorie, resulting in numerous beautiful designs for Ford. The Deuce was the earliest.
In addition to affordability and good looks, the brand-new Ford V-8 engine played a big role in the initial and ongoing success of the Deuce. Prior to the introduction of the Deuce, V-8 engines were the powerplants of big luxury cars. It took the production of the Flathead to get a V-8 into a light, affordable vehicle. The response from the public was overwhelming.
Of course, this being ROD & CUSTOM, we're most interested in the effect the Deuce has had in the 71 years since it first showed up, which has been primarily in the hot rodding hobby. It wasn't just the '32's good-looking lines or the fact that the V-8 was touted as a performance choice from its earliest day; guys found out fast that the simple styling of the Deuce made it easy to turn into an eye-catching rod. The mere act of pulling the fenders off put you well down the road toward having a hot rod. The solid frame, built to take a V-8, was the perfect platform for virtually any engine. The Deuce design, like few other automobiles, has never gone out of style. Hot rodding trends change almost constantly, but the Deuce has been subject to all of them.
Today, 70 years after Ford stopped making them, a long list of companies are turning out Deuce bodies (we list most of them in "Dealing Deuces" elsewhere in this issue), which means that the popularity of the world's favorite rod is not likely to fade. We see them wherever we go. The cars featured in this story-photographed at the '03 Goodguys Nats in Del Mar-are intended as a spotter's guide as well as a testimony to the enduring popularity and versatility of the Deuce.