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Charlie Parinello’s 1932 Ford 2-door sedan
In 1969, I decided I wanted to build a street rod. Luckily I found a very nice 1932 2-door sedan body only four miles from my home. At the time, I decided a resto-rod was the choice, so I proceeded to clean and restore the sheet metal the best I could.
I fabricated a hood using the pieces from three different hoods. I welded and cleaned a firewall which I purchased at a swap meet. Hand scraping the frame I then primed and painted it with Rustoleum spray cans. A Corvair front end which cost me $15.00 at a garage sale was reinforced and installed by me.
I purchased a 1963 Chevrolet Impala for $25.00 and completely stripped it to use any of its parts I could. I used the engine, the wire harness, switches, knobs, cables, brackets, and other various parts. What I didn’t use, I sold for a total of $400.00 to add to my working capital. I rebuilt the engine, did most of the body work, sprayed the paint for my first paint job, and helped stitched the interior. Total cost to build the car was $3,050.
In 1973, the sedan was finished on a Tuesday, and I was convinced to drive from New Jersey to the Connecticut Swap Meet on Friday. With no problems, I then drove the car as much as I could; including almost every local rod run fom Massachusetts to South Carolina as well as trips to the Western Nationals in Merced and Pleasanton, California, and Andy Briizio’s Picnic. My longest trip in the United States was 13,000 miles in one tour.
I drove a total of 97,000 miles on that first build with no more repairs than an axle bearing and and an “O”-ring in the hydraulic clutch.
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