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Automotive Lifestyle
AUTOS: The Hot Rod Build, Part 10: The Perfect Body
The Deuce Coupe is back in a million pieces as the shop preps the body for paint.
Bob Golfen  |  Posted September 09, 2010   Phoenix, AZ
Bodyman Chris Walker feels for imperfections on the trunk lid of the project hot rod. (Photo: Bob Golfen)
This is the 10th of a multi-part series focusing on the building of a 1932 Ford “Deuce Coupe” hot rod. The scratch-built car is being created at Hot Rods by Dean, an award-winning street-rod and custom shop based in Phoenix, for a Glendale, AZ, customer.

The goal: to build a classic street rod from modern components, including a new all-steel body, that will be authentic and indistinguishable from one created from an original 78-year-old car.

The last time we saw the ’32 Deuce Coupe, it was looking pretty together. The engine, exhaust system, grille, lights, all that stuff, were attached to the body and the frame. Though still in bare metal, it seemed near completion.

The body and frame of the '32 Ford are set on a specially made wheeled jig for easy movement as the work progresses. (Photo: Bob Golfen)
Not so, warned the main builder, Ron McCorkle at Hot Rods by Dean in Phoenix. Everything would be coming apart when the body and paint guys got hold of it.

Sure enough, during my most recent visit to the hot-rod shop, the Deuce project looked like it had gone backward. Nothing was left but the primered body shell sitting on the frame, looking forlorn in the dusty confines of Dean Livermore’s body shop. The fenders and running boards were stowed in a corner.

“Everything came off the car except for the doors and the cowl vent,” said McCorkle, who did much of the disassembly work of the car that he had so painstakingly assembled.

The lengthy process of hand-blocking and smoothing out the body contours had begun, with the shop’s body man, Chris Walker, taking over this crucial part of the project. Although the steel body is factory fresh, there are still many high spots, low spots, wavy spots and out-of-true spots that have to be identified and smoothed in before anybody ever thinks about applying the paint.

“Every car is wavy, and since it’s going black, we can’t have any waviness in it,” Walker said. “We’ll make it come together with a smooth finish so that it reflects the light just right.”

Walker explains how the door edge will be smoothed and refined to blend perfectly with the body shell. (Photo: Bob Golfen)
The process is totally hands-on, Walker said, with primer going on and gently sanded off again to reveal areas that need attention.

“I do most of this by feel,” he said. “My hands will run over every square inch of this car dozens of times. It’s not rocket science, but it does take some time.”

Walker showed where high spots were being ground down to match the rest of the surface and low areas were being leveled with a thin application of body filler.

“Yes, you always have to put some body filler in it,” he said. “You hear guys say their cars have absolutely no filler in them, but that’s hardly ever true. You always have to use some filler to even out the surface. Not a lot of filler, though, and most of it gets sanded off.”

The left side of the body has been worked for several days, and the cowl area in front of the windscreen has been pretty well evened out. The door hinges were removed, Walker said, so that he could smooth in the door edges with the body without obstruction.

The cowl with its moveable vent has been worked nearly to perfection. (Photo: Bob Golfen)
On the passenger side, the hinges have not yet come off, and he pointed out where the trailing edge of the door has a small lip and a low area that have to be worked out. That was how the driver’s side looked before he started working on it, he said.

If not addressed, those areas would show up as glaring flaws once the glossy black paint was applied. That’s how it is all over any car body, Walker said, and the extensive surface work defines the difference between an award-winning beauty and an oh-hum amateur project.

“Basically, you’re getting new-car fitment,” he said. “It will be in here for a month or so with me working on it every day.”

McCorkle pointed out how the body’s firewall that he had cut apart and fabricated to fit the modern Ford V8 engine looks like an original piece now that it’s been welded, ground and sanded, and coated with primer.

“It looks like it’s always been that way,” he said.

“Yeah,” Walker said with a laugh. “We’re good at hiding stuff.”

See the first nine parts of the hot-rod project at:

The Hot Rod Build, Part 1.

The Hot Rod Build, Part 2.

The Hot Rod Build, Part 3.

The Hot Rod Build, Part 4.

The Hot Rod Build, Part 5.

The Hot Rod Build, Part 6.

The Hot Rod Build, Part 7.

The Hot Rod Build, Part 8.

The Hot Rod Build, Part 9.

Bob Golfen, Automotive Editor for SPEED.com, is a veteran auto writer based in Phoenix, Arizona, who has driven and evaluated essentially every new vehicle sold in the United States. A lifelong car enthusiast with a passion for collector cars, car culture and the automotive lifestyle, he annually attends and writes about Arizona's famous January collector-car auctions, focusing on Scottsdale’s monumental Barrett-Jackson Collector Car Event and other Barrett-Jackson auctions. SPEED.com fans email Automotive Editor Bob Golfen at

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