Patina Doesn’t Begin to Describe the Finish on this Barn-Find 1932 Ford 5-Window Coupe

Buried Treasure. Some say both patience and persistence are virtues. That must make me a really virtuous person, since plenty of both were needed to acquire this ’32 Ford from Sam Gonzales. I first met him in late 2007, when I lived in Fresno, California. I was driving around Coarsegold—an old, small mining town about 50 miles north of Fresno—on the way to Yosemite. As usual, I was rubbernecking, being nosey as to what old cars I might find (having restored a number of them over the years). When I drove past Sam’s ranch, I noticed quite a few cool old cars sitting there.

Well, of course, I stopped to ask if any of them were for sale. It was kind of a “maybe” as to if he would sell anything, let alone for how much. I told him I was really looking for an old ’30s coupe or something. We probably talked for at least another half hour about cars, the organic tomatoes he grows, his animals, and so on, when suddenly he blurted out, “I have a coupe.”

“What, you have a coupe?” I inquired, suddenly feeling very curious. “What kind of coupe?”

“A ’32 Ford,” he proudly stated. I thought I must’ve heard him wrong, but then he asked if I’d like to see it. (Ya think?!) I followed him back to an outbuilding behind his house. Peering inside, I could see a complete, original ’50 Cadillac just inside the doorway and the front of a ’39 Chevy to the back in the dark.

When I stepped inside, there it was, tucked back between the front outside wall and the ’39, partially covered with stuff, a very dusty, full-fendered ’32 Ford five-window coupe. I couldn’t believe it. Sam was nice enough to let me look it over and even take a few pictures.

Well, in between asking if he’d be willing to let it go to a good home and not really getting a definite yes or no, he told me the history of his coupe.

Sam worked after school on neighboring farms to make the $25-a-week payments on the coupe to Baskin’s Used Cars in Fresno. This firm was owned and operated by the grandfather of well-known ’32 Ford collector and Pandragger car club member, Dick Baskin.

The coupe was originally traded in by a couple of Fresno State College students toward their purchase of a ’36 Ford. Sam bought the coupe on layaway in 1950 at the age of 17 for the grand sum of $150. While attending Washington High School in the Fresno County town of Easton, Sam added smaller headlights, Pontiac taillights, leaded in the top of the grille shell, covered the roof insert with sheetmetal and screws, and repainted the then-blue coupe brown in his auto shop class.

Sometime later it was painted red, then maybe a fourth unknown color, but it’s hard to tell. Sam replaced the original four-cylinder engine with a flathead V8 backed by a later trans. He also added ’40 Ford juice brakes and lowered the car with longer shackles and a heated front spring.

To dress it up further, he fitted a ’46 Mercury steering wheel, plus whitewall tires and chrome reverse rear wheels using the classic combination of Ford centers and wide Buick/Cadillac hoops. The Inglewood whitewall cheater slicks it wears now were added sometime around the mid-1960s.

Sam drove the coupe during and after high school, and along with some of his buddies, started the original Fresno-area Midnighters Car Club in 1953. Sam’s two younger brothers both drove the coupe to school when Sam went away for the Korean War in the mid-1950s. The coupe spent time sitting parked in and out of a barn on his father’s Fresno farm, before going to Sam’s new north Fresno home in the early 1960s. Then it finally came to rest on Sam’s Coarsegold ranch and was last registered in 1967.

At first sight, I really wanted the coupe, but Sam was pretty reluctant to let it go, mainly, I think, because it was his first car and he was still kind of attached to it. But I kept in touch, and over the next several years, Sam endured the deaths of some cherished pets, his second wife, and both of his brothers. I occasionally drove up to visit him, or to just buy some of his delicious organic tomatoes he’s so well known for.

Sam’s a really nice man and has a lot of interesting stories of his life’s experiences, so sometimes we would just sit out on his front porch and talk, without even bringing up the coupe. Sam told me about being in the Army, stationed in Germany during the Korean War. That’s where he met and married his first wife, Erika.

When they met, she was employed at the Porsche factory. Being fluent in both German and English, she was in charge of the mail department, working as a secretary directly with Ferdinand Porsche. Her father was employed there at the same time as a test driver. The other drivers would often take her along on some seriously fast test drives—with Ferdinand’s OK, of course.

When they married, the Porsche factory gave Sam a metal toy replica of a red 356 Speedster that he still has. Sam’s new wife loved Porsches so much, he bought her a 356 coupe a couple of years after returning back to the States in the late 1950s.

Sam has always been a car guy, and he liked to collect the old ones. He told me about going to his parents’ farm after getting back from Germany and asking his dad, “Where’s all my cars?”

Well, turns out that his dad said his mom and sister were getting tired of them being there, so when a junkman came around asking for any junk he could haul away, Sam’s dad told him, “There’s some old cars out back you can take. Just don’t touch the ’32 Ford coupe.” The junkman got Sam’s ’33 Ford coupe, ’38 Chevy sedan, ’27 Chrysler, and a few more. No wonder he was reluctant to let go of his ’32!

After I visited Sam many times, over about seven years, he finally agreed to sell his coupe. But then it took another year and a half or so until he gave me an idea of what he wanted for it. Once he did, I gave him a deposit in mid-2016, and then my brother Don and I went up and bought it a few months later.

As the current caretakers of the coupe we now call “Sammy,” our plans are to restore the wiring, engine, chassis, drivetrain, glass, wheels, and tires. We’ll also have the interior done in a period-correct tuck-’n’-roll and give the body a thorough cleaning. Our goal is to keep it as close to “as-is” condition as possible, and drive it.

Looking back on the entire experience, it wasn’t just about uncovering “coarse” buried treasure. As much I enjoyed coming across a rare barn find, and meeting a guy who appreciates a special old car, even more important was that he was willing to pass it on to me, knowing that I’ll take good care of it. That’s as good as gold.