By Louie Mayall
THE CHRISPYN ’32 FORD COUPE M ike Chrispyn acquired his ’32 Ford five-window coupe from a Street Sale ad in StreetScene in 1978. The coupe sat fully channeled over ‘32 rails lowboy style and was chopped four inches. It was low, mean and totally unforgettable. The original build dates to the ‘50s and it was glowing in
Mike had previously seen and photographed what would become his ’32 Ford five-window coupe at a car show earlier, but he took notice of it at Columbus in 1978 when he saw it moving. Chopped, channeled and all hot rod, Mike liked what he saw and when the trade came up he knew he had found his five-window and it would someday have fenders. He learned the hard way how much fun an open wheel car is on the road having taken this car west and after returning from Ventura in 1980 he was ready for fenders.
translucent white pearl. First hot rodded in the late ‘50s with its show debut in 1958, the rod bounced around and probably was repainted in the same pearl white that it had in the ‘50s. The many missing years, plus the fact Mike changed the car most winters means a straight history is hard, but I’ll give you all the info I have as I go through a regular feature and fill in all the holes I can in the captions. Although the rod was cool Mike had other ideas and decided to un-channel and re-fender the five- window in 1984. Since that fateful first rebuild the rod has never stopped changing. Once Mike started rebuilding his ’32 over the winters he continued to get better and better at all the skills needed for
feels the need (or maybe he just runs out of other projects). The rod has been channeled, unchanneled, had fenders, been a highboy, been a lowboy, has been the Pearl White, Porsche Red, yellow, orange, black twice with flames and scallops, green with flames, maroon, and I probably have missed a color or two. Mike first saw his ’32 coupe rolling through the gate at the 1978 Street Rod Nationals in Columbus and later saw the ad in StreetScene and promptly traded his ‘38 coupe for his dream ’32 five-window. The chopped, channeled, hammered and slammed coupe had a fake 4-71 blower, pearl white paint, a luggage rack and a bunch of stuff that would
welding, interiors, bodywork and paint. The little rod has followed and set the trends for years, and it keeps changing whenever Mike Mike drove the rod as a channeled coupe until 1984 (by then it was Porsche Red) when the rod was completely redone with a SuperBell front suspension, a phony soft top insert, steelies, bright yellow paint, a better squared off chop, bobbed Wescott fenders, a regular dropped headlight bar and a 350 Chevy wearing trips. Mike and Laura really drove this combination fitting cross-country touring into standard two-week vacations and towing a travel trailer.
ultimately be changed, but a couple of things like the Z-d frame and using small-block Chevy engines have stayed the same over the years. The current Heidt’s IFS was installed in 1988 and features tubular control arms, Aldan coilovers, JFZ brakes and rack and pinion steering. Mike slipped in the Currie fabricated 9-inch Ford based rear in 2001 and it rides on RideTech coilovers, Ford drum brakes, a four-bar with a Panhard bar, and it sits right thanks to the ‘50s Z’d frame. The small-block Chevy sitting
50 JUNE 2024
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