STREET SHAKER

Jeff Norwell’s ’32 Ford Pickup Breathes Fire with a 422ci Hemi V-8

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Old hot rods have a story to tell, regardless of whether they were superstars on the show circuit or Saturday-night specials built to take on the streets of a small town. The sights of a chopped roof combined with a wicked stance and loud hopped-up V-8 is enough to make you take notice as it makes its way through a neighborhood. While many of these cars remain the same as when they were first built, there are many others that have gone through changes as the decades passed and fads have come and gone. For Jeff Norwell of Neustadt, Ontario, Canada, discovering a ’32 Ford pickup for sale in a local swap meet opened the door to owning a classic old hot rod that had been long forgotten. It was 1989 and a time when contemporary styled hot rods were on the rise, so the old truck sat in the corner, dusty and mostly unnoticed.

Originally built in the late ’50s by Gerald Watson of Hamilton, the truck had a healthy chop, was full-fendered and complete with a toasted Flathead V-8 between the ’rails. Jeff saw there was something special about the truck and later found out that it had actually appeared in the Dec. ’61 issue of