36 CONV SDN SURVEY: ARE YOU IN?
 

5,601 1936 Ford Convertible Sedans were produced. I purchased from a CA company that is accepted as an authority by the insurance industry, the number of 1936 Ford convertible sedans "that can be proven to exist today" according to them. They said there were only 107.

The top picture was taken at the Eastern Nationals in VA and has four 36 convertible sedans in a row... the last one on the right is a phaeton. I'll post the owners as soon I get the names and cars straight. I know Chuck Cake's car is there because he had his pal send me the picture. More later. 12/27/2008

 

Now, on with the story.

I have been trying to track them all down and have located 139 cars. I'm doing my best to determine how many 36 Ford convertible sedans were manufactured as slant backs and how many as trunk models. I'm using body tag info to help determine the split. Thanks to a great deal of help from other Early V8ers, we have narrowed the range to 173 cars wherein the changeover took place. We have body tag information from 83 cars and are still waiting on the owners of a few additional cars to research and report on body tag info for their cars. A real break came on 7/25/03 when Hugh ("Babe") Freeman, of Fairview, NC reported that he has a slantback model with a body tag number of 2324. That information NARROWED the range wherein the changeover took place by 104 of the earlier range of 277. GREAT JOB, Babe! THANKS! In late Dec, 2003, Babe called me with body ID tag information on his other two convertible sedans that were in storage. Thanks AGAIN, Babe! Jack Hogan, in OR reported his body tag info AND also the body tag info from another slantback model located in OR that we did NOT have on our survey! GREAT JOB, Jack! Bill Bond found and purchased a great 36 convertible sedan out of a barn in Iowa. Bill's car still had body ID tag number 5404 on it. I also found out about Denny Gorkin's wonderful convertible sedan. I discovered a pic of his car in the Nov-Dec 1970 issue of The V8 Times. I also need to issue a big THANKS to our pal in Walla Walla, WA; Fred Buerstatte, who was quick to point out a "new" convertible sedan lead in ME. ATTABOY, Fred. Special thanks to Charles Canover for starting 2004 in a grand way by getting the body ID tag information for his car and calling me on NEW YEAR'S DAY! Also, Linda Dunn, had her body ID information ready when I called her on the same day! Found two more cars in March, 2004. Bill Callo has a nice trunk model and so does Richard Height. Bill's car has been restored but he believes it is the SAME car he once owned in the mid-forties! Richard has had his car since early fifties and took it on his honeymoon in January of 1958 in MA! I had Christmas in April 2004, THREE more convertible sedans were added to the survey and two of them have body ID tags and the third one HAS a tag but the owner has been unable to decipher it so far but he is still working on it. The three fellows were Paul Kotseas, Rodney Baetzhold, and John Watson. Later in the summer of 2004, I found Doug Merino in WA. Doug's car is a beautiful trunk model but did not have a body ID tag. On 11/8/2004 I contacted Al Gardipee in FL who has a beautiful slant back convertible sedan AND has a body ID tag number of 1756. On 3/3/05, Hershel Payne, of TX, reported that he finally managed to determine that the body ID tag on his car indicated that it was number 282. EVERY body ID tag counts! 43 of the 139 total cars, including mine, no longer have their body tags :(. If you have a 36 conv sedan or run across one please email me with some contact information. We need to check for body tag information on every 36 convertible sedan in order to have maximum accuracy for our survey. CA has 22 convertible sedans and we're waiting on body tag info on 3 of them, PA has 12 and ALL of them have been checked, TX has 9 and OR has 9 and we're waiting on body tag info on 2 cars, OH, VA and WA each have 7, MA, MI, NC, and WI each has 6. NY has 5. NH, IL and MD each has 4. CO, FL, KY, ME, and NJ has 3 each. GA, KS and MN each has 2. CT, IA, IN, MT, NV, and SC each has ONE. We are up to 139 convertible sedans in ALL of America! We have to keep looking. EVERY one matters. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>I've created a web page of JUST 1936 convertible sedans which can be seen by clicking on the "All Convertible Sedans" dial below. I've added a few more cars. Email me your 36 convertible sedan for inclusion in the group. Thanks for your help. I owe Denny Gorkin an apology as I seem to have LOST the pics he was kind enough to send me. Can anyone email me a digital pic of Denny's great car in CO? 11/08/04. 2nd call for pic of Denny's car 3/5/05...please. .............. I'm also pleased to report that I drove my convertible sedan 1,015 miles from March 2nd, 2002 when I got it, until the end of 2002 and I didn't really drive it the last two months. 1,000 miles in 8 months is pretty good when you consider that ALL of the miles were on local drives and trips around Smithfield. AND I also drove six other cars and trucks, including two that I sold, to get to a total of 7,410 miles for all them. The chopped coupe and my pickup got the most miles but I think I drove the conv sedan the most often. Those are pics of my car above and on the home page. ...............Total mileage fell off in 2003 due to Mother Nature's habit in 2003 of REPEATEDLY RAINING out a number of local get togethers. The convertible sedan's usage was considerably cut back by the water pump failure in July that kept the car out of service for a while. ............... I'm pleased to report that I have my convertible sedan back together after the problem I had with a water pump pulley on 7/12/03. I added rebuilt pumps from Skip Haney, a 6 volt alternator from Larry Bender, a 16 inch SCOTS puller fan BEHIND the radiator--tight! (eliminated the manual fan), and also added an electric fuel pump and fuel pressure regulator which Joe Longogardi (CA) recommended setting to 3 pounds. Should also mention Roy's Radiator, in Windsor,VA, which fixed the radiator in ONE day! 8/28/03

................ AT end of Sept, I replaced the great LOOKING Ford script battery that lately seemed to always be weak with an Optima battery and the car is now starting very quickly. How SWEET it is! Yes, my granddaughter Savannah Leigh (3 1/2 years old) was ON BOARD on the first test drive after the car was put back on the road! 10/1/03 ................. I'm pleased to report that I ended 2003 by DRIVING my 36 convertible sedan to the "Builder's Breakfast Bunch" gathering on the last Saturday of the year. I'm ALSO pleased to report that I STARTED 2004 by driving the convertile sedan to the FIRST "Builder's Breakfast Bunch" meet on first Saturday of 2004. I did have the top up! 1/26/2004. ................. I'm continuing to drive my convertible sedan in 2004 and seem to have solved the old problem of running cool and keeping the water in the system by adding a 3 lb check valve, sold by Skip Haney in FL, to the system. Happy Day! ............. Bad news is that I LOST bottom part of trunk latch after I had just replaced the body part of the latch that broke a few weeks earlier! I'll find a spare somewhere. Just another opportunity! Keep driving. 10/24/2004. Thanks to some prompt help from fellow Ford folks, I've got a new latch working! THANKS to all who helped and/or tried to help. ************************************************************************** 4/26/2006 NOTE: My computer crashed on 4/10/06 and I lost ALL 36 conv sedan emails and correspondence and pictures not yet posted! If you've sent me anything regarding 1936 convertible sedans since July of 2005, PLEASE get back in touch. I'm missing 6 cars that we had!! I need all current 36 conv sedan owners to drop me a short email so I can rebuild my email addresses. Thanks, Al ************************************************************************** 9/16/2006 Still working on full info recovery but am pleased to report that we are now up to 150 cars found with 57 being slantbacks and 93 being trunk models. No progress on narrowing the range wherein the changeover took place but we do have info from 90 cars that did still have their body ID tags. I'm still missing about 20 email addresses so please email me if you own a 36 convertible sedan and have not gotten an email from me recently. I hope to be adding some more cars to the conv sedan picture pages soon so please email me a pic of your car if it is not already on one of the web pages. Thanks for your help. Al *************************************************************************** 11/11/2006 Still working on computer recovery but have found a few more cars. We now have 154 cars found with 91 having body ID tags. 59 are slantbacks and 95 are trunk models. Thanks, Al ***************************************************** 12/12/2006 Now have 155 cars and resolved a few "moves" among owners. Check out the six new cars added on page two of the "All Convertible Sedan" web pages. *******************************************************

6/17/2007 I am pleased to report that new Optima battery made a test drive with Savannah possible on 6/14/2007. GREAT fun for seven year old and her granddaddy! ****************************************

7/8/2007 Thanks to a recent contact from Mexico, we are now up to 161 cars found!! Several other leads still need to be tracked down. A big THANKS to the many folks that have helped AND CONTINUE to help keep an eye out for these neat old Fords. Congrats to the fine fellows that had SIX convertible sedans alive and well at the recent Early V8 meet in Fairfax, VA. I'll try to get some more pics added to our 36 Ford convertible sedan web pages. ****************************************

12/21/2007 Just a quick note to update the numbers on total cars found. We now have 168 cars with 65 being slantbacks and 103 are trunk models. We have not been able to further narrow the gap wherein the changeover took place thus far but we are still waiting on numbers from several of the recently discovered cars. THANKS for the continued help from everyone and please have a very Merry Christmas!

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12/24/2008 Just a quick note to update the numbers on total cars found. We now have 173 cars with 68 being slantbacks and 105 are trunk models. We have not been able to further narrow the gap wherein the changeover took place thus far. THANKS for the continued help from everyone and please have a very Merry Christmas!

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12/24/2011 Just a quick note to update the numbers on total cars found. We now have 188 cars with 76 being slantbacks and 112 are trunk models. We have not been able to further narrow the gap wherein the changeover took place thus far. Our lowest body ID tag number is 113 and the highest is 5581. THANKS for the continued help from everyone and please have a very Merry Christmas!

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12/25/2013 Just an update on the numbers on total cars found. We now have 195 cars with 78 being slantbacks and 117 are trunk models. We have not been able to further narrow the gap wherein the changeover took place thus far. Our lowest body ID tag number is 113 and the highest is 5581. THANKS for the continued help from everyone and please have a very Merry Christmas!

 

1/7/2018  I'm a bit tardy with this update but we now have 203 cars with 80 being slantbacks and 123 being trunk models.  I'm sorry to report that we have not further narrowed the gap wherein the changeover took place. Thanks for the continued help from everyone and I hope you had a very Merry Christmas! 

 

 

EARLY V8

Ford Barn

All Convertible Sedans

More Convertible Sedans
 
--Divider--
NUMBER OF CARS FOUND:
78 SLANT BACKS
117 TRUNKS
HIGHEST SLANT BACK BODY SEQ NO. AND LOWEST TRUNK SEQ NO.
2324
2497
  --Divider--
   
 

al@36fords.com

 

 

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