Automobile Ford Pickup Custom 1932 in vendita

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To Be OFFERED AT AUCTION WITHOUT RESERVE at RM Sothebys' The Boeckmann Collection event, 28 January 2027.
Offered Without Reserve | $75,000 - $125,000 USD

Understood to have been built and painted in 1958 by Dean Jeffries, one of America’s most influential custom car builders
Period hot rod fabrications including a chopped, channeled, and shortened body
Features its original period deep metallic blue paint with red flames and white pinstriping, signed by Jeffries
303-cid Oldsmobile V-8 equipped with six Stromberg 97 two-barrel carburetors, open exhaust headers, and a Lincoln Zephyr transmission
Displayed at the 2025 Grand National Roadster Show
An incredible survivor worthy of continued preservation and exhibition

Raised in Compton, California, amid the post-war explosion of hot-rodding, Dean Jeffries began his career at the legendary shop of George Barris, where he quickly established himself as an exceptionally innovative painter. Jeffries was among the early practitioners of painted flames, a motif that has become inseparable from custom-car culture. His clientele eventually read like a who’s who of Hollywood and motorsport, with commissions ranging from the “Little Bastard” lettering on James Dean’s Porsche 550 Spyder to roundels for Parnelli Jones and A.J. Foyt, as well as pinstriping Carroll Shelby’s personal Cobras. His career reached another milestone with the creation of the “Mantaray,” a spectacular Maserati Birdcage-inspired show rod that remains one of the most recognizable shapes in American automotive history.

The 1932 Ford Pickup offered here is believed to date from these pivotal years in Jeffries’ career. Its body bears all the hallmark fabrications of a period hot rod: chopped, channeled, shortened, flamed, painted, and pinstriped. Finished in deep metallic blue with red flames outlined in white striping, it features other period-correct components such as Moon performance tanks and lakebed-style “moon disc” wheel covers. Beneath the louvered hood lurks a 303-cubic-inch Oldsmobile V-8, breathing through an imposing array of six Stromberg 97 two-barrel carburetors and paired with Offenhauser covers, open exhaust headers, and a Lincoln Zephyr transmission.

Returning to the public eye in 2023, the full history of this pickup remains to be discovered. Features present upon its rediscovery, including mounts for a removable roll bar, accommodations for a magneto, the lack of a radiator, and the spartan interior, point toward a career at the drag strip; provisions for headlamps and other street-legal features suggest that it may have lead a dual life when constructed. The original period paintwork has Jeffries’ signature flamed work, and, of course, his signature, though the extent to which he was involved in the rest of the build is presently unknown.

Most compelling, however, is that this “Deuce” has not been built to resemble a 1950s hot rod; it is a 1950s hot rod. It was built to be driven, lived the life for which it was intended, and today wears the patina and character that only decades of experience can impart. Fittingly, when it was exhibited at the 2025 Grand National Roadster Show in Pomona, California, it was in the “Suede Palace”—the building dedicated to the art, craft, and history of the traditional hot rod and custom.

Offered now from The Boeckmann Collection, more than simply an impressive period-built survivor, this Deuce Pickup is a living connection to the pioneering builders, racers, painters, and craftsmen—among them Dean Jeffries—who transformed the hot rod from a backyard hobby into a touchstone of American culture.To view this car and others currently consigned to this auction, please visit the RM website at rmsothebys.com/auctions/ba27/.