Back in Blackie II; Troy resident shows off his 1932 Ford Droptop

By Charles Bolinger

Editor

“Little Deuce Coupe/You don’t know what I got,” go the lyrics by the Beach Boys. However, Bill Ritzel knows exactly what he has in his Deuce Convertible.

The quintessential hot rod, the 1932 Ford Coupe and Convertible, also known as the Model 18, was one of three models that succeeded the Model A and it remains immensely popular with hot rodders almost a century later.

On Oct. 8, Ritzel pulled Blackie II out into the early morning sun to show a reporter and allow it to be photographed. The license plate reads, “O-TO-B-16”

Ritzel said Blackie II is the 105th car out of 107 that he’s owned since he obtained his first driver’s license. He’s owned and driven Model Ts, Model As, Jaguar E-Types, or XK-Es as they were called in the States, 356-series Porsches, Triumphs, three Corvettes – a whole bunch of cars and I worked on them all myself. He’s also owned 12 Jeeps. In 1963, he owned a Chevrolet Super Sport with a 409 CID V-8.

Dressed in black, Ritzel’s car is the embodiment of Henry Ford’s popular adage from 1914 to 1926, “Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants so long as it is black.” The car has a deep red leather interior.

With just over 5,300 miles on the clock, Blackie II remains pristine. Ritzel said he adds 1,000 to 1,200 miles to Blackie II annually.

“In 2019, it was Dec. 23; we had a 70º day,” Ritzel began, starting his story by explaining what happened to Blackie I, a 1932 Deuce Convertible with a tan interior. “We had family [members] coming in for Christmas. My wife, Jamye, was getting the house ready for the kids coming in and I told her, ‘I’m going to get out of your hair and take Blackie for a ride one more time before I have to put him away for the winter.’

“So I’m out for about a 40-minute drive. I come back and I’m stopped in traffic, right in front of Ace Hardware [on Edwardsville Road] when a 6,000-pound [Chevrolet] Silverado Crew Cab [pickup truck] came in behind me and didn’t stop [in time].

“It took out the back of the car and I ended up selling the car. I bought a different one, a ‘50 Ford Restomod and had it for about a year.”

Going from a Deuce Coupe to a Lead Sled might be exciting for some classic car buffs or no big deal to others but for Ritzel, it was a letdown.

“It just wasn’t a hot rod. Once you own a hot rod, I guess it’s just like motorcycles, you need to get that back. I sold that car because it just wasn’t a hot rod and I missed my ‘32 Ford. Ironically, I got a phone call from Adams Hot Rod Shop in Calhoun, Georgia.”

The owner, Chad Adams, knew that Blackie I had been wrecked and he asked Ritzel if he had replaced it yet. Adams built both Blackies, Ritzel added.

“I said, ‘Not really.’ He said that he had one available if I was interested. To that I replied, ‘I’m on my way.’ So I drove down to Georgia. If there’s anybody to build a ‘32 Ford, it’s Chad Adams.

“I gave him a deposit on it and told him [about] a few little things I wanted him to check before he brought it up. He delivered it to the house and I’ve had it for a little more than four years. This one is better than the first one.

Powered by a Chevrolet crate engine, a 350 CID smallblock V-8 backed by a Turbo Hydramatic 350 three-speed automatic transmission.

“It’s got a better interior, better paint, better engine – better everything; and the previous car was a 55-time first place car and a 21-time Best of Show car. This one is better. It has a full leather interior and a better tire and wheel combination.

“Blackie II’s calling card is that it was in the Builder’s Showcase at the National Street Rod Association (NSRA) show in Louisville, Kentucky. That’s the grand king of all hot rod shows. 

“That particular show, which was a four-day event, had 11,500 participants, not spectators. That’s a lot of cars.”

Many people at NSRA shows have asked Ritzel if he built Blackie II. 

“I said, ‘I did the hard part; I wrote the checks.’ I could ask those same people who frowned on the fact that I didn’t build the car I drive, ‘Did you build your television set?’ ‘Did you fill your wife’s last cavity?’ As Dirty Harry said, ‘A man’s gotta know his limitations.’

“This was kind of a-treat-myself-in-my-old-age-car,” he said. “The ‘32 Ford is the iconic hot road. If somebody was to say, ‘Look up hot rod in a dictionary,’ you’d get a picture of a ‘32 Ford.”

Jayme appeared at that point. “I married a car nut but I’m not one,” she said after introducing herself.

He said the general reaction after he takes Blackie II out for a spin are thumbs-up from other drivers, passengers and pedestrians. 

Ritzel said many people in the area know him for the “Boonie” hats he wears while driving. He has six such hats. “If I don’t have my hat on, people don’t know who I am.

“I took our preacher for a ride one time. We took off and I nailed [the throttle] in second gear and chirped the rear tires. My hat blows off at about 70 miles per hour and I just keep going. He said, ‘Aren’t you going to stop and get your hat?’ ‘Nobody wants a used hat,’ Ritzel replied. ‘It’ll be here when I come back.” Who picks up a used hat, right?” he laughed.

Was it still there when he drove back by? “Oh yes, absolutely,” he recalled.

He said he has a sign that reads, “Teach your children the love of hot rods and they’ll never have money for drugs or alcohol.”

Besides the Deuce, Ritzel’s fleet includes a 2004 Mustang GT Convertible (with a vanity plate that reads, “Not My 32.”), a 2024 Toyota Prius Prime for Jamye to drive (it’s their fifth Prius; he buys his wife a new one every four years) and a 2004 Ford Ranger 4×4 pickup.

He and Jamye will celebrate their 59th wedding anniversary later this month. They met in the sixth grade in Fairview Heights, he said.