Yeah, there was a change body-wise between '51 and '52. In the good old days I could have told you at a half-mile what year and make a car was, and tell the trim difference as they went by. Nowadays they all look alike to me...
Dad seemed to have a lot of trouble with the flathead blocks. Somewhere was a weak point, and if the thing ever got hot it would crack somewhere. We were always having to go to the drugstore to get a bottle of stuff called "waterglass" that he would pour into the radiator.
His always had the overdrive in whichever car he had. We would see a snapped axle once in a while, and if you ever got stuck in the snow and tried to rock it free, there was a spider gear somewhere that would always lose teeth or similar.
Something to do with first gear, I think...
Oh, and it wasn't those trannys that they would take every other tooth off of for speed shifting (talked to him this morning). He said the things were just too weak! I'm guessing you and he could go on about old Ford stuff for some time!!!
So... is that a '32 you have???