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Jumping in head first. 32 Chevy?


Guest jrhoa2

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Guest jrhoa2

Hello all! I am a new member and would like to introduce myself. My name is James and I am new to auto restoration. I have more experience in aviation than I do in old cars. I am just finishing up an antique Cessna airplane right now and started keeping an eye open for something new. My next project just fell into my lap. I pretty much purchased it sight unseen. Well, I did see it, at least the front left fender. I bought it before I really looked it over. I could not pass up the price! What the owner told me was that they thought it was a 32' Chevy four door. They do have the title but will have to look for it. After I bought it, I looked it over as close as I could in the dark corner of the storage building that it is in. Here is what I found. There is no engine and the tranny may be inside the cab. The hood is missing. The roof is gone. The visor is missing. There are two boxes inside the car that mount to the rear of the car. There are 6 wire spoke wheels, four on the car and one on each fender. The wood work inside the car is pretty rough. The steel body looks solid with one rust hole in the left rear around the tail light. I think all the lights/light frames are there. Seat frames with springs look to be inside the car. All glass is broken or gone.

I had originally wanted to bring it back close to original as I could. After I found out that the engine was missing, I started to think I may want to get it closer to a daily driver. I love the lines of it. The wheels in the fenders, the storage box on the back, and the basic instrument panel. I do not want to change any of the looks of the car but would like to make it as reliable and comfortable as possible. I know this goes against how alot of you feel about classic cars. I have no intentions of chopping it. What I am thinking is somehow put a modern drive train under it and maintain its classic good looks.

The former owner has allowed me to keep it in the building that it is in until I finish my airplane project and free up my shop space. I am hoping I will move it home in the next few months.

I will try to take some more pictures next time I am down there. Any comments will be well appreciated.

Thanks

James

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Guest jrhoa2

I just started looking closely at pictures on the web and I think you are right. I may have bought a 31 and not a 32. I will be completing the sale in the next week or two and they will have the title. I thank you for pointing that out Kieser31.

James

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The main issue you'll have with restoration is the body wood. The body is basically a wooden frame with a metal skin. The factory built the wood frame, then put metal on top. Replacing the wood "backwards" from this, from the inside out, is difficult but not impossible.

It's the single thing that made such cars not survive the years as well as some makes with mostly metal construction (you'll see 20 or more surviving Model A's for every similar year Chevrolet, for example).

Good luck, they're good cars, this is an ambitious project if the wood is bad, though...

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Guest jrhoa2

Does anyone know if there are retailers out that carry new wood for the early Chevy's? Like I said earlier, I have not had a real good look at my car yet but I am not sure that all of my wood can be used to make patterns. I have been looking around on the web and there are a bunch of places to get Ford parts but not so many for Chevy. Any thoughts? What species of wood is preferred? I would like to start gathering some now so I can have it on hand in a condition that I can use when the time comes. On a different note, How readily available are the original engines and drive train parts? My engine and tranny are missing. I am weighing my options for the drive train. How dependable are the drive trains? I want to be able to drive it as much as possible but I don't want to get taken to the cleaners and have it down for long periods of time if it does break. I thank you all in advance for your advise and patience.

James

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Guest jrhoa2

Don,

Thanks for the tip. I checked out the website. Nice work from what I can see from the photos. Unfortunately, they are not taking any new customers at this time due to a back log of work. I am going to send them an email and see how long the wait will be and see if they have a price list. Thanks again.

James

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James, there is also the following:

Classic Wood Manufacturing, 1006 N. Raleigh St., Greensboro NC 336-691-1344,

David J. Entler Restorations, R.D.2, Box 479C, Glen Rock PA 17327, 717-235-2112

I have purchased some wood from Entler and can vouch for the quality of his work.

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Guest jrhoa2

I emailed KC Wood Manufacturing last night. Very fast response. I had an email waiting when I woke up this morning. Bill is the contact and he seemed very friendly! Here is what part of what I got back. "We are still accepting orders as long as the customer verifies that they understand there may be a wait of up to a year." He sent me a price list of what they offer and they don't seem outrageous. Landman, thank you for the info. I will be contacting them to see how they compare. I am going down tomorrow night to look at my car again. I plan on emptying it out some to see what I got. I will be taking more pictures that I can post later this weekend.

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Guest jrhoa2

Well, I didn't have time to clean out my car to see what I really have. I did manage to get a picture of the tag on the firewall. I have tried to post it but it keeps failing. I think the picture is too big. The tag says Job No 31569 and Body NO T 3229. Anybody know what it means? What model do I have? Thanks

James

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31569 is the 1931 Special Sedan. It was a fancier version of the sedan. I couldn't find what the difference was in the stuff I have.

As far as T3229 my guess is that it was the 2229th car built at Tarrytown New York. I'll check on the VCCA site.

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Guest jrhoa2

Landman, Thank you for the quick response. I figured out it was a 31' but had no clue what model it was. Now if I could just figure out what made the special, special...... On another note, the former owner may have found the original engine. It was laying in a corner on the shop floor without the oil pan or head on it. There is a oil pan and and a head inside of my car. I'm crossing my fingers that it is a match. lol

James

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Guest jrhoa2

Thank you very much to everyone for the very useful information! I am glad I found such a knowledgeable group!

James

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  • 4 months later...
Guest Normbc9

If I can figure out how to post photo's I have a family original '32 Chevrolet Confederate Standard four door sedan. It has become my daily driver in Vacaville, CA. I'm in the process of doing some major work to the entire car. The wood in the body structure is now over 80 years old and has some issues.

Normbc9

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  • 2 years later...

I realize that this is an old thread but I figured I would post an update. I never took possession of the Chevy Special Sedan. It has sat in the same place as when I took pictures of it back in 2012. After much thought, I decided that all the wood work that was needed was more than what I wanted to tackle. Sadly, I backed out of the purchase and gave the '31 back to Mrs L. She understood and there were no hard feelings.

A little background information on the '31 and Mrs. L. Mrs. L is the mother of my childhood best friend who was my neighbour growing up. To this day, I consider Mrs. L my second mother and she considers me as one of "her Boys". Mrs. L's husband collected antique cars and car parts. He had a stash of Model T, Model A, Nash, Overland, and some '57 Ford cars in his two buildings and the Chevy was part of his collection.

Mrs L's husband was in the early stages of Alzheimer's when I had agreed to buy the Chevy. Since than, he has gone down hill quickly and he is now in a care centre and is unable to talk. Due to his illness, Mrs L has decided to liquidate their estate and move into a town-home closer to her husband. Their 10 acre country property has become too much for her to handle on her own.

I have been making the 2.5 hour drive down to her place about two weekends a month for the last few months to help the family sort out her husbands collection and make it ready for sale. With my connections, Mrs. L has been able to sell the '31 Chevy Special Sedan, 2 '57 Ford Farlane 500 Skyliners, a '28 Model A parts Pickup, a '26ish Nash parts sedan, 4 hit and miss gas engines, and a bunch of other small items. We have about emptied her second building and made that property ready for sale.

The one car that was left in the building on her second property was a '29 Model A Tudor project. The Tudor was Mrs. L's fathers project before he passed. He had started on it but was unable to finish it. When he passed, they moved the project and all of the parts stash into Mrs. L's second shed. The A and all of its parts have sat untouched for about the last 15 years or so.

I had drooled over this Tudor back when I was in high school. I always thought it was a shame that it was just sitting there and not being finished. It had so much potential for a young guy with money to burn. I had asked for a price to buy it many times but I was always told that it was not for sale. I think they knew that I wanted to turn it into a hot rod.

A few weeks ago, Mrs L said that she wanted to talk to me before I made my way back home. When I stopped over before I drove home, she told me that next time I was down we needed to load the A on to my trailer and get it out of the second shed. Since we had been using my car trailer and truck to move the other cars, this did not seem unusual. I told her that we would get it moved over to her primary shed next time I was down. She than told me that it was not going to be moved to her place, I was going to take it home with me. I told her that I did not have the money to buy it and she should sell it to a buyer with cash in hand. After much run around, Mrs. L told me that she was not selling me the A, she was giving it to me!

When Mrs. L told me that she was gifting the A to me, I refused. She told me that if it was not for me, none of the cars would have been sold and a lot of the cleaning of the property would have not gotten done. I kept telling her that she was family and that is what family does for each other. Well, that argument didn't work so well. She threw it right back at me and told me that I was family and she was giving me part of the estate. I was one of "her boys" and it was only right that she gave me something.

It actually got a little uncomfortable. I kept refusing the Model A and she kept insisting that I take it. Mrs. L got to the point of telling me that if I did not take it, I would not be welcomed at her home anymore. I guess you really should not argue with a 75 year old woman. They will always win!

We did reach a happy medium, if you can call it that. I kept trying to offer her money for it when I could afford it. She refused. She did tell me that when I reached the first Million dollars in my bank account, than and only than, I could pay her fair market value for the way the Tudor sits right now in today’s dollars. Since she is 75 years old and I make just a little more than enough to get by, we both know that it will never happen.

As a show of respect to Mrs. L and her family, I plan to put the Model A back to stock and keep it mostly original. Since her father was working towards that goal, I will continue his work. One change I plan on making is to add a heater to it. Since I live in Minnesota, it would be nice to be able to drive it later in the year. I have also thought about changing the transmission ovet to a mid 80's Ford F150 tranny. I would like to drive the '29 as much as possible and the updated transmission may allow me to make it a daily driver.

Although I have not finished my airplane projects yet, I did pick up my new Tudor project on Thursday. Mrs. L wanted the shed emptied so I moved it, and its considerable parts stash, over to my fathers building for winter storage. The parts stash took up a 8'X12' foot print in my fathers shed! I hope to finish one of my two airplane projects this winter and move my new Tudor project to my place next spring sometime.

I will post pictures of the Tudor in the next few days if anybody is interested.

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jrhoa2, thanks for being a considerate person in assisting the family.

Not proceeding with purchasing the 1931 Chevrolet was a good decision as you were wise to realize the extensive woodwork replacement job was going to be a major undertaking. As far as the Model A, they are one of the best car restoration choices. There is no need to change the transmission over to a F150. The stock Model A is a fine vehicle for local transportation if you don't have take it out on the interstate.

People may also try to convince you to convert the Model A brake system to hydraulics, but the original brake system rebuilt and adjusted properly will stop the car safely.

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Great story! If it is the double clutching you are worried about, there are packages to install a S10 5 speed trans in there or they actually make a 3 speed with second and third gears synchronized that is a direct bolt in conversion and is visually the same as original. Also many sources for parts. Good luck and have fun.

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James - thank you for helping out Mrs. L. It is a great story, and that IS how family works. Now the big project in front of you will try your patience and frustrate you too, but the rewards will be more. Remember you have guidance from above and support here on the forums. Where do you start?? Pictures my friend, pictures! There are many anxious to see the car and offer assistance.

Smiles from chilly Kansas, Chuck

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