Unknown antique car body. Please help to identify.

Hello all. I'm new to here. But I need some help, as no-one in my own country was able to identify this vehicle. There's not much of it left, except the body. Hope someone here could help me, really appreciate it!

So, this thing is currently sitting in my living room waiting for the workshop building to be finished:

There's written "Singer-Lux" in russian letters, under one side fender. I did a massive research from Google but didn't find any car with that description, I found a model "Singer Junior" but I think it doesn't look like mine that much. The car was sitting in a barn since WW2 and I got it few months ago from a guy who found it (he bought a farm and then found it in his farm). I'm planning on making it some antique style custom (no bling-bling modern wheels and stuff, but all authentic look for that era, just using different cars parts from the same era, since it would be too expensive to restore it as fully original). But first I need to know what exactly is it. The guy who sold it to me, didn't know the marque and model either. I hope someone here could help me, since that car had to come from somewhere...? Can make more photos if necessary. Almost forgot to mention, this is a 4 door saloon with third windows behind rear doors, and one rear door is missing. I'm really stuck with identifying it.

Thank you in advance!

Andy

Not some variation of a Ford model A?

Looks to be part Model A Ford with maybe a 1930 Chevrolet hood and maybe a 1930-31 Chrysler product (Dodge Brothers, Plymouth) headlamp bar.

I was thinking it could be a GAZ A but the hood louvers are different.

Looks to be part Model A Ford with maybe a 1930 Chevrolet hood and maybe a 1930-31 Chrysler product (Dodge Brothers, Plymouth) headlamp bar.

Thats what I was thinking, John. The dash and instrument cluster are definately A Model. The Headlight bar also looks like Chrysler product. So do the rear fenders.

Bill H

Thank you all !

I was also thinking of Ford A when I first got it, but then the hood louvers made me confused, these didn't look like Ford A at all. But maybe really that car had a crash or something, in 1930s, and I've heard that in my country it was hard/expensive to get parts, so maybe the first owner just fixed it with what he had. Can't think of any better explanation, since I know 100% that this car last drove before WW2 and at the time of war, it was dismantled and sitting in a barn since.

Thanks again now I know at least which parts should I get for it.

Andy

Hi, Andy, welcome to the forums.It's nice to hear from overseas members, especially good English speaking The body is certainly a Model A including the rear fenders which have the bird's mouth cutouts for the splash apron. I think it's a Ford (not GAZ) due to the stainless cowl band. The gas tank is mid 30 to mid 31.Bleach's picture is interesting. Note the blind 1/4 windows and the straight top of the grille also no bright cowl band.There were lots of Model As in the Scandinavian countries,perhaps it came from there.

It could very well be a Model A since the communists hadn't taken over Estonia before WWII and therefore Soviet products may not have been very popular before then.

The one thing that really interests me is the Russian lettering on the fender. Is it just painted on or is there some kind of data tag that is attached to the car?

It's not likely that the car is a Singer. For one they didn't have the fuel tank in the cowl area and they were also right hand drive. The photo of the cowl clearly shows a steering column bracket on the left side. Maybe only the fenders were from a Singer?

I have seen some photos of GAZ A's and some did have the stainless cowl band. Interior shots of the same car had a dash that was very similar to a Model A. Most of the GAZ A, or NAZ A as they were originally designated, where phaetons and painted black.

Hello and thanks.

I dug into some old archives and really, there were 292 Fords registered in Estonia by the year 1935. I assume most of them were A's, I have seen some old photos from 1930's made in Estonia, and there's really lot of Fords (also Chevrolets, these two were most popular cars in Estonia back then). If anyone is interested in Estonian ancient cars gallery, you can check it out: http://eag.vanatehnika.ee/ewautod.html (the text in in estonian though, but I can help to translate, and "Lehekülg 2" at the bottom means page two).

The russian lettering is weird, because it's like part russian and part latin letters and it's handwritten by someone (with a chalk or crayon or something similar), I assume it was written during soviet time, maybe someone wanted to restore the car but didn't know where to start, and maybe someone falsely told him that it's a Singer (information especially on foreign cars was hard to get during soviet time, and probably someone just assumed it was a Singer and the guy wrote it down for self-reminder). I can snap a photo of that writing later today. Gotta inspect that more closely

The guy who sold it to me, said he thinks that this car's engine, chassis etc was used to build a small tractor. It was a common practice at soviet times in rural areas. In Estonia, I have seen at least 3 cars last year without engine, transmission and chassis, so it's likely they've been used for a tractor, but the tractor was never found (maybe it broke down and was scrapped), also one rear door from this car was never found (the guy told me he searched hard everywhere in his farm but couldn't find it).

But after all it's good to hear that this car already is quite a mixture from different cars, so I don't have to worry about everything being rigidly original when I start building it.

Thanks.

Andy

Cool pictures

Hello. Yes, we are using the living room as a storage right now and it's stuffed with cool old stuff (my 1938 DKW motorbike is also there, it's visible on the first photo behind the car) and I know it looks bad but we're starting the renovation of the house asap when the weather is getting better... The farm house we bought lately is about the same age as the car, and nobody has ever renovated it...

But I'm starting work on that car in a few months. It's gonna be some kind of custom but no modern parts.

Greets,

Andy

Hopefully your house is in better condition than the car.

Not much better, but it's going under a full renovation starting in march... (built in 1936 and nobody has ever restored the house, but for us it's perfect since we wanted the dream home and now we can build it 100% to our liking)

Your body looks like a 1930-31 Model A Ford to me.

On second look, I think this body is an early 30 with the oval speedometer on the gas tank. Here is a mid 30 to mid 31 with the round speedo. The outline of the dash panel is wider,

Ford Motor Company invested heavily in a Model A production facility in Russia. The communists wasted no time in defaulting, and Ford quit his interest, taking a financial beating. I am wondering how faithfully the Russian A 's copied the American versions. At any rate, this might explain the Russian writing that was found! Except the front fenders and cowl/gas tank, I tend to agree that the rest of the parts are non-Ford. They do not appear to be facsimilies within any stretch of reason, to Model A parts. As

for the historical tidbit; I believe credit goes to Ford Life, or David Lewis. It has been some time since I read the article. If anyone should want, I will attempt to find the article, just PM me, please.

The headlamp bar is definitely 1930-31 Dodge, or Plymouth with different lamps and a bracket added to one side. Here's 1931 Dodge....