Trreinke

You are correct, the wood grain was used on Canadian built cars and looks really good. Yours is in excellent condition! Sadly, I am a purest and am spending way too much time/money trying to make this car exactly as it left the dealer. It is my curse, 😆.

Here are some examples of pictures I already have from Google searches and some nice fellows on Facebook.

I am working on getting the dash decals for 1931 Chevrolet reproduced. I have someone who might be willing to print/trim them. They (as well as myself) want to make sure they are as close to original as possible before an investment is made. So I am looking for as many pictures as I can find of originals to ensure correctness. If you have a '31 Chevrolet with an original decal please take and post a picture. The higher the resolution the better. Note: the reproduction that Icari did years ago was not quite perfect but I do have pictures of the reproduction.

Thank you for all the great discussion everyone. I always find it fascinating how much information can be gained from here!

I have started to accessorize my motor for my '31 Chevrolet. Looking through the tons of pictures I have and the collection of starters/generators I have I seem to find a discrepancy on what the correct tags should be. A picture from the 1930 Chevrolet service news show a generator with a large tag only listing Anderson Ind on the top. A factory photo from a 1938 Chevy shows a small tag still only listing Anderson, Ind. However, I have a 943J with same tag as shown on the '38 and a 943J with a large tag but lists both Dayton Ohio and Anderson Ind. So with that being said, I have a few questions: 1. Is there a rhyme/reason as to when/why Delco Remy listed both cities on their tags? 2. Was there a specific year they started using the smaller tags on the generator and starter? (I assume the large tag was never used on the distributor, but I could be wrong) 3. Did Delco Remy ever just list Dayton Ohio on the tags?

The tubes themselves look brand new and hold air. I did get them from a reputable dealer that many of you likely know. The tubes came out of what looked like factory sealed boxes from the manufacturer (not the dealer). The only issue is how they look. I would rather have a well functioning tube that does not look great than give up the tube since now since everyone else I have talked to said that nickel stem tubes are backordered until possibly spring. I could put a different style stem cover on them but that would not be correct for the car. Thanks for the advice so far.

I realize that metal stem tire tubes are tough to get a hold of right now, but I did found a couple. I was told the stems were nickel, all the markings on the packaging says they should be nickel. But clearly they are brass. I don't want to return them since metal stems are in short supply right now. My question: what can I do to make these look better? Chrome paint? Looking for any advice you can give! Thanks in advance.

I have tried many different types of bags for swap meets and my preferred style is the old paperboy bag (hangs to the side off the opposite shoulder). I know I am not alone in the preference as I see tons of men using them at swap meets. The one I have is quite old and wearing thin. Does anyone know a source for this type of bag? I have checked with the local newspapers and was basically laughed out of the building as well as done basic google searches to only find very expensive old ones.

I would love to see the grill go to Dave. It will be appreciated there. Likely, there is little demand because most (if not all) the Devauxs have a grill. We have an extra that is a wall hanger until something happens to one of our cars.

So I currently have a top of the line '31 Chevy Special Sedan with all (except smoker kit) accessories. As a contrast, someday I would like to get a plain-jane 3 window coupe just so I can show the difference between the fanciest most optioned closed car and the cheapest most utilitarian closed car. About a $150 difference in 1931.

I am a metal worker by trade and have no problem with bodywork, but I need to replace wood in the body of the cars I am working on. Pardon my ignorance, but what tools at a minimum are required to make new wood for my early '30s cars. I assume scroll saw, jointer, planer, drill press and sanding equipment but what else? Pardon my ignorance, I have no experience with wood working.

The 1931 Devaux was advertised to do 70 mph. I don't have access to the clipping right now, but I have a new paper articles that says for a publicity stunt, Devaux refueled an airplane in-flight. They ran out of runway on the first attempt so the plane circled around again and the Coupe kept up the the plane long enough for a fellow in the rumble seat to pour gasoline into the plane's tank before they reached the end of the runway without the planes wheels touching the ground. Maybe the company went out of business the next year because they wasted all their money on advertising!

My family Collects Devauxs. They were an assembled car. Engines by Continental and Bodies by Hayes. Made in Grand Rapids Mi from April 1931 to April 1932 and in Oakland CA from May to December 1931. According to company records they had plenty of orders for cars but could not build them fast enough to pay their debts. In April of 1932 the company went into receivership and the Assets were sold to Continental Motors for forgivness of half the debt they were owed. They sold cars under the Continental-Devaux name for the rest of 1932 and tried to sell cars under the Continental name for '33 and '34. In the early 1960s my Grandpa had a '40s Buick but wanted an older car. He put a 'wanted ad' in the local newspaper in Bay City Mi. He got a reply from a Catholic priest. He had a '31 Devaux he wanted to sell that he had used for fishing trips. My Grandpa replied, that he appreciated the offer but was not interested in a foreign car. The priest wrote back with some basic information about Devaux and my grandpa bought the car. That car is the green 4-door sedan in the attached pictures. Currently owned and driven by my Aunt. Of the 40 or so cars known to still be around my family ownes 5 of them and has been involved in the restoration of 2 others.

In my mind "patina" should only refer to well preserved original paint. anything else is "wear-and-tear"

How many of you have submitted articles of interest about your pre-WW2 cars? Maybe the problem (and I do consider a lack of pre-war content a problem) is a lack of content?

Is anyone aware of a group of people or a club that is focused on Chevettes? I am aware of the VCCA and many Corvette clubs but nothing for Chevettes. I had a couple reach out to me see if I knew of one. My apologies if this is the wrong place to ask

Great to see such a beautiful and rare car being enjoyed on the road. Too often, such cars become trailer babies!

I wanted to use a beam clamp originally, but I couldn't find a modern one that was close enough.

Reproducing the controller for a 1931 Chevrolet winterfront. Picture of original controller (from ebay, years ago) My controller.

I did a lot of soul-searching as to how glossy I was going to go with the frame. I realize the frame left the factory with a satin finish, but if I was going to put lots of time and money into this car I wanted it to look as good as possible. Plus, I already had plenty of gloss black paint. It pains me to know it is now a "custom" job, but I still think it will look better. However, since I have limited garage space, I needed to cover the frame really well, so I would not get over spray on it while working on other parts and in doing so I got some moisture marks on the frame rails, which I had to buff out. So not only did I use gloss paint, it is also buffed out and quite glossy. I can't wait for some road grit to dull it up a bit. Here are some other random pictures of assembly and brake work.

I still have the original springs, and they have plenty of arch in them (I wonder if the old owner, had them rearched). When I put the rear axle housing bushing blocks on, the springs had to much arch for them to sit flat. Right now I have them very snug and will (hopefully remember) to reseat them once there is more weight on the frame. There is also too much arch to attach the shock arms. I did test the shock arms by compressing the springs with a couple of ratchet straps but I didn't want to leave them much tension on the shocks.

Over the past fall and winter I did a lot of assembly of the chassis. Technically, I have a rolling chassis right now, but no motor. I only made one big mistake so far (that I know of). When hanging the front axle, I was did not remember some tapered spacer plates that go between the axle and the springs. I tried a bunch of things trying to get the axel and springs to fit together correctly and in the process scratched a lot of paint. Here is a picture showing the spacer plates installed. Luckily, that is a mistake I will never make again!

Definitely take the memories. I am very thankful for the cars my grandpa left behind, but I would trade them in a heartbeat for more time with him. He taught me most of what I know about cars and I think about him every day I see a car. That is what I think this hobby is really about.

On only a few of the bigger parts, like drums and brake flanges did I decided after I painted them to resand and put another coat on. It won't be perfect, I thought I did pretty well for my first time painting. Luckily my dad has restored a few tractors and was able to give me a lot of tips!

The spring and summer of 2020 I was able to sand, fill, prime and paint all the little parts for the chassis. I had no idea there were so many parts! Luckily, covid provided me with a 6 week extended stay-at-home vacation and the weather was decent. Being as the car was in pieces I was lucky that almost nothing was missing. Thankfully, my wife was kind enough to let me use a spare room in the house for storage so I didn't have to worry about overspray on the finished parts.