For Sale: RARE 1936 CHEVY 4 DOOR Cabriolet, possibly by Glaser - $95,000 - Bradenton, FL - Not Mine

[58L-Y8 1,888]

For Sale: RARE 1936 CHEVY 4 DOOR Cabriolet, possibly by Glaser - $95,000 - Bradenton, FL

RARE 1936 CHEVY 4 DOOR Cabriolet - cars & trucks - by owner -... (craigslist.org)

This is a very rare 1936 Chevy Cabriolet 4 DOOR that belonged to U.S. Ambassador William E. Dodd . Restored with recent rebuilt numbers matching motor. Complete with radio, another set of wheels and misc. parts and manuals.

Contact:  (406) 3-six-0-five-3-0-zero

Copy and paste in your email:  9fcd152f8d2f3f46aa2e0f79616982a9@sale.craigslist.org

 

I have no personal interest or stake in the eventual sale of this RARE 1936 CHEVY 4 DOOR Cabriolet.  Note: Seller does not name the European coachbuilder.  This style of four door convertible sedan on stretched American make chassis was built by Glaser, Norrmalm and Worblaufen among others,

Edited December 24, 2020 by 58L-Y8
Added 'possibly by Glaser' as the coachbuilder (see edit history)

[Ben P. 635]

45 minutes ago, 58L-Y8 said:

.  Note: Seller does not name the European coachbuilder.  This style of four door convertible sedan on stretched American make chassis was built by Glaser, Norrmalm and Worblaufen among others,

 

Yeah, that. 
Why the seller would completely neglect to mention the most significant thing about the car is bewildering to me.

I did find the same car listed elsewhere - again the seller neglected to name the coachbuilder.

https://www.antiquecar.com/category/For-Sale/American-Cars/Chevrolet/listings/54030/1936-Chevrolet-4-Door-Cabriolet.html

 

However, at one time he or someone did because on this photo website right here⬇️ it was identified as Gläser.

https://www.paledog.de/Automobile/post-vintage/1936-chevrolet-master-deluxe-glaeser-cabriolet_front.jpg.html

[Ben P. 635]

Actually, nope. He didn’t mention it there either — because the car on the ‘paledog’ photo site is a different car according to numerous small trim differences. It’s probably the one the seller referred to while claiming the possibility of only 2 in existence.

Up until 10 years ago I hadn’t missed a single issue of HMN in 30 years - and I read every. Single. Ad.

I’ve seen some extraordinarily bad presentations of cars in ads. But I’ve never seen an ad do more disservice to a car than the write-up that accompanies this one. Until this ad the worst one I ever saw was simply a picture of the dusty hood of a 1940 Packard the seller identified as a ‘Rolls Royce’. Somehow this ad actually does greater disservice. This is the worst ad that I have ever seen.

Good grief.

Edited December 24, 2020 by Ben P. (see edit history)

[58L-Y8 1,888]

28 minutes ago, Ben P. said:

Somehow this ad actually does greater disservice.  Good grief.

Indeed, the car is rare and interesting, with a custom European body but the seller doesn't bother to present it properly.  Simply driving it to a scenic location with good sunlight, showing it from all angles, the interior and all the details.  All that takes some additional thought and planning.  But, at the nearly $100K asking price, seems as if that wouldn't be much effort for the results sought. 

[alsancle 5,400]

You will never in a million years get 100k for this car.   Very cool? Yes.  100k cool? No.

 

There are eight cylinder Packards with better looking European coachwork that struggle for only a little more than that. 

[Ben P. 635]

Yes on the European coachwork Packards struggling for only a little more. But while the price as posted may or may not generate some calls, the disservice he did to his own car with this write up will long outlive his current fantasy of selling the car — it’s plastered all over the web. Same write-up nearly word verbatim on every single website. Websites that won’t go ‘poof’ like Craigslist ads and his current idea of price. On one he only added that he was not in a “must sell” situation.

That stuff’ll be there forever....

[alsancle 5,400]

The reason he doesn’t list the coach work is because he doesn’t know.  There were lots of tiny builders and the plates get lost or tossed over the years.  Inevitably stuff gets attributed to Glaser or Graber because the name is recognizable when it was originally something obscure.

[58L-Y8 1,888]

That shiny naugahyde interior doesn't help either.   Most interesting feature this convertible sedan has is how they engineered the door windows to meet without the need for removable B-pillars as was common on American convertible sedans.

[ericmac 645]

This may be the world's only Chevrolet that might be of interest to the CCCA Classification Committee, assuming one could document a provenance. I think it is quite an attractive car but does it command a 100% premium over a factory bodied Chevy? I guess that's a question for someone with much deeper pockets that my own. I agree with Ben. If you want 100K for a car, the car damn well better be presented like it's worth the money. 

[Ben P. 635]

1 hour ago, alsancle said:

The reason he doesn’t list the coach work is because he doesn’t know.  There were lots of tiny builders and the plates get lost or tossed over the years.  Inevitably stuff gets attributed to Glaser or Graber because the name is recognizable when it was originally something obscure.

That last sentence... Now that you say it that sounds plausible. In other words, that nearly identical Chevrolet with body attributed to Gläser I found on a web photo site isn’t necessarily anything to go by and perhaps this owner knew not to use that.

Who knows.

Finding something incorrectly identified on the web is pretty standard anyway. I quit using Pinterest after coming to the opinion that it is merely a clearing house for misinformation and/or misattribution. When Pinterest was fairly new I noticed a ‘pin’ of a famous Cadillac factory photo of its then brand new V-8 engines being tested. Someone misidentified it as Ford V-8 engines being developed in the Ford factory some 17 years later. That pin took off and was shared like wildfire and now if you do a Google search for “1st Ford V-8 engine” that Cadillac photograph pops up near the top of the list.

 

(I do like the body on this car though. A lot. Very Teutonic, very well proportioned, fits the car nicely. A lot of German bodied lesser-make 1930’s American cars have turned up on showfields in the past 20 years - to my eyes none of them look quite ‘right’. But then again most of them are 2-doors or some form of ‘Victoria’ which, I’m sorry, just don’t have good proportions on ANYTHING. But that’s just my prejudice talking.)