1931 Chevrolet Special Sedan

[Trreinke]

I bought this car in November of 2019.

 

I have always liked '31 Chevys because they are what my Grandpa and Dad collected. My dream car is a 1931 Chevrolet "Six wheel" 4-door sedan. Likey ly because when I was growing up, my grandpa had 2 1931 Devaux 4-door sedans and I always thought a Chevy Sedan would round out the family collection nicely.

 

In the summer of 2019 my dad spotted an ad in Jennings Motor News of a 1931 4-door sedan. The add said "Car disassembled, Nice wood, New interior and Chrome." There were no pictures. Sadly he and I were not in a position to buy another car. I had just bought a house with a 2 car garage that was in need of a bit of work and my dad had applied to his township to add to his barn but was denied.

 

After the Fall Hershey swap meet, where I found a number of '31 Chevy parts I could not say no to, we saw the add in Hemmings again and decided to call. The car was in Toledo OH, so we took the 4 hour drive there to look at it. The parts were in 2 different places, the body/sheet metal and drivetrain were in a farmers barn and everything else was in a garage across town. I made a deal that day and one week later We went back to Toledo with a trailer and a couple of pickups to bring it back.

 

Attached are some pictures of the car when I got it home.

[Trreinke]

Here are a couple of more pictures of the "stuff" when aI brought it home. 

 

Over the next few days I will post more about the work I have done over the past year.

[Trreinke]

I guy I bought the car from was the son of the owner, who had sadly passed away. The son new very little about the car. Once I started going though everything closely I understood why. Many of the parts were wrapped in newspaper dated 1973, I would guess the son was about 10 at that time.

 

Since my dad and I had both grown up around 1931 Chevrolets it was fairly easy to inventory everything and see what I was missing. Luckily the only things missing were fairly minor like some interior pieces and some mechanical stuff, which my dad always has a lot of extras since he drives his cars alot.

[trimacar]

Very interested to read the progress, and like you I have a fondness for 1931 Chevrolets.  In 1964, at the age of 13, I mysteriously was infected with the old car disease.  Somehow my parents humored me, and my '31 Chevrolet was purchased in November of 1964 as a mess.  My father traded a 22 rifle for it, I think at the time that was about 30 bucks worth.

 

They surely thought that was the end of it, but I restored the car and drove it to high school, and some at college.  Thus began my love affair with old cars.  The car was restored on a strict budget, so no money to chrome bumpers.  Painted them black, and you know what, back then no one cared.  Pictures of frame and body in about 1966, finished picture of the car in about 1975.  In the frame picture, those are NOS fenders I bought for the car, think we paid $25 each..one of the splash aprons came out of a junk yard that was behind my father's business...note some of the new wood in body, fellow replaced about half the wood in the body in one week's time, that's a whole 'nuther story..

 

Still have it after 58 years.....

 

Keep us informed on your progress....

[JustDave]

Hello tim

i think this is sometimes the best way to buy them.generally you can get a great deal on the car if they truly want to get rid of it.you said you had bought a home recently so you had a place to keep it and work on it,the price is usually right,so in some ways it is a win win situation,iknowyour grandpa is looking down with a big smile,good luck with the project and remember at the half waypoint you have to start looking for the next project,     Dave

[hursst]

Looking forward to seeing the restoration.

[Trreinke]

The first thing I did was sand and wire brush all the old primer off the frame. In the 1970's the frame had been stripped of all paint and and covered with a thick layer of primer. Well there was rust in all the little pits under the primer so I went at the frame with a DA sander and wire brushes to clean it really well by hand then filled the outside and underside of the frame rails and cross members. I am too lazy to fill the inside of the frame rails, I am hoping the shadows under the car will let it look good enough.

 

Here are some pictures of the frame work.

[Trreinke]

Sadly, I think I made a mistake to not have the frame sandblasted. After I painted it, it looked really nice (nearly perfect). I used a Martin Senoir black gloss black paint (as recommended by uncle who owns a body shop).

 

After a few months, maybe because of the cold, some small "bubbles" emerged from the paint right above the rear wheels. I think some of the body filler might have pushed out of the pits in that area.

 

 

 

 

[chistech]

I’ve restored quite a few 29’-31 chevys so if you have questions just ask me. I restored my own 31’ special sedan about 4 years ago. Did a real nice 31’ 5 window coupe also. I’ll be starting on a 30’ 4 dr once the 34’ pickup I’m working on is done and out the door. Here’s a couple pictures of the coupe and my sedan.

[AURktman]

On 1/18/2021 at 1:21 PM, Trreinke said:

Sadly, I think I made a mistake to not have the frame sandblasted. After I painted it, it looked really nice (nearly perfect). I used a Martin Senoir black gloss black paint (as recommended by uncle who owns a body shop).

 

After a few months, maybe because of the cold, some small "bubbles" emerged from the paint right above the rear wheels. I think some of the body filler might have pushed out of the pits in that area.

 

What was your step-by-step process?  It could be filler, it could be contamination causing it to pop, it could be rust, etc.  Paint can be a very finicky beast.  I've had panels turn out different where I prepped and painted them at two different times with exactly the same conditions, preparation methods, and materials.  

[JustDave]

Hellotim

ive paintedalot of frames over the years,cars,trucks motorcycles trailers etc,there a lot of curves and areas that are hard to get two,,I’m not a big fan of sand blasting but I think on frames and other items it’s the way to go,just remember to always sand even lightly and always metal prep if there whereareas that where real rough metal prep twice it won’t hurt,paint is a funny thing,sometimes no matter what you do. The stars just are not aligned,other times it seems like you can do no wrong,just keep at it two steps forward and one back,

good luck dave

[Trreinke]

22 hours ago, AURktman said:

 

What was your step-by-step process?  It could be filler, it could be contamination causing it to pop, it could be rust, etc.  Paint can be a very finicky beast.  I've had panels turn out different where I prepped and painted them at two different times with exactly the same conditions, preparation methods, and materials.  

First I sanded and wire wheeled (using an angle grinder) all the old primer off. Then I filled the side rails and underside with body filler. Then sprayed with (high build)primer, sanded, primed again, sanded again and painted.

 

I think the body filler may be where I screwed up. The second coat was put on on a weekday last winter when I didn't let the frame heat up for hours, so it was fairly cool. So it could be moisture as well.

 

Oh well, I am learning!

[Luv2Wrench]

Looking forward to see the restoration, thanks for taking the time to share!!

[Trreinke]

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.

[Trreinke]

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!

[AURktman]

42 minutes ago, Trreinke said:

First I sanded and wire wheeled (using an angle grinder) all the old primer off. Then I filled the side rails and underside with body filler. Then sprayed with (high build)primer, sanded, primed again, sanded again and painted.

 

I think the body filler may be where I screwed up. The second coat was put on on a weekday last winter when I didn't let the frame heat up for hours, so it was fairly cool. So it could be moisture as well.

 

Oh well, I am learning!

I spoke to the owner of the paint company I get my paint from and was told to spray a coat of epoxy primer, let cure for 24 hours, sand with 120 grit (optional, but I do it), then apply the Rage Gold (filler I use).  Then I coat with a urethane high build primer and sand with 400 grit then 800 grit, thin down the same urethane primer as a sealer (wet on wet primer for non-US members) then paint.  Now, that is just the process I use because that's the way I was told to do it by the paint company, so your methods may be different with a different primer/paint system.  

[AURktman]

1 hour ago, Trreinke said:

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Mike "Hubbie" Stearns]

Looks great. Keep up the good work

[trimacar]

Great start, thanks for update....

 

[Trreinke]

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!

[Trreinke]

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.

[Trreinke]

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.

[Dave39MD]

Looks great.

[chistech]

Your glossy finish is OEM correct. There was no satin or matte finish paints in 31’. It is incorrect to use a dull finish paint on car frames before at least 35’.