'31 Chevrolet 5 Window Coupe $17,500

[Leif in Calif]

It's been for sale for a while. Looks nice but the pictures in the ad are bad and not much information is given.

They say they drive it, you would think they'd drive it outside for the pictures! 

https://kansascity.craigslist.org/cto/d/wilcox-1931-chevy-w-coupe/7498273979.html

email: 8c2daa7ba66a3d71a3e72edb495215c3@sale.craigslist.org

1931 Chevy 5 W coupe..very nice original condition...all original drive train...contact me with any questions...

I do drive the car...clean title 

 

[TAKerry]

I have been following Model A's for a few years now. It seems that same era chevy's have always been 10% higher. Last couple posted on here seem to be in the same ball park. Are there values dropping?

[Leif in Calif]

2 hours ago, TAKerry said:

I have been following Model A's for a few years now. It seems that same era chevy's have always been 10% higher. Last couple posted on here seem to be in the same ball park. Are there values dropping?

I think the 28 Chevy is closest to Model A in specification (4 Wheel brakes and revised 4 cylinder with only slightly fewer horses than the A) and they are typically significantly less than the Ford. The later Chevy's have the stove bolt 6 which can push them higher but they don't have nearly as many active clubs and parts support. 

[AzBob]

Chevy's of this era were loaded with wood. I bought a running '28 Chev. Coach (2 door) back in '72 for $125. The wood was in poor condition and found nearly all of it would need to be replaced. A daunting task for a 19 year old with limited resources and woodworking skills.

[TAKerry]

20 hours ago, AzBob said:

Chevy's of this era were loaded with wood. I bought a running '28 Chev. Coach (2 door) back in '72 for $125. The wood was in poor condition and found nearly all of it would need to be replaced. A daunting task for a 19 year old with limited resources and woodworking skills.

Ironically, my older brother was going to college in VA. On a trip there pop spotted a 1935 Chevy pickup (dads birth year). He bought the truck and drug it home. I remember it running and being complete, and fairly solid. Upon further inspection the wood was bad.  This was going to be a project for my brothers, whom were into street rods at the time. Project came to screeching halt when it came to the wood. AND my family goes back generations as carpenters. LOL.

[Leif in Calif]

It's amazing that Chey was able to match Ford's pricing...there has to me a lot more labor in a metal on wood body.

[trimacar]

31 minutes ago, Leif in Calif said:

It's amazing that Chey was able to match Ford's pricing...there has to me a lot more labor in a metal on wood body.

Yes, but labor was cheap and a LOT of people knew how to work with wood in the first three decades of the 20th century.  Jay Leno commented once that in the early days of car manufacture, labor was cheap and technology was expensive, and in current times labor is expensive and technology is cheap.

 

I was discussing a similar point last week with a friend.  From about 1900 to 1915, a car was mostly machine shop work, with a little forging and casting thrown in, mainly woodwork for bodies, and handmade sheet metal fenders. After 1920 or so,  car manufacturing got much more complicated, adding plating work, complicated castings and associated complicated machining, metal stamping, higher speeds with needs for bigger engines and better brake materials,  and so forth.  

[Jim Skelly]

When did Chevy pickups go to all-metal construction?  Thanks.

[wayne sheldon]

Even in the 1930s, the equipment to stamp dozens of metal pieces to make an all steel body cost so much that it often took years and sometimes a million cars to break even with the high labor cost to build the same basic body out of simple stampings of outer panels and wooden structure.

[trimacar]

Back to the car, it does look like a nice one.  The Chevy six is a good performer and slightly more car than Model A.

 

I’ve seen less advertised for more…..

 

[supercub]

The OHV Chevrolet 6 must be a smoother running, more fuel efficient engine than the A's 4.

[trimacar]

1 hour ago, supercub said:

The OHV Chevrolet 6 must be a smoother running, more fuel efficient engine than the A's 4.

Yes, they do well on the highway.  I bought mine in 1964, restored it, and not only drove it to high school but to old car shows and tours all around Louisiana.  Yes, at 16 years of age, my parents let me hop in a 1931 Chevrolet and drive from central Louisiana (Alexandria) to Baton Rouge, Lafayette, Shreveport.....I even stayed in motels by myself on the tours.  Still have the car, though it needs to have some work done on it and get back on the road.  Note that we ran out of money (by we I mean my father had sort of gotten tired of writing checks) so had to paint the bumpers rather than rechrome!

[supercub]

That sounds like a blast.

[Glen Andrews]

On 7/17/2022 at 9:31 PM, Jim Skelly said:

When did Chevy pickups go to all-metal construction?  Thanks.

Jim: pretty sure that the 1936 "low roof cab" was when Chevy pickups dropped the wood. Early 1936 Chevy trucks still had the squared off high roof cab which I believe had wood framework; so that cab was a carry over from 1935, '34, etc. The "low roof cab" was the same cab 1936-'37-'38, then in 1939 the cab changed slightly.  ( I have a 1938 Chevy pickup.)