1931 Chevrolet Coach Restoration, 2008-2013

[Gunsmoke]

A member asked if I would post some photos of the restoration of my 1931 Chevrolet Deluxe Coach, work I carried out largely between 2008 and 2013, and which included replacing about 30% of the original wood carcass with DIY effort. Like many "as found" cars, this one looked pretty complete, solid and in need to minor work to have as a good driver. It had last been on the road in 1967. However, once home I tackled the most obvious issue, the sagging front doors. Once the interior trim (black and white naugahyde!) was removed, it was clear there was a lot of wood carcass damage. In short, both front door posts had been previously replaced with very rough and off pattern spruce or some other soft wood, the hinge screws would not hold. The windshield header was 50% rotted as well as the front 12" of each side roof rail. The rear roof wood crossmember was rotted as well as about 12"-18" of the roof side rail at rear. Finally the main carcass sills for the forward 3 feet had been replaced by a PO with non matching pieces from an earlier model (about 1/4" thinner stock), and were simply butted against the rear wooden sills and "toenailed"!

 

As you know, restoring/rebuilding a common car like these only makes financial sense if you can do your own work whenever possible. Having built my own house (including cabinets and all trim work), I was more comfortable doing woodwork than anything else on this old car. So over several months I slowly removed any old pieces where rotted, using scarf joints where possible to mate old to new. The front posts were very difficult to reproduce because originals were gone and the PO replacements were not close to correct. However, using the metal skins as a guide and patience, I assembled solid posts from ash. Likewise for front area over windshield and front of door openings, the sheet metal pieces gave a good guide for what was needed to allow eventual nailing of roof metal and various interior metal trim pieces. 

 

For the floor sills, I made the proper pieces (including allowing for install of a tool tray I found on internet), and spliced them to the back portions of the sill with 1/8" steel plates top and bottom, secured with carriage bolts. Final woodwork was on rear roof area. This presented some special challenges as I did not want to disassemble the various rear metal corner brackets. I developed a 3 piece rear cross member using a main member and 2 wedges. everything was predrilled and T-nuts as shown were fited. Then the 3 pieces were carefully set in place (wedges first) and glued together and bolted to brackets. Finally the roof side rail partial pieces were scarf bolted to old rails, and last rear roof cross piece installed and original cedar slats re-nailed. Final work was to carefully re-nail steel roof to the new wood and get it ready for eventual padding, wire mesh and vinyl top.

 

Body was sent off to body man after I roughed in new cowl patch panels and lower door patch panels purchased thru the Filling Station.  

 

While body was off, I cleaned and repainted the chassis, it was in excellent condition, about 90% of the original black paint under 80 years of grime. Also refurbished engine, rear end and transmission as well as brakes and any other remaining mechanicals, like steering box.

 

After body came back from the shop, placed in on chassis, fit the doors and ensured everything lined up close. Then was able to fit fenders, front rear and side aprons rad shell and hood, running boards, and re-do the top. 

 

When doing the top, originally planned to use 'hidem strip" around edges, but result did not look good. So I made a pattern and had a local metal shop laser cut the edge pieces from 1/8" aluminum x3/4" wide. This was then drilled and counter sunk every 8" or so and brass screws set into woodwork. Body putty filled the screw holes flush and a few coats of black paint left a perfect roof edge (unfortunately seem to have lost photos of this stage).

 

Final major task was installing a new wiring harness also from Filling Station, it was a perfect match for original with one exception, they did not allow for wiring for the dome light (an easy fix). At this stage I also restored the trunk rack and trunk. The wheels and tires were left as is, wheels were in great painted condition and tires were 45 year NOS, had never been on the road. About this time in fall of 2014, I unearthed a 1931 Chrysler CD8 Roadster in a barn down home and decided that would be my main squeeze for next 5-10 years! (see final pic taken this week). So I sold Chevrolet last summer and new owner has painted it and cruises regularly (newly posted photo of car in 2023).

 

This is a short summary of 5 years of work and does not include hundreds of small tasks and some larger ones. If you have a question about a specific phase, I'll try to answer.

 

 

 

Edited June 19 by Gunsmoke
added photo (see edit history)