VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - GENERAL Body - Sheet Metal, Paint & Wood Pillar distance '31 coach

Greetings to all Chevy friends from Austria,

I have some problems with the body frame connection and hanging doors on both sides,
driver side - very bad, not so bad at the passenger side !
The gap between door and front body at the bottom on the driver side is about (1,7cm) 0,7 inch,
at the top about (0,5cm) 0,2 inch.
The gap between door and front body at the bottom on the pass. side is about (0,8cm) 0,3 inch,
at the top about (0,5cm) 0,2 inch.
I think a gap of about 0,2 inch should be ok ?
The door hinges are also bad, but in my opinion this is not the major problem .

A) There are no shims between the frame and the body, as I know there have not to be a 3/8" shim under the body bolt
# 1 under all others bolts there have to be a 3/8" shim .
B) If I measure on the floor between a-column and b-column
I have a distance on the driver side of (87cm) 34,3 inch and on the passenger side I have (84,5cm) 33,3 inch.

So could someone please tell me the proper distance between the two pillars ?

Thanks and have a nice day !
Chevy31 Coach 3door

I assume from your posting you have a '31 Coach? I had similar problem with my '31 when I bought it, i.e. the gaps varied from 1/8" to 3/4" top to bottom. See the "why" later.
The doors for the '31 Coach measure about 35&3/8" front edge to back edge, for the lower 1/2 of the door. Both of these edges are parallel. The upper half of the door slants at the front post to accommodate slope in windshield etc.
The opening for the door to fit in is about 35&5/8", or about 1/4" overall wider than bottom half of door. For fitting up reasons, the rocker panels which come from the Filling Station and also must fit into this opening measures 35 & 9/16"
Depending on just how tight you want the final gaps (I have set mine for about 1/8"), these are about what you need for dimensions, assuming your doors are about same as mine.

WHY? The wood in these cars was often subject to rotting out, and though replacements were available, some chose to DIY the job poorly. In my car, the front half of the wooden sills had been replaced by ill-fitting stuff from a donor car, and wood windshield posts had been replaced by homemade ones. Nothing was fitted carefully, and as a result gaps were poor, doors would not close etc. I had to remake front sills, use a cable puller to pull front and back of car back together, and then secure everything into original dimensions. Not an easy job.
Finally, the shims for these models are specified as 3/16" (and not 3/8"), but are sometimes in need of adjustment to align doors etc. The front shim, at cowl is not to be changed from 3/16" as that upsets alignment of hood with rad shell etc. Hope this helps.

Yes , 31 Coach, motor 1929 & a back door.The doors are about the same in measurement as yours and you are right with your WHY statement.
I asked also about the shims, because not only the side splash apron, also the bottom of the cowl is bent.
So let's have a look at the appended pictures.






Is this the correct side splash apron for this car ?
also the running board might be mounted to high ?

Thanks and have a nice day !
Chevy31 Coach 3door

Sounds like you have a "Sedan Delivery" if you have a 3rd door in rear? In any event, the splash apron looks correct for '31 cars.
The running board on the drivers side looks different, appears to have chrome strips running fore/aft. These strips may have been added to an original RB, or RB's are from another car. Passenger side picture of RB looks closer to mine. The original running board was about 45" long, and had a stainless steel or Aluminum trim piece about 3/8" wice covering all 4 edges, and a patterned rubber mat over entire surface, rolling over outer edge and down about an inch to meet the SS trim. Not sure what yours actually look like.

Think it's a '31 Coach, isn't it ?


little more information from the bottom up
Is this the correct '31 assembly for the RB?



Thanks and have a nice day !
Chevy31 Coach 3D

I have never seen a Coach with a 3rd door/ I have put a note on main 29-32 site and asked other more experienced members to have a look at your pictures and comment. As for underside of running boards, assembly looks generally correct, but boards could still be from different model than '31. Mine taper to narrower width at back fender, and are slightly curved where they butt up against rear fender. Are yours 11" full length?
Also tailights are not correct as '31 lights were similar oval shape but vertical not horizontal. Also appears car has been fitted with dual wipers, '31 only had wiper on drivers side.

Derek...post a serial # so the experts can figure out what you have. It is either a sedan delivery with the windows cut out, or it is a coach with a door added to the back. The answer will be found in the serial#.

the RB dimensions are 11" * 45", the tail lights will be removed, the correct ones are in the car, I removed the wiper on the pass. side, because I have had a dis-function of the windscreen drive. > the fastest way to install something - drill a hole through the drive, the wood and the outer metal sheet - a funny folk

@ brewster

Car ID # XBAE 3258 and no, there are no more digits
Motor # 635501 D 1 9 ( 1.April 1929 )
---
...think also it is a coach with a door added to the back,
and it was not unusual, the folk in northern Europa should know more about such modification - found only one other





Thanks, have a nice day
Chevy31 Coach 3D

Hi Derek, I think you have a '31 Coach rather than a Sedan Delivery. The Sedan Delivery (considered by GM to be a truck model)had a narrow front door much like the one on a 4 door sedan. Your front door appears to be wide like a Coach. My Coach front door measures about 35&3/8" wide at lower part. I suspect at some point someone made the rear door. Can you show picture of construction of rear door/edges/hardware/framing inside body/etc. Does it look like a genuine article or to have been "homemade"? Is there any "lip" or weather protection at top of door? The sedond car you show has a rear window about the same size as mine, but your car has a very wide one. Interesting. Those Northern Europeans were very industrious and creative obviously!!

I agree...it looks like a coach with the rear door added.

It may have been a production model built in one of the European body/assembly plants. I don't have much information on overseas models and their differences with USA or Canadian produced bodies. With the back seat installed it would only have a very small area behind the seat to put things. But when the back seat was removed the much more cargo could be put into that space. Sorta like a modern SUV or utility vehicle with removable back seat. Able to haul more people or more stuff depending on the installation or removal of the back seat.

A final determination should be able to be made by examining the construction and detailing of the rear door. As we know, the other doors on these cars are very complicated to manufacture, with their wood framing, steel hinge support stiffeners, complex contoured skins and so on. As well, the door opening, including again the wood framing, steel trimming, wedges, strikers etc should all tell us whether this is a one-off "homemade" unit or a custom factory option. Some great pictures of these parts would be nice to see Derek as it would be interesting to confirm whether the European factories offered such options!

I need a little more time to disassemble interior panel from the back door.
The " Viking people " should know much more about such available option.
In the meantime 2 pic's from the back door, and one from the northern Chevy 3D.




.
Thanks and have a nice day !
Chevy31 Coach 3door

I see no one has commented on the serial number? Based on what you see up close Derek, do you think it looks like a factory job on the rear door or something someone has done themselves? From the pictures, it looks to have been done by a previous owner.

The roof covering and front sunvisor are different than the US produced Coaches. The basic body lines are the same. Looking closely at the two photos of the back door, the one on the left that shows the door closed appears to have a moulding added to the outside edge. That might indicate a non-factory installation. However the photo on the right shows sheet metal at the outer edge is folded over. That is a factory detail to reinforce and also produce a smooth straight edge. A personal inspection might help decide if it were factory or not. I lean strongly to factory.

Chip... are you talking about the door or the frame here? The door could be a factory SD door, just cut into the body by the owner. Either way, great job!

Sorry for not being clear. Look at the bottom corner of the door in the right hand photo. It shows a 45 deg. edge for the folded over sheet metal.

I guess that it could be a factory Sedan Delivery door. The problem is that the '31 Sedan Delivery used essentially a 1928 body (modified lower panels to compensate for the change in rear fender location). The rear door would have to fit the '31 Coach rear contour.

If you assumed that the body was a Sedan Delivery then there is the problem with the width of the front doors and having rear side windows.

I still feel that it was likely an overseas production body. If anyone has records for European Chevrolet bodies it might be documented or refuted.

If David or Ken looks at the serial number they might be able to tell which plant produced the vehicle.

I just checked the http://clubs.hemmings.com/clubsites/chevytalk/GMhistory/copenhagen1.html website and found that:

GENERAL MOTORS INTERNATIONAL A/S, KØBENHAVEN [COPENHAGEN], DENMARK PLANT CODE WAS "XB", THEN POST-WAR, "I" AND "IC"

So Car ID # XBAE 3258 looks to be a Copenhagen produced 1931 Chevrolet.

just found a number on the upper windscreen steel frame # 3481X4056 (the part number ?!)

Any specific instructions for the area to take the pictures from the back door and/or frame ?

Some info about the blue Chevy 3D

Thanks,have a nice day
Chevy31 Coach 3D

The information in the quote supports what I suspected from the photos of the vehicle and the "car number". Sure would be nice to find documentation that it was a production vehicle or done by a professional body company under contract to or in conjunction with Chevrolet Denmark.