VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1929-1932 She Runs!!! - Update

......and a can-can girl!

I don't know about a Cat House, but Charlotte Mae did like Mousin' around when she was in the barn!

Getting closer to taking some photos to post here.

Okay dudes......as promised here are a few photos of Charlotte Mae, my barn survivor 1932 Special Sedan. Today was the first day that she has seen the sunlight in over 35 years. Got her all washed up, vacuumed, and the windows cleaned. Snapped a few photos and then took her for a short test drive. Man, talk about smokin'.....it looks like she is sending up smoke signals to the Apaches. Hopefully, some of the smoke will diminish over time.

Found that the right rear brake needed adjusting since it was activating before the other three. That was corrected in short order and now all four wheels brake equally.

Charlotte Mae sure did enjoy her bath and basking in the sunshine today!

NICE !!!!!
Congratulations.
I'm certainly impressed. If I remember correctly, you are going to leave it as is. I would truly love to see some more pics of Charlotte Mae. If there was anything else you would like to do to "improve" the car what would you do ? What is the actual color of the car.
Truly a nice survivor.
Cliff

She is beautiful!!

Thanks guys.....I appreciate it and I know that Charlotte Mae does too!

While cleaning up the interior of Charlotte Mae today I discovered something that I have never noticed before. When I removed the lower front seat cushion and the tools from the tool tray to clean up that area, I discovered that the tool tray (pan) was painted body color, and not black! Yep, the tool tray is painted the same color as the car.....Manganese Blue. Interesting!

Cliff: The color combination of the car is number 99, Manganese Blue and Black with Cream Medium wire wheels. Yes, I am definitely going to leave her as is since you don't find many all original 1932 Chevrolets anymore....and, as I have mentioned before, I purchased the car from the original owner who bought the car new from Pierce-Allen Motor Company in Medford, Oregon.

What would I do to improve Charlotte Mae? Nothing! Because one improvement leads to another and another which could eventually lead to a full restoration. Since I want to keep the car all original (she is even still running on the 1932 G-10 spark plugs along with the original condenser) I won't touch a thing.

More pictures? Sure........what photos would you like to see? I would be glad to post them for you.

Hi JYD,I never usually look in this forum,but,I am sure glad I did!!I completely enjoyed the story in this thread from beginning to end.It's too bad it took so long to get to it,what a fine car!! If possible,some more interior shots and such would be great,she's a beaut! Have fun driving her all over the place! Good Luck!

Dave

She looks GREAT! How about some of the smoky old motor? And maybe one of the junkyard dog himself behind the wheel?

My compliments to you and Charlotte Mae. Nice to see her in the bright sunlight of Southern Oregon. I've seen her several times buried in your shop. She looks great, a truly fine original car. And your story of her is great, too...Joe K

Skipper - It is so great to see your '32 Special Sedan back in the sun. The first time I saw the car (30+ years ago) I was amazed at how original the car was. You were always happy to let me take photos when I was restoring my Special Sedan. It sure helped to have your car to use as a research vehicle. Now you can show it off to the world! Congratulations on getting Charlotte Mae back on the road! FS Steve

Thanks guys..... really glad that you enjoyed the stories. It was a fun project and it is a thrill to have Charlotte Mae back on the road again.

"On the road again"...well, the next question will be to what extent? She really, really smokes badly at this point, so it is questionable as to how far we will get "on the road" before a state cop pulls us over for polluting the Pacific Northwest!

At any rate, I have a lot of MMO and some "No Smoke" in stock so I will play around with the smoking problem to see if I can get it down to a tolerable level.

Heading out to the shop to do some miscellaneous things on Charlotte Mae, so I will again borrow my daughter's digital camera and take more photos as requested. I will get some different shots of the interior, the engine compartment and etc. and the photos will be posted here later this afternoon.

See ya then!

WOW Skip she looks GREAT !!!!

Sure looks great!! There's something special about being able to see an original.Restorations are nice , but an original is a special treat. Thanks for sharing.

You bet....and glad that you guys are enjoying the exploits of Charlotte Mae.

You are right...you just can't beat an original car, and they are only original once! That's why Charlotte Mae will never be restored so that all of her originality and history will be maintained. Sure, she really needs to be restored because her drive train, and just about everything else, is worn out...but then she would not be original anymore and that would be one less original car that exists. Besides, for the little amount of driving I'm going to do with her she will do just fine as she is.

Over the past 35 years many dudes (Steve Kassis from the Filling Station is one also as he mentioned in an earlier posting) have come to my shop to take measurements and photos of Charlotte Mae to be used for their restorations because she is almost virtually untouched since she left the factory. So, as a totally original car, Charlotte Mae also serves as a technical piece for other '32's being restored as well.

Okay guys, here are more photos as requested:


This photo shows the original accessory Eagle radiator cap.








Most of the original tools and the correct jack are still under the front seat.






The original Chevrolet celluloid tail light lens. Note that the brake light "dome" is on the bottom of the lens instead of on the top of the lens as it should be. This is a factory screw up.


This is the original 1932 Oregon license plate that came with the car new.

Great pictures. Would love to have one like that. And make sure you have your whole family included in some of the pictures for future conversations among them. Pictures are priceless.

I share everyone's appreciation of these scarce original cars, and that their charm, lies in the fact they are relatively untouched. A couple of ?'s. Do you have or plan to get an original used floor mat? Secondly, we have discussed previously the use of welting at 3 edges of running boards. I can't quite make out what yours has from the picture. Is it small diameter welting, as it does not appear to be very dominant, in fact hardly shows at all? As for rear light lens, do you figure the bulb has never been changed?

Hey Skipper, I wouldn't worry too much about the smoking. Years ago I worked on a friends 216 engine that hadn't been run for 25+ years. It smoked terribly for several days. Finally one day, about a week later, it stopped. I figured that it must have had some stuck piston rings that finally freed up. I'll bet that getting it warmed up and running regularly will help the smoking, if not fix it entirely.

Now, that doesn't mean I want you calling me to bail you out when the State Police pull you over! Still, its great to see her back on her own four shoes! FS Steve

The problem with old used floor mats is that over the years the rubber turns hard and becomes brittle. I do have a new old replacement stock floor mat but it has the same problem.....old and brittle. The only solution would be to install a new reproduction floor mat and on this car it would stick out like a sore thumb.

Yep, the anti-squeak on the car is on all three sides of the running board. It appears that it used to be of the same diameter as the fender welding but, with use, most of it has worn off over the years.

Both the tail light bulb and the brake light bulb are in their correct locations...it is just that when the celluloid lens was made the Chevrolet emblem was put on upside down, so to read it correctly the lens has to be upside down as well.

Hey Jerrygolf! Thanks for the kind comments.

Hey There FS Steve! Man, I hope that you are right buddy. When the car is cold it smokes, but not as bad as when the engine is warm and the oil is hot. Yesterday, when the engine reached operating temperature the smoke problem increased. Old Charlotte Mae was puffing like a steam locomotive! As I remember, when I first bought the car back in 1972 and got it running, it smoked badly then too. At that time we drove the car several hundred miles and the smoking problem never eased up. But, time will tell. Unfortunately, Charlotte Mae is pretty much worn out and that could be why she was parked in the barn back in 1953.

Thanks for sharing the upholstery pics. Amazing! We just ordered the Hampton kit and I'm terrified now! Yours looks great... and with buttons too.

Skip,
How could you ignore such a beautiful lady for so long????

Actually, it was easy. In the beginning, even though the car was in the back of the shop, I still had access to get it in and out. When I parked the car I had the idea that I was going to restore it, however, I had other projects in the way first. Then, over the years the car gradually became "landlocked" and there was no way to get it out of the shop without some major moving of lots of stuff. Down the road my mind-set on the restoration changed as well. With dudes coming over to get photos of the car and to see how this or that originally was from the factory, Charlotte Mae became more of a technical piece to help others. As a TA I also used her a great deal to confirm information found in literature, filmstrips and etc. I decided that the car should never be restored because she was just too original and she was a great "teacher's aid". So, as the years went by she just sat there and became even more "landlocked".

A few months ago my wife and I decided it was time, after all these years, to get her out of storage and at least drive the car around a little while we were still young enough to enjoy her. We bit the bullet, moved everything out of the back of the garage, got Charlotte Mae out......and well.......the rest is history.

Thanks for the comments JYD. You haven't mentioned tires. When my '31 Coach came to me after 42 years in a garage, it had 6 pretty much all new tires, two of which still had the "Goodyear" sticker on them. They look terrific and hold air tight etc. The local Goodyear dealer said he would not trust driving on them, but others have said they should be fine. Did you have any concern about your cars tires/tubes, and what is your experience regarding 50 year old tires/tubes? Do they go bad if not exposed to sunlight?

The tires that were on Charlotte Mae until a couple of months ago have been on the car since the 1940's. The thread was good on most of them but they did have issues. And, only one tire held air, the rest would go flat either immediately or within a few hours.

To keep with the originality of the car, a set of four tires and tubes were donated to the cause by a fellow VCCA member. The tires were still new and they came off of a '32 Chevy coupe. However, even though the tires were new they were purchased and installed on the '32 coupe back in the 1960's, so they do have age cracks. What is interesting is that the four tires also match the thread design of several of the existing tires that were on Charlotte Mae. So, two of the existing tires are now the sidemount tires making all six tires a matched set.

For the little amount of driving the car is going to receive the "aged" tires should be just fine. However, I would not recommend installing old "new" tires on a restored vehicle...especially if it is going to be driven frequently since older tires do tend to get hard and age cracks may appear...even though they are kept out of the sunlight.