VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1933-1936 anybody seen one?

I have a 1936 chevy imperial 4 door convertable built by glaser coachbuilders of antwerp belgium.It has a 125 inch wheelbase,suicide front doors,knee action,mech brakes,left hand drive.My father restored the car in 1963 and is still about perfect today.I never saw another one,anybody else? Sorry but im not able to post a picture as im new to computers. The chassis # is FAP480. Vol 4 No 7 of G+D July 1965 has a good article on this car.

I saw one, but it was a 1932, not a 1936. Cool car!

I have seen pictures of both 1935 and 1936.Are you sure that you don't have a 1935 registered as a 1936?..The fact that 1935s had mechanical brakes and 1936 hydralics makes me think that this is possible.Also the head lights are mounted to the side of the grille shell on a '36 and fenders stands on a '35. :confused:

The wheelbase for 36 was 109 on the Standard and 113 on the Master Deluxe. According to 60 yrs. of Chevrolet. The 36 Phaeton was only produced in South America. The Holden Co. produced Phaeton bodies in Australia.

Yep, but the Glaser was a totally different car since it was made in Belgium.

This car is a cabrolet not a phaeton. Another good article is in the AACA magazine Nov-Dec 1980

I am a little late to this topic - 4 months to be exact. Through the 90's I conducted extensive research on the pre war overseas operations of GM/Chevrolet. There was a series of articles in the G&D. I covered Glaser in detail in the August 1995 issue and the Imperial bodies in two articles, the first of which was in the October 1995 issue. The latest known Glaser Cabriolet is 1934. Antwerp and Stockholm both built '35 and '36 Imperial cabriolets and sedans A number were even produced in New Zealand. Prior to 1935 the cabriolets were Glaser supplied as body kits to GM. According to General Motors World, March and May 1935, the new Imperial '35 cabriolets were GM design to which the Adam opel engineering compartment contributed heavily. The Imperial sedan models were designed at Cadillac in Detroit and US versions were sold as Taxi Cabs and funeral cars. I did a later article on Taxi's. If anyone would like copies of the articles, let me know. :)

Tom - What do you make from the chasic #FAP480 - since Antweep plant used the DA prefix for 1935 and the FC for 1936. Do you think this is a 1935 or 36 model. I wonder if the Dad back in 1965 just thought this was a Glaser body from that G&D July 1965 article by Jan Stroman? I saw a 36 Imperial Cabriolet at our local Foothill Region swapmeeet in the mid 80's owned by a Don Reynolds from Anahiem. It was badly rusted and a paile green paint and needed top irons.
So basicly these you think these these 35-36 Imperial 4 door Convertibles were just made with Cadillac bodies?
KenK

1) I have a total of 15 chassis numbers recorded for Antwerp production from 1925 through 1939. After 1931, the letters in Antwerp chassis numbers reported correspond to the US letter designations. The 1931 model had a chassis number of 31-2744. In other words, I have one '32 model with prefix BA, one '33 Master CA prefix, one '33 Standard CC prefix, three 34 Masters DA prefix, a 1936 Sedan with an FC prefix and a 1936 Imperial Cabriolet with with a chassis number of FAD 76-10. Then I jump to a 1939 Imperial Sedan with an IM prefix which must mean Imperial. US cars used JA, JB and JC in 1939. From all of this we can say the 1935 models should have been EA models just as in the USA. The car in question should be a 1936 and perhaps the P should be a D.

2) I did not mean to say the Imperial bodies were manufactured in Detroit. The GM World shows the sedan body in the Cadillac Detroit design studio. Production began in Antwerp and Stockholm.

3)I suspect the cabriolet bodies were engineered in Antwerp and/or Germany, as the GM World article said with the cooperation of Adam Opel engineering (Opel was already owned by GM). No doubt they relied heavily of their experience with Glaser kits prior to 1935.

3) The US Taxi/funeral car sedan version was done by Yellow Coach and Truck Division but the earliest example reported is a 1937 model. Perhaps there were no 1935 or 1936 models built in the USA. The jury is still out on that one. Tom :)

Sorry guys for my mistakes on not getting the 1935 Master prefix of EA and FA for 1936 Master.
So and FAP or FAD must stand for the 1936 125 in WB chassis.
Try this link for a photo of a 1936 Imperial Cabriolet at a 1936 Car Show.

http://home.earthlink.net/~scrippsbooth/1936ImpCab.jpg

I think the reason I confused my mid 30's chassis prefixes is because that post was made before the turkey dinner. Now I think I finally figured out how to post photos - here it is inserted instead of linked.

Tom,
I noticed that Cadillac used the body style name of Imperial Sedan [7 passenger]in 1934 to 1950, but only used the Imperial Cabriolet [7 passenger] name from 1934 to 1937. But so far can't locate a photo of a say 1936 Imperial Cabriolet for comparison in the folded top area?
KenK

Cadillac used the Imperial name on any model that had a dividing window between the driver's compartment and rear seating area.---window could be lowered into back of front seat -but body had full roof could have full roof or sliding roof over driver.Bodies were made by Fleetwood on most and looked nothing like the '36 Chev. pictured.Would be much larger.

The 1938-39 US taxi versions were extra streched stock Fisher bodies.From what I have read they were sold in Europe with the dividing window and also called Imperial seadns.

Tom Krill sent me these two side views of the 1935 Imperial Cabriolet for posting.

The 1935 Buick Century Convertible Phaeton sort of looks like this body style with the front open front doors. Notice the top is not as paded as the typical German top is and it folds somewhat flatter.
KenK

Ken has forgotten that we have a lot of information on our website!

http://clubs.hemmings.com/clubsites/chevytalk/GMhistory/convertible.html

I have checked official Canadian records and it appears that in theory the Phaeton Chassis 1006 was available in the Master/Maitresse FA series but now were built although one was built in the 1206 Standard/Regulier Series FC.

The 1935 British official price list shows that in theory there was a 4-door Cabriolet available at the same price as the Imperial Sedans. I am betting that these were Glaser-bodied though.

Now, can I just clarify what we have all discovered after many years of effort? Fisher Body, Detroit designed the Imperial Sedans on the lwb chassis, although the bodies were probably built in Flint. They were then railed to Oshawa, Ontario from 1935-39, or to perhaps Bloomfield, NJ Boxing Plant for onward shipment to various assembly plants overseas from Antwerp to Bombay. Now this is where it gest interesting: the General Motors Cab model O-35 to O-38 [the '38 was the last GM Cab wasn't it Tom, albeit sales went into 1939 http://clubs.hemmings.com/clubsites/chevytalk/GMhistory/YELLOWCABSALES.html?] used the same bodyshell as the Chevrolet albeit with Pontiac engine, and were assembled in Pontiac, MI as Tom says. Now, where the US Chevrolet versions were assembled I can only suggest: Flint, MI?

We know that Pontiac Truck Plant created Chevrolet, GMC and Oldsmobile trucks as clones of each other, with Chevrolet, Oldsmobile and Hercules engines for export, in NC and FC versions. They evidently also built a cab that was a clone of the Chevrolet in the same way.

The Imperial Sedan Fisher Body 1023 was imported into Canada from 1937 to 1939, trimmed and painted from Fisher Body. Otherwise the 1023 body was used 1935-40, in three distinct versions. The Chevrolet cars were always available as chassis only, or bodied, with the Master or Master De Luxe 7-passenger Imperial Limousine having ifs and a Division [and a trunk]. The same basic bodyshell was also available as a 'taxi' as the Model 1223 in the Standard/Master Series with straight front axle and NO Division. Then we have the one that foxed us! The GM Cab and export taxi was the Model 1323, and this had the 3/4 ton truck front axle and presumably heavier duty rear axle. An example of one of these is known having been assembled in Antwerp.

As mentioned in the website there were also the 1939-40 conversions for the Swiss Army as detailed in General Motors World February 1940. These were used as artillery tractors by the Swiss Army, and were converted from sport sedans.

Apart from the Glaser bodied cars, the only other convertible conversion I know of was the Jensen-bodied car as mentioned on the website. This is the same company that bodied Fords.

I just wanted to elaborate on my previous comment.

Pontiac Plant engineered COE or Forward Control trucks for CANADA and export from 1937 onwards, two years ahead of the US market, and also a bus chassis for Canada. They also engineered the Oldsmobile trucks that ran from 1935-40, with Oldsmobile or Hercules diesel engines. Chevrolets were produced by Pontiac Plant with Chevrolet or Hercules engines, and GMC with Pontiac, Oldsmobile or Hercules diesels. These were basically badge-engineered versions of the same basic Chevrolet design with different grilles, etc. It is quite facinating reading the official spec sheets to see what components they used...a real mix-and-match operation. The 1023 Fisher Body Imperial Sedan body was also a mix-and-match job. However, although the 1023 designation applied to the body, strictly speaking the chassis should be something like a 1016 which was sedan chassis. The convertible cars were then in theory 1029.

Well 36glaser, perhaps you can supply the answers to who really made the body [or converted a body]for your Dad's 1936 Chevrolet Imperial Cabriolet?


Does your Dad's car have a General Motors Body Tag?
Does this car have a Glaser nameplate on the body or a Glaser serial number plate somewhere?
Can you confirm the Chassis # FAP480 or FAD480?
Do you know the history of this car?

Well 36glaser, perhaps you can supply the answers to who really made the body [or converted a body]for your Dad's 1936 Chevrolet Imperial Cabriolet?


Does your Dad's car have a General Motors Body Tag?
Does this car have a Glaser nameplate on the body or a Glaser serial number plate somewhere?
Can you confirm the Chassis # FAP480 or FAD480?
Do you know the history of this car?

"I am writing this letter for my father Borge Toft.
We have been told that you know a lot about Chevrolet, and we got some questions about our Chevy, that we hope you can and will answer for us.
My fathers Chevy is a Imperial model CBL cabriolet with 4 doors from 1936.
Do you know WHERE it is made, og HOW MANY there is made of this model.
I enclose a picture of the model.
Do you know if this model is anything worth?

Thank you for your help, and I hope to hear from you soon.


My fathers car has chassis no. KSC 51508 and motor no 6145757.
We hope you can use this for anything, and please let us know if you can.
Do you know where we can buy grills, bumpers and other things for this model?

Yours

Kent Toft
St. Blichersvej 29
9440 Aabybro
Denmark
Tlf 98279777
My e-mail is Famtoft@mail.tele.dk"

Can anyone help with a source of parts please? This is another car! Possibly assembled by GM Contienntal in Copenhagen, albeit Glaser-bodied. That makes three I know of. Wow!

Well Tom and David -
Any ideas on where this 1936 Imperial Model CBL Cabriolet came from? What is a Model CBL?

What is a Chassis No. KSC 51 408? Could this be:
XSC SI 408 indicating it was built in Stockholm on a SI [Sedan Imperial] Chassis?

David - Did you check with Kent on if there were any futher body builder plates or cowl tags?

Out of three Imperial Cabriolets there must be some clue as to who actually built these bodies?
KenK

I think you'rs right Ken or certainly at least in part! XS = Stockholm, but is "51408" as sequential number or as you say "SI" then "508"? I liek the idea of "FAP" being "FAD" for "FA-Deluxe" or it could just be "F" for "Formal Sedan".

On a different note I have been trying to find out when the "X" codes were discontinued. Certainly they had gone by 1955 but I think that they had gone out of use by 1948 in favour of indigenous plant codes, such as "NZ" = New Zealand, "CA" for "Continental, Antwerp", "IC" for "International, Copenhagen", "NS" for "Nordiska, Stockholm", "SS" for "Suisse, Biel", "SA" for "South Africa" and the "H" prefixes for Holdens that had changed by 1958 to just the assembly plant code.

Here is a link directing you to pictures of My Vehicle:

http://www.geocities.com/my_own_tech/

Please take a look!

What a beautiful car!

Wow.... V e r y N i c e ! ! ! !

Thanks glaser1936 for posting the GM INTERNATIONAL SA ANTWERP Cowl Tag. It appears it reads as:

MAKE CHEVROLET
MODEL CBL

Thanks glaser1936 for posting the GM INTERNATIONAL SA ANTWERP Cowl Tag. It appears it reads as:

MAKE CHEVROLET
MODEL CBL
ENGINE N 5148783
CHASSIS N FAP480 3

The Model CBL must stand for "Cabriolet"
I find it is interesting that a stylized 'N'was pre pressed into this tag to serve as a prefix letter to both the engine and chassis serial number. I presume this 'N' must be some sort of plant code except Antwerp code was the letter 'D'?

The Chassis # FAP confirms in this case the 'P' after the FA series and the extra number 3 found stamped to the side being several spaces away. I presume there is no other body nameplate with the name Glaser on it. All very interesting. I sure can picture myself siting in the back seat of this very fine "CBL"
KenK

Hi from downunder

Boy! interesting reading, and great car. This topic has answered a questing that has been bugging me for many years.

I saw a photo of a similar car from New Zealand, but it was a 1935 Master. The most distinctive thing that I remember is the radiator badge (as I collect this sort of thing.) (Ken K has seen my collection)

The radiator badge of this NZ 35 was similar to the 35 std. badge, but had the word "Imperial" as well, all moulded together. From what I remember the car was a sedan, and I think it had 3 doors on each side. I haven't seen the bloke who showed me the photo, for many years, but will try and track him down with a view to posting the photo.

By the way, 35's in Australia have the same badge as the standard on all closed cars, and the open cars (roadsters and tourers) have the same badge as the 1933 models. Is it the same in the US?

Chris

Is there anyone out there who can translate Deutsch to English please? I have some archives from Berlin and I want to find out if they relate to the Glaser-bodied sedans. It is possible that General Motors GmbH imported the cars as sedans and then converted them. gmhistorian@btinternet.com

Hi David,
Have you tried one of the on-line free mechanical translators. I wanted to try and see what that 1936 Imperial Cabriolet advertisement, that you posted a week or so on this string, would translated from Dutch to English?

I found its interesting to translate the illustration showing the cut-a-way valve cover:

ECONOMICAL, Experts say that a over-head-valve motor develops 10% more power and consumes less gas.

CHEVROLET 6 CYLINDER KOPKLEPPENMOTOR = ZUINIGHEID”
Notice the mechanical translation after breaking down the word to Kop-Kleppen-Motor gives the computer generated word saying of "Want
to Clack Motor" Well we know the proper translation is "Over-Head Valve Motor"

CHEVROLET 6-CYLINDER WANT-TO-CLACK MOTOR = ECONOMY

Hi Ken! My problem is that I have several pages of printed type to decipher....I must look up our pal Norm Darwin's book to see if Holden offered an Imperial chassis.

Yes, Glaser 1936 that is quite a car!
As far as I was able to determine in my research the X serial numbers had disappeared from all plants world wide with WWII. From some like the plant in England only a very few examples of the XA code have been found then they went their own way. Others were faithful to the code up to close of production prior to or during the war. Australia never used their pre determined codes. Many are still yet to be found such as Japan, Egypt and Mexico. I still hold out hope that a pre WWII Chevrolet is still in existence in Japan and somewhere in Alexandria there is a guy driving his old Chevrolet bearing the data plate that will provide the answer for Egypt. I only ever found one truck that proved the Indonesian plant code.

There were variations. Sweden did use XS usually followed by two letters like SE for sedan or CO for coach while the more standard form at other plants was to use the year identifier like BA for '32 or CA for '33 Master. So the Imperial Cabriolets built in Stockholm probably used a two letter code for the body style. I tend to think that the Imperial Cabriolet bodies were built in Antwerp being the European plant after Opel with the most resources. If I had to pick another it would be the Opel plant itself as they were credited with some of the engineering.

Re German to English. I have successfully translated a number of articles using a scanner with OCR to create the text in Word and then running it through translation software. I am sure that there is now OCR software available that recognizes the German special letters and umlats. My early version required a fair amount of editing these characters before going to the translation software. Software translation programs have also improved. Once you get it right it is magic. The worst one I ever did part was the translation of the mechanical engineering details of the Glaser convertible cabriolet patents from the Glaser Cabriolet book It required several dictionaries to help unravel all the technical words which were combinations of a number of words, a unique feature of German language.

Thanks Tom. It would appear that the "X" codes went west around 1948. This would appear to be something to do with a new system of CKD ordering and delivery by NY HQ. Interestingly, the dealer-assembler McCairns Motors Limited of Dublin, Ireland that assembled post-war never had an assembly code but they did use their own plate. The GMOO code was "MC".

Found this older thread on 1935 ands 12936 glasner body style for Chevrolets

just popping it back to the front to go with the new 34 thread

mike lynch