VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1933-1936 1933 chevrolet standard series touring

There are those in vcca that will argue that these cars do not exist , a 1933 chevrolet STANDARD SERIES TOURING CAR model series CC . They were only built by GM Holden Australia for their market , but here is one that was shipped to the USA and re-assembled at the Norwood OHIO gm plant back in the day. This according to the text of the ebay advert for the car which sold back in late april.

search ebay usa by item # 261207532962 for all the pictures of it and text. just type the number into the search and it will come up.

This is the car that ran in GLEN STAUFFERS of Jekyll Isle georgia monthly full page HEMMINGS MOTOR NEWS ads back in early to late 80's. Glen was a renowed and extremely knowledgable 1933-1935 chevrolet open car restorer.

Also note on the plate glen made up on the firewall it calls it a MERCURY series model 33-311 .

So let the words fly to dispell the so called myth of the 33 standard tourer. Also there is a 33 standard roadster that was also made, glenford rarick in NY state has one.

mike lynch

Mike , Interesting find. It is interesting that the car has a US
serial number plate ( Aluminium). If the car(meaning Body) had been fitted to a chassis here in Australia , it would have had a brass GM-Holden's LTD nailed to the seat in it's place.

I wonder why the body was purchased from HOLDEN Australia, shipped to Norwalk ohio USA and re-assembled, or taken apart and re-assembled ?

maybe GM USA was using it to copy the build design for the 1934 1935 chevrolet standard phaetons in GM's standard series which they expanded from 2 body designs in 1933 to 5 body designs for 1934.

Kinda makes sense as this was body #25 and would be an early build.

mike lynch

To my knowledge all Chevs built in Aus had a plate on the left outer cowl just in front and below the lower door hinge stating "Holden Body" and some had a sequence number as well. I have lost the 1 off my 38.
Tony

TONY .........The car has the brass HOLDEN tag on the lower cowl and it also has the aluminum seat tag tacked onto the wood frame.

These are shown in the pictures displayed in the ebay auction. All you have to do is look at the pictures. See my first post on how to see the pictures still on ebay.

mike lynch

Is there any evidence to prove that this car was sent to the U.S. when it was new? There were a lot of 1930 to 1939 Holden bodied cars exported from Australia to the U.S. in the late 1960s and early 1970s. One of the photos shows what looks like the mounting holes for a right hand drive steering column.Also there are two body tags one is of Australian origin and the other is American.

All i can say is that GLEN STAUFFER of georgia is a well known and highly regarded & knowledgable chevrolet expert of 33--35 chevrolet open cars , was the one who supplied the information contained in the ebay advert text.

Unfortunately Glen passed away a few years ago taking a substancial amount of knowledge with him. I would go by what the text in what the advert/auction says.

I find my thoughts about bringing one body here to north america for chevrolet body to use as a template for their 1934 1935 chevrolet standard touring cars, plausable.

The car would have been built with a RHD dash in AUZZIE, then when sent to USA plant , easily converted too left hand drive with a modified dash.
mike lynch

Without official Chevrolet documentation it is hard to be confident that a body was sent from Australia to the US as an prototype for a future US body. There were whole departments that worked to develop new models. It typically took years from first idea to settle on design and then make a few prototypes so concepts could be tested, assembly techniques worked out, vehicles tested and then finally released for production. To import a single body and let it get out of Chevrolet without being destroyed or highly modified just does not compute to me. Having an individual import a body or whole car and either convert from right to left drive or transfer the body to another chassis is far easier for me to understand.

There is a picture of a 1934 body in a crate being sent by GM-Holden's to the US for evaluations. I will have to check when i get home from work this afternoon. I hadnt heard of any earlier
bodies being sent.

Sending a body for testing and verification is logical as the USA was corporate headquarters with engineering, testing facilities and employees. To have it disassembled and analyzed makes perfect sense. To have a test vehicle get out of the gate is not likely.

I had not looked at the pics before posting. My bad and apologies.
Tony

Mike , I have a picture of a 1934 chev tourer body plate , the same as is shown on the 1933 car in question.
It is body # 427
model CHEV MST
series Tourer.
So if you take the MST to indicate Master ( of which 461 tourers in 1934 were built), the MR can only stand for "Mercury" , as that is listed in the GM-H LTD Woodville SA body production figures.(as well as STD)
So yes , this is a genuine "Mercury" body.

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I have asked the owner of said 33 std phaeton/touring who has been reading this thread to join and post answers to questions posed, that he can answer. He has only just acquired the vehicle and ONLY has the info provided to him by previous owner.

I asked him to run his finger inside the dash lip on the right hand side , where the column mounting would be and feel for a seam where the stock RHD dash could have been cut, the mounting area removed and transfered to the LHD = left hand drive. Then the RHD area filled in and ground smooth, but you could only do that from the top and the inside would have the weld seam that would be very difficult to remove.

mike lynch

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Glen Stauffer the Georgia restorer of the car who put the plate ( data ) of what he did on the firewall, also called it a MERCURY. I would have to assume that the MERCURY designation was strictly an australian holden bodyworks designation . Nothing has been found in any USA literature, yet, that shows the 'Mercury' CC model series in USA.

Every once in a while a 33 or 34 master series touring shows up on ebay USA. Some of these cars are Holden built and can be identified by the cowl tag, hopefully also pictured the floor/seat area plate will also be photoed for the ad text.

Anybody know how you identify a SOUTH AFRICA built GM open car or an ARGENTIA GM assembled car ????????? My roadster had no plates on it.

mike lynch

NOw thats a picture worth seeing and of coarse the info that verifies it, if not, still interesting info , even for those doubting thomases.

mike

IF THE 1934 PICTURE SHOWS A 34 GM CAR HEADING TO USA FROM AUSTRALIA, WHY COULDN'T THEY HAVE DONE THIS FOR 1933 ALSO.? makes no sense that they didn't do exactly the same thing earlier.

mike

http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/58760486?searchTerm=general motors export body&searchLimits=l-textSearchScope=*ignore*%7C*ignore*|||l-word=*ignore*%7C*ignore* ---------- Hopefully you can open this link, it relates to an Oldsmobile [ Sloper ] All enclosed Coupe body that was exported to the U.S. in 1935 for evaluation and is the earliest reference that I can find.There are photos in the History of Holden and I believe that this would be the same body and the body that Jack refers to. I can understand why GM in the U.S. would be interested in this particular body as it was a completely different body whereas a Tourer from Australia would have been of no great interest. I doubt that the Sloper body from Australia ever made it into public hands after evaluation.

Considering that chevrolet was already producing an all steel construction with their master series for 1935 that was totally different styling than anything produced with the wood framed 1934 master and standard series and already in production, in that case , why bring the 35 olds from AU to USA ??? Other than to look at the fastback ""sloper"" design as something they wanted to offer down the line.???

Back to the 33 standard series. In USA they only produced the 2 standard models a 3 window coupe and a 2 door coach, obviously chevrolet wanted to expand the LESS EXPENSIVE standard series with more models and do it in a hurry, in order to compete more with fords offerings.

In 1933 auzzie chevrolet standard series also included a 2 door and a 4 door sedan. Here in Canada chevrolet only produced in 1934 : roadster, touring, coupe, 2 door coach.

What better way than to do that , than with a subsidiary who was already using a very close frame design with the same wheelbase of 107 ". The basic 1933 auzzie roadster design used for 1934-35 standard series , gives them a head start on the design and components needed to create the chevrolet body works built roadsters and tourings. The standard series was priced to compete with fords offerings.

mike..........

In 1973 the late Duane Steele, a former president of the VCCA imported out of Sydney Australia both a 1934 Std roadster and a 1933 Std Tourer.I believe this is the car which Glenn Stauffer restored.I saw the roadster at Duanes shop when I visited him and he was still waiting for the tourer to arrive.

Unfortunately, glenn passed away a few years ago and there is no way of verifying this. Only the new owner Bill Staley might have that kind of paperwork passed along with the car. But i think i saw a post on this site of a person looking for info on the 33 stds, who sold the car to Bill.

He also used to advertise a 33 chev standard touring with a 1962--1970 chevy iron duke 4 banger in it.

I also remember seeing around 1980 at hershey glenns 1934-1935 chevrolet auzzie roadster pickup UTE.

He always had a great selection of open early chevrolet roadsters and tourings displayed on his hemmings motor news ads.

mike lynch

The new owner of the 1933 chevrolet STANDARD SERIES CC AUSTRALIAN BUILT BY HOLDEN GM, phaeton/touring car , in an email tells me the dash is set up with both left and right hand steering column mounts. Feels like the left hand has been added to it.

I discussed this earlier in these postings , asking the new owner to run his finger along the folded over dash lower area's to see if weld seams can be detected around the steering column mount.

mike lynch

I mentioned earlier that you can see in the ebay ad photos the right hand drive bracket under the dash on the car in question and if the body is on the original chassis there will be the holes for the rhd steering box and bracket. The ebay ad states that it "is a U.S. car and not right hand drive exported"? There was some mention in one of the earlier posts regarding 1933 Coaches being built in Australia but that is one body style that was not built by Holden since the end of the four cylinder models,and all the Coaches in Australia from the introduction of the 6 cylinder in 1929 are recent imports.

Because you mentioned the holes on the right side of the dash panel, thats why i asked the owner Bill Staley ILLINOIS to run his finger underneathe to see if he found a weld seams in the column mount area, to represent a modified dash panel.

All we can do is go by what was supplied as info in the ebay selling text. Whats the truth and whats made up as somebodys idea of the truth is something else. Obviously Glen Stauffer of JEKYLL ISLE GEORGIA, the restorer of note of this car , had access to information and past history of this car and thats the way the history has unfolded and will stay with this car forever. Its impossible to refute now.

mike lynch

It may be difficult to refute but also to verify. Many claims were made by people who might not have totally understood the facts or had another agenda than historical preservation. Glen could have been told the story when he purchased the car and had the same problem of being able to substantiate or refute it.

I agree with Chipper and I have read the ebay ad several times and there is nothing conclusive in the text to indicate or verify how and when the Tourer made its way to America and I am sure if Glen Stauffer was still alive he would gladly give us the complete story.