VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER Chevrolet Speedsters I think I am in the right form and I have a question

Hello

I think I am in the right forum. I'm not sure I will qualify as a speedster but it seems like that this forum comes closest to what I am trying to do. I have a 1939 Chevy Coupe that I am going to modify into a street rod. I plan on keeping it as original looking as I can. The coupe when I got it was in very sad shape. The person that I bought it from was going to scrap it out for scrap iron. It has a very good rolling chassis the body is in decent shape except the bottom foot of the car all way around was almost rusted away. Floor was almost gone (nothing salvageable) even the bottom 2 inches of the dash is rusted really bad. There is no interior no glass no motor no transmission. The bottom of the trunk lid is rusted away, there were holes in the rear inner fenders, you could stand at the back of the car and see completely through it. It does seem to have a good fire wall.

I have cut away most of the rust replace both lower cowls both lower quarters, tail pan both inner and outer rocker panels on both sides repaired rear inner fenders. Have almost completed installing new floorpans from the fire wall to the tail pan cut both door bottoms off and replaced.

I have collected most of the major body parts that I need with the exception of the grill and I think it's called a chin, I'm not sure but the body panel that goes under the grill. Could anyone tell me what the availability of these two items are without going reproduction. Are these parts hard-to-find or have I just been looking in the wrong places.

So what do you guys think am I in the right forum? If so I will have a ton of questions. Looking forward to hearing from you.

Thanks a lot

Hi Chas (Charles? Chuck?)

Welcome to Chevy Chatter.

First of all, I'll give you a general reply. 1939 is a fairly common, and available, year. My gut says that you should be able to find all of the body parts if you look around enough. Did you search through our CLASSIFIED ADS section? Back on the homepage (https://vccachat.org) it's about half way down the page.

Secondly, our club, and this forum, tend to primarily support original and restored vehicles and trucks... We don't discourage modifying the cars as you appear to be doing, but you may not find too much support here since that's not a big objective of ours.

The term "Speedsters" is one that was formally used to recognize those cars that were modified in the 20's and 30's in order to make them more "sporty". And... in some cases to convert them into actual RACE CARS. I don't know what the year cutoff is, but I think it would be the early 30's. (Maybe someone else can jump in here and clarify for us.)

It's great that you're resurrecting an old Chevy and you may find parts here that you can acquire (verses eBay), or you may want to offer us any parts that you end up not using. In total, it ends up a Win-Win for all of us.

Good luck.

Howdy and welcome to the world of old Chevys.

One option you could consider is making a vintage street rod. For example, if somebody in the mid-1950's got a hold of a used 1939 Chevy, how would they approach this project? The closer you keep to the original car, the more useful you'll find this site.

Cheers, Dean

Bill and Rustoholic

Thank you for the infomation. First let me say I respect the goal of this Forum and Club. As a matter of fact any car I have restored my goal was always to restore it as close to original as I could. I hate to see a car cut up to the point it loses it originality. The stable mate to my 39 is a fully restored 68 Corvette that I did. I really felt this 39 was beyond sound judgement to try to fully restore it. I am sure some Fourm members will disagree with me and are driving examples.

I understand what Rustohlic is talking about when he mentioned a vintage street rod. This is my intention only I call it a nostotic street rod. With the exception of the wheels It should look like a stock 39. The stance may be a little different. I could go with a one piece windshild but I will use a two piece. As far as the left over parts my intention is to keep the parts with the car. Like my 68 I still have the old worn out parts just because they are the original parts.

Yes I have looked in this Fourms parts for sale but unable to find any grill and very little 39 parts. I even posted in the parts wanted but no responses. Maybe it is because I am not restoring the car to it's originality but if I hadn't bought this car when I did it would be scrap iron now.

I will close by saying I have enjoyed this Fourm and think what your members are doing to preserve these wounderful old cars is great..

Charles

Chas,
Thanks for saving on old Chevy from the crusher. I like my stuff to be pretty original but I like your stuff to be the way you want it.
I think ebay is a good place to look for the parts you need. I see grilles there pretty often. You might find the complete setup, including the chin. Good luck.

Mike

Sounds like with what you have to work with, it might save you a lot of headache to go with what would probably be easier...Rod it out...Usually ends up being worth more money in the long run...and who could blame you, there's still a LOT of work involved...Rod parts are easier to get, and it comes out to be your own personal custom car...Have to tried the H.A.M.B...? You can get some more ideas there...Good Luck

ChevyTalk does both stock and rodded rides.
http://www.chevytalk.org/fusionbb/portal/index.php?