VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1929-1932 '32 RHD Phaeton Production Numbers

Hi

Would anyone have idea as to how many 4 Door Phaeton's were manufactured and in them how many were right hand drive.

Where were the right hand drive ones made?

Appox how many would be up and running?

Is there a registry which identifies and documents BA Phaetons currently running and in existence

Hi Dman!

Well there are about 4 of us on the chat page that have 32 US built cars.

Your questions are a little hard to answer as I don't really have any numbers or much understand as to what was made outside of the US. The production number that we all go by for 32 phaeton's in the US is 419.

Two things to note about that number, 1. it does not count what was made in Australia as those cars were made by Holden body company. 2. I do not know if that number is only production in the US or does it count cars that were built outside the US in Chevrolet plants that year.

We also do not know how many were right hand drive as I don't think we have that documentation. Now I understand that all the knock down kits were built in Canada and then shipped out. They have some better records then we do in the States.

Right hand drives were made in any of the plants that were shipping to the area which required them. For example, South Africa, Argentina and some of Europe and New Zealand. I personally know of about 4 in South Africa and 1 in Argentina. These are all right hand drive. There are also pictures on the internet of some which are over seas that are RHD but I can not tell who owns them at this time.

Hard to tell how many are up and running, mine is currently being restored. But there are a lot that I know of that are running or could run when taken out of storage.

Yes, there a list which a friend keeps it but I have been trying to document the ones that I know of, right now I know of about 15 just in the US, you made me remember of the 5 that I know of outside the US.

Please let me know if you need any help with your car, I have been collecting parts for my car for more than 15 years.

Bruce

MY FRIEND FRANK AGUECI, owner of vintage vehicle services GM Canada, may be able to answer your question.

The biggest question is WHERE WAS THE CAR BUILT???

Canada........USA..........SOUTH AFRICA.......AUSTRALIA

Australian bodys were made by GM HOLDEN australia and are different body than a North American body. The Holden body will have a cast metal lion emblem at the bottom of the cowl section.???

The body makers tags with stamped in information , may be riveted to the firewall or nailed to the floor in front of drivers or passengers side. or maybe the seat riser.




MIKE LYNCH

Don't forget Argentina Mike, also we can almost bet it was not made in Australia as most of the cars in India are not Holden bodies.

BRUCE , excellent point ,then thought they might be busy enough satisfying all the demand for South American countries.

That's why I mentioned South Africa instead , due to their closer proximity to India.

Hopefully the car will have the tags on it to say who built it and where.

mike lynch

Another point to look at, I know that Argentina did make a deluxe phaeton from what I understand. Dman's car looks to have dual side mounts in the picture. Would not think side mount fenders would be easy to find in India unless you shipped them over from the states.

Bruce ITS THAT old bugaboo with the BRITISH COMMONWEALTH OF NATIONS. All the countries of the COMMONWEALTH enjoyed free trade with each other........Canada , Australia , New Zealand, South Africa, England. Buying from the USA cost those countries considerably more in taxes per vehicle , so generally we in CANADA became the main supplier.

When I obtained copies of the 34-35 chev production they showed on the sheets , the amount of right hand drive cars built. What those sheets do not show was where the right hand drive car was headed too. ?????????????????????

A ,lot of 34 Chevrolets ( over 3000 units ) went to Australia as complete knock downs, the main body was not supplied as HOLDEN GM produced their own.

mike lynch

Hi

It has been brought to my notice that this is indeed a Canadian Manufactured one. Maybe your friend can help locate its production details.

http://home.znet.com/c1937/Cast.htm Shows block number 836573 as 1932 being a 194 cu. in engine with 3 mains and a head with casting number 836718

Eagerly awaiting any further information you can help with

Exactly how are YOU determining that your 32 Chevrolet phaeton is indeed made in Canada .

Is there an aluminum firewall plate ( engine side ) with : year of manufacture, model number , serial number , ect..

or is there a plate on the floor passenger side, or on the seat riser and what exactly do these plates say. ????

NOTE DMAN......the Chevrolet roadster and touring cars 1928 thru 1935 bodies were not made by CHEVROLET , but an outside supplier to general motors.

mike lynch

Engine # in sequence will tell if it was Canadian built. At one time David Hayward had all of the block numbers researched. Some of that info I have here, but will have to do some digging..

Sir any update on the serial number or procution data on this car. This was one of the first cars to be allowed to private citizen in the province of Kutch due to the proximity of the owner with the king

I tried to research information once for my Oshawa built 1929 and understood that the GM plant suffered a big fire in 1947 that wiped out most if not all records of earlier production. I got one of their information packages when they were still available and it was just a conglomeration of material gathered from other sources and provided no real tangible production information. Especially did not cover serial numbers and production times. I have two Oshawa built cars and only can tell because of the body number plate affixed to the firewall.
All the best

Dman, You will have to find the engine serial number which is stamped into the flat pad to the left of the fuel pump on the right hand side of the block. There is also date castings below the block casting numbers.

I don't believe that in the 1931 1932 years that engines were built in Canada, ( But I am open to Correction) . I believe that all engines were finish built in Flint , and then shipped to Canada as completed engines. The engines were stamped with the serial number in the two locations, next to the fuel pump and under the engine side push rod cover.
I believe that a batch of completed engines were then selected for export to RHD markets, and shipped as a batch, first to Canada, and then to other countries. That batch was then stamped on the serial number pad with the R prefix to the already stamped serial number next to the fuel pump.
An example of this is the 1931 engine I just parted out.

R2407854 is stamped next to the fuel pump , and 2407854 is stamped under the engine side cover. (as the engine was already finished when the R was stamped, and they were not going to remove the side cover just to stamp one R )

Hi
Just one small item that might eliminate the Argentina possibility.
I have a RHD 1930 Sports Roadster. I am pretty certain that it came from Uruguay as all its tyres were of Uruguayan manufacture when I got it. This would mean that it was assembled in the Buenos Aires plant, which supplied S. American countries.
However, the key point is that the speedo is in kilometres ( you have to look carefully to see the small 'km' marked on it).
I think virtually every other RHD was from parts of the British Empire and would have had a speedo calibrated in miles per hour.

I have a 1929 and on the block is another cast in number CONV-1 which designates that the block is cast in Canada. Other CONV numbers indicate casting facility. Don't know if they carried this through to 1932 but can't see why not. Of course engines for export could have come from elsewhere.

Do you have a list of the different CONV facilities that you can post here?

I know I once came across a list. Not sure where or when now. I will have to look through all my stuff to see if I kept a copy. I know CONV-1 was Walkerville, Ontario, Canada. I believe Oshawa's block castings came from there. My block and head were cast a day apart in March 29 and the tranny was cast two weeks earlier in Feb. if I can find again I will post.

Hopefully you can find the list because I have been looking for that information for years with no success.

The engine and numbers I mentioned above is a CONV-4 , with an R prefix.

Well I know the R prefix was for RHD export models. I have seen CONV-4 referenced to a Flint engine. I can't confirm that at this time. My Oshawa built car has CONV-1 on the block and CONV-13 on the head. Both are original to the car and have casting dates 1 day apart. Sometime ago I found CONV-1 meant Walkerville but I did not look up CONV-13. I am not sure if CONV numbers referenced actual GM casting plants or also designated outsourced suppliers. There were a number of foundries available to them in Canada as well. Looking around I have seen CONV-3, -4, and -8 referenced to Flint with -3 once referenced to an engine from Oakland. It may be possible this was used to track where castings came from for quality control purposes. Interesting topic maybe worthy of its own thread.
For now I tend to agree that GM was moving engines through Canada for export to Commonwealth countries and you CONV-4 engine originated in Flint. Whether CONV-4 designated a GM casting facility or a supplier foundry I do not know.
So for our friend in India if he can find this CONV number it may lead to an answer or more questions.

So it would probably help if some of the US 1931 owners started to share or list the "conv-" numbers for their cars, might be a good new topic, and that would give us some comparisons.

Well one would need to make sure that only cars that have original engines and can be traced to specific assembly plants are considered. Then would need to identify foundries that supplied the plants and which plants were shipped engines or blocks from other plants. Need to be careful as cars with swapped engines could confuse the results. It would need a lot of co-operation and careful sifting.

I have a 1931 Chevrolet Phaeton Right Hand Drive. The engine number is R2472604 The car reportedly came from Uruguay and I believe that to be true. When I rebuilt the engine, the pistons were stamped in Spanish, "Made in the country of Argentina." I researched on the internet and found that there were 852 Phaetons made in 1931 with 10 of them being Right Hand Drive. Where it was made and how it got to Uruguay I don't know. Nor do I know how it got from Uruguay back to central Kansas. I purchased it in an estate sale after the owner died. His children didn't know he had the car nor how he obtained same, so it is a dead end there. I have seen one other RHD, and know of 4 including mine.

As to how the speedometer was configured, it is impossible to know. When I purchased the car it had been in a fire, all upholstery, wood, etc had been burned. The speedometer had gotten hot enough it melted and was just a blob of pot metal on the floor. There was no ID tag on the body, only ID on the entire car is the motor number listed above which is stamped into the block. Don't know if this helps or not.

Engine Serial number starts with an R 3359245

Block Number: 836573 H 312 Chevy sign and 12

On the block CONV - 3 is written.

Gear box number: 590532 - 7 - H82

rear axle - 367236

So can we summarise where the engine and block originated and where it could have been made

Daman

That is very interesting, I have been trying to get more info on the production of mine as well,a 31. It was originally sold to Uruquay also and when the original owner came back to the U.S. he converted it to left hand drive. My VIN starts with RS and S is stamped in the engine. I am the third owner.