VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER Chevrolet Speedsters 1931 Chevrolet Sports Special

It has been a while! I’ve been quiet because I parted out my last project before completion and moved from Michigan to Vermont.

Now that I’ve settled in to my new life, I’ve been easing back into car projects. I’m currently working on a non-Chevrolet project, but once that’s done I have a 1931 Chevrolet roadster project on deck.

A good friend and club mate purchased a complete rolling chassis from underneath a 1934 Chevy Standard coupe that was being street rodded. My buddy decided that all he was really going to use was the frame itself, the springs and the shock absorbers.



He offered the engine, trans, axles, brakes, wheels and tires to me along with a 1931 Chevrolet roadster or phaeton cowl he had picked up at the same time. Naturally, I accepted, since I like to save old parts and I’m always interested in oddball (i.e. non-Ford) builds.



I kicked around a few ideas for these pieces, including trying to piece together a complete roadster body, fabricating a roadster pickup cab and building a lakes modified. None of them really hit all the right notes, though. Since moving east, I’ve been encountering a lot more little British roadsters than I did in Michigan and I liked them.



Then I picked up a copy of American Road Racing: The Automobile Racing Club of America in the 1930’s. ARCA, as it was known, was the forerunner of the SCCA and sanctioned amateur road races in the U.S. between 1934 and 1940. It started out with a lot of MG J-types and some Willys 77 specials and eventually attracted bigger and more powerful machines. Chevrolets never really had a presence that I’ve read, but it made an intriguing what-if.

To that end, I’ve been planning and plotting how to combine the suspension and drivetrain from the ’34 frame (all of which turns out to be 1936 stuff…207-cu.in. engine, hydraulic brakes and artillery wheels), the ’31 cowl and the looks of a ”˜30s MG.

So I unveil to you my 1931 Chevrolet Sports Special:



The area of the hood without louvers will actually cover where the interior extends forward of the cowl--something very common on British sports cars in the interwar period. The cowl is traced from a factory drawing of a '31 Chevy roadster and the body from the doors rearward is traced from an MGTC blueprint.

It’s going to be Sheffield Green (the color I think is on the cowl) with black cycle fenders, black wheels wheels and whitewall tires (a nod to Max Balchowsky), Brooklands-style windscreens, triple SU carburetors on the Stovebolt and a long side exhaust like an MG.

Anyone seen or done anything like this?

Forgot to mention--the folks who disassembled the coupe removed the shift lever and it has been lost along the way. So if anyone can tell me how to identify a '36 shift lever and if any others will interchange, that information is highly appreciated!

Quite a project. I thought that rolling chassis looked like a 36 Standard. Parts book lists Gear Shift Lever Assembly the same for a 35 Master EA and ED, and 36 Master FA and FD, and 36 Standard FC. If you are planning on using the 36 Standard transmission, it's not the greatest of transmissions. It does not have the Synchro-Mesh like the 36 Master. I can get you some pictures of the gear shift lever if needed.

If the water pump is in the head it's 33 or 34 Standard. The spread on the front frame horns tells me it 1934 Standard as indicated....Joe

It has a brake master cylinder available in 36.

David,
You need to connect with the Speedster guys. See the link that was mentioned a couple of posts above this one.

And... if you are a VCCA member then you can read all of the previous Speedster Newsletters in the technical section for members.
http://vcca.org/members

Good luck.

Is the Master trans a direct swap between the Standard bellhousing and torque tube? I'd love to upgrade, but not if it's going to cause a cascade of other changes.

Photos and numbers to help identify things are always welcome, thanks!

The pieces of this project have slowly been making their way to my house and I'm putting the majority of them in dry storage in my basement for now (the engine, unfortunately, will have to be tarped in the driveway). I threw together the cowl, unidentified front frame section, and a spare wheel I picked up at Hershey into a fun little mock up to show my youngest daughter (Class of '31) what the stuff is for.



Anybody recognize that frame? I was told it was Dodge Brothers, but I haven't found a match yet.

I recently became acquainted with this car, from Switzerland. It is very similar to what I have planned. I like the riveted construction technique.