VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - GENERAL Body - Sheet Metal, Paint & Wood rear deck lid 1932

Looking at page 134 (1932 supplement) sport coupe wood parts of my Fisher Body Service Manual for closed cars (green version). It shows rear trunk lid frame made from wood. I have one in rough shape that is steel. I have bought a new skin for the trunk lid, but as far as I can tell, the underlying metal frame is not available. Thinking of making one from wood as per the manual. Can anyone tell me if it actually should be wood or metal? Or maybe early models were wood and later were steel? Thanks

My 31 Cabriolet has the metal rumble lid, it is a later production 31.

Dave

You might want to look closer at the wood body depicted on page 134 of the 1932 Supplement....even though that is a Fisher body it is not a Chevrolet body. You will notice wood framing for a golf bag door on the right rear quarter.

Ya I did see that - so it's probably an Olds. Guess I assumed the book was all Chevrolet.

No. Since it is a "Fisher Body" manual various Fisher bodies are depicted in their illustrations.

Right. But it would be nice if they would indicate which vehicle they are illustrating.

The Fisher Body Manual was published to give repair people the knowledge so they could repair damaged bodies. They were never intended to be used to authenticate any parts just the techniques used to assemble and repair. I find it interesting that photos and illustrations of all the GM Fisher Bodied cars are mixed without any seeming order or identification. It is also interesting that all those different bodies were very similar in their construction.

Here is my 1934 Chevy Roadster rear rumble/trunk deck lid with the metal skin removed showing all the wood framing!
Not sure if the 32 Chevy is the same or similar as the 34 rear deck lid!!
I added metal for strength for SST hinges for a full trunk and will still use the T-Handle Rumble handle to open up the trunk!
Hope this helps!
Rory

Keep in mind that the Coupe has a Fisher Body the Roadsters have bodies manufactured by another builder and therefore many parts are not made the same. The 1932 Chevrolet Rumble seat lid is all steel not part wood and steel like the Roadsters. I suspect that the all metal outer skin is also different.

So then there should be no roadsters in the Fisher Body Manual? The wooden framed trunk shown was on a coupe but obviously not a Chevy. If Fisher made wooden trunk lid frames for "32 Olds or Pontiac (or other?), is it safe to say they may have made some for Chevy in 1932?

Correct.

In the 50 years that I have messed with '31-'32 Chevrolets never saw a wood framed rumble seat lid on a Coupe or Cabriolet. The Roadsters have a wood frame lid. BTW the size of the lids is also different.

Same as Chipper........I have never seen a wood framed rumble lid on a 1932 coupe or cabriolet either.

Thanks all. Nice to have that cleared up. I have a metal rear deck lid so I am glad to hear it is correct. But I also have a second '32 coupe body (future project?) that needs a rear deck lid, and was just checking to see if wood was ever used after seeing the pic in the body manual.

The picture with a wood deck lid and golf bag door is most likely a Buick. Olds and pontiac have a all metal lid like the Chevy, Buick’s were wood framed but I’m not sure on the 50 series that might have also used an all metal lid. The wood framed lids also used different hinges even though Fisher body tags were put on them, it’s the consensus that some other body builder made them.

We recently sold our 28 Fisher Bodied Chrysler Model 72 coupe job #7880. It had a golf club door. I have seen that same picture in the Fisher Body repair manual. In my opinion without a detail line or some other telling mark it would be hard to identify the model in that picture. Ours had a rumble seat. Interestingly the 28 Model 72 sales brochure also showed a 5 passenger coupe. I think it would be interesting to find out who all Fisher was making bodies for from say 1926 to 1928 when they went to making only GM bodies.