This 1931 Chevrolet is a car with a lovely backstory. It has been sitting for a while following the passing of the owner, but now his son has taken the decision to sell it. You will find it listed for sale here on eBay. It is located in Pikesville, Maryland, and is being offered for sale with a clear title. The owner has set an opening bid of $19,000 for this classic.
The gentleman who owned this Chevrolet purchased it some years ago off the original owner. He bought it because it was the same as the car that he had owned when he had been courting his wife some 56 years ago. He drove it a few times, but then he was forced to park it due to ill health. He recently passed away, and it has been left to his son and his widow to sell his car collection, and this vehicle is one of those cars. The car looks to be solid, although the maroon and black paint are looking tired. The cars seems to be complete, and all of the glass and trim appears to be in good order. It also looks like both spare tires are present on the running boards.
There are no shots of the interior or engine, and the information is quite limited. The gentleman is believed to have bought the car off the original owner, and it is believed that it has only traveled 23,000 miles. The car is unmodified, and all of the original trim is also said to be original. If the engine is original, it should be a 194ci straight-six engine, which would be backed by a manual transmission.
The seller doesn’t give us a lot of information to work with on this car, but the owner appears to be a person who is very approachable for anyone interested in the car. This is a nice car, and it deserves to be restored by someone who will appreciate it.
Just a nice old car. A simpathetic restoration which would include paint is all this car needs nice find.
If that maroon paint is the original lacquer, I’ll bet a pro could bring it back to life!
…Or just an old guy like me with a lot of
time on my hands. I’d wash it very
carefully at first, and then hand buff the
entire car using a light grit rubbing
compound to bring the paint back to
presentable condition–and that’s after
I got it running and driving again! Did
the same thing to a ’62 Rambler Classic
with outstanding results. And don’t
forget the wax job, that’s the icing on
the cake! Great story, great find.
Okay mileage proof again is non existent but a cute car . Maybe we can send a teletype or stage coach out validate the miles..😜
Clean it up mechanically and wash and wax the paint and be it’s next steward to pass to the next generation!
It’s definitely a parade car!
Neat old Chevy
Absolutely a sympathetic resto; no reason to mess with the originality here. But there’s no amount of rubbing that’s going to bring back the paint on the fenders and hood – that train left the station years ago. Who knows whether it really has 23K original miles, but this is pretty much what it would look like if it did. Doesn’t really matter much at this point. Great car, I hope it finds the right home.
A look at the interior upholstery and foot pedal wear would probably confirm if the 23,000 miles is original or not. The Ebay listing only provides four exterior photos, unfortunately.
I’m with the guy who said to polish it up and leave the paint original.
Nice find. Nice car. Please DON’T “restore”. Preserve!
Now just hold on…an 87 year old car and we’re worried about how many MILES are on it? Seriously?….Owned during the depression when people could not afford to drive. Then during the war years, there wasn’t fuel to drive it with. Post war? it’s an old car without tail fins. It would have been a $15-50 car to some kid who needed transportation or Granny and Pop take it to church and MAYBE for a Sunday drive (which often required repairing 1 tire every 20 miles or so)
People just didn’t drive cars the way we do now. Or, MOST people didn’t. And they didn’t drive them as far.
And, frankly, I’d take a worn out car which I can rebuild/replace parts over a rusted out hulk OR one that didn’t exist anymore.
23k or 123K..does it really matter??
As nice as this car is, I believe that the mileage is correct. Cars of the early to mid 20th century seldom went even 100K miles, and if one did, chances are it looked it – not this car, looks like a 23K car. Over the years I have visited several what I call “time warp” wrecking yards, these are wrecking yards that closed to the public at some point after operating normal retail. One particular such yard was in SW Washington State near Goldendale, and had shut down around 1970, anyhow had a lot of complete late 50s cars – Fords, Chevys, Mercs, Ponchos, you name it, likely taken to the junk yard after a major expensive failure like the engine or transmission (you don’t put a $700 new tranny in a $15 car). Not a one of the cars I looked had gone over 100K miles – most were high 80s-lo 90s in terms of miles on the clock and most were complete and unmolested otherwise. Of course they weren’t all this way, but it was more the rule than the exception.
Nice proportions. Take it on sunday drives wearing period clothing.
Neat survivor………