In 1931, Chevrolet built 12 different body styles comprising 624,000 automobiles. 8^th down the list in terms of volume was the Independence Cabriolet (aka convertible). These snappy cars, which came with rumble seats, saw an output of about 23,000 copies. And that was two years into the Great Depression which had created a serious downtown for the automobile industry. This ’31 Chevy may or may not be complete and it’s sandwiched in with a bunch of other old cars that time seems to have forgotten. It’s in a big, crowded garage in Pueblo, Colorado, and available here on eBay where the reserve is unmet at bids of $1,085.

While Chevrolet was hurt by the economy of the 1930s, it weathered things a little better than Ford, taking the sales lead away from the folks in Dearborn in 1931. These cars were powered by a capable OHV straight-six engine which displaced 194 cubic inches that managed 50 hp. The compression ratio was a mild 5.02:1 compression ratio and gas was fed through a single-barrel Carter carburetor. The Independence Series was replaced by the Confederate Series in 1932, which is how the seller has identified this lost project.

We don’t know the history of this Chevy, how it came to roost in the rubble in this garage, or how long it’s been there. In addition, the seller doesn’t indicate if the car is complete and if some of the parts shown in the photos belong to this car or one or more of the others. However, on the plus side, the Cabriolet comes with a new wood kit as these Chevies still relied on forest products. Whatever metal work was needed on the body has been taken care of and there is no rust.

The seller was going to build a street rod from this collection of bits and pieces but may have thought otherwise. If a working engine or transmission is in there somewhere, we can’t attest to it. But you’ll need both a flatbed and an enclosed trailer to carry away the nuts and bolts we see here. But if you were to restore it, it might look like the last photo here!