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Stored Since 1971: 1934 Chevrolet Master

Most of us have what I would consider fancy cars, new or newer ones with leather and power everything and AC and all of that “stuff”. Sometimes, I think how fun it would be to drive a car like this 1934 Chevrolet Master Two-Door Town Sedan listed here on eBay in Boulder, Colorado. The seller has a $5,000 buy it now price listed.

Even though the depression was still raging and a lot of folks couldn’t afford things that we consider necessities today, like sometimes even food, it seemed like a simpler time. It’s always easy to look back and wish for those days again even though at the time it was far from easy. I love the “no-draft ventilators” in the front windows – better knows as wing windows, or that’s what we called them. I sure wish those would come back again.

The Chevrolet Standard and Master were new for 1934, the Series DA, and this is a two-door Town Sedan from what I understand. There were at least five body styles that year plus a cool Sedan Delivery which would be great to own. Actually, any of them would be great to own. It sure would give a person reason to slow down and enjoy life rather than getting into our plush pods and gliding down the road totally isolated from the world.

Here’s where the hard part starts for me, wow. The interior is pretty rough and you can see the “hole” in the roof. All of that will need to be replaced and it’s doable but not inexpensive. Maybe for a Tucson resident, a person wouldn’t need to fix the top but it might be a good idea to keep the black widow spiders and scorpions out… They say that it’s a solid car with no rust, of course, other than surface rust.

They’re selling this car for a friend of 50+ years and it was put into storage in 1971. The 206 cubic-inch inline-six with 80 hp was running when it was put into storage, but 48 years is a long time so it’ll have to be totally gone through. It’ll run again, a vehicle doesn’t know if it’s been sitting for six months or sixty years. All it needs is fuel, air, and spark and it’ll fire off, I’m pretty sure. It turns over which is a good thing. Have any of you owned or do you currently own a similar car to this ’34 Chevy? And, as always: restore or restomod? (cringing, hoping for more “restore” comments!)

Comments

  1. Avatar art

    I’m with you, so few of these left. Restore and enjoy. The car survived this long, give it another breath of life and let the car live as it was intended, as an original.

    Like 20
  2. Avatar geomechs Member

    Definitely worthwhile to restore. Somewhat more difficult than a comparable Ford because of the ‘Knee Action’ front suspension. They were challenging to get aligned properly, and the tended to need that a lot. A lot of wood used in the body, but that’s nothing to be scared of. I think you can get a lot of it in kit form. The engine is a vast improvement over the first version; it still uses three mains which doesn’t thrill me but I haven’t seen many of them break. They’ve got a forged crankshaft which is pretty strong. Fixed up, I wouldn’t be afraid to drive this some long distances…

    Like 15
  3. Avatar Kenneth Carney

    There’s a lot of ways to go with this car. Restoring it would be nice, but you can’t dismiss the thought of turning into an ass-kicking resto rod equipped with a modern drive train and all the modern amenities either. If it were mine, I’d take the middle ground instead. Drop in a later model 235, add some juice brakes and a 12 volt system, electric power steering from a Toyota Prius, and restore the exterior and interior as bone stock as possible. Then, I’d have a very dependable daily driver that would take my family anywhere. And if you convert it to an EV, you could fill the hole in the roof with some high grade solar panels to help recharge the batts while you drive it, or park it in the parking lot at work. In short,
    I’d be open to any idea to get this car back on the road where it belongs.

    Like 4
  4. Avatar Bultaco

    I like the idea of a later 235 Chevy 6 with a more modern 4 or 5-speed manual transmission and modern brakes, but everything else completely stock. Wouldn’t be insanely expensive, and such parts would be pretty easy to find. The result would be a cool old Chevy that was safer to drive in modern traffic, with solid reliability.

    Like 6
  5. Avatar Carter T

    Just short of three years ago, my grandfather passed away in his purple and silver car identical to this.

    Like 1
  6. Avatar TimM

    LS swap!!!

    Like 1
  7. Avatar GCS Member

    A friends father growing up had a 33. He had rebuilt the engine and it was ready for paint but sat in their garage for 30 years. He finally told us he had redone the metal frame but the wood in the frame was shot and he didn’t have the heart to cut it up to replace it. I think he even had the kit with all the wood pieces but can’t remember. Luckily he sold it to a women who did, and restored it to stock, which is what it deserved… unfortunately he passed away two years ago now. He had owned some wild cars back in the day and had wild stories to go with them..

    Like 3
  8. Avatar Pinky

    You say all it needs is fuel air and spark to fire. You forget compression which may be hard to achieve if this is locked up.

    Like 0
    • Avatar Jon

      Hot Rod it… :)

      Like 0
  9. Avatar canadainmarkseh

    I’m also in favor of restoring it, but I too would be looking for a 235 cid.as to the wood inside I’ve played around with fibre glass enough to to know that the rotten supports can be made solid again by injecting resin right into the rot, followed by glass fabric and more resin. I’d also put in some metal braces across the hole in the roof followed by a sheet metal panel. For a part time do it yourself guy this is a 10 year project and very few people are up to that challenge, life tends to get in the way. I know this all to well my car is is about 90% done and I’m in year 9 of its restoration. Best of luck to the new owner, if they don’t fix it at least I hope they keep it dry and preserved for the next guy after them.

    Like 1
  10. Avatar Duaney

    Stored for almost 50 years? It looks like they stored it outside in the weather. In 1971 I looked at a lot of cars of this vintage, and they mostly looked like new. This is the equivalent of a 1982 model stored until 2019, the 1982 models I’ve seen around here look really good for their age.

    Like 1
  11. Avatar Linda C

    I had a car similar to that. Back in 1957 or 58, I lived in a caretakers cottage on hwy 80 in Ruidoso, NM. Across the hwy was a curio shop and the people also sold a few used cars. One day I looked across and saw this wonderful old car setting there. I fell in love with it and asked my husband if we could see what the price was and if we could afford it could I have it. Turned out the price was $75. It said on the title that it was a 1935 chevy 4 door. It was found out on the pitchfork ranch by someone and he put it back together. He went to junk yard and got all the glass for it. The rest of the car was still there. The seats and headliner were army blankets used for recovering the seats and headliner. The dash was painted a bright blue. None of the spark plugs matched. I only got to drive it one time cause we couldn’t afford insurance for it. At least that is what the husband said. So it sat in the drive of our cottage for a couple of years. I sold it for $100 for Christmas money. I have always wondered if there would have been a way I could have kept it if I had lived in different circumstances. I will never forget that sweet car. My first.

    Like 3
  12. Avatar Fred woodward

    I now own one just like the 34 on here. I was told that there were only 800 Town Sedan models made in 34 but I don’t really know if that’s true or not.
    If anyone on here knows if it’s true or not would you please email me. My email is
    Got_wood62@yahoo.com
    Thank you

    Like 0
  13. Avatar greg miller

    mine is ratted out

    Like 0

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