My dad has been bugging my aunt's husband for a while now trying to buy a '41 Chevy sedan he has sitting in the weeds in the back of his property. He's probably not actually going to get it but I'm sitting here trying to work out what we'd even do with it.
Car appears to be missing all the front end sheet metal and rear quarters. No interior. Firewall has been cut out. All the glass appears to be busted. It does look to be sitting on a complete frame. I'm not good enough to know of if it is the original frame rails but it does have front drum brakes so it's probably not an S10 frame or anything like that.
Like I said it's probably not ever happening but what would one do with this car. I thought replace some of the missing metal with fiberglass but it's an odd body style so I doubt any of it is readily available. I don't think reproduction panels will be readily available in steel either. Glass looks to be mostly flat windows so probably not the end of the world there either. I don't think I'd want to drive a car with original 1941 glass anyway.
This is more than likely purely a dumb thought experiment, but what would any of you do with such a car that needs literally everything? Nothing really seems reasonable to me.
In reply to sleepyhead the buffalo :
Honestly I was thinking G body but C4 is much preferable chassis.
Mndsm
MegaDork
6/30/19 4:00 p.m.
4th gen camaro, for ls goodness?
In reply to Mndsm :
The LS can be added separately to anything but I feel like any frame swap will be easier if it's not a unibody car.
ShawnG
PowerDork
6/30/19 4:22 p.m.
I had a '48 Chev Fleetmaster for a while.
If it's missing that much, it's kinda worthless if it's a 4-door. 2-door sedans are worth a little more, 2-door coupes are where the money is.
It was probably a donor for someone's Fleetline coupe project.
It's all flat glass so you're ok there.
The factory frame rails are a "top hat" shape, easy to identify. The stock suspension is really easy to lower, just some bolts, spacers and blocks.
You wouldn't have wanted to keep the stock engine anyway, it would be a splash-lubed 216 I6 that wouldn't have survived highway abuse.
I seem to recall that G-body chassis fit under these pretty well but you'd still be dealing with 30-year-old, worn out parts.
Pretty much everything is available from Chev's Of The 40s but you'll be upside-down replacing everything that is missing.
Might make a good chicken sedan at this point.
I think this was a parts car for another '41 but can't remember for sure. I would probably want to suggest building something like the car Sleepy posted but I think there is too much missing even for that. I looked at the car today but didn't get too close just because of how tall the weeds have gotten around it. I'd be amazed if it still has floors of any kind as it's been sitting on its frame in the dirt with no wheels. Simply digging it out of it's current resting place would probably be a pain.
Best fate for the car might be to just leave it where it is.
ShawnG said:
I had a '48 Chev Fleetmaster for a while.
If it's missing that much, it's kinda worthless if it's a 4-door. 2-door sedans are worth a little more, 2-door coupes are where the money is.
It was probably a donor for someone's Fleetline coupe project.
I would agree...sounds more like a parts car than anything else.
Dirt modified for the street.
In reply to Appleseed :
Solid thought seeing as how that's about all that's left of the body.
any sufficiently rusted-away pile of junk is just one nascar chassis away from being an awesome street machine, given the appropriate welding skills.
I see I'm too late. Should have posted this morning.
C4 wheelbase is only 96.5" so likely too short. easy button is S10 chassis.
So this car got mentioned to me again. Apparently the price is $750. BUT, it's not the car I saw. Turns out the price is for both the car I saw and the car that got most of the parts that went missing from this one. I haven't seen the other car. Probably still not happening because I have too many projects and dad isn't ready to pull the trigger on anything at the moment.
S10 frame, LS, 35s or bigger. Cage it to protect yourself and hold whatever body panels are left in a car shape.
If I did it your lucking at a long drawn out custom frame with Corvette suspension build. That's all I would want out of the car. But I have limited resources and no skill beyond being a shade tree hack parts changer. So it would never get done or best case scenario take so long that they've fully banned internal combustion by the time I get it done.
Daylan C said:
Turns out the price is for both the car I saw and the car that got most of the parts that went missing from this one.
That makes the proposition more interesting.
F-150s and fulls size Chevy-GMC short boxes have the sale wheelbase as your '41.
This one's a little silly, but you get the idea. I did a body swap of a 1952 Dodge to a late model Dodge frame. Heat, 12V, power steering, I like it.
Slide a Chevy Caprice/Impala rwd under it, ala The Fourty-Niner
