Words: John Gunnell
The car consigned to Wayne Yoder’s spring 2018 auction looked like a model of an old school hot rod that just needed “paintin’ and puttin’ together.” The rumble seat opened and the driver’s door didn’t. The interior was a dusty dump with moth-eaten fuzzy brown seats and some kind of ‘50s steering wheel.
Someone started the hot rod building project several decades ago. Someone had dreamt that the 3-window coupe could be a real hit at hot rod shows. Then reality set in. Either the energy ran out or the money. The ’31 Chevy was parked until the builder “had time to finish it,” but that time never came.
The car was a rule-breaker in Hot Rod Land, too. Instead of being a Ford with a small-block Chevy V-8, it was built as a wood-framed Chevy with a tri-power Ford V-8. That’s a “brand-reversed” combination with a whole lot of go power for a creaky old Depression-era car body. It might have gone fast in its day, but it sure wasn’t a comfortable riding old coupe or a “safety car.”
Nevertheless, the once bright yellow coupe has lots of appeal in today’s era of worshipping “traditional” hot rods, rockabilly rod runs and pinup girl contests. It was the “Real McCoy,” and we’re not talking about Walter Brennan’s old TV show. The Chevy was a genuine, pull-it-out-of-mothballs and drive-it-like-it-is relic of the post-World War II all-American hot rod culture.
The Yoder auction comprised some 505 lots, of which around 63 were actual vehicles (if you count motorcycles and boats). The other lots were old signs, gas pumps, toys, oil cans, pedal cars, etc. Out of all those things, the 1931 Chevy hot rod was the coolest. In fact, it was even cooler than the Coca-Cola cooler that was converted into a trailer to pull behind a hot rod.
Sure, the Chevy 3-window needed lots of work. Just to begin with, you’d have to fix the driver’s door so you could get into the car. Was it leaning to the right rear because of the flat tire at that corner, or had it been sitting like that for so long that the suspension was permanently fixed in that position?
The goofy-looking bullet headlights didn’t go with the lines of the car at all. But would you replace them with smaller, low-mounted modern units, or would you keep the car 100 percent the way that it was when built many years ago?
According to Yoder’s write up, the Chevy had been sitting since the ‘70s. “Old School Hot Rod! Great Barn Find! Will need to be trailered!” the auction bill read. It sounded inviting. Dozens of people thought so and bid on the car. In the end, someone coughed up $4,000 to return it to dream car status. Hopefully, the dream will become reality and the car will be seen at hot rod shows soon.
