Hot Rods Any Idea what kind of car this is?

I'm getting a very German vibe. The info about the photo may be incorrect. The lady looks very German as does the car. It may be something like a Maybach.

 

I,ll go with Bob

 

Those wheels look like 32 Ford wires, but the body doesn't.

 

It's absolutely correct info on the when taken and where, it's a friends Mom in the picture ! And it was 100% taken in Minot North Dakota in the early 30's, He just doesn't know what kind of car it was.....

 

Many Duesenbergs had double pinstripe body lines

car has a coach build vibe

 

Lincoln maybe?

 

North Dakota, it may be some Canadian make

 

Duesenberg had a strong hold on their coachbuilders in the era that is suggested; less in the years immediately after. To my mind the later scenario produced more interesting cars. But if this was "approved" coachwork for a Duesy chassis, it would certainly be researchable.

 

To my eyes, the car doesn't look nearly big enough to be a Duesenberg. I do agree that the body does have a coachwork-built look to it though, just likely on a smaller chassis.

 

I’m still on the impression that it started as a 31-32 Chevy. The upper hinge was moved down when the slanted the windshield. Then they used a windshield frame and posts grafted from some other car.

 

I think the double Moulding looks add on. It goes right over the body seam on the upper cowl. how can that be.

 

Back in the depression era, that car could well have been hand built by the guy down the street, from a chassis and parts collected.
There were supposed to have been nearly 3,000 independent auto builders in the mid to late 1920s. This car could have easily have been a left over car, or a collection of parts salvaged (or bought) from one of those independent builders. Based on a photo dated to sometime in the 30s, it has the look of having been used, doesn't look like a new car.
The Great Depression was hard on cars, lots of stuff was patched to together to keep it moving.

 

According to one online site (for whatever their opinion is worth), there were only about 100 car manufacturers in 1930.
They dwindled in number after that but there were indeed more before that.

 

Looks German but other than that I have no idea

 

This is a 32 Stutz.....might not be same year....hinges are not in the same place.

 

Certainly pretty similar, maybe the subject car is a year or two older.

 

The Stutz that Joe Blow posted above is the closest suggestion I've seen so far. Not dead on, but a lot of similarities.

 

32 Stutz.
Similar hinge but wrong everywhere else.
These type cars are tough to pin down because of very limited production or one offs.
Each coach builder had different styles.
Will have to not just pin down the make but the builder as well

 

Standard body was a LeBaron, which is what you posted. Coachbuilt bodies were supplied by LeBaron, Rollston and Brunn. The pics I posted were from a DV-32 coachbuilt by Rollston. Stutz was winding down in the early 30's, 384 cars of all types were built in 31, about 120 in 32 and the same in 33.

 

A Brunn bodied Lincoln

Seems the majority of theses coach builds had suicide doors. You’d think finding one without would make the search easier

 

The original pic more follows the Rollston pattern than the others? Rollston would have done work on chassis other than Stutz, and might have done periodic changes to details like hinge positions for various reasons.

We have to get our heads out of the "numbers-matching" mindset with cars like this. The idea we tend to have is that the position of a reveal is significant because it's a feature on a set of pressing dies which represented a huge investment at the time. That was probably true of LeBaron; less so of Rollston, Brunn, and the others operating at the time. Reveals didn't originate as "character lines" out of the pens of stylists for aesthetic purposes; they began as trim to conceal possibly nailed panel joints. The investment involved in moving one of those would have been far smaller. Also keep in mind that changes of that kind wouldn't have involved a costly legal recertification process.

How far along the continuum the body in the pic was is anyone's guess — though some of the details suggest closer to the "trim" end than the "pressing" end. In fact things like the radius to the bottom front corner of the side window opening, and the bottom corner of the door opening suggest fabric coachwork on e.g. Weymann principles, as @302GMC mentioned above.

 

Looks to me like a fabric covered body which was more popular over the Atlantic, particularly in the UK but I know there were such bodies on some Stutz models. To me the relationship between body and wheel does not seem right for a Stutz (wheel is too small). Like someone said it could be a car crossing over from Canada where they had quite a few British cars. So I'll stick my neck out and say something of that ilk.

 

Stutz DV32 with Weiman body. Similar but not quite the same.

 

Totally forgot about fabric covered bodies.
That might explain this

Weymann built Stutz. Similar seam.
Weymann bodied Cord

similar post. Thick canvas top.
seems to be a common feature on the Weymann cars.

 

A little history. My family has lived in Minot since the 1920's. During prohibition it was known as "little Chicago" as it was the center of a large liquor smuggling business. Minot sits on the main line of the Great Northern RR, half way between Chicago and Seattle. Liquor flowed east and west on the daily trains coming thru town. A lot of people made a lot of money during this time and fancy cars in town were a common sight. So, I believe its very possible that the car in the picture could be a "coach built" vehicle bought by some local gangster for his wife or girl friend and later obtained by the body shop employee. Heck, my parents probably knew the woman in the picture.

 

So have we at least determined if the lady is German?

 

She is 100% Norwegian !

 

Odd panel above the windshield. Rear fenders or mud flaps extend downward quite a bit. Only 2 light weight hinges suggest a small car with light doors. Is there a hint of one leg of a 3 pointed MB star on the hub cap?

 

Not much of an improvement, but it might help.