We Just Bought History! 1920 Chevy Coupe!

Well I've done it again. I brought another car home!!!

A good friend of mine calls last Monday night and says...
"would you be interested in going in partners or looking at this old chevy?"

so me being me says "sure what is it?"

Harold tells me it's a 1920 Chevrolet Coupe that was bought by the Chevrolet plant in St. Louis and restored by the No. 1 Team at the Chevrolet plant in St. Louis for there 50th Anniversary of the plant opening in 1970.

Harold says the car has photos of it when Chevrolet bought the car from an old lady in or around 1969 and other photos of the car being restored at the plant and photos of the car sitting on the ***emble line with the new 1970 Chevrolet Caprices in the background with GM executives standing around it. and shots of it sitting in a show room above the entry way of the GM/Fisher ***emble plant in St. Louis along with a few newspaper clippings and the original ***le and a 1936 drivers license of the lady they bought it from.

Harold says "what do think?" he then tells me the paint is ok "old & cracked" and the interior is dirty but nice, Harold says the car is a good 20 footer.

well needless to say we went last Saturday and looked at it...
and like it's any surprise... the garage door went up and a glint of light hit the back of the car and I was hooked!

after a quick 38 second look around the car... an me having a smile so big I thought I was going to have to have a plastic surgeon remove it... hell I was even whistling Zip-A-Dee-Do-Dah from my ***!!
Harold says well?... well... of course my weakness for old cars and history... a quick answer of "HELL YA I'M IN!"

so the rest is history we bought the car and picked it up Tuesday.... oh yeah it does not fit in an enclosed trailer LOL! it's too tall.

ANYWAY NOW...
we are looking for ANY information we can find on this car!
does anyone know anything about this car?
or remember seeing it at the plant?

Anything would be welcome, and greatly appreciated.

thanks... I will try to add more photos to the post if anyone is interested.

 

Very cool!

 

Cool! Are you going to leave it pretty much as-is?

 

Neat, what are your plans for it?

 

Yeah... I think doing much to the car would be bad.
the car is virtually untouched since Chevrolet restored the car in 1970.
It's like a running piece of art... the engine is wild all open push rod and valve train.
it's just kind of cool.

 

WOW!!! What a find. Although this is a hot rod site, I just can't see this car being anything but what it already is. Leave it alone. Its history speaks for itself. Just my two cents worth...

 

I'm afraid I'd pretty much have to leave it as-is. Very cool.

 

As a fellow 4 cylinder Chevy owner (28 landau coupe), I think that your new car is incredible! Congratulations!

BTW, don't forget to lightly oil the rocker arms before starting it for the first time each day...

 

Very cool...I know the old saying is "It's only original once", but this car was built by Chevy twice. Leave it as is.

 

Nothing there that an SBC could not make better.

Good find.

 

A small block will bolt right in...
What a cream puff. Really neat.

 

thats bueatifull.

 

Exactly.

 

Cool find

 

amazing! I'd whistle out of my *** too for that car.

 

It would be a CRIME to do anything to that car, except maintain it. Somethings are best left as is. It IS a piece of automotive History. Treat it as such. Time to join the AACA...

 

x2......

 

With all the termite bait in that thing there can't be very many of them left. It probably is a lot rarer than you would think. Keep it as is and have fun with it.

 

you just gotta love the older closed cars like this. as stated you can't be messing with that one, but I'd love to find an original body like that for a HOT ROD

 

***

 

I thought I saw superman in there suiting up!

Not my cup of tea but really neat none the less!

 

It's a Model 490...
from what we understand there is only 4 of these coupes left?
I think that figure may have came from the VCCA...
don't know how true that is yet... I haven't been able to track down anything.

 

What an Incredible piece of History!
From the photos and doc's you have,you're already off to great start.
Hopefully SOMEONE will chime in with "I helped restore it" or "My Dad helped restore it"!

 

Very nice. Extremely valuable! Even more so if/when GM goes under...

 

Man, i thought that was familiar, i had to go through my pictures, is this the same type of car? or body?......to me it looks really friggin similiar

 

Man, that thing needs some skulls and a spiderweb grill insert!

 

Can you post some pics of the engine???

 

1 of 4? Sounds like you got the Hemi Cuda guys beat.

 

maybe we should tear out the floor of that room and put in a garage door? HA HA.

 

That would make such a cool rod but to do a little paraphrasing...... "Anybody can make a hot rod out of an old car but sometimes it takes a real man to leave it the Hell alone."