So I had my car to a local cruise night when I was approached by an older gentleman and asked why did my a pillars lean back on my 31. I told him I did not know and never gave it much thought. He looked at me with a very stern look and said I did not know enough about my car and how rare the body was. He then turned and walked away without saying another word. It got me thinking why and I have since found out that it is an A 68C body. My question is how rare is it as there seems to be a lot of photos on the net. Am I missing something?
I think the 68C just means it's a Cabriolet as opposed to say a Roadster or Phaeton. You would need to look up production #s to determine which is more rare although I'm sure they built quite a large # of Cabriolets.
68-A was the early cabriolet, 68-B was '30-31, 68-C was later 1931. Besides the slant posts, it has STEEL body structure to distinguish it. It is considered highly desirable by A people because of this...the earlier ones were coach built, wood framing and sills, making them real nightmares to restore. The C has only a light sprinkling on non-structural wood, like a roadster or coupe, and is much solider and much easier to fix than the others. I don't know exactly how rare it is, but the cabriolets were all low production and this one was made only for part of one year...and it was a bad year for sales, with the depression coming on strong.
I guess the old-timer knew what he was talking about. I frequent that cruise night often and perhaps I will have the opportunity to talk to him again with a bit more knowledge. Perhaps he has something he would like to share with me
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