Projects Graham coupe 36 hot rod projet

this is my new project hot rods.
Graham's 1936 5w coupe, was in South Africa but is in Italy since 1980. Now it's mine.
Engines, transmissions and interiors have been lost.
Put a 354 hemi chrysler '56, automatic transmission and 700 4r. Sorry if I do not write well ..... I'm Italian

 

Thats sure unusual! Was that originally a coupe? Almost looks like it may have started out as a four door sedan.

I like your plan anyway.

 

i always thought grahams were cool.

 

it is original coupe model supercharge

 

Ok. The back looks a little different is all.
Cool project anyway.

 

Good for you, nice project.

 

I looked better, was sedan.

 

cool car! but man i would hate to dig into that roof.good eye james D!

 

Great find anyhow! NICE. perley

 

great builder..very good score.

 

Had a '37 Graham 4 door sedan several years ago,i liked it.

 

I was going to chime in and tell you not to mod it as it is rare and looked pretty complete. But given that it was a sedan then it's a perfect project for anything you want to do with it. I'm personally not a custom guy as I prefer the high front of a gasser than the lower back of a custom. However, it's your car so do what you want. Good luck!

 

It is a coupe not a sedan. Graham Owners Club will be horrified that you are street rodding it. Your choice to do what you want, just don't ruin it. Nice car by the way.

 

Very cool project man, can't wait to see what you do with it.

 

My thoughts too - the lines look right and factories did weird things to make coupes back then - especially the low volume manufacturers. Graham Bros. were not doing too well back in the Depression and tooling up to make new dies to stamp coupe bodies may not have been in their budget. Many two door sedans were made by simply skinning the rear door opening or by leading in the rear doors and using a fold forward seat. And this one a supercharged Cavalier coupe - rare indeed. Personally I would resto rod it - looking as close to stock as possible on the outside but with updated mechanicals....

 

Good luck on your build, "Nuvo"....I'll be watching this thread for sure, as I too am (gulp) hot rodding a Graham......

 

So it's an original supercharged rumble seat coupe? What kind of hp would that have had? Any idea where the original drivetrain is?

As for plans, from the pic it just looks like you're adding skirts and lowering which should be fine as preserving the car. Depending on availability, might I suggest using a Torqueflite instead as this is technically a Mopar and you could keep it all Mopar since you plan on using a Hemi.

 

Not exactly....Dodge bought the truck division of Graham - not the car manufacturing division, otherwise Graham might still have survived with the Chrysler empire. There are plenty of transmission adapters out there to use other brands of trans such as a 700R4 for example.

Horsepower was 135 for the supercharged Graham Cavalier

Here's a history of Graham by noted automotive historian Jeffrey Godshall....

members.shaw.ca/rjsill/justwhat.htm

 

So you guys are saying this is factory??? I think it was a sedan turned into a coupe.

 

correct! a job done wrong!: (

 

The photoshop with the mild chop really looks good, the sedan conversion looks good from the outside, hope it isn't full of filler. It's hard enough to build a car here, I admire people who build one in Europe.

 

It is possible it was made from two cars but making turret top cars only started a couple years before. Graham may not have had a press big enough yet to make it in one shot. My Hollywood top is 7 pieces of metal because they could not make it in only 1 piece.

 

Thinking by the shape of the quarter windows and the execution on the top, this surely was not factory. The green light should be on to do what he wants seeing that it's a bastard car.

 

LOL...looks like someone already "ruined" it...from a sedan to a coop...top and quarter window doesn't quite 'flow' correctly to say it's a factory job...

Even so, Nuvo, I like the photoshop you did...it'll look good a sled...

R-

 

As crudely pieced together as it looks, I could still believe that this is how the vehicle was delivered by Graham when new. This was not a high volume model and Graham was not in the league of Packard or Duesenberg.

Here's a couple more pics of the Cavalier coupe and they all seem to share the same slightly "awkward" roofline and quarter window shape.



Here's links to a couple other shots that I couldn't download the pictures.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/betemaciel/3539378573/sizes/z/in/photostream/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/carphotosbyrichard/5710236728/sizes/z/in/photostream/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/carphotosbyrichard/5709646483/in/photostream/

 

I dunno...there's something about Nuvo's coop that the roofline at the rear of the door doesn't look quite correct, it drops off too sharp...and without seeing a dead on side shot of an original Graham coop, I can't say for certain it's a factory job...if it is, the factory certainly didn't make it look nice on the inside...

R-

 

Hollywood Graham is correct that the roof of the Hollywood was seven piece hammer welded. Hupmobile farmed out the body building of their Skylark to Graham and in return allowed Graham to use the same body for the Hollywood when they discovered the complexity of the body manufacturing from the original 1936 Cord Westchester dies.

One of the best set of photos of a stock Graham Cavalier coupe is from Nuvolari's posting on this link:

www.usacarsforum.it/forum/lofiversion/index.php/t15404.html

 

A little O/T to the original posting but still Graham related, here is a photo of a 1939 Graham Sharknose 3 window coupe custom bodied by Pourtout - about as rare as it gets in a graham and possible even rarer than the French coachbuilt Sharknose convertibles....

 

Graham did do some cobbling on the hollywood but nothing like what is shown here. There is no way that is factory but it is kinda cool.

 

look at the difference of the rear window, definitely homemade