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Hot Rods 1933 Continental Coupe

Discussion in 'The Hokey Ass Message Board' started by josh highley, Feb 24, 2013.

  1. josh highley
    Joined: Nov 13, 2011
    Posts: 405

    josh highley
    Member

    So here is a little info on this car. It will be turned into a real hot rod(not rat). The owner wanted a mid 30's hot rod with suicide style doors. He got a hold of this one and tried to sell it several times. He didn't really want to cut it up, but he had absolutely no luck selling it. It was on ebay a couple times and never brought much value. Not even close enough to buy a 33 ford coupe body.

    I am fixing the rust on it, which there is very little. And doing a mild chop and channel. The owner has already purchased a 331 hemi, hilborn injection, tremec 5 spd. His plans are gloss black high boy with a hood top and original grill. He also has already purchased 15x10 chrome reverse wheels with pie crust slicks. This car will be pure hot rod and a very cool one at that.
     
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  2. josh highley
    Joined: Nov 13, 2011
    Posts: 405

    josh highley
    Member

    They had a very neat rear suspension. I found this picture on the net.
     

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  3. GaryB
    Joined: Dec 19, 2008
    Posts: 3,529

    GaryB
    Member
    from Reno,nv

    interesting car,keep us updated on progress
     
  4. jimi'shemi291
    Joined: Jan 21, 2009
    Posts: 9,499

    jimi'shemi291
    Member

    Yup, as HJManiac said, VERY rare cars as coupes. If my memory serves, there are NO '33 Beacon roadsters that have been located in modern times.
     
  5. sololobo
    Joined: Aug 23, 2006
    Posts: 8,378

    sololobo
    Member

    I am was not familiar with this car, had heard it mentioned, but never had seen one. What beautiful body lines and reveals. The firewall is really cool, as is that sculpted dash. Thanx for sharing this groovy project with us, and my lesson for the day! ~sololobo~
     
  6. theHIGHLANDER
    Joined: Jun 3, 2005
    Posts: 10,245

    theHIGHLANDER
    ALLIANCE MEMBER

  7. cody1958
    Joined: Sep 19, 2006
    Posts: 833

    cody1958
    Member
    from wichita ks

    Awesome car!! not a big fan of the firewall. Hot rod the hell out of it. Hell with restoring it.
     
  8. I love gaining knowledge!
    Very cool car and story about the company
     
  9. Sweepspear
    Joined: May 17, 2010
    Posts: 292

    Sweepspear
    Member

    I agree with you.

    My opinion, but whatever was done to the roof was far from an improvement.
     
  10. Rusty O'Toole
    Joined: Sep 17, 2006
    Posts: 9,657

    Rusty O'Toole
    Member

    I passed on this information to the AACA bulletin boards. Some members seem to think the car should be restored and kept stock. Let's see if they put their money where their mouth is.

    Josh could you hold back the cutting torch for a little while and give them a chance or at least, save all the old junk parts?
     
  11. Rickybop
    Joined: May 23, 2008
    Posts: 9,606

    Rickybop
    ALLIANCE MEMBER

    New one on me too. Super rare, huh? Well...no matter how rare, they're not sacred. I'm sure if the owner had all the other parts, it'd be restored...but they aren't available. So hot rod it is.
    My $3.95 worth. (inflation)

    Interesting that the original cars had quarter eliptical springs in the rear. And open driveshafts...way back then.

    Thanks for posting, Josh.
     
  12. 3wLarry
    Joined: Mar 11, 2005
    Posts: 12,804

    3wLarry
    Member Emeritus
    from Owasso, Ok

    Floyd the barber drove a Beacon sedan in an episode of Andy Griffith when they were going fishing...can't find a pic...
     
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  13. barry2952
    Joined: Aug 9, 2007
    Posts: 357

    barry2952
    Member

    I believe I can answer some of your questions. I own the only know drivable 1933 Continental Flyer in existence in the Western Hemisphere. It's a 50,000 mile car that I've mechanically restored, but left the patina. The car was painted sometime in the '60s, I believe, but still shows well. It's been in 5 Concours and taken 5 trophies.

    Not a single spectator nor judge had ever seen a running example in person. Few have even heard of it.

    [​IMG]

    It's a very handsome car designed by a famous Count, known for designing some incredibly beautiful French streamline cars.

    Here's the story. DeVaux/Hall took a dive owning Continental Motors $500,000 for private-labeled Hall engines. Continental built engines for 200 brands of cars and airplanes. Their industrial engines ran huge factories and were installed in an untold number of hi-los and utility boats under various names. Continental swore they would never go into competition with the boutique manufactures they supplied, but saw it as a way to recoup their loss.

    Continental forgave half the debt and acquired the remaining Hayes bodies and the factory for $40,000 and went to work building them out as "Continental/DeVaux" using their own brand engine. They hired Count Alexis Wladimirovich de Sakhnoffsky http://www.coachbuilt.com/des/d/desakhnoffsky/desakhnoffsky.htm to design a new line of cars using European race-car suspension technology. They were able to eliminate the wobble of cars of the era by install a single shackle on the front transverse spring, making it a three-point suspension. It really does work. The rear suspension has a quarter sprung rear axle, using the 4 opposed-movement springs to locate the rear axle, significantly lowering sprung weight and kind of creating a type of independent suspension. The spring ends have a threaded interior that a shaft screws through, still allowing for up and down motion and allowing for some side to side deflection. The combination of the different front and rear suspension make for a very civilized ride. The lever-type shocks even worked well.

    I can attest to that as I drove the car across the state of Michigan to attend a Concours my wife and I are on the BOD of. I wanted to prove that an old car could be made reliable. I was inspired by my friend Jonathan Klinger, of Hagerty's "Operation Ignite" http://operationignite.hagerty.com, one of the program managers. He drove his Model-A for 365 days straight as a daily driver and driving huge distances to shows. He was my role model for the trip. The car came with an electric fuel pump and great "Ah-oo-ga" horns, but the rest of the car is totally stock. I forgot. The second owner
    added a period correct heater. The only problem I had on the trip was a vapor lock, which was remedied by turning up the regulator a notch.

    Life is different at 45 mph. It took us twice as long as our normal trip, and I've never seen so many garage sales in all my my life, but we managed to zig-zag across I-94 on all the old stagecoach routes. We got the advertised 25 mpg.

    [​IMG]

    Here is my public Photobucket page for the '33 Continental. There are pictures that better explain the suspension. There are photos of original brochures.

    Please, feel free to ask any questions. I'd be happy to answer them.

    http://s244.photobucket.com/albums/gg18/barry2952/1933 Continental/
     
    Last edited: Feb 25, 2013
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  14. 32coupedeville
    Joined: Dec 10, 2006
    Posts: 1,253

    32coupedeville
    Member
    from cincy

    amn josh that coupe is so cool!!!!! i have to get over there to see it in person. for those that dont like to see it cut up... this car was forsale for awhile on ebay but there were no takers. nobody was intrested. i watched the car on ebay. i think it would be so cool with all it fenders sitting on the ground but i think the owner whats it other wise.
     
  15. Fantastic car Barry! Thanks for the history!! That's a particularly attractive shade of green...any idea if it resembles the original paint?
     
  16. cmyhtrod
    Joined: Nov 29, 2008
    Posts: 360

    cmyhtrod
    Member
    from ct

    Very cool Barry, thanks for sharing!
     
  17. SAVAGE
    Joined: May 13, 2002
    Posts: 925

    SAVAGE
    Alliance Vendor

  18. josh highley
    Joined: Nov 13, 2011
    Posts: 405

    josh highley
    Member

    Barry - Thanks for the info. Very cool trip you took!
     
  19. josh highley
    Joined: Nov 13, 2011
    Posts: 405

    josh highley
    Member

    Starting repairing all the rust first and bad spots first. Here is the first round. As you can imagine nobody makes patch panels for these, so I made them from scratch.

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]
     
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  20. josh highley
    Joined: Nov 13, 2011
    Posts: 405

    josh highley
    Member

    The bead is fairly wide and has a nice crown to it. I just used a profile gauge against the old bead and made a new piece.

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]
     
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  21. bostonhemi
    Joined: Dec 1, 2011
    Posts: 695

    bostonhemi
    ALLIANCE MEMBER

    Great Car! Looking forward seeing this one being saved either way.
     
  22. josh highley
    Joined: Nov 13, 2011
    Posts: 405

    josh highley
    Member


    That is exactly what I would do, if it was mine. Update the chassis and engine, get it sitting right and drive the wheels off of it. Come on out anytime. You definitely need to stop by and check this one out.
     
  23. barry2952
    Joined: Aug 9, 2007
    Posts: 357

    barry2952
    Member

    This was an all-steel body by Hayes. All models had suicide doors. The Beacon and Flyer used the same bodies in all styles. The 4-cylinder cars were 6 inches shorter in the hood, front fenders and frame. The rest of the car was the same.

    The beauty of the boutique cars is that the mechanical bits were used on many other cars. The steering box is a Saginaw unit that was used in Chevrolets, I believe. The entire chassis is a Budd units, I believe. It has Steeldraulic brakes, a steel cable system that works pretty well. These were also used on a bunch of models. I believe the paint color was a Chevrolet color, made by a sub-contractor of GM. It has Delco electrics and other sub-contracted parts, so they're easy to keep on the road.

    I am looking for this very car in a Roadster to fit my collection of Continental convertibles.

    They are incredibly rare, but not very valuable. I have a friend that works for Hagerty that used my car as an exercise in valuation. While it's very rare it's not very valuable. I bought it for $13,500 and have it insured now for $20,000. That's not very much, for such a rare car.
     
  24. 32coupedeville
    Joined: Dec 10, 2006
    Posts: 1,253

    32coupedeville
    Member
    from cincy

    the dash is so cool. i also like the long hood!
     
  25. 39 Ford
    Joined: Jan 22, 2006
    Posts: 1,558

    39 Ford
    Member

    It is not to my taste but it is also not a RAT ROD, a RAT ROD is a thrown together pile of rusty crap, the car appears neatly done. Flat black and a small block does not make make a car a RAT ROD in my humble opinion.
     
  26. Rattle Trap
    Joined: May 11, 2012
    Posts: 358

    Rattle Trap
    Member

    This one was for sale a while back on craigslist. It was only a few miles away from me. The guy wanted a harley bagger and I had one. My bike was to old. He wanted a newer one. :( He was asking 23k for it. I didn't really know just how rare it was at the time.
     

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  27. barry2952
    Joined: Aug 9, 2007
    Posts: 357

    barry2952
    Member

    I contacted that guy about the old Continental motor that was in it. The guy sure was a dick.
     
  28. turdytoo
    Joined: May 14, 2007
    Posts: 1,568

    turdytoo
    Member

    x2.
     
  29. barry2952
    Joined: Aug 9, 2007
    Posts: 357

    barry2952
    Member

    I read that the stamped reveal was to add strength as well as beauty. The double set of three rivets on both sides holds a cross-member that carries all the stress of the rear suspension. It's a trick set-up.

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]
     
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