I need some help figuring out what model 1929 Chevrolet International I own. The Serial number is 2AC78231. My uncle gave me this car in really bad condition with a 2-door "Woodie" style body on it. The problem I am having is that I read an article online that said the "2AC" means it was a 5 passenger 4-door Phaeton. Looking for pictures of Phaetons online all I have found is steel bodied cars. So my question is this a Phaeton that someone replaced the steel body with a wood body or was there a "2AC" wooden bodied car?

The information that you read on line was totally incorrect. The "2" means that your car was made in the Tarrytown, New York factory. And, the "AC" is the series designation for 1929. Neither has anything to do with the body style of the vehicle.

The "78231" is the number of the run, which means that your car was the 77,231st car made in the Tarrytown factory in 1929.

"2AC 78231" is the complete car serial number and the serial numbers started at 1,001 in 1929.

There should be a tag attached on the left, engine side, of the fire wall that has the body style number on it. Then the Master Parts list will show you what body style the number represents.

If you do not have the firewall/cowl tag to identify the body style (also referred to as "Job Number),if you could post a picture or provide an e/site where one could be seen, then someone might be able to help identify what you have or what you started with.

Ok thank yal for your quick response. I am pretty sure now that it was either a 2-door or a 4-door Woodie then. I talked to my Uncle last night and he told me it was a 2-door car when he got it but he is not sure if it was the original wood. I will post a picture of the cowl later today. Unfortunately I do not have the "JOB NUMBER" for the body. It will be a custom build anyways as the frame was rusted out in front of the rear spring shackles and I have built a custom chassis for it. Back 22 years ago when I got the car I could not find a replacement frame anywhere. Now I see them all over the place. Thank God for the internet and this website. Once again thank you all.

Tarrytown built 131,268 Chevies in 1929. By production figures per month it could be that the chassis was built in May 1929 but if you have the original engine then the block casting date code will give some idea of the assembly month (add four weeks say as a ready-reckoner).

Is the chassis a passenger car or a 1/2 ton Light Delivery chassis? The latter was used as the basis for 'station wagons'. Didn't the LD chassis have a fuel filler neck just behind the driver. i.e. differently located from the car chassis?

The 1/2 ton chassis or "Light Delivery" had the gas tank under the front seat. The spare tire was stored under the rear cross member. The passenger chassis had the gas tank under the rear cross member and spare tire on a rack bolted to the top of the rear cross member. If the passenger chassis was used for a vehicle with a tailgate then the spare could be stored in a fender mount in most cases on the passenger side if not both sides. In that case the gas tank would be under the rear cross member and a special filler neck fitted to the tank by the body builder.

I researched "Station Wagon" bodies for late 20s and early 30s over the past 20+ years and currently have a '31 under construction from photos.

I believe mine was a light duty chassis as it had the gas tank under the front seat when I got it. I no longer have the original drivetrain. Since this car was in such bad shape when I got it I decided just to make a nice street rod with it and sold or gave away all the original running gear. This brings me to another question though. Was the wheelbase the same 107" on both frames?

Yes.

In the UK the Light Delivery chassis was used as the basis for seven-seat taxis from around 1926. Easy enough to accommodate the filler by the coachbuilder.

The 1928 AB LD 4-cylinder engines were generally the same as the car units but we know that the 'X' and 'XR'-prefixed [right hand drive] versions were available for the LD with the lower compression.

There does not appear to have neen any distinction between the AC Light Delivery engines and the passenger car engines. I don't know if they ysed a lower compression? The British spec quoted 46bhp for the LD engine;I don't know if this was less than the US version because of possible non-availablity of Ethyl gas.

In the USA, all 1929 passenger car and truck engines were the same. The only difference was the engine serial numbers. For truck engines there was a "T" prefix in front of the engine serial number.

Right, thanks. You would not have had 'R'-prefixed rhd engines in the US of A, as I doubt that the Postal Service had Chevrolets?

Wow,Thank you all so much for the help. My car was a Fisher body. It had the wood front posts that attached to the cowl. My Uncle said it had the original body on it when he purchased it and it was a 2-door car. Do any of you have any pictures, drawing, or blueprints for this body style? I found a picture of a 4-door on the internet. I used Microsoft paint to modify the body to a 2-door. I have pictures posted in a public folder on Facebook. Everyone is welcome to check them out. Search for Stephen Steere on facebook to find them. Thank you all again, the info I have gotten from yal has been very helpful

Steve,
I don't happen to have any photos of a '29 Coach handy but, will look to see if I can find one or two. The February 1932 parts book (available as a reprint) has an illustration of the wood and another of the body of a 1930 Coach which is essentially the same as the '29 Coach.

So it now has been determined that originally the car had a Coach (2 door Sedan) body. The that means that the wooden body was added later and uses some of the Coach parts. I understand that you want to restore it to the point that the wooden body was installed. That presents a problem to understand how the wood body was built. It depends on who actually built the body as how they structured it. The good thing is that others have also taken parts of a Fisher Body, removed the back portion and substituted a wooden body.

If you have some photos of what you know have, preferably in an assembled or partly assembled condition we may be able to help.

I do have a few pictures of my frame, cowl, hood and radiator support on my Facebook page also. I will take a few closer pictures later today of my cowl and dash. Thank you all so much for the help.

I dont think mine was a 2-door "Coach". I have been looking at pictures on the internet today and have noticed that my cowl is different than the 2-door Coach. My cowl is exactly like a pickup truck cowl. I noticed this by looking at the bottom of the cowl where it meets the side skirts and door posts. I am now thinking it was a light duty truck cowl and chassis that was sent to a wood body builder. But as I stated before mine was not a 4-door Woodie but in fact a 2-door Woodie. I said "Car" in one of my earlier posts cause of the wood body and not realizing it was a on light duty truck chassis. It never had a steel body on it. My Uncle got it from the original owner and it was all original at that time with a 2-door wood body. Thank you again for the help and sorry for the confusion.

If it has a Fisher Body then it was a car. Fisher did not make truck bodies or truck cowls for that matter either.

I don't go to facebook so the photos on there will not be seen by me.

Oh,Ok. I guess mine is not a Fisher body then. It definetly has a pickup truck cowl. I intend to become a paying member here so I can post pics, but it will be next month before I can do so. What about Photobucket? I can setup a site there to post my pictures as I build it and the pictures of the other 4-door Woodie that is similar to mine.

If you have a public accessible Photobucket file or you can email some of them to some of us. Don't need to be high resolution, just snapshot size files.

Good news, Last night while surfing/searching the web I found a picture of a 3-door (guess they add the tailgate as the 3rd door)'29 Chevy Woodie like mine. It even has a "Military Tribute Theme" to it, very cool. I opened a Photobucket account and uploaded all my pictures there. I seperated them into three albums. One has pictures of my build, one has pictures of different body configurations I did in MS Paint and the other has pictures of original bodied '29 Chevy Woodies I have found on the net. My username is "steeresouth". They are all pubilc folders and everyone here is welcome and encouraged to go check them out. Thank you all so much for your help and support.

Looks great, I'm sure a lot of work went into that project. I'll bet it turns a lot of heads around town. Interesting mock ups with the different configurations of the wood body.

Did all 29 serial numbers begin with 1001?

Yes.

I agree, including the export '22AC-' prefixed Tarrytown chassis-cowl.