For Sale: 1939 Chevrolet Master Deluxe in Columbus, Ohio

$94,995

Here at Cruisin Classics, we are admittedly a little spoiled when it comes to seeing cool cars. But, every now and then, we get a car that is such a cut above the rest that the whole team is awestruck by it - and this is one of those cars. We are proud to introduce to you this stunning 1939 Chevrolet Master Deluxe Business Coupe! Ten years and 3K miles ago this car emerged from a full restoration that totaled over $400K, and it is absolutely gorgeous! Not only is this the highest quality restoration we've ever seen of a '39 Master Deluxe, this car is one-family-owned with a fantastic story that's fully chronicled with photos and original documents! Let's take a deep dive into this beautiful Chevy and it's life for the past 87 years...

The story begins near the Texas/Oklahoma border in 1939 with a young man named Theron who had just purchased a new Chevrolet Master Deluxe for $684. He proudly took his new ride to show it off to his girlfriend Velma and take her on a date - and we have photos of them on that special day. Theron and Velma married soon after and had a son named John, who would spend the next 30 years with the Chevy in the foreground of his life. We have photos of John with the family car when he was a little toddler, little did he know that this car would still be with him over 80 years later. John grew up with the family Chevy - going camping, taking a trip to Galveston, going to Ham radio fests, and even pulling a small boat behind the car for fishing trips (we actually have a photo of John and his family unhooking the boat trailer from the car on the bank of the Sulphur River). John even proposed to his wife Lynn in the car. In 1968, when John was a graduate student in his mid 20's, his dad Theron signed the title over to him We have the first registration with John's name on it from '68, as well as previous registrations in Theron's name. By that time, the old Chevy was starting to show it's age, and Lynn's father bought the couple a junked '39 Chevy that had a better engine. We have a photo of John in his backyard with a home-made hoist pulling the engine out. In 1970, John got a job with Texaco and moved from Austin to Houston, where he drove the Chevy to work for about a year. At this point, he retired the car and put it up on jackstands in the garage of two different houses as he and Lynn moved around Houston. We have a photo of John, his son, and his father in the late '80's working on a different car while the old Chevy sat in the background of the garage. In 1989, John took a job in New Orleans and decided to move the Chevy into a rental storage facility where it sat for 24 lonely years (we have a photo of the car being hooked up to tow it to the storage facility). In early 2013, John and Lynn made the decision to remove the car from storage and restore it, and that is when they found Dooley & Sons Rods and Customs in Magnolia Texas. In April of 2013, the Chevy emerged from its long rest and was loaded on a flatbed for the ride to Dooley and Sons (we have a photo of that too!). This was the beginning of a four year journey for the rusty old family Chevy as it was brought back to life as an even better car than it was when Theron bought it back in '39. We have two magnificently well-made books documenting the history of the car in photos with supporting documents and John's telling of the car's story. It simply doesn't get any better - you almost never see a nearly 90 year old car with a fully documented history like this one!

Dooley and Sons set to work on the Master Deluxe starting with the basics. They removed the car from it's chassis and, using the two original frame rails and a couple of the rear cross members, they built a modified chassis by adding additional cross members to accomodate a V-8 engine, automatic overdrive transmission, new rear end, new brake system, and new exhaust system. Both the body and the chassis were acid dipped and stripped down to bare metal. The passenger-side fender was repaired from an old mailbox accident, the rust-riddled cab and trunk floors were replaced with custom-fabricated pieces, and a new firewall was added. By late 2014, the car's body was far enough along that Dooley and Sons featured it in bare-metal condition at their booth at the the Houston Autorama. It would be three more years of hard work though, before John's Chevy was ready to hit the road again. The car was completed in 2017 and only 3K miles have been added in the subsequent nine years.

The Master Deluxe comes to us today dressed in slick show-quality black paint that just underwent a fresh ceramic coating to keep it looking great. The front end features a two door butterfly hood with chrome-trimmed side vents, a chrome center spine, and a bullet-style hood ornament that leads your eye down to a colorful blue and red Chevrolet badge at the top of the tall horizontal bar grille. The grille is flanked by bulbous fenders topped with large bucketed LED headlamps in bright bezels. Flanking the lower portion of the grill are chrome-trimmed rectangular air vents and sitting beneath is a gleaming chrome bumper. Moving around to the side of the car you really get a sense of the stylish curvaceous body lines. A red pinstripe adds a pop of color as it travels from the front of the hood down the upper body line to about the rear window. More high-quality brightwork continues with the windshield center bar, wiper arms, vent window trim, door handles, and a spear that runs the length of the sides of the running boards. The running boards are topped with ribbed black rubber covers just as they were when new. Panel fitment everywhere on the car is uniform and equal and the body panels are smooth as glass. The side view of the car is topped off with a set of black 18" US Mags Plain Jane wheels with beauty rings and small moon caps with red and blue Chevrolet call-outs. All four wheels are wrapped in Continental Extreme Contact tires that appear hardly used. Around back you'll find bullet-shaped taillights with bright rings and another chrome bumper. The undercarriage of this Chevy is a sight to behold - it looks fresh, clean, and loaded with top-tier components. The frame, floorpans, and trunk pan are all dressed in black and look amazing. In the rear there is a triangulated 4-link suspension and there are Ridetech adjustable coil-overs on all four corners. Up front is independent suspension with tubular control arms and a Flaming River power rack and pinion system. The exhaust system is stainless steel with Borla mufflers and the Rick's Tanks fuel tank with internal pump is also stainless steel. You'll also see that Wilwood disc brakes have been installed on both the front and rear and there is a Ford rear axle assembly from Currie Enterprises. This is the kind of undercarriage that you'll want to show off with mirrors underneath at a car show!

If you like what you've seen so far, just wait until you lift the hood - prepare to be impressed! The old inline 6 cylinder that John put in the car back in '68 is long gone and it has been replaced by a GM LS3 crate motor. This cast aluminum 6.2 liter 376ci V-8 was modified by Don Hardy Racing Engines in Floydada Texas, raising the horsepower from 430 to 480. The block is outfitted with Don Hardy coil packs, Edelbrock fuel rails and injectors, an Edelbrock intake manifold, a Holley EFI throttle body, and a round billet air breather. Ahead of the block is a chrome alternator, a chrome air compressor for the Vintage Air system, and a power steering pump. This hearty V-8 is mated up to a GM 4L60E 4-speed automatic overdrive transmission and both are wired with a harness from Hotwire Auto. Keeping things running cool is an ...for more information please contact the seller.