From the front, Noel and Lyn
Neuendorf's 1939 Chevrolet looks typical of that era's American
sedans - it sits fairly high, has a long, prominent bonnet, almost
vertical grille and head lamps perched inboard on the mudguards. Step
to one side and it becomes obvious its not a sedan, but a coupe which
we called a `sloper'. Not just any old coupe, but a design unique to
Australia not only used on GM Holden product but also some Chrysler
and Ford vehicles too.
The first `sloper' I recall seeing was
in about 1965 when a mate of my brother rolled up in one at our house
in Centre Rd., South Oakleigh, a suburb of Melbourne. He'd bought the
old girl a Chevrolet - for 50 quid. Even then this was peanuts
for a car. It had never been restored and was pretty rough around the
edges and I think the boys drove the thing into the ground for
several months before disposing of it.
Noel found his sloper in a wrecking
yard at Dalby, on Queensland's Darling Downs in 1974. He paid $30 for
it and stored it in a shed for 18 years before getting around to its
restoration. He completely stripped the car down to the bare chassis
and started from scratch doing all but the upholstery himself, with
the help of fellow Gold Coast Antique Auto Club member, Russell
Taylor, who gave tuition on the art of paint and panel work.
The car was finished by August 1994 in
time for the Allan Shuker Memorial Rally at Rockhampton, almost 650
kilometres north of the Queensland capital, Brisbane. Today the car
is used on a regular basis and can be often seen at rallys held by
the Antique Auto Club. Noel and Lyn are also members of the Veteran
and Vintage Chevrolet Club of Australia and have driven the car to
national Chev events around the country.
According to automobile historian Norm
Darwin the sloper is a name unique to this type of vehicle, primarily
build by GM Holdens in Adelaide. The first sloper was shown at the
Melbourne Motor Show in 1935. But it was not just Chevrolet that got
this style of body. Other GM brands including Buick, Oldsmobile and
Pontiac were also fitted with the sloper body between 1935 and 1941.
Another Adelaide-based body builder, Richards Body Works also added
the sloper to the Dodge and Plymouth range in 1937. Ford Australia
used the style in 1939-40. Nash also used the style.
Ford called the style `Tudor' while GM
Holden called it the `All enclosed coupe.' Holdens also built sloper
Vauxhalls on the 25 chassis using a Vauxhall 27.5 hp engine. In 1937
some 61 were built and a further 30 in 1938. Then, in 1941, six
convertible coupes were built using the sloper style. This sloper has
two access lids on the `slope' : the top one is the boot which
Noel describes as tiny and the lower one holds the spare wheel.
Some of the early models had folding
rear seats which gave access to the boot and were ideally suited to
traveling salesmen. Noel's car also has this and he says it was not
uncommon for commercial travelers if they could not find lodgings, to
fold the seat down and sleep the night in the car. Noel's car also
has an unusual feature, not normally found in sloper cars: The front
bench seat is split. This allows the seat to be folded forward in
halves, giving access to the rear seat. Most slopers were fitted with
a non-split bench seat meaning heavy work to fold the seat forward
and secondly the driver had to get out of the car to allow passengers
into the rear pew.
They must have been running out of
the ordinary bench seats at the factory and the split seat is
possibly out of the Chevrolet Master, said Noel. Noel wanted the
car to be as original as possible and researched the vehicle's colour
which is known as `Coolangatta Cream'. (Coolangatta is a town on the
New South Wales Queensland border).
Noel and Lyn's Chevrolet
Sloper is powered by Chevrolet's 216.5 cubic inch straight six linked
to a three speed gearbox with a floor-mounted shifter. Australian slopers are just about on the endangered species list with few remaining.
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