Yellow Cab taxi 1932

I just bought this 1932 Yellow cab. It's a Pontiac body but was made by GMC Truck as a purpose built commercial taxi cab. I can not find any modern pics of another one. Very few original pics are on the web. A historian messaged me and said they made 398 of them in 1932. If anybody knows of another one for parts or can find pics of another one...please let me know.

Time to go to Youtube and start looking at old movies made in New York City or Chicago or such around that era. I'm sure you'll find glimpses of them there.

One suggestion is to go to and join the HAMB website. Certainly you will find someone there who has seen one of these before and can direct you to pictures. It always amazes me how quickly information is provided on the most rare cars, parts and other items.

https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/

- EM

Agreed, but just don't mention anything that date to after 1965 or they will go spastic on you. Also, don't let them know you have ever washed your car/truck, or the same thing happens.

I've been on the HAMB for 10 years and did post over there. Nobody knew it even existed or could identify it. A historian that did an article on Yellow Cab finally figured it out and sent me an ad from GMC in 1933 that shows the car. No other pics or info exist that I can find. Could it be the last one?

Maybe, but would that make it to valuable to cut up and will greatly increase the stress in your life. Yellow Cab gets a one line mention in Tad Burness American car spotter's guide 1920-1939.

...................but it sure would be a show stopper at car shows when all the resident experts can't identify it !

Not a terribly active site, but there may be some info here:
http://forums.aaca.org/

Thanks

Good suggestion!

I was able to get a new title issued for the cab and it is now in the hands of a responsible new owner in Arkansas. He knows how rare the car is and has already found some taxi specific parts for it. He also has a price to rebuild the wood for the body, about $15,000 he said. I hope he gets it going. It was way more than I could tackle and restore.

neat project!
i hope it surfaces restored some day..

That car is a new one on me! I'm g;lad it will be worked on by pros.

Yah, the Fisher bodies from that era used a lot of wood. There was an old car graveyard that I examined several years ago. There was an early '30s Chevy coupe with all the sheetmetal lying on the ground around the car. Rotten wood.

Car manufacturers didn't have the technology to make a big stamping like a roof When they did try it the metal would stretch at different rates creating "stretcher strains" or Lueder's bands". Instead, the roof was made up of smaller stampings around the edge, with usually wood covered by chicken wire and finally some sort of fabric covering the hole in the middle. It wasn't until 1936 that the first affordable all steel roof was produced.

The cloth tops were a disaster for old car nuts like me. When the cars were abandoned the roof would inevitably fail and rain and snow would destroy the interior and in the case of the wooden structure bodies, the wood as well.

R