The 1951 Lancer... First of the Fiberglass Sports

[Jive-Bomber]

Love em' or hate em', custom fiberglass cars were exploding in popularity right along side the home-built hot rods in the early 1950s. You won't have to search long to find a mid-century car magazine cover with a Glasspar roadster or a Devin SS shari...

To read the rest of this blog entry from The Jalopy Journal, click here.

[BeatnikPirate]

Never saw this one before. I used to really hate fiberglass cars, except for the early Corvettes. Lately I've come to appreciate some of them,especially the early homebuilt or cottage industry fiberglass-bodied cars like the Lancer. Fiberglass really was a lightweight and versatile material which allowed for a high degree of creative freedom in body style.
Here's a cool website for those who may be interested.
http://www.forgottenfiberglass.com/?page_id=245

[boldventure]

Too bad about those bumpers! If some one could photshop them off and add small tight bumperettes or nerfs the car would look pretty good. The one profile that doesn't include them is pretty nice.

[paperdog]

woah
pretty hard to convince me the GM folks did not use this as a early basis for the 1st vette so many things look alike

anybody know how the mold looked was it two halves top and bottom ,side to side or split down the middle or smaller ?

[Chris]

I just watched the recent "Loud and fast" where they buy that 53 Wildfire. Man, a souped up flathead, three speed and a columbia rear end in a light weight sports car...I could see where they would be FUN! And very valuable.

[notrod13]

hey yall Hatfield restorations in texas just finished one of these glaspars.... the thing is beautiful with tons of racing history . the actual car used to race in pebble beach when those folk still had a pair of nuts.. the power plant is a arden headed tuned to perfection flatty!... these cars are still out there for the picking . Dale at Hatfield told me in search for parts they came across yet another one and the price was right! so it was picked up...


awesome

[eddie1]

Custom early Corvette was my 1st thought before reading the story. You are right about the bumpers, they look like crap on an otherwise great looking car.

[jroberts]

I had never heard of this car until now. I wonder if there were any modifications to the Champion engine that was used. Oh, and like everybody else the bumpers really look horrible to me. Maybe in the later editions of the car something else was used, like maybe a small nerf bar kind of set up....I hope.

[Mr48chev]

That's one of the better looking glass bodies out of that era. I don't remember seeing much on them though.

The bumpers are ugly and probably came on the doner car that gave up it's chassis. Designing and building custom bumpers for something like that would have been pretty spendy even in early 1050's $$.

[goetzcr]

I have no beef with glass body cars. True, some of the kits out there are pretty bad (i.e. Fiero-rraris, VW bug Fords). However, some kit builds show a lot of innovation and high quality customization from home builders (just like hot rodding). They provide a good basic platform that can be built on in lots of ways. My dad built a Cobra kit. It's fun, fast, and good looking, and because it was a less expensive kit, he applied lots of fabrication skills and ingenuity to end up with the car he wants to own and drive.

[BrerHair]

Fiberglass is traditional, folks. It's a '50s and '60s thing mostly, but since J-B is talking '50s, how about checking this out?

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/s...d.php?t=421450

[BrerHair]

Ray Erickson did his share of fiberglass work starting in the '50s. Here's one:


Sorry, temporarily lost my mind. A full fendered '31 roadster does not belong in this thread, even if all the fenders were fiberglass built in the '50s.

[autobilly]

I don't really dig this one much. IMO it is a portent of the slab-sided shapless cars of the next two decades.
Now this one, on the other hand...

Originally Posted by BrerHair

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/s...d.php?t=421450

[Rusty O'Toole]

Does nobody but me know the difference between a flat engine and a flathead engine? How old is this Jive Bomber, 12?

[speedyb]

I'm no lover of glass but that Lancer ok with me !

[HOTRODPRIMER]

I am at the age where I can appreciate the classy lines of the Lancer,,remember fiberglass was a new material to work with at that time,,

Personally,I think it's a great looking car despite everyone's feelings for the bumpers,,I'll take one. HRP

[jroberts]

This has gotten me thinking, which can be dangerous at times. I found some interesting stuff. Look here : http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2...nd-his-lancer/

It looks really good in red.....

[Marty Strode]

This is a "Glasspar" from the early 50's I had in my shop a few years ago, I fabbed a steel firewall, floor and seats mountings. It was on a Chevy chassis, from the side view it resembled a large "Cobra".

[gnichols]

Originally Posted by Chris

I just watched the recent "Loud and fast" where they buy that 53 Wildfire. Man, a souped up flathead, three speed and a columbia rear end in a light weight sports car...I could see where they would be FUN! And very valuable.

And what of the sickly old man and his family who got scammed out of 70K for the 8hrs of "work" (to use the term loosly) the TV shitheads did on the car before it was flipped? Gary

This site has been mentioned here before, eh?

http://www.forgottenfiberglass.com/

[Rusty O'Toole]

jroberts you must have fallen in love with the headlights ha ha ha