Hot Rods Would you prefer a steel 31 coupe or a glass 32 five window?

exactly,

 

Time to lighten this up a little you still have a choice here. No specification of body material however...Whats in a name...




​

 

I've been watching this thread since it started because I have a 1st person interest in it. I had a rolling 33 chassis at first and was looking for a steel coupe body...came across an old roundy-round stock car body for cheap. Needed everything so I was thinking maybe a 'glassViper or a Gibbon 3 window body with the "Bonneville chop" would be better....I just couldn't afford the initial hit to my checkbook.
It took almost 8 years of patching together a steel 5 window body [avatar],paying a little at a time to my body man before I was able to bring it home to finish. I totally LOVE my steel coupe body but damn....if I'd blown up the credit card for a pre-chopped 'glass body with doors and decklid hung, I'd been driving years ago!
I've had several Corvettes and had no problems with the glass bodys...in fact light collision repairs were even easier to repair than steel panels IMHO....
I'm not a steel body snob... I don't look down my nose at guys with 'glass bodies...not a bit.

 

I love a steel body and have never built a glass car, but I have the admit. glass bodies have come a LONG way. Would I buy one? Probably not - But would I poo poo someone who did? No not really.

 

For the guys reading this and considering building or buying a glass 32 or glass anything, send me a message. I got a very reputable guys that sells rollers complete cars , or anything in between . He built my wife's car


Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.

 

Hope to final paint next year with house of kolor brandywine candy and ghost flames.

 

Well, after 6 pages is going nowhere. Like Betty and Veronica, Ford vs Chevy or Ginger and Maryann, no one is going to change their mind. Build what you like or like and can afford. Time to move on.

 

id have the real deal 31 and not the 32 subsitute

 

Glass rod? No thank you!! Real steel or no deal for me!!

 

My EYES. My eyes !!!

 

Beyond being an elitist, at the end of the day, does it really matter? Every thread on the HAMB supports "build what you like-make it yours". Is a United Pacific Deuce more real because it is metal? Is a totally hand formed "Model A" candidate for the Riddler a "real" steel deal? Is a steel hot rod totally fabricated by a pro shop using off the shelf parts (see StreetRodder Magazine) "more" of a hot rod than a fiberglas car built by the owner in his backyard with old car parts he/she modified to fit?

Too many ethical questions. And in the end, your answers don't matter. Only the opinion of the builder counts.

 

yeah for me a steel rod will allways be the real deal because steel is a traditional material fiberglass is not.!

 

I like the looks of the 32 steel or glass much more I have had both 99% or the people walking up and down the rows at car shows don't know one from another the ones that do are sitting or there ass in there lawn chair and don't even know what the car 4 down from them is

 

I take a 31 on a 32 frame

IMG_0567 by supernut posted Apr 15, 2017 at 6:07 PM

 

First American fiberglas production car-a hot rod in 1949.

Glasspar G2
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Glasspar G2
Overview
Manufacturer Glasspar
Production 1950–1953
Body and chassis
Class Sports car
Body style 2-door coupé
2-door roadster
The Glasspar G2 was a sports car body first manufactured by Bill Tritt in 1949. It is no longer built today. It was the first production all-fiberglass sports car body built by an American fiberglass manufacturer. A few were built as complete cars (in limited numbers) but most were offered as a body, or body/chassis kit.[1]

The Glasspar G2 was born in 1949 when Bill Tritt helped his friend, United States Air Force Major Ken Brooks, design a body for the hot rod Ken was building. The car consisted of a stripped down Willys Jeep chassis with a highly modified V8 engine mounted on it. Bill Tritt, at the time, was building small fiberglass boat hulls in his Costa Mesa, California, factory and he convinced Ken that fiberglass was the ideal material for the hot rod body.

Tritt made sketches of a body and, with Ken and his wife's approval, proceeded to make the body plug and mold for a low-slung, continental-style roadster. A year and a half later, with a great deal of trial and error, the body was finished, set on the chassis and christened the Brooks Boxer in mid 1951.



Glasspar G2
Bill Tritt had a keen interest in boats and cars. Before the World War II, he studied marine architecture and boat building. He worked for Douglas Aircraft's Production Planning and Illustration Departments during World War II, and by 1945 had built a number of catamaran sailboats. In 1947, John Green, a yachtsman friend, paid Tritt to design and build a racing sailboat in the twenty foot range. Fiberglass seemed the logical construction material, and Otto Bayer of Wizard Boats was enlisted as laminator. The boat was named the Green Dolphin, and four were built. This was Tritt's introduction to fiberglass-reinforced plastic (FRP). By 1947 he was building small fiberglass boats, and built the first ever fiberglass masts and spars for sailboats. This company became the Glasspar Company and moved to larger quarters in Santa Ana, California, in the early 1950s. By the mid-1950s, Glasspar was producing 15 to 20 percent of all fiberglass boats sold in the U.S.[2]

The Brooks Boxer was an immediate success when shown at the 1951 Los Angeles Motorama along with three other early fiberglass cars: the big Lancer, the small Skorpion, and the Wasp. Only Tritt's car went on to be the first production fiberglass car. The Boxer mold was then modified and used to produce the beautiful Glasspar G2 sports car that year.

About this time the Korean War was raging, and Tritt was having difficulty acquiring polyester resin for his cars and boats. The Naugatuck Chemical Company in Naugatuck, Connecticut, after seeing the Boxer, sent Glasspar plenty of Vibrin resin and an order for a G2 sports car to promote their product to the auto industry. Naugatuck's G2 was modified and named the Alembic I and was shown at the Philadelphia Plastics Exhibit in 1952. Life then featured the car in a story, as did the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and many auto trade magazines. The Glasspar Company then went public and sold stock to raise capital.

Bill Tritt also designed and/or built fiberglass car bodies for Californian Woodill Wildfire, British Singer Car Company, Willys, Kaiser, Volvo, and Walt Disney. His last fiberglass car design was the Ascot which the Glasspar board of directors rejected in favor of staying with the core business of boat building. Tritt left Glasspar shortly afterward.



Original Autopia Fiberglass car
Disneyland, in Anaheim, California, was building its Autopia automobile track and commissioned Bill Tritt and Glasspar to build the fiberglass car bodies. They were small, single-seat, self-powered cars using Briggs and Stratton lawn-mower type engines with centrifugal clutches. The cars were originally designed to use aluminum wrap-around bumpers provided by Kaiser Aluminum, but later changed to the more suitable steel.

 

I prefer model a's myself (I have 2) and worked in a fiberglass plant while in college (I made a bunch of molds and parts)..... So I hate fiberglass!!!!!

 

I would have to say a steel 31 A coupe over a glass 32 5 window. And no I am not a snob when it comes to build material either, a high end reproduction glass body is higher quality and more durable than a steel body any day of the week. Even so I just prefer original steel, it has a history and a story all its own, every steel body carries the battle scars at least until its restored. Some even retain them, the odd dent or bullet hole means there is no mistaking the origins. As far as I am concerned the 30/31 coupe was the best looking of all the five window coupes Ford made. And they don't need to be chopped or fenderless to look cool either. I saw this one at the Street Rod Nationals at Easter.

 

I'll take the real one!

 

My wife asked me the other night if I thought "real" boobs [factory equipped] were preferable to silicone implants [after market bolt ons]. My answer is the same to her as it is on this site, it doesn't matter as long as my kilt raises.

 

Steel Model A ... I just wouldn't be able to know personally it wasn't steel .. Not knocking it I totally get it and maybe I'm also just a little bias choosing an A to begin with


Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.

 

NO NO! , It's too early to post that

 

Wate just a second...we're talking about accessories not the whole body. Steel bodys with upgraded accessories are a must. Wheels, tires, axles, superchargers, chop tops and so on.

 

Omg...dont give it up yet ...cold hard steel for me...and no 32 grill either thank you

 

Not a fair question, like pork bacon or tofu bacon.


Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.

 

I prefer A's over deuces in general, especially '28-'29's. Glass vs steel? not that big of a deal. Most original bodies that look great have been coated in bondo anyway, but I guess the owners get to say it's "real steel".....whatevs

 

It'd be interesting observing the reaction of the 'Vette folk at one of their significant events were a guy to roll in with say a '63 split window having its body all finely formed and fabbed in sheet metal. That would be something fun to show up in for the first time.

 

They wouldn't notice one bit, god forbid your numbers don't match however.......I've secretly lusted for a split window all my adult life, thank god I could never afford one.

 

When the Stingray came along in '63, I was in the early days of grade-school. It had my attention. Definitely a big year for transition. I think GM did an especially good job with their new 2 seater at that time.

 

Steel

 

Ok, so steel '31 or steel '32?