if this is to off topic then delete. i'm looking for pics of homemade sports cars. i remember a man in houston when i was a kid that took a set of rear fenders from a late 30's coupe and the front clip from another car and built a sports car of sorts. it was more of a street beast if anything. he narrowed and sectioned the front clip and made a roadster that looked sorta like a ac cobra or austin healey. i don't know any other way to describe it, but it was not a popular mechanics type of car.
some such cars show up on the HAMB from time to time, but I don't think it makes for any easy 'search'. You try various descriptions and see what you can find. A Google search many be more productive since it would have an extremely large base to draw from. I like the type you are referring too, just don't have any better help to offer. Ray
SCCA had a number of race class's for homemade sportscars {< called MOD and the motor size limet was shown by a letter like A,B,C,D etc,"H"=750cc. in the mid 1950s. H-MOD was mostly chopped up Crosley's. My Dad an I built and raced one,he also drove it as a streetcar plus showed it. He got a fiberglass sports body in 1956 from Jabro Co. an fab. a frame up out of scrap steel. That's my skinny self in photo at hot rod an custom car show.
Doh!.......look for Ned Ludd's thread 'Specials' here on the HAMB.....lots of examples old and older...
Also look for the "Hot rod sports cars" thread. Most won't be homemade, but will put you in the right ballpark
here ya go....It's a mix of everything. Hand built tube chassis, Front end from a sprint car, dune buggy manual rack and pinion, Nissan 2.4l + nissan 5 speed, Ford 9" rear. Body is fiberglass nose, hood and rear. Rest is hand formed aluminum.
Funny, the last pic. Is the car I sold in my Shop, It ended up getting put together an was seen on the sand at Trog...
Banjo GT - 10-15 made in Ohio, fits tri-5 Chevy chassis. https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/attachments/e08aa1e7-3795-42ce-a995-ab3157c66050-jpeg.3869796/ https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/attachments/3096f8fd-a508-4fa5-830e-9cc7e0ad9f57-jpeg.3869798/ Good project. Been sitting along a garage near me for many years.
Max Balchowsky's Old Yeller: https://www.roadandtrack.com/car-culture/a30124/max-balchowsky-old-yeller-ii/
Anthony Myrick's three photos above (Post #6), left image, from the left: Old Yellow (Buick 322), Tatum Spl (GMC 302), Baldwin Spl (296 Merc), Hegamann Jag Spl (Jag 6, prox 232 cu in), Parkinson Jag Spl (Jag 6, prox 232), Manning (296 Ford). Photo is Rolex Reunion, Laguna Seca, 2016 or 2017. I'm the guy with folded arms, red shirt under the white tent. I've owned the Parkinson for almost 50 years; we placed second behind the Tatum two weeks ago.
Early 50's Mechanics Illustrated or Popular mechanics magazines were full of them and how to turn your car into a sports car article. I think a lot of late 30's though early 50's Fords suffered the fate of attempts though. A house my folks rented on Bainbridge Island in the late 50's had some built in cabinets in the bedroom hallway and one of those cabinets had several years worth of Mechanics illustrated many with how to build your own sports car in them and the series Tom McCahill did on the shoebox Ford he took to Granatelli brothers shop and hopped up. Most were "remove everything you don't need and modify the rest". No hand forming for home builders in those days you went to the junkyard and cut out the panels that had the shape you wanted.
Here's one from Motor Trend, Jan. 1952, using a 4-door Hudson as a base. The severed top served as the deck lid, and the rear window became the spare tire well! (See photo #6.)
i remember seeing this car on my classic car, if that one was lost in the fire there's no telling what else he had that was lost, cause it seems like he had a garage full.
Sadly, some thirty cars in Gary Cerveny's collection were also lost, including other famous kustoms, such as Dave Cunningham's Forty Ford sedan, Ray Goulart's 1950 Olds, and the "Kart Hauler" '53 Stude PU conversion.
The Jalopy Journal
