Thought some of you would like this. I've know about this car for the past 10 yrs or so. In a barn here in my hometown for 40 yrs. It was bought by a father/son for a "project" car back in the mid 70s. They did nothing more than getting the motor rebuilt and snading the paint off (which caused me some problems as they ground into some air voids in the fiberglass but more on that later). Anyway I finally was able to get it. This picture is from May when I brought it home. I've done a ton since and will be shooting it this week having gotten the bodywork ready for paint. I'll add pics as the topic progresses
I know very little about the car. Who made it ? I surmise that it was built back in the late 50s or very early 60s. What I do know is it seems to be an attempt to clone the Ziegler Speedster built in Speedway Indiana back in 1955 by Bill Ziegler. He made a mold and laid the body off that for his car. With pics of the two cars side by side you would at first glance think they come off the same moild but I have seen the original mold and the original car and there are some subtle differences that tell me they did not come off the same mold and the family still owns the mold and they verify only one car came off that mold. The Ziegler Speedster today in a collection in Texas
Drive train will stay as is only cleaned up and detailed. It's all Crosley (1948) except the body. The chassis was Z'd and lowered quite a bit. The builder did retro fit it to hydraulic brakes from two other Crosley donor cars . Disc on the front and 9 " Bendix on the back. We actually had the car running and driving before I tore it down for restoration
The motor was painted with all the various attachments in place and was damned ugly. I detailed the engine room and made it pretty. The small grill the car came with was pitted and peeling chrome and compared to the Ziegler car was too small and I think a bigger grill looks better. I cut that out of a piece of 1/4 " aluminum, pounded it with a 5 lb sledge in a pile of sand to get it to curve to fit the car, then drilled the holes. Need to polish it up now
The wheel covers were nasty. They were nothing more than Crosley hubcaps with a center and spinner added, both poorly chromed.I tricked them up. The center now is made from a stainless steel catfood bowl and the spinner came from the local truck stop. I guess truckers use them to spice up their hubs
I'm curious to see more, what are the windshield frame and grille from? I'm fascinated by homebuilt sports cars, something that was so popular at the time but is very rarely built today.
I hate to be a critic, and the catfood bowl looks great, but those 3 eared spinners are really tacky 80's looking. You could easily cut out replacement copies of the old ones from stainless if you don't want to pay for chroming. Sure they were homemade looking, but they were period authentic.
Originally the windshield was a one piece Plexiglass w/s. It was broken when the father/son got it so they went looking thru the salvage yards for a replacement. It's from a 1958 Bug Eye Sprite with about 6 inches taken out of the middle and heliarced back together. I'm leaving it as is . It's part of the car's history now.
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