I had a guy tell me he thought my car (the green one) was built by Zipper. Then I found the photo of the black one and noticed a lot of similarities between the two. I sent these same pics to Zipper with questions but he never replied. Could they both be Zippers ? Anybody familiar with his early work ?
Couldn't tell ya, but most of this style of Track T were modeled on Bo Jones car and Zippman was based in SoCal, before moving to Colorado, at the time Bo's car was around, so the influence is obvious.
I think the original body was /is a stroud. they were in Illinois. I had one that was stretched 7'' overall and had the 1/4 springs.
Let me pitch in my $0.02... Here's some pics of a Zipper based modified I've had under construction since 2003.The pic of the frame is as delivered from Zip ,Fall of '03(from G/Junction Col.) I,then modified the side rails ,x-members (except frt.),built the rear kick-up. Also ,Zipps frame has pads Frt & Rear for 1/4 elliptic springs. The body came from Charlie Thomas,Main Street Rod Co (near St.Louis MO) Fall '03.In talking to Charlie,he told me that he had bought one of Strouds old body molds and that Zipp had also bought one. Charlie was selling his bodies as a shell,with hinged & latched doors optional.Zipper had done extensive changes to his body ,and it came ready to paint,doors hinged &latched,floor dropped &glassed in,etc I now regret not buying a Zipper finished body ,as I now have a TON of work & money in finishing out a shell-type body. Don't know if any of this info helps you,but this is what Zipp was producing in 2003 Shoot me a PM if you need any further info .. I got tons of pics of my build-up As it stands right now ,everyting is at the paint shop...final assembly this Winter/early Spring....( after 5 loooong years!!!) Stan
I had a Zipper and one way you might be able to ID is the floorboard. It is sunk down on either side of the driveshaft tunnel so you set lower in the car. BTW Zipper sold out, but I can't reameber who bought them. Looking at your 2 photos, I don't think they are, mostly because of the windshield posts.
Your T is very similar to mine and mine is supplied by a company in the uk called popbrowns, they get their bodies from somewhe in America but I don't know who.
This is the second Lakester Zipper built. The one he built for Brian Brennan at Street Rodder was a Stroud body as mentioned in a previous post. He made his own body molds and built a demo car then mine. The windshields and front suspension don't appear to be from Zipper. Also, the dip in the floor pan on either side of the tunnel is another way to ID a genuine Zipper body. He sold the Zipper business to a guy in Utah and they're super bad about responding to Emails. I added the Zipper E&J replicas a few years later. To the best of my knowledge, this is the only Zipper with Model A running gear.
Reply to Johnny Fast..... John... I have a vast collection of Zipper Lakesters and after a close look I dont believe that either one of your cars are Zipper cars... Car on the left obviously had an old original style windshield and Zipper to the best of my knowledge never use the original style post or frame.... The Right photo at a close look appears to be a touring with the rear seat section removed.... The one on the left is a lot closer looking as opposed to the one on the right.... Hope this helps Rich
Both cars use transverse springs up front. I never saw anything from Daryl Zip under the Zipper name that didn't use 1/4 eliptic springs up front.
Tough to say. It very well could have been one. Do you know who the original purchaser was? I'm still in contact with Daryl and believe it or not he can remember exactly who bought each and every one of his cars. Worked for him for a year building his cars. VERY quality setup that he does. The 27 style like yours you could open the door as hard as you wanted, let it slam out and it would bounce back and latch perfectly. All bodies left his place reinforced with metal and doors hung and latched. Frame and everything else were optional. We did even modify a few bodies from "stock" out of the mold forms. PM me if you know any history on the car and I can get ahold of him to find out for you. Yes, he was in california to start. Moved to Grand Junction for several years and then sold to a guy from Utah. Trained the Utau people for a long time before letting them take over so quality should still be good. [email protected] is the email still to the new owner I think
The new owner of Zipper is the one who didn't reply to my Email inquiry. The door jambs on mine, where the hinges and latch mount, are steel.....top to bottom. Door (passenger side only) is very solid....no flexing at all. It closes like any new car would. The dash has a glove compartment. I don't know anything about the history of this thing but I can say that the chassis is very well built. Transverse front and quarter-elliptic with slightly triangulated 4-link rear. The main frame rails are even curved to the same shape as the bottom of the body. The front hairpins lengths are the same as the drag link....no bump-steer as a result. One of the few changes that I will make will be to replace the tubular front axle with a '36 I-beam....just because I like the look better.
It looks very zipper like for sure. Could have been someone who bought a body and built their own frame and used the transverse suspension. All I ever worked with there was quarter eliptical stuff.
Gearhead: Did you work there in 2003? If so you might have made my frame..All I bought from Zipp was the frame ,radiator, & rad.shell. I did talk to him several times and with Rosalee... Where are they now and is he still into old motorcycles??
I think there are several areas that are different from the Zipper cars I've seen. Which is not to say that some of the major components weren't sourced from him.
I was very keen to import a Zipper modified to the UK a few years back - spoke to Daryll Zipp several times and became very familiar with the catalogue. (I went with a steel 27 body in the end because it was cheaper than importing a Zipper package from the US). Neither of the two cars at the start of this post look like a Zipper. Suspension is one major clue. I wonder whether someone had taken an unauthorised copy from a Zipper body?
What are you guys running for wheelbase? and are any of you running SBC's? I just picked up a body that we think is an old dogs body. I started to mock things up for a chassis, I want to keep the wheelbase on the short side. Thanks Eric
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