Hot Rods Boat Tail Builders

Build it, Steve!...lol. But finish that cool chopped Ford coupe custom first!

Years ago, I used to sometimes hang out at a small hot rod shop in Mt. Clemens, Mi. A guy named Poncho owned the place. Unfortunately, Poncho passed away a while back. He had some cool stuff. One of the cars sittin' outside was a chopped '40s coupe...a Ford, I think...it's been a while. Anyway, instead of the normal decklid, it had a boat-tail on it made from a late '40s Chevy hood, with a nice transition to the rear fenders. He showed me a picture of it in it's heyday...at one of the Detroit Autorama shows in the '50s. Shiny jet black...wide whites...beautiful. I considered buying it, but it was quite rough...beyond the abilities of mortel men. Hmmmm...I wonder if any of you guys might have a pic? Rikster? I don't think it was a "famous" car.

 

Have you studied the Roofus Special boat tail?

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=339315

 

i lettered this last weekend. its all glass ,molded in rivits and louvers. aint my cup of beer, but damn the possibilities with this body.

 

This is the only other pic I have. Really sweet lines. I have never seen a build thread of a boattail - must take a sheet metal wizard like some here on the H.A.M.B.!

 

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This just screams 1st Batmobile!!!!!

 

I was considering a boat tail on a 27 lakester I was building. My idea was to use a hood off of a pt cruiser and section the middle. I sold the project before completion, I needed the space!

 

That sounds really cool Ricky! Do you know if any pics of it exist...for the amount of effort I put into rebuilding the ass end of Rusty it would have been easier to do something like this from scratch with nice new metal

 

The Blastolene Brothers are responsible for the "Batmobile". Check them out at:

http://www.blastolene.com/

They have done some amazing stuff.

 

I seem to remember Fairlaine company offered a glass 35,36 boat tail roadster.Somewhere I have a catalogue from about 10 years ago with this body style for sale.

 

I always liked Spitzer's T from Ind. I think you can Google it or find it on the Street Rodder website.

 

I did this Photoshopped more customized version ten years ago.
I think the original car was based on a fiberglass body. I have only seen photos of two or three of those. Always wondered why. Really great looking body, wonderful for custom work...

 

Sounds REALLY nice... I do not recall ever seeing a photo of it... I hope you took some back then... if so. Please share here. I would love to know more about this car.

 

That cleaned up nice Rik !

 

I tried this same idea on a 1920's frame several years ago. A neat idea you might want to try for the tail end is a 1940's Hudson car hood turned around backwards. The hood comes to a sharp point in the middle and the sides of the hood matched the contour of the frame nicely.

 

Rik. This body is a Fairlane Co. body sold to a man in FL. I own Fairlane Co. and still own the tooling for these bodies and am in the process of building one for myself. Fairlane Co. was sold but I got it all back when the buyer defaulted on his payments. No further bodies are going to be built by me. The tooling for all the 1936 Ford bodies; Roadster, both Cabrioltes, Phaeton and Boattail will soon be offered for sale. Keith

 

Thats very good news Keith!

Looking forward to see the one your are building. I know you talked about that some time ago, and I'm glad the work has started.
Also I hope that some more will be built using this boat tail body. I have always loved those!

 

This one belonged to my dad in the late 40s not sure if he ever had it running.

 

Hey Banjeaux Bob anymore pics of that first one?

 

a freind is building this out of a 23 stude

 

Very cool! Is your friend on the HAMB? Can you talk him/her into doing a build thread?
Jim

 

Here are a couple that my father and I have made. The red one is a 28 Ford chassis with a 41 Ford hood for a tail that's been narrowed, dash and cowl are completely custom.

Blue one is a 30 Ford chassis with a 40 Buick hood for a tail that's been shortened.
The cowl and hood is actually from a Rootlieb speedster kit and is where we got a lot of the ideas for the red one.

Both cars left the back corners of the chassis there, just enough to mount the tail lights on.

I have, or could take a few detail pics if you want to see. These are pretty much bare bones as we don't have many metalworking tools at home (lots of plywood!)

 

I dig this thread. I'm a fan of early deco. Bugatti's give me wood.

 

I second that!


Posted from the TJJ App for iPhone & iPad

 

lets make that an even 3

 

FASI, that boat tail is gorgeous. I hope you finish yours. I would like a 36 front if I were doing one. Really like the photoshopped top. Perfection.

 

he is not on too much, not many pics but i will tell him...................its slow cause he is always working on customer cars.............

 

I tried adding some "in progress" pictures but get a message saying security token is missing and I can't seem to get this info to the moderator, so another time maybe I can post them. Keith

 

Posting these for Keith Ashley (FASI) his fantastic 1936 Ford boat tail project.

This is the info Keith provided with the photos:

- The body is fiberglass, the cowl is moved back 6 inches.
- Front fenders stretched 6 inches
- Body is sectioned 3 1/2 inches
- The door opening lengthened 4 inches and door leading edge tilted back 1 1/2 inches to give a '34 Ford flavor and match the hood line
- The doors are switched to "suicide opening" and a rocker sill incorporated into the body.

Still to do are lengthening the hood top, custom hood sides and a custom grill.
The care will have a DuVall windshield, as well as Woodlite headlights.

 

That looks very promising!

 

That is looking really good. Rik, can you or Keith provide some detail on what is going on with the doors? If I had to guess, new ones are being mocked up to pull a new molds from to compensate for the cowl set back and the switch to suicide.