Composites just dont sit right with me, in any application. But for that price, I would have it hanging in the shop. Good buy, traditional or not.
Y'know, I thought about cloning the car I've got now. I've got a set of '32 rails, a flatty, a t-5, and that s-10 rear. The one I got now is glass and I drove it all the way from Mi. to sunny S. Cal back in '01. Most people on the Power tour didn't know it was glass till they were right on top of it. Even fooled Frieburger when he was a photographer for R & C.. Only thing was it took 15 gal of oil to get there and back. Don't need to repeat that. Probably do something different this time. Maybe even put some thought into it. But like I said.......... we'll see. Norm
Tradition..."to most folks on here"... Thats interesting. Learn to accept the fact than not everyone has the time, money or experience to build a full on, 100% Traditional car. The purpose of the HAMB is to PROMOTE and CELEBRATE such builds...to the people who can appreciate them...even though they may not have the ability to create such a car themselves.
Like I said.....it'll get driven. It'll be cool. Do it. Or at least buy it now and I'll buy it from you later......
Man I remember that car in downtown Pontiac...it was also a cover car for Rod and Custom too.. Build it and have fun!
Roll up some steel doors and trunk lid,when you shut them everyone will here the tin sound.They'll never know.Besides who cares? Get er running and go smash bugs on it!I,d of bought it,good for you. Jack
Ha ha. "Unsteel" is great! So is "real steal" Your car will be a ton of fun! Owning a very very cheap, one-piece, doorless 'glass body, myself, I have thought a lot about how to render the most "traditional" of builds out of it. My conclusion is to not hide the construction material at all, but to actually celebrate the fibreglass for what it is: "The new space age, lightweight material of the future". That was the thinking when Chevrolet laid up their new corvette bodies and when Wescott started moulding his fenders in '58 or '59. Poliform, A-1 and others, of course, all weighed in to the drag racing game with their T buckets, 27 roadsters and topolinos. My favourite is the Almquist offering of a doorless "Deuce" body, complete with raised fairings at the back through which to route twin tailpipes or late model tail lights. This was advertised in Hot Rod magazine amongst Almquist's "Deluxe sports bodies" and they were available by 1960, maybe as early as '59. So the way I see it, a "traditional to 1960" build might incorporate the appearance of the latest circa 1960 lightweight drag race equipment. For me, a flathead would therefore be anachronistic so, with what's in your inventory, I'd want to see at least the 327 with tripower or, better yet, the hemi in there. A nice low Tony Nancy style roll bar would make sense, Maybe the body should lift off like John Gerarghty's Grasshopper T. Narrow pie crust slicks would be in order. A metallic or metalflake (new for '61) paint job with panel outlining pinstripes would be period correct for the cusp of the 60's too. Then, of course, there is the street roadster class of the mid-sixties, which is a little later than what I would want to shoot for, myself but would also be another great glass-friendly era to emulate. All up, I think the concept would be really good cheap fun and I'm not sure how it is any less traditional than a Brookville bodied car on brand new American stamping 32 rails with a 350 chev with repopped "period" finned aluminium accessories. (I'd also say I have no problems at all with those cars. I absolutely love the fact that new steel repop gear is out there... BTW, my other car is a four banger with mechanical brakes..ha ha.
That is kind of what I was thinking myself. I wasn't going to mention it I was just waiting to snipe him. As far as traditional goes, a lot of the fellas on this board would not know traditional if it walked up and bit 'em in the ass. That is the purpose of the board to give them a chance to get bit and know what bit 'em. I am pretty sure that there were traditional glass cars, the high rollers would have been building them. There have been glass bodies since the '50s that I know of. That was before the wheels started to turn backward and glass was expensium and steel was mundane, everyday and cheap.
My brother[scarliner] here on the Hamb,has a pair of 29 glass roadster doors,Ill ask him what he wants for them......pm me- A trunk lid can be fairly easily fabbed up-from making a hand bowed 3/4 square tube framework[hinge and latch this- and then get rear half of a 49 51 ford roof skin.....[any model] the abrubt curve at the rear of this roof allows an almost perfect panel to fit the roadsters trunk's shape.....See ,all hotrod parts are not just from hotrod stores......
If memory serves me right Norm traded a gallon of paint for that first body so that would make a $300 body a high dollar build. Knowing Norm he will come up with something very original again this time.
That looks like an early (60s?) repop, My brother has one, a early Cal Automotive "race" body, looks a lot like yours. You need to look inside close, most early fiberglass stuff I've seen had a buisness card glassed into it. Unsteel, I like that. We have a local with a ovious glass 32, I overtold him telling a guy at a show it was real Henry steel, it's just had a couple of layers of glass put over it for reinforcement. Think I'll tell him his is really a genuine "unsteel" car.
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