Making a rod out of a replicar

Remember those Cord, Auburn, etc., fiberglass replicas? Seems like they would make a great rod and no one would mind seeing it done either. I just never seem to see them as project cars. They always seem to be in babied original shape, but some of them have to have been trashed.

 

I am now putting on my esbestos underwear, getting my popcorn ready and am prepared to watch the flame fest this should gete going.......... the humanity, the carnage, it will be one to take the cake.

Personally, I love that concept... take it and make it yours. Go for it.

 

I always wanted to bet one of those tacky "Mercedes SS" "replicas" <sic> and make something ridiculous out of it since it's ridiculous to begin with. That said, those Cords would make a good rod with little work, except I hate the bogus headlights on them. Some of these weren't regular fiberglass but a rotamolded ABS, which would make it necessary to make new fenders, If they did that it wouldn't look so bogus even as a Cord though.

Just drop the front end and paint would make it a rod.

 

There is a guy making Cord Speedsters designed to be rods. They come up on eBay once in a while but they are pretty pricey

 

It's an idea I've had before and mentioned on here more than once. But why stop at fairly decent replicas? There were lots of more or less dodgy "antique" pastiches intended for VW chassis, the pervasive fakeness of which would normally disqualify them from serious hot-rod consideration. But could they not be de-faked?

A few years ago my morning constitutional would take me past a second-hand car dealership which specialized in the out-of-the-ordinary a bit. Parked there for over a year was a VW-based MG TD replica, on sale for silly money considering what it was. (This had possibly something to do with the site's proximity to Cape Town's "pink village" and the consequent prospect of someone desiring it for sheer wa-hunderfullness without any concomitant technical or strict historical considerations.)

However immune from the appeal of wa-hunderfulness I nevertheless found myself drawn to the thing. I had the asking price in the bank but was hoping the dealers might come down if it sat on the lot for too long, especially in light of the work that would be required.

Everything Volkswagen would have to go. It would need a ladder frame with a solid front axle and a (front) engine better suited to the project's character. I saw it becoming an interpretation of an MG K2 rather than a TD, but an unashamed hot rod of the rowdier kind. By an enormous irony it was all set to grow a bit of VWness back in the form of an Audi 5-cylinder engine (this might have simplified the legal aspect: swapping the five into the Beetle chassis using a local Microbus transaxle and getting it registered that way, then going about making it front-engined.)

Then it got sold, apparently for the asking price.

Years earlier I drew a GP Madison kit car body on a Deuce frame with a Deuce shell and Deuce front fenders. I'm not sure if I could put my hand to that drawing now: it's probably somewhere in a box. Here's a Madison as GP intended:

 

^^^ Thats a good looking car

 

Love the Packard influence!

Some years ago a company was building repop '34 Packard convertible coupes on a modern chassis.

 

If I had the $$$ I'd like to take on of those '34 Packard Roadster kits and build something out of them.

 

My neighbor just finished an Auburn speedster replica. It is very nice. Custom chassis with an chevy LS engine. No too traditional but not your typical VW based kit car.

 

Pass.

Bob

 

Please no. There are enough steel 30's, 40's, 50's cars out there to spend your time on. Don't waste it on a replicar. Also remember old fiberglass is brittle.. It's your choice, I just don't know why you wouldn't prefer to work on the "real" thing? You won't find too many interested in this thread if you do. Traditionalists.. or maybe I'm just speaking for myself.. really don't care for the plastic copies. I'm just sayin'.

Good luck regardless.

 

OK, I'll stick my neck out here and admit this is exactly what I am doing. I'll hasten to point out, not all replicas are created equal and which version one begins with can have a significant effect on the outcome.

In my case, I am using a very scarce first generation SAMCO Cord replica, which is directly derived from the Glenn Pray Cord Replica. The first handful of SAMCO's were based on leftover Pray bodies but were stretched about six inches behind the door.
In my opinion, that alleviated the 'too short' look of the original Pray dimensions.

My SAMCO was equipped with the 289/C4/9" powertrain. I am replacing the 9" with
an 8", as it is lighter and unsprung weight reduction, even thirty pounds or so, can't hurt. Also, replacing the C4 with an AOD. Beside, the 9" is going in my '55 Chrysler Hardtop.

The second generation, and far more common, SAMCO is a bit more of a challenge
to improve regarding shape and proportions. I had one of those before my present car and the differences are dramatic. The second Gen SAMCO was a completely retooled body mold and very different from the Pray based cars. Chassis on both are a total piece of crap and I
am well along on constructing a replacement chassis.

Here is pic of the car soon after I bought it. It did come with the original style bumpers and the 'fakey-doo' exhaust pipes, neither of which will be on the finished product.

Ray

 

I think that most of fiberglass replicas would look good with lots of flames



and gasoline!

 

I hate the SAMCO headlights, which were retractible on the original. Completely ruins the front of the car to me.

Are these made on the same molds as the earlier Corvair powered cars?

Those had ABS Royalite bodies, not fiberglass. Is this glass or Royalite?

 

I also prefer the original Cord headlight treatment, but this version is, in my opinion, light years ahead of the later SAMCO headlights which were at the top of the fender.

This recessed version can be dealt with in several ways. A chrome wire grid cover, like '53/'55 Corvette, or a smooth lens covering the opening, or filling them and using a
small bullet headlight inboard of the fender would all be doable. The latter headlight treatment was actually done on a "in the period" custom Cord and was on display at the ACD Museum last time I was there.

My car, pictured above, is the Royalite molded body, and appears to me to be a Glenn Pray body with modifications, the headlights and "stretch" mentioned in my post above.

Ray

 

I seen a guy take one of those VW chassied kit cars and put one of those Buick aluminum blocked V8 motor in it. Made a new frame for it and got rid of the VW stuff and put a ibeam drop axle under it. Made a real nice looking car that ran and sounded good.

 

Do they even make them anymore?

 

Are you sure about that?

 

On the one hand replicas allow one to do more radical modifications than one would with an original if it's something rare and expensive (Cord gasser?)

On the other hand they broaden the range of possible parts that can be taken out of their context and re-used in creative ways. How about those Cord front fenders on an otherwise steel '36 taildragger? Or some kind of response to the Cord-bodied Hupmobiles etc. mixing Cord replica and original other-marque parts, with an extensively reworked front end? Or the relatively undistinctive Cord body with '40 Ford fenders and front sheetmetal on a '40 frame?

 

Like this? BBC TH400 - note Lokar shifter and it is a replica....

 

I'm always on the lookout for one of those Bugatti bodies that used to have the VW in the back. Only thing I would save would be the body. Build a T-bucket style chassis with a 60's inline, put a speedway track nose on it, and make an open wheeled "speedster" out of it.
Wouldn't be HAMB friendly, but might make a fun car.....
The last two bodies I found though, were just too far gone to use.

 

The Duesenberg is nice, but a bit too expensive for most of us.

I don't know if Gibbon makes the '34 Packard any more.

 

I always thought a Cord would make a great sled.

 

Sure they do,,since moving the operation back to Nebraska everything is back to the way it was. HRP

http://www.gibbonfiberglass.org/Packard-Bodies---parts.html

 

Funny, a friend just posted this one on Facebook last night. My first thought was "I like the knobby tires, somebody should put that on a tube chassis with a V8/60 or Model B 'banger."

 

One of my favorites was a Duesenberg replica built by Glen Prey that was powered by a Lycoming V-12 out of a firetruck. After Aurbun succumbed, American LaFrance bough the tooling for the Aurbun V-12. LaFramce punched it out to something like 540 cubic inches and added dual ignition.

I have a freind that is building an genuine Dusenberg model A engine and looking for something to put it in, such as a Model J replica.

 

it doesn't seem like it was that long ago that the HAMB was about traditionally styled HOT RODS and customs. I miss those days.

 

I've pondered the idea of one of those MG-T bodies sitting on an XK powered chassis. Brít rod. Approach it more or less like a track T.

 

That bugs me. Wouldn't it be a bit like building a Ford Model T engine and then sticking it in a Deuce?

I'd love to see the big Duesy engine end up in a Ford T speedster or Gow. I toyed with doing something similar with a Hupmobile engine I found on Craigslist.