Strange car found, What is it?

Lot of wheelbase for a bug...if there's a pan under there it's seriously stretched.

 

Course someone could call the number on the windshield and ask.....right?

 

Actually, it looks about right for a full length bug chassis. Keep in mind that most bug-based chops involve a shortened VW pan.

I was just fixin to post the very same thing. lol Novel idea.

 

Do I see an arm from a wishbone by the rear tire?

 

Lose the trailer fenders, restyle the hood and grille, and it might look cool.

 

It's cool and needs to be rescued. Someone buy it.

 

I believe that's the VW trailing arm - leading up to the torsion bar mount behind the body there.

 

You know, I think it's ugly too. But I also think it's kind of a shame the way people come on here and tear down the poor thing and whoever built it. When I see that thing, I see some guy out in his garage, 60 years ago with a desire for a custom built car and his own vision. Here and now we may think it's fugly, but back in the day he not only conceived it, he built it through to completion with probably nothing more than hand tools, a sabre saw, and a copy of Mechanics Illustrated. I think he should be applauded; he didn't just talk about it, he did it.

 

That shock mount may not be vw.... I have an 39 ford frame with after market tube shock adapters on it and they look just like that....

 

x2

 

Here's your answer....in an old (now closed) thread. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=505512

 

x2

 

The tendency to simply adore ANYTHING from our favorite era of hot rods should be tempered now and then. This one of those examples. Not everything from back then deserves reverence akin to sainthood. I often see junk from old hacks get props similar to the Spencer roadster. I'm glad the prevailing opinion here and in the other post call it what it is.

 

Interesting old article (don't ya just love old magazines?). Homebuilt everything was a popular idea in the media post WWII, eh? I wonder how many were actually built?

I think the hatchet advert at the end of the first link's article says it all! Gary

 

I like the first item on the build sheet. "1932 Ford sedan... $45."

 

I guess if it has apparently now been sitting there for at least three years, it is either way over-priced or nowhere near as promising a source of useful early Ford parts as may have been hoped!

 

About a month or so ago, I drove past and it was still sitting there. Friends told me that it was there well before I spotted it 3 years ago. Guess the owner's "gonna fix it up some day".

 

Is that matching mailbox attached to the car? Not much of a liveaboard. At least it scares the dogs away from attacking the mail man.

 

Looks like a early study of recycling.

 

If there was only a Mad Max in the american 50's....

 

Two questions... has anyone taken the time to read the MI article? Crap-ola body aside, most of the chassis mods are hot rodder 101 changes.

Second... I can't figure any way to print the MI article pages in the Hemmings link. Anyone know how? Thanx, Gary

 

Try these

 

the rest

 

Many, many thanx... but I think you missed pg 111. Hint hint. Gary

 

Thanks for posting these again... the Magazine article copy turned up on the first page, yet some were convinced that it was:

1. A VW pan

2. Fiberglass body

3. Boiler tank

It's bemusing how the logic can appear, yet some insist on ignoring any and all of the facts.

Jurys are comprised of our peers. Scary here... LOL

 

Yes.

 

Here is a website devoted to them.

 

That looks like the same car.. I initially thought VW but the rear is too low-profile for a stand-up engine shroud to fit in there.. The ones on that link look kinda cool--I'd drive one..
I further thought it was a VW because of the "new" beetle next to it---

 

I'm better with wrenches..

 

That's a pretty cool link, some of those things had pretty nice historys. And if you were to remove the horribly designed nose and start farther back they might even look OK.The same folks who hate these cars would fawn all over an Allard.