Hot Rods how do you feel about fiberglass hot rods???

like would you own one and not care, would you never own one no matter what...if a steel car is 50, and one just like it with a glass body pops up... what would you give for the glass car.. is real steel x4??? more or less??? I hear people walk up and say all the time... is it steel or glass..... if you can't tell by looking, does it still matter>>>/????

 

Plowboy once said, "I'd rather bleed than itch"

 

It’s worth what people pay for it
Not all glass cars are the same.
Some have horrible detail and construction. A guy I know had one that the body panels were “glued” with bondo. Came apart in the paint booth

 

How do i feel about fiberglass cars? Well i feel like i will never own or build one. That being said I do like old corvettes and we know what they are made of. Plus i am 6ft tall and about 280lbs so i don't think i would fit so well in them.

 

I have a fiberglass body for the "T" Tub I am building. I am constantly on the lookout for a real steel body. On a car of this type, if I find one, fine, if not, I can live with it.

 

Somehow glass roadsters don't bother me much. Don't care for the other body styles. Corvettes get a pass.

 

In some cases you can get a fiberglass car to enjoy-NOW and wait for the right body to pop up and pull the trigger to piece something together. Like a driving project.

[QUOTE=".. is it steel or glass..... if you can't tell by looking, does it still matter>>>/????[/QUOTE]
Actually NO it doesnt matter anymore- if they are looking to buy and you are selling, yeah it does, but if you just having fun. Drive it now and forgetaboutit. Im sure there is a good number of 'glass cars that are 100% just as cool as steel cars. and I bet most of those owners enjoyed them while they had them.

People gonna hate on this but its on par with Phantom builds and Sedans turned into Coupes. Even those guys have to disclose what it was when they start, if they are honest.

 

I'd prefer a steel car, but my Roadster is fiberglass. I built it over 30 years ago. Do I wish it was steel, not really. I enjoy it either way. Here where cars rust out it seems people don't care if it's fiberglass, they get more upset about a Chevy in a Ford. I think they're just happy to be able to get a body to build a car with. Now talking about steel, how about a real Henry compared to say a Brookville. A Brookville is still not a real Henry. Something to think about.

 

As long as the fiberglass body is more than 60 years old, it's fine....

 

Glass has class but steel is real

 

I own a Ford 28A { Ford steel },that I first got running in 1959 as a teen for Sr High School. Still have an drive on most nice weekends now days. I have helped build a fair number of hotrods for others as well. I'm retired,for just over 20 years now.
My little speed shop " Comp Tech" designed n built racecars for 40 years, my cars won a ton of races,and I repaired a lot of hotrods along the way! Both steel an glass bodys. Nearly all race cars are glass bodyed*. If that helped shape my feeling,I'm not sure ?
I really do love them all.
Rods that came in with ride or steering prob.s when the first builder or new owner was missing the engineering know how to fix. Came to my place.
That there are Glass Body copys around,some very well done*,makes me feel good about rodding now days.
I have great repect for glass body used in a done well RODs. .
High 5 too builder,an no,I do not think any less of there glass bodyed rod. I love it an what they have done.
If not done well ,showing a poor understanding of history ,an often as just lazy hiding behind skull's n added rusty junk. =I'm extra happy,knowing they did not screw up real steel/if that fits.

 

Used to work building fiberglass boats and such things. I have nothing against it as a construction material, some times it can be an excellent choice for making a small series of parts at a resonable cost, so when steel bodies are too hard to find or too expensive it can be a good replacement.
The downside of having worked with it is that I also often see the mistakes and shortcuts the manufacturer has used. I find it harder to accept those.

 

I own a glass bodied Willy’s coupe. Not a real steel body, but fell into my budget restraints. Totally enjoying the car for what it is, not what it isn’t.

 

I’d rather have steel But, due to budget and storage constraints ( building in a single car garage in a town lot ) I’m choosing a glass roadster as I can get a body when I’m ready. I’m using an original frame though

the best part is it’s going to allow me to have a decent drivable car in a few years. I could go Brookville if I had deeper pockets.. I’m just doing a ‘27 Roadster though

 

When I built my avatar roadster in the late 2000's, gennie 32 roadster bodies were made of that rare and dreadfully expensive material, " unobtanium"! Brookville had a year waiting list, so I went with glass from Wescott. I was never sorry for that choice. It is exceptionally well built and detentionally right on. That was in 2008 and the car has been on the road since 2009 with over 40k miles on it. No one single problem from the fiberglass construction! Quality should be the number one consideration. The idiotic eternal argument between glass VS steel is crazy. The statement "steel is real" doesn't make sense for a hot rod. Engine and transmission changes, rear and front end changes, wheel and tire changes and the list is endless! It's a HOT ROD! It was meant to be altered to the owner's personal tastes. I have had my car on the road and enjoying it since 2009 and for the life of me, I get as much enjoyment and satisfaction with as I had with ANY steel car I have owned! At 77. I have owned 106 vehicles since my first car car at 14 a 48 Ford coupe. Have we forgotten the original slogan of the NSRA, fun with cars? My Wescott glass body on a real 32 frame (boxed, which Henry never did) has been driven all over the southwest without any problems. Very rarely, if ever, does anyone ask if it is glass or steel. It has a hemi and Ford full syncro 3 speed and a Laycock overdrive, 9" Ford rear end, Vintage chassis works dropped axle, and various other non-original hit rod parts installed. Maybe 1 in a hundred may ask if it is glass or steel. We have fallen into the restorer trap of "correctness", and for what? Quality and safe construction should be the only "requirements"! Remember! FUN WITH CARS! and forget the "better than thou" snobery! Safe construction and quality parts, after that, it's all up to the owner/builder.

 

My 34 coupe is all steel but it's because when I was building it [started with a horrible old jalopy racer "body"] when I'd need the next body part. one would just materialize or fall in my lap! I've never before been that lucky but I'm not a steel body snob. If I wasn't so lucky with parts, I'd have bought one of those Gibbon 34 three window bodies with the slant back windshield and a heavy chop.

 

Some of the early sports car bodies from Fiberfab and other manufacturers I think are really cool and I'd totally have one of those. And apparently T-bucket bodies have been built in fiberglass since as early as '59. Not that I want a T bucket, but a real old one like that seems like it'd be cool.

Personally, I don't want anything that's a replica though. Brookville steel or fiberglass, wouldn't matter. I'm not going to shit on anyone who went that route, certainly, but I wouldn't want one. I really like the history part of it. And for as much money as they cost and/or time they take to build, I'd never invest either into a modern copy body. It's just not for me.

 

So..... if hot rodding essentially began with making modifications for performance gains, and fiberglass is much lighter than steel, wouldn't it make perfect sense to use???
Not on a nostalgia style build of course.
There you go guys. You supply the pidgeons, I'll supply the cat...

 

I couldn't have said it better!

 

The same basic car in fiberglass, and one in steel, I'd have to look closely at the details.
It doesn't bother me which the body is made of.

Caveat - The fiberglass body MUST be a correct design / build copy of the car chosen.
There's a car on the market right now (company made) that has a "supposed" specific year / brand body on it (no names). "Part" of the body is fine. "Part" of the body is just screwed up, as far as I'm concerned. I would have bought one of these particular cars a long time ago IF...the body would have been designed and molded "CORRECTLY".

So...there is that.

Mike

 

Seen steel cars with all the seams smoothed and looked glass
Seen glass bodies with details added to look steel

this hobby is crazy

 

I really don't care either way, to me the important thing is are you driving the wheels off of it and having fun ? If so more power to you !

It's like if I wanted a 32' coupe and couldn't afford steel then fiberglass is the next best thing, it fits a budget I could afford AND let's me have the car I wanted, to me that's 2 birds with 1 stone....

But the most important reason to me ? It keeps the hobby alive, it puts more hot rods on the road, it allows someone to build a car they couldn't otherwise afford and last but not least some 12 year kid either just seen one drive by or seen one at the car show and got bitten by the bug. Now his dreams are filled with a hot rod that he wants to build someday....... and hopefully does.....


...

 

Those smooth recessed firewalls drive me nuts!

 

I built a 34 Chevy coupe made by Outlaw in Penn. the quality and workmanship was outstanding, I rather spend the day blocking out a glass body then welding & hammering rusty panels for weeks, but that's just me. To each his own!

 

I really like Willy’s gassers .

An og steel one is out of my price range , I’ve been doing a lot of research over the years and there are a couple companies that make glass bodies that are virtually identical to the original .

I would drive it with a big ol grin on my face .

just like the cobra kit cars , some kits look like they where put together by a blind alcoholic who hasent had a drink yet , and other look just like the originals . You get what you pay for .

 

A big reasoning for me is, there was a time when pre war cars were literally stacked up in junkyards. Now junkyards are stacked with modern junk. The availability of real steel isn’t there and what is available is generally pretty much junk. Fiberglass is obtainable. Hobby would have died in the 80s otherwise

 

so, still one question... what's the value compared..real, vs copy....for me, I like owning and driving old cars, cars with history, survivors... it's more of a mental thing, I wanna drive one that is old,,, not one that looks old...for what ever reason, I'm always looking at old car adds... and I think if it's a copy, fiberglass and such, it should be in the title..."fiberglass 1932 ford copy for sale" but no. some time they mention it... or burry it down some where in a 2 page story about the car..kinda like 4 door cars..40 pics all taken at an angle to not show the rear door handle...or they shave them...I kinda get the this guys a crook when they are selling you something that you'll find out latter..or hook someone that doesn't know any better....to build a 32 /34 cost the same minus the body.... I see adds all the time for 32's for 100k with the only differance the body.... the glass car has to work hard to get out of the high 20's and then the owner is grumpy because he has the same amount in the car parts wise...I had a fiberglass 32 roadster with a ton of money in the build.... I hated it cause they put a efi 5.0, that and a independant front end... my first thought was to pull the body and put a steel one and change out the suspension.. car would have tripled in value.. had it for sell for ever..finally took a trade for a og model A...there has to be a ton and a half of the fiberglass cars out there, they been building the for what....60 plus years????


any way,... still on the table... and maybe just a % deduction.... how much would you say the steel car, same build is worth over a glass car... and, Brookville vs og steel... I say the glass car is 25% ,
to me a 100k for a 32 is insane,,, but at the same time,... so is 25k for a kit car...

 

what saved the hobby was model a's and model t's ,,, in the 80's you could buy a whole wrecking yard full of T's and A's for what one sells for now... henry ford walked right out of his grave when a model A sold for 10k... then fell right back in when they called it a 5 window deuce coupe...