As Mazdaslam pointed out, it is waay too odd for that tail light to be just sitting there. Way too odd...
it is a 56 chevy. chopolds, i also considered the truck being changed along the way ,and, i thought this could be parts of the kart with rust repairs. the front fenders on the kart were molded to the cab and the rear hood corners rounded. look at the front clip on the ground. you can see the rear of the left fender, it appears to be stock and no rounded hood corner. the piece between the headlights is missing that also was molded in. the rear fenders are not the right shape at the bottom front the karts fenders swept up. the scoops are gone under the valance and the valance itself dosn't appear to be "thick" enough at the bottom. also the firewall on the kart was smoothed and this one isn't. i feel your pain, i wish it was the kart. but it dosn't add up. someone put alot of work into this truck shame it wasn't finnished.
Hey "right arm ed"--thanks for posting this here. You are neither Ansel Adams nor John Steinbeck, but don't let the criticism of your photography or grammar scare you off. You found something cool, whether it's "real" or not, and brought it to the right place to figure out what it is. Or, you're the king of photoshop and have done an excellent job of screwing with us. Either way, I'm entertained.
The only thing that I keep thinking is that maybe this person has some original parts to the Kopper Kart. Like the taillight,and they set out to build a clone around that light.The cab is not right,the bed is not right,and if you look at the pics of the hood,you can see where it has been sectioned (incorrectly) and tack welded together.The pans on the front clip are not fully welded together.Still worth looking into.You never know what the real story may be.
Chopolds....where was/ is Paul Blasdel from? From what I've read, Jim Skonzakis is from Dayton, Ohio....and the new pics are from Dayton, Pennsylvania. Have you tried to contact Blasdel to see if he sold it to someone in Pennsylvania?
OK- so you jut eliminated ALL the pieces except MAYBE the TAILLIGHT as part of the original truck???? I'd still call that a FAKE, KLONE and NOT the original car. End of story.
No. It looks like a bunch of tacked together crap- NO finished welds or edges- that would be a lot of work. This is just a bunch of cobbled parts.
I still feel it was all a VERY known hoax as the original title was something about "Help Identify Found Kar". The "K" in kar was a dead giveaway he knew a lot more that the 2nd grade grammar leads you to believe.
You do realize that the Kopper Kart was sectioned 5.5 or so inches right? The cab in those pics is obviously sectioned, and from looking at the pic of the firewall, looks to be nicely hammer-welded. Well, from what you can tell from the shitty b&w picture that is. If the original top was rusted out, then that could explain why the top is just tacked on at the top of the A-pillars. Maybe it's a replacement. I'm not saying that it's the real deal, but there are a lot of coincidences....
If there are some nice finished welds on it, I doubt they would be discernable from the blurry black and white pics. Maybe it's not the Kopper Kart but you seem like you're mad that pictures were even posted.
Unfortunately I dont know nothing about these remains. So all I can say is from what I can see. And from what I can see we are looking at the remains of an attempt to "clone" the Kopper Kart or built a similar custom truck very much inspired by the Barris built Kopper Kart. Take a close look at the front of the Kopper Kart in this great photo from teh Andy Southard book. Showing the Kart at the Barris shop with the grille removed. Look at teh location of the holes in the double Studebaker pans. Those are rather differnt than the once on the black and white photo. Why would you change something like that. Also the front section of the hood on the Kopper Kart was molded to the fenders after a new smaller hood opening was created. On the black and white photos the hood was never molded to the fenders. Why would anyboy cut of the molded in section of the hood???? on both fenders? Also the section underneeath the DeSoto pans seem to not have been created yet... The hood does not look to have the twin small scoops. And on the black and white photo there are no small peaks on top of the new headlight openings.... And here is a photo of the dash... The one in the woods looks to have been never covered with upholstery to me...
Maybe whomever started this project did start with some of the original, or at least had access to what was left of the original that was "beyond repair". It could have been badly wrecked or something. I have heard one rumor that said the bed was made into a trailer. Maybe that's why the bed and frame are gone from this one. Those who have seen resto pictures of the R&C Dream Truck know how much of that was replaced due to damage/missing parts. It sure is odd that it's in the same general area as the original was last seen, and that chopolds has the truck that people might thought this might be if it was a clone. I hate to step on toes, but in my opinion, the original wasn't good looking enough to warrant more than one clone.
Just mad that it's trying to be played off as possibly the real truck- when the person 1000% knows what is is and isn't and that's why they brought it to the HAMB as their first post with the dumb Larry the Cable Guy speech.
if you look at the top of the fenders in the black and white it has had a smaller hood see the round edge i think it cuould be the real deal
Yes...I'm calling Bullshit on this one being anything but a poor attempt at a "clone".The taillight........why would it be just laying on the ground??? Looks a little staged to me,real or not
Paul was also from the Dayton Ohio area. He is mnow retired in FLorida. John M. even called him to talk to him about the truck. He is pretty old, and was too hard of hearing to be able to have a decent conversation, but Paul's wife filled John in on the details, and the eventual scrappage of the Kart. We had started on our version of the Kart about 5-6 years ago. John M. contacted me about 8-9 months ago, when he decided he was going to move from Maine to NYC. A very good turn of events for us, courtesy of the HAMB. John had seen our efforts to duplicate this custom. We bought out the significant parts he had been collecting over the years. We had not started to find the details, we just jumped into working on the body first.
Nice job ChopOlds, I have a dumb question, I understand that the showcars always had phones and TV's and such, but in the interior pic of the Kart, Why did they have a Barber kit in the damn thing????
i always just assume that 'back then' - if you owned any cool accessories [especially in a 'kit'], it automatically earned a spot somwhere in tha car for shows...they had a lot to be excited about, im sure, in those days...
Actually, looking closely at the pics that Rik shared, I am thinking this COULD be what's left of it. That grill opening seems to match every contour of the original. Maybe someone didn't like the fender tops or front lower pan and changed them up. Actually looks like it was getting prepped to have square headlights that everyone switched to in '63-64. The junk front clip appears to have had a smaller, rounded hood at one time and then was sliced again for some reason. Although the rounded edges don't really seem to match the original. I'm on the fence. Wish "Larry the Cable Guy" would quit dicking around with low-resolution B&W photos. That makes me think he's messing with a bunch of people. Hell, it's probably a 1/24 scale model he built.
I gotta agree. Looking at the front fenders, the hood opening seems almost exact, less the front peice that it looks like someone cut out. Also, that grill opening looks to be very similar. Possibly someone had it stripped and that is why the seams are showing?
You guys are some damn good detectives. Can you find that guy that burned me on a sack of weed in '71?
I just dont know how if this guy doesnt have a clue what it was, why the photos in the first post were titled "kartwoods.jpg"
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