History "Body In White" Factory backed race cars....

Got stories and pictures???.....
Please post away.....

 

Mmm.... Tough crowd!
Did it start with the Hudson Hornet???.

 

Guy in town buys a body in white 70 Camaro from **** Harrell before he died. I think the car is restored now. Thats all I know about. I lived a sheltered life though

 

I believe Wayne Darnaby"s Temptation AWB drag car began life as a body in white for Richard Petty in 64. There's a LONG thread about the car, and one I condensed to just Wayne's contributions. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=522214

I think most of the body in white race cars came along after 64, though.

 

What about the '62-'63 Super Stock Impalas and the nascar versions??? Also the "swiss cheese" Pontiacs??

 

When did they make Omnis in Belvedere? Couple guys I hung with at the time got white bodies from there for projects, one was Sheldon Gecker King Kong super gas car, big hitter in NHRA back in the day.

 

The "Body in white" program is still being offered today by the BiG 3..
But I'm trying to find out when it all started so many years ago.... Probably during the '50's... I think..

 

Not a trad story... in 73 we were at the Glenn with a SCCA / IMSA Mercury Capri RS coupe (the ***y European Capri). It was built American style - gutted, tubed, trick suspension, etc. No frills. Gl*** hood, doors, fender extensions and trunk lid. Next to us in the garage was the European FIA car of Jackie Stewart / Jody Sheckter. That car had the same body parts, a full interior, complete dash / gauges, defrost, wipers, spare tire, p***enger seat, etc. Our car was about 1980 on the scales, and that ****ing Euro car weighed less. The benefits of a white body are clear, you don't have to waste a week to strip it down and clean off the insulation, and you can acid dip it first thing. Gary

PS come to think of it, that Euro Capri also had plexi side widows on both sides, bigger / heavier calipers and rotors, wider wheels and tires, too.

 

In the period of '78 - 1980 GM delivered to the Waltham Voc. High School bare body shells of Buick and Olds mid-size station wagons.
Not to race but they were for the Voc. kids to learn auto body repair techniques.
Gifts from GM's Framingham plant.
It was alleged they had cosmetic flaws but I never went over them with a magnifying gl*** to substantiate that statement.
I was particularly attracted to one '78 Century wagon with a complete nose and the neat aluminum hood "in white".
Maybe some retired Framingham plant worker can back up the the story of the trail of the bodies out the back door.

 

Yep! Most of these were sent out the back door...

 

I worked at a small Mopar dealer in 68 thru 70 something. The earliest I remember were Dusters in 70. I do remember the Dart Lites and Feather Dusters with some aluminum parts being purchased as a body in white. If I remember correctly that would have been maybe late 73 or 74. Also I think Moopars did not come with the ability to ***le and license, anyway it's been along time.

 

The 1968 Hemi Darts and 'Cudas were like that.... Those were part of the body in white program also..

 

"Mark Donohue mentions in his book "The Unfair Advantage" that they were getting body shells from GM when they were building the Z/28s for TransAm. He writes that once GM built them a lightweight Camaro using thinner gage sheetmetal. Someone at GM said the body cost $15,000.00 to build. Mark crashed the car in its first race (Bryar) and said the panels were too thin to repair."

I'll bet there were some Chrysler backed drag cars that started life as "body in white" in the mid 60's too.
Larry T

 

I've never even heard a rumor of any from the 50's

 

Ok.. The cars themselves didn't have to come with white paint, but most did....
How about the "Black Widow"??

 

It was a limited production car, wasn't it? I don't think it was a body in white, sent to someone to be built from the ground up.
Larry T

 

Stock cars prepped by sedco

 

Ok. I was wrong on that one...

 

So I'm guessing it started around 1960??

 

This may be a definition thing but for me "bodies in white" as I recall the term were sheet metal bodies with no drive train or under coating sound deadener etc. that were sold to racing teams to build their own race car from.

The light weight 63 Fords of the early 60s were not called bodies in white in my area.

This term came a long after the 64 Thunder bolts that were ***embled for Ford by a separate co. The Swiss cheese 63 Pontiacs were factory race cars sold as completely ***embled cars. As I remember it you could not buy a "body in white" incomplete car body until later in the 60s. I never heard the term until the factory started selling them to race car teams to build their own race cars after the factories got out of racing....technically.

It may be semantics but I hate to hear terms that morph over time. If my recollection is wrong I'm sure I will be corrected.

 

Yeah, your probably right!.... Maybe I shouldn't have started this one...

 

The '68 Hemi A bodies were not part of the Body In White program, they were factory contracted package cars that had VIN tags but were not eligible for legit street ***ling. The Body In White program arrived after 1968 since Mopar would no longer offer turn key race cars after the legendary '68 Hemi Barracudas and Darts were delivered. The Body In White program was simply a naked body shell in white for a racer to start his drag car project with.

 

This is a good example of a car that originated from the Chrysler Body In White program. Paul Gentilozzi was well connected with the factory and remaining Ramchargers back then and his Super Gas Arrow was used as a test mule for the W-2 cylinder head program. My father owned and bracket raced this car for more than 15 years. Paul told us that picked up the main body shell from the factory and it was white with no VIN or paperwork of any kind.

 

I think its a great subject and would love to know when it was started

 

I thought this whole thing started with the Pro-Stock era in the early '70s. Sox & Martin, Landy, and Carlton e-bodies & dusters? maybe the Bud Moore Trans-Am cars in '69-'70? First time I ever heard the term was in the early '70s, in reference to Mopar Pro-Stock cars.

 

Ford is using that term now for the little pony car...
So is Chevrolet..

 

From what I understand, Chrysler Corp would no longer offer "Package Cars" such as Super Stock or Winged Cars since they lliterally lost $$$ on each "Package Car" that they produced. They would continue to support racers by offering inexpensive bare naked bodies in white for them to build their cl*** legal race cars out of.

I'm guessing that ever evolving rule book changes and cl*** evolutions such as Funny Cars and Pro Stock (both of which would sport tube ch***is very early on) no longer deemed stock bodied Hot Rods compe***ive and the corporate PR guys lost interest in producing complete turn key race cars at this point.

 

Well that is one of the things that I love about the HAMB. Because of your post we will learn more about our history. I can't remember exactly when the term came into being. I just knew it was much later than 1960. My memory cells will get jogged too. I guess I'm not too senile yet.

 

I also read somewhere that some cars were sold too well known racers for only 1 dollar...

 

I'm guessing that some of the 1st Body In White cars would've been Dusters like Sox and Martin built for Herb McCandles to drive ...or Dyno Don Nicholson's Pro Stock Maverick ...or Grumpy's Toy Vega. Anybody have pics or info of these cars to share?