History The Glass Image

With so
Many fad t cars built of gl*** even back in the day, it seems to me that gl*** is getting old
Enough to be traditional I some ways.

 

I'd be both very happy and proud to own the Excalibur/Outlaw ('59) and or the Beatnik Bandit ('60).

 

Got this T back from paint the other night . . . just fitting the pieces together. 5 coats of flake and 10 coats of clear. Body is (very old) gl*** and bed is 1930 Henry steel. Tailgate is a new stamped steel repro. So the car will be sort of a mutt. To me, T's are kind of like dune buggies and I don't mind at all if they are gl***. They remind of the 60's when I was growing up and was into Hot Wheels cars and building plastic model kits. On this one, I have no idea who made the tub . . but the painter said it was so old he did not turn the heat up over 90 in the booth because he was worried it might pop.

(And yes, the roadster in the background is Henry steel. Nothing wrong with that, either.)

 

I guess it might be when your formative years were. I was a teen in the '50s. If that was the '60s or '70s I might think differently about fibergl***. I remember when all magazine T's were steel.
The extra work and time spent finding the right parts pay off big in compliments. One I get regularly is "I really don't like T Buckets but I like yours. Another I received the other day was. "Is that the real deal" Thinking he meant is it a steel body I said absolutely. He returned with "Where did you find the Kookie Kar. It's all worth it.

Gary

 

The way I look at it is if it makes you happy go for it......But if you hold out long enough you will find what you want in steel......At least it worked for me.

 

I built a replica '36 pickup and enjoyed driving it for a while but it never felt "genuine". I sold it and never regretted it. It wasn't the size or look, and I got compliments when I drove it. I just never felt the soul in it. When I drive my rattling, underpowered, crusty '66 F100 , it feels real. I haven't driven a t bucket yet, but that green one could make me rethink my "no more fibergl***" rule. It's real purty.

 

As kids (long before I could drive) We watched an older guy build a gl*** T in his garage in the evening after he got home from his thankless whatever job. It was a single car frame garage with hardly any remarkable tools and an old washing machine that he sat some of his stuff on sometimes. I'm sure it went on for several years. And lucky for me too, because I got to experience this part of the Hot Rod craft. Build your own car, your way. Not sure credit cards were around yet. I never once thought about it being a gl*** car or much of a kit, just that he was making a car at his house. Sounds like Hot Rodding to me. Also it wasn't on the coast, it was Oklahoma. He was pretty much on his own. I bet he ordered that body out of the back of Hot Rod mag or Popular Mechanics. I never knew his name, but we saw him driving it and having fun and we would yell as he went by.

 

Gl*** isn't inherently wrong, or uncool. Surfboards are cool, and so are cl***ic flat bottom drag boats. Old Corvettes are cool. But it can be used in uncool ways. Doing everything possible to make a gl*** car look like steel seems weird because it's un-authentic.

I've been thinking it would be fun to build a gl*** car, and really take advantage of the positive characteristics of the fibergl***. It can be really lightweight, and it can be formed into complex shapes really easily. That's why Roth used it. And that's why racers used it, way back in the 50's. Those cars, or parts of them, were gl*** and also authentic hot rods.

I'm sure many of the cars I've fallen in love with as they rolled down the street were gl*** and I never knew.

 

Here's mine. 1964 Cal Customs body. Has some thick fibergl*** too it. Had it now for 14 years. The car is for sale by the way.

 

The COST of just the body is minimal in relation to the cost of a competed car.
All components cost the same no matter where they go.
All labor costs the same to install those components and build a car.
Yet in the end a steel car brings more $ and not just that minimal cost savings difference found in a FG of the body.

It costs the same to restore a chevette as it does a corvette.
In the beginning it sure is much cheaper to buy the chevette, but you can't get out of it.

I want a FG 33 Willys coupe for an engine stand

 

I have several of both,original steel and fibergl*** and over the years the difference in resale of either is the same being built with same quality of craftsmanship.

 

I built my first Hotrod using a decent, metal body that my Brother got out of a farm s****yard. Over the last 40 plus years since, I have used fibergl*** bodies on 12 more "Ts" of different configurations. Not being a body man, and finding mostly pitted, "screen door" bodies available, I chose gl*** over patchwork and bondo. However, for my current project, we got lucky and located a nice, steel body.

 

I am all about steel but when I ran across my 34, it just had the right look and goodies for a *****en Hotrod. Few more changes I've been making will make it hard to tell. The exposed hinges completed the look and they pretty much sealed my fate..

 

Now I want a gl*** bodied fad T! Emerald flake green with a 289 Ford with my set of 10 fin cal custom covers and torker intake. Put on some chrome reverse wheels and white headers and go!

Might skip the bell bottom pants and platform shoes though.....

 

Whatever floats your boat. I don't want gl***, but can't fault a man that does, it's his car, but what does kinda' stick in my craw is when you see a gl*** car that the window sticker or build sheet or the owner claims is a "32 Ford", "33 Ford", etc...........while the car may be a good looking kick *** build, a FORD it ain't.................

 

The steel bodies I looked at were $6-$8000+ bones for what I wanted...Very little or no rust sedan or pickup. The car I bought, body, fenders, frame rails, boxing plates, front and rear suspension, 8" differential, disc kit, engine, fresh 700R4 trans, seats, gl***, wiring kit, wheels and tires, even the mirrors, door handles and other smalls was $9500. I basically got the body for free and paid fair market for everything else.

If I could have found a nice steel body with everything else needed for that price, I'd own one.

Of course as I figured things out I upgraded many of the items it came with, lol. But that could happen regardless of what the body was made of.


I saw a lot of steel junk, when I was shopping. If I do ever get a steel car it will have to be nice...aka, expensive.

Engine stands are made of steel, btw.

 

My first roadster was a early Gibbon gl*** car that Dwight Bond got his start with. It wasn't nearly as good as his later ones but my most memorable trips were made in that car. My wife and I put 55,000 miles on it and it never let me down. I bought it as an unfinished project that had been sitting around for years. The guy that started the project had actually got rid of his 5W coupe body he had to get the roadster! It still had the 5W"s cowl vent on it though! I wish I would have held out for an original Henry though because I would still have it today if I had.

Back in the 70's a lot of guys that had steel bodies actually bought fibergl*** because it was the latest greatest thing to have. Corvettes were cool and fibergl*** didn't need any rust repair, and all the old magazines from the 50's and 60's were touting the benefits of this "space age" material. Back then, "traditional" was yesterdays news until the latest, greatest billet smoothy thing morphed itself out of existence and we came back to the "golden age" of hot rods. I'm damn glad to be here and if I can get a body that's dead on nuts as close to Henry made it, I'll go for a Brookville anyday. But if your budget is tight, you can still have as much fun with gl***.

Like my Mom used to tell me "It's all in your head!"

 

Watched Americarna on Velocity earlier this week and it featured a "fibergl*** farm" in Florida with cars from the fifties along with pix of magazine coverage and a few restored examples. I didn't realize that the fibergl*** kit car was such a big thing "back in the day".