Guy's i'm currently trying to get a VWT 3W GRP body right, This particular body is around 30 years old. The fitting of the panels is not good but i'm getting there, I'm sure the doors are off another car !!! Any one know anything about VWT ??? Steve
One of the first gl*** 32 3 W coupe bodys. My buddy has one that has never been finished. Bought it back in the early, early 80's.............
Those bodies were made in ct. and were an early if not the earliest 3 32 3 window. The mold was made off of a real nice body that belonged to Daryl Mushero. The doors never did fit that good. For some reason the tops of the doors stuck out from the roof. If you have any questions I will try to put you in contact with the guys that owned VWT.
They made a dune buggy/model "T" = VWT corp. Billy Belmont slicked one up with a tube front axle, louvered hood and deck lid. It was really neat looking, and he used to drive it around the street rod nats all day long! It looked like a 27 "T"........all the Volks Rods looked like a 23 "T" VWT was an eastern company, I can't remember the city or state. They ran a 32 3W ad in some rod mags back then.
Bob thanks for the reply, Your dead right about the doors :-(, Have a look here http://rides.webshots.com/photo/2016855410093675963QxhQYu Cheers Steve.
cut the inner door tops/Posts leaving "outer" alone... both front and rear,then align and RE-fibergl*** the seams [while door is in place on your car]...... Its gl***
VWT was located in Wolcott Ct. USA. When they got out of the Street Rod Component Business, they sold everything to Outlaw in Avondale, PA. I do not remember aeactly when this took place. They made the following bodies; 32 3 window coupe, 1930/31 Model A Roadster 1934 Chopped Tudor Sedan 1923 Tee Bucket 1927 Tee Roadster and a Mullins Trailer Kit.
I have had a couple VWT 3/W bodies in the past, They came out in 1978, and I think they were the first company to offer a closed car body,(just about the time Ai came out with the first 34 3/W).... you can get them to line up pretty good but the chain driven window regulators gave me some trouble as I recall, the gl*** would try to bind fore and aft in the window channel. The VWT booth at the 78 Nationals was a very busy place, but everyone scoffed at the outragous price of $2,800. ( a ton of cabbage in 1978 )
There was a finished Maroon VWT 3Window here in Connecticut, may have been the factory demo, it had a real nice moulded headliner. I thought that was a nice feature at the time, wish I could remember what it looked like.
My dad used to work at VWT when we lived in Ct. The maroon '32 was a demo. It was Jimmy Briglia's daily driver. The company was owned by Frank and Jimmy Briglia. Jimmy still makes some t-bucket bodies for Total Performance. Frank is doing gl*** work on boats, and is heavily involved with the Bodine bobsled project. He also does some killer bodywork. The pics of the car you are working on has three hinges, all the VWT '32's only had the bottom two. Either somebody added the other hinge, or as you thought the doors are from another car. In addition to the chopped '34 sedan body they also made a stock height sedan. They also made fenders for Model A's all the way up to '34's.This is the only pic I could find of one of the '27 VWT cars. It was also one of their demos.
Thanks for the info, The doors were hung on some old hinges but were not very well done i'm afraid, The reason there is now 3 is that in my opinion they need all of them. Steve.
I know this is an old thread but does anyone know what those chain drive window regulators were from? A buddy said they were from a jeep but I can't find anything. Looking to get new cranks.
i have a bunch of chain drive window mechanisms. i was told they were from the 20's. do you have a photo of yours?
I have a '56 Jeep with a steel hard top that has chain drive regulators, if that helps your search any.
no that is not the style regulators i have, the ones i have use a bicycle style roller chain. i never seen anything like those. as far as the handles, i have a file drawer full of handles . i will have to look.
I know its strange. It's rare that I search the net for something and come up empty. I figured someone on the HAMB had an Idea or seen them before.
Try looking at a cabover Pete or KW. We had a driver that was a chain(no pun)smoker, and every couple of months we would have to take his door apart and clean out the ****s so the window would go up and down.
So I actually found the part #K092-189 and new cranks dorman part#76997 Cost is only $10.24 each for the cranks
Jim who was the owner of VWT owned the maroon 3w He was in a club, with a bunch of us called Outlaw streetrodders. He put on many miles thru the years! His Brother and partner Frank, have a hotrod business called Briggs Rod shop (Not sure of spelling) now. Last time I saw Jimmy he was out of hotrodding? He goes to NSRA east every year? Frank and his son, are doing some awesome hotrod work, and boats, in the old shop in Wolcott, Ct They are both great guys!I saw Frank this fall! We had a lot of fun with them in the 80's and 90's They did sell all there molds and tooling to Outlaw Performance (My guess late 80'early 90's)
Yes Bob I have spoken to Frank in the past he is a hell of a nice guy. I went to school with his niece Sue. I have also bumped into Jimmy and the their buddy Joe Russo from time to time at local meets. I used to live in wolcott where these bodies were made. This one was sent down to Tennessee for its original build but the owner p***ed before finishing it. It was purchased by Al Stone (Performance edge) and he sold it to me. Everyone keeps telling me these molds were pulled from a perfect body but there are a lot of things 34 that don't fit at all. They are all right about the doors, mine took forever to get fitted and my body guy had to use every trick he knew.
Another funny thing about these bodies is the door latch mechanism. In order to open the door you have to lift up on the handle instead of down. I have seen a couple of the VWT bodies and they all appear to operate in this manor. I have no clue what latch ***embly they used but found a spare set on FEEBAY pretty reasonable last night. I picked them up for the handles basically. Mine are all pitted. I may also take one apart to see if I can change the handle direction.
The Jalopy Journal
