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

Fiberglass cars are terrible. Especially if they have a boring, cookie-cutter small block Chevy. People who drive them are losers and posers. I would never build or own one. Well, maybe not just one...

 

The question was about the cars, not the people who own them. Don't get your panties in a bunch.

 

I believe Dee Wescott started building fiberglass parts for early Fords in the late 1950s, so they can be HAMB friendly...

 

Factory glass cars like the Corvette are great, Devin, or other 50's and 60's aftermarket sports car bodies are cool. But reproduction Ford fiberglass bodies just don't get it for me. I rate them right up there with a kit car Mercedes glass body on a VW frame. Fiberglass repo fenders get a pass, if going on a steel car. But that's just my opinion. I do realize that people who build them have just as much fun driving them as driving a real one.

 

My '40 is steel, my Roadster is Wescott...I enjoy both equally.

 

This the second Zipper Darrel Zip built in 1998 and to the best of my knowledge, they are still building them in Southern California now. It sounds like a Packard when you shut the doors. Reason I bought this was simply it was not a copy of a '23 T, but a stylized version. It's still on the road on the east coast.

 

The supposed "realness of steel" derives from a conception of originality rooted in artificial scarcity.

At a philosophical level I have a positive preference for fibreglass. The OEMs favoured pressed steel in order to establish a radical monopoly in an inaccessible, high-investment technology, and any alternative capable of undermining that is to be commended. That being said, it depends on the dimensional accuracy and overall quality of the pieces. An open manufacturing environment will bring charlatans and bunglers. The price of freedom is vigilance.

Wescott's name has been mentioned. Another thing I like about them is the generosity with information in their publications. There is a Wescott's catalogue permanently on my desk.

 

If fiberglass is the only way that gets you behind the steering wheel of a car/body style you've always wanted, why wouldn't you?
Too much emphasis on "other peoples" opinions.

 

I get a big smile on my face every time I drive my real 50th anniversary Vette. I get a big ass smile on my face every time I drive my real steel coupe. (avatar) Probably a little bigger because I built it. When I get in either one to drive them the doors close and sound the same, so I don't know or even care.

 

what i'm saying is I believe they go in this pecking order...henry, Brookville then wescott...
but lets start from the beginning... the running 32 chassis.... built by the same guy using the same parts, gets to the body.. one is henry, one is brookville, and one is westcott

the henry sells for 100k, the Brookville for 50k and the wescott for 25 and they have to make it look like a steel car..... so weather you like fiberglass or not,,,why would any one do it???
when I had my streetrod shop, I would tell people all the time, cost the same to build a 32, why build a model A??? of course... in the 80's they all were more plentiful then now....
same with building a 32 glass roadster.... it used to cost close to 50k to build a 25k car....I would tell people , go to pomona and buy one... take the extra 25k left change a few things and drive it

 

Personally I could care less and I certainly don't get hung up on it with my nose in the air looking down on fiberglass cars.
It doesn't make any difference when you're cruising down the road with a big smile on your face, I mean is someone really going to refuse to go for a drive because the material the body is made out of ???
I really get a good laugh out of the nimrods that knock on bodies and proclaim it to be "oh it's a kit car, steel is real, I'd never own fiberglass" but they're brokedick ass can't afford one fiberglass fender much less a whole "real steel" body.
It also goes with people thinking their cars are to valuable to actually take out and enjoy, different strokes for different folks, but I try and not look down my nose at anyone, rather I just have a confused look at them.

 

Hey! It's America! Make your choice and run with it if it makes you happy!

 

To me it depends on the car, and builder-painter-body man, I’ve seen glass cars that I couldn’t tell were, and steel cars I thought were bad glass. The quality of manufacturing on the glass cars has weeded out a lot of the second rate players. If it gets another car on the road safely, fits a budget for a build, I say it doesn’t matter if it’s glass as long as it puts a smile on the drivers face. And I say this as a reformed “only steel for me” guy, having owned two all steel 33 Fords, and one glass 61 Vette I bought in 1971. Sure wish I had that one back.

 

Did you check your ability to sense sarcasm at the door? Whose panties are bunched up anyway?

 

The patina is different.
But driving by at 80mph on a moonless night, there's no difference at all.

 

I've never really cared one way or the other. I've also only owned steel cars, but that's just what I've found to build so far. My '39 Chev coupe has a glass hood and glass trunk lid, and I don't really think about it much.
I'm more concerned about how the car was put together than what the body is made of. I've seen steel cars and glass cars I wouldn't own, and thought they were just not done traditionally. If it's well done I like it, regardless.

 

This thread reminds me of the Porsche snobs, I went to an event at Road Atlanta and saw some beautiful 356 cars and a few fiberglass clones, I personally couldn't see any difference in the real and the glass cars, but the reproduction cars were assigned a place to park far away from the genuine speedsters and coupes.

Back to Hot Rods, I have owned a lot of steel body Fords in my lifetime, I have also owned 3 glass cars, they may not have been steel but each and every one of them were real fun and enjoyed them just as much as the original cars.

Build what you want, steel or glass, I like them all. HRP

 

With out fiberglass there would be like a million less t buckets and the like and most altered roadster would not exist .
Original steel Ts would be $50,000 and much of this hobby would have ended in the 60's.
A real 32 would bo out of reach for most as they would all be bought up and long gone.

My 27 will be glass becuase in the tradition of all these hot rods of old its being built cheap like most the stuff was then .

 

I put thousands of miles on this GLASS car and enjoyed them all! HRP

 

It's a toss-up for me.
I've never had to get a Tentis shot from working on fiberglass...but I've never had to take 3 consecutive showers getting the "itch off" when working on rust.

 

A debate that will never end.

I personally find scarcity to be appealing. I enjoy the treasure hunt for rare parts, the challenge of working within a budget, and the mental exercise of learning skills needed to refurbish what I can find. I can content myself with less-than-perfect, whether accepting visually blemished parts, or even a compromise in the desirability of model and year. For me, the building process is inextricably intertwined with owning and driving the end-result.

But that’s just me, at this stage of my life.

An analogy: I love fishing. Here again, it’s a process I enjoy; seeking out the spots in the river where they congregate, selecting the right fly, making a perfect presentation, and successfully bringing in a fish on a barbless hook.

Some people just want a nice fish meal. They don’t have the time, money nor inclination to drive half-way across the state in pursuit of a trout or salmon. They can be quite content with a nice restaurant meal. And I’ll admit, it’s probably better prepared than what I cook up over a camp fire.

 

nice looking car... I assume you sold it....and do you think you would have got more if it was steel????

 

Not a fan of fiberglass. But I did come close to trading some tools to a guy on marketplace for a fiberglass 27 t roadster body a few weeks ago. Had the trade gone through the idea was to slap it together into a loosely traditional looking rod using stuff I found cheap on marketplace. Like a 305 and S10 rear end. Then get it legal and trade it for a model a or model t coupe body. Maybe play with it a bit first

 

Why do you care so much what others think, that's just weird buy or build what your wallet can afford. And enjoy

 

I'm not dead yet but I have nearly the same reaction when I hear Model A 5 window coupe.

 

To the question of value. Value is what the buyer thinks it’s worth. Some cars not just hot rods have factory NOS parts, reproduction factory parts, knockoff parts, and glass parts available. With the exception of glass, how would you really know which ones were used on every single piece? If you are a process person, the car not recreated with non-authentic parts is worth less. If you are a results person, you value the end result more than the how. The only people who need a quantifiable value determination are the people looking to justify their self appointed value for either profit or ego. If you sell one, you know what you have in it. If you buy one, you know what you are willing to spend. The price for each should be acceptable to both and then you know what it’s worth.

 

My coupe is Henry steel. If I would not have found this old drag car I would most likely have a glass coupe now. Glass or steel or real steel does not matter in my world, I just like hot rods.

 

The older I get the more I want original steel.

 

How dare everyone have different tastes than me!