What Bantam body was used on the old altereds?

I thought most of the famous altereds like Pure Hell etc were using 32 Bantam bodies. The 32 bodies I see being repopped now look really small in comparison. It looks mainly like the sidewall height is much less.

Were these teams building their own bodies to resemble a Bantam or were these actually to scale?

Thanks

Root

 

Pic of one with a stock Bantam.

 

Speedways has the dimensions of the bodies on their site.
From memory,the Bantam body is wider than a T,with less leg
room.

Did the Altered rules require rear fenders ?
Seems like the 'glas Bantam bodies all had rear fenders.

 

And don't forget that the bantam is an 'Austin 7' ,a really tiny car.

 

Nope -- that's why they called 'em Altereds. Fenders weren't required. Some Bantam altereds had the rear fenders trimmed, but maybe you saved a pound of fibergl***.

 

Not even close!! The American Austin was produced in Butler Pennsylvania from 1930 to 1934.The company went bankrupt,was re-organized and returned as American Bantam from 1938 to 1941. NOT the same cars.

 

I think the altered roadster bodies look smaller because they don't cut down around the driver's compartment like the real car.
I believe Gary Bleaker's altered coupe was a '38, though most gl*** coupe bodies today are '31/'32 style.
If you add 10" length to the rear windows the DO look just like an Austin 7, despite where they were built.

 

http://www.rodnrace.com/bantam.htm

Here is where you can buy one.

 

Yeah but they don't look right either. They look like a pro mod.

 

HMMM, thinking altered instead of FED Root ? Fiat sounds good to me HAHA... ​

 

You're right-but I'd like to have either one. My wife thinks their "cute" so I could probably build another car. How about one with a 215 aluminum V-8?

 

If anybody wants an ORIGINAL American Austin or Bantam body,you should call this guy.
Joe DeAngelo 610-791-4497 near Allentown,Pa.
He usually has a couple of different styles of original bodies available.

 

Root, the gl*** tonneaus on the altereds made em look "thicker"

 

Root,

Here are some pictures of the MAS body that I bought to put on my HAMBster so that I could run it as an altered. It comes with the rear fenders made on...but would be no thing to take them off. I sold it to a HAMBer in Tulsa when I decided to build a FED instead of run my car in two cl***es. I hope this adds to the discussion. Ron.

 

Chris,
I think "Econo45" in Kansas City still has his mold to make the Bantam body.
Send him a PM.

 

What you say is true, but the American Austin was indeed an Austin 7 built under license. Different bodies, same mechanicals. Here's a website about American Austins and Bantams

http://wmspear.com/Bantam/

By the way, the early '30s cars were not Bantams -- that name wasn't used until the company was resurrected in the late '30s.

 

Little pictures of my early altered. Before gl*** bodies and tube frames. A real American Austin pickup body with doner trunk brazzed on.

 

Hmmm.....you sure bout that? I thought the name was because of the "altered" wheelbase.

 

I am always thinking........

 

Altered pre dated altered wheelbase cars by about 20 years. There were stock cars-Gas coups-and if you took your gas coup and moved the engine back, or gutted the interior, removed the fenders and lights, gererally made it into a race car instead of a street type hot rod, it was an altered. Roadsters had their own cl***es.

 

10-4

 

In the 60s there was a lot of pirating of fibergl*** bodies. Molds were made from other peoples fibergl*** bodies. There may have been a few molds taken from steel bodies but I bet they have been highly modified too. Over the years, styles have changed and the molds have been altered to meet those changes. Aerodynamics was never a consideration in the early days.

Anderson Industries (later called AI) was a big supplier of the race car fibergl*** bodies and scoops back then before they got into street rod bodies. You might need to modify a present day body back to the way it was when it first was duplicated in fibergl***.

Rod and Race (linked above) ended up with those molds. They may have altered those molds or replaced them with better molds by now, but you can check with them to see if they still have the original molds.

 

i have an 1937 austin 10-4 cambridge which im putting a rover 3.5L engine into (buick 215) heres a few pics.

 

So Root................watcha up to?

 

Nothin...just thinking out loud.

 

Root -

T-Man correctly noted "the gl*** tonneaus on the altereds made em look "thicker" Also, belly pans were common, and they also added visual "thickness".

I'd have to say, most of the 'glas replicas (Speedway, MAS, etc.) are gonna be essentially "right on" with what was used back in the day.

Also note that the rules forbade (and still do) any narrowing of the basic body (firewall needed to remain at original dimensions) although fenders could be trimmed or cut off.

BTW - RichFox is correct. There were cl***es for altered coupes and sedans, and a separate cl*** for altered roadsters with rules leaning more toward "purpose-built" race cars - hence the tube frames that pretty much became the standard. I believe there was also an engine set-back limit that had to do with the distance from the center of the front wheel spindle to the the front spark plug hole. This had the effect of keeping the wheelbases short.

I have a '67 NHRA rule book. If anyone has specific questions, PM me.

 

The coupe and roadster bodies were used on both the American Austin and the later Bantam...basic body shell remained the same, fenders and grill and such were much updated for Bantam.
AA was licensed from British Austin 7, with a good many changes made for American market and entirely made here. As an example of changes, instead of just cobbling up throttle linkage for LHD, they reversed the entire engine layout! Ch***is was still obviously derived from 7, bodies entirely American.
Bantam made lots more changes to basic package, Engine almost all new, etc.
Dimensions are NOT as they seem! Bodies were cleverly styled to have proportions like normal sized cars, so the stock body had most of its p***enger footspace hidden by hood--engine, not much bigger than a toaster, occupies only about half of hood length. Altereds invariably end the body at the hood parting line, so no legroom. Stockers are, almost unbelievably, roomy for two people. Styling by same guy as Duesenberg... note that the stock American Austin roadster looks like an SJ built for Donald Duck!

 

Nice summary, Bruce. Thanks!

 

Here s a couple pictures of my 92 inch wheel base bantam. I bought my body from MAS, it was the only one I could find that was old school looking.

Jon

 

FYI



And a pretty cool Bantam body style reference. You'll note the Rod N Race unit above is very proportional to the roadsters below: