My dad and I Eric Thompson found this in Southern Ca. The car had been sitting in the same spot since 1959. We are going to finish what was started back then; early 60's altered with a nailhead. Awesome site! Thanks for posting
OK....So post whore here... I absolutely love the black Bantam. I was very interested in talking to the owner and did some serious research to locate him. The car was on the front page of the MSRA website for a long time. I then asked about it on here and received some valuable help from a gentlemen on here and was able to track the car and owners son down. There is quite a history to the car, the guy that owns it is an older gentlemen and I have not got to talk to him directly yet. He has owned it for a very long time. I have offered to buy the car, but the son told me his dad still has his first car.... I have asked the son for pictures of it and his computer crashed awhile back and lost all of his good pics. He is going to try and get me some next time he is down with car and I will ask permission to share them with the HAMB !!
That car was on CL for sale awhile back wasn't it ?? I got several pics e-mailed to me as I was interested in buying it. I sure could use the front windshield frame
Yes It was on CL, and then my dad got the fever! I wish I could help on the windshield frame. By the way, I need a Title! Thanks for posting this site Me Be Mr. B
When I hauled it home from the Horse pasture Scanned photo and it turned out bad....oh well something else to look at !!
Looks like you have a similiar collection of photo's as me. I was going to post a bunch like you did but have not got used to my new computer with Vista... This one is cool as well.......
WANTED: one steel Bantam Coupe body. Don't care about condition as long as it can be fixed. Need it to put a real steel Bantam body on the GizzleHopper
The candy red one with the Hemi has got to be the most bad ass ride i've encountered this year. It just reeks of KICKASS and being street drivable puts it over the top. Anyone have a body for sale (as my mind goes into overdrive)? Frank
Was originally mine but I got married and put my plans on hold. Stu Denyes eventually bought it and talked me into supplying an engine. All i had was a 170 slant 6 with pushbotton trans and a corvair spyder turbocharger with carb. I marrried the two. Eventually we put a 4 barrel Holley in place of the Corvair Carter single barrel Car worked well. It won a lot back in the day. This body was on the car till two years ago The six with turbo eventually was replaced with a 6 225 six with a carb and headers. Car continued to be a winner. Finally the car received a 383 B Block Mopar . The chassis was changed to a double rail funny car style. The car was raced for many years at Shannonville and nearby tracks. Eventually it was bought by an ONDR member near London Ont. He had a mishap with the wall but has rebuilt it and is running it again. He told me he still has the original body and it is repairabe despite the crash. Don
Cool - Somebody finally put a picture of Marv Ginthers car up! (page 5 Phil1934's post upper left corner) That car is what I am loosely copying with my clients car. It was featured in the Aug. 1964 CAR CRAFT, when it was yellow with American 5-spokes and 12-spokes up front. Sometime in 1965 it got painted bright red and aquired the wheels and tires in the picture. I was bench racing with Roy (my client) at a local cruise night about 9 months ago and he mentioned he would like to do it like a car that had been in the magazines in the mid sixties, but that I probably wouldn't know which he was talking about. I walked across to my car and grabbed the issue and said "you mean this one, Ginthers car, right?" Got the job on the spot! As we've gone through this i've "evolved" it a bit more twords the black car with the hemi, which I had shown him a picture of from the ROD & CUSTOM quarterly #10, from the late seventies. That was the only time I ever saw the black one in print. On a different note, I got the body mocked up on the chassis today - 4" flat channel (the only thing I didn't like on Ginthers car was the tapered channel) - Dear god this thing is tiny!!! I feel sorry for you 300#ers building these! I'm 6' 190#, about half legs, and this thing is way cramped! For fun on Monday I dragged my Fiberglasstrends Topolino body across the yard and put it on Roy's chassis, It feels caverness in comparison... I have a kid coming over this week to help me learn to do photos (don't own any myself), so soon I'll be posting pics.
This car is from the Pacific Northwest, I had gathered some pics of it over time but not seen it in person. Then I get a call that there is a Bantam at one of our local drag races this summer. I was not where I could get out there to see it and the friend that was there was in the middle of going rounds, so he only took me one shot. Cool little car though !!!!
OK guys, I am trying to raise my post count.... Nooo Not really, my longtime computer burnt up, I mean actually caught fire.... and I lost all my pics on it. Well, luckily, I had some backed up on my laptop and I have been going through moving them around. Here is another of that Bantam in Spokane this year........
don't know how i missed this one. that black hemi car is bad ass. with a severe case of the hot rod rake i was talking to a friend of mine friday and mentioned his old bantam. 355 with a 6-71 , 400 turbo, olds with 4.88's in a 90" or so chassis. said it wasn't much for wheelies in 1st......but second gear was a wheel standing ride last seen in 88/89 ish from northern ky.
What does a decent Austin body (coupe) go for? Just curious as I like many others here have the wheels turning in my head........ Could you put one on a Model A frame or are they too small for that? Is it better to just hand fab one?
Hey Bud, Well, my opinion is they are like all these old cars. They cost what you can find one for and are comfortable paying. Not being an ass, but I think I paid to much for ours but I wanted the damn thing and they are hard to locate. We gave 500.00 for our body ( no title) and it has no roof or firewall and only part of a floor. I have since changed my attitude a bit as our body did come with all the garnish moldings laying inside of it under the leaves. That little crap is hard to find, so I feel a little better. I have seen them for sale from 500.00 to 8000.00 depending how much is there. You can buy a complete runner usually from 8000.00 to 10k and use it, just don't let the Bantam clubs hear you did that..... Word to the wise for future Austin/Bantam builders. If you join one of the Bantam clubs and are searching for trinket parts, DO NOT TELL THEM IT IS FOR A HOT ROD !!! You probably will not get the part. As far as a Model A frame, I couldn't say on that......A standard build T-Bucket frame works well. On ours I wanted to go short, so instead of like 102" most T-Buckets are at, we cut down to around 93"
That truck is really cool......you better be tiny though With our coupe, as with most builders of them, I am going to move the seat as far back as possible, no option to do that with the truck !!! I guess I could lose some weight... That would probably be to good for me ....
Thanks Mr. B! Well, if anybody knows where one of those bodies are (on the lower end of the price spectrum) please let me know if you aren't looking for yourself (don't want to step on any toes). My sons name is Austin and I think a little hot rod with his name on it would be a great graduation present when he makes it through college! (I have three years to get it done.)
I've got Roy's (see above post) on a 92" wheelbase frame very simalar to what I have built for"T" buckets in the past. The one thing that I did differently though is that I made the kick up in the rear at a 90 degree angle instead of the 45 or 30 that you would commonly see on a "T" bucket frame. this has allowed me to slide the seating back quite a bit further than it was even in an original car. That becomes important real quick in these tiny things. I'd say I picked up 3 or 4" over the other type of kickup. I've also told Roy to understand that this is at best what I would consider a "one and a half" place car! space inside is at a premium.
I have posted this photo before on one of the threads, but it bears repeating. This car is just vicious looking.
The Jalopy Journal
