When I was a kid, in the fifties, my cousins and friends would take an old car (not hot rod material) and cut the body off, leaving the frame, suspension, radiator, running gear, front seat and firewall. They were called "cutdowns". Buicks were a popular cutdown, with the straight eights. They were pretty fast and very dangerous. I googled "cutdowns" but could not find an example. Anyone else ever cut down a car like that?
We used an axe to cut through the windshield post and and also across the floor behind the front seat. I helped cut up several neat old cars that way. Lots of fun running the back roads. That was when I learned not to drive fenderless cars through fresh cow crap. John
we called them doddle bugs....and on the farm they were used for all kinds of things...running the back roads was a big part ...man they were fun...racing on the back dirt roads.sliding,bumpin,crazy man crazy..every once in a while at night, a quick run on the main blacktop h'way....
Glenwood Farms Campground (Marseilles, IL) in the 1970s used to cut down old sedans just like you described to use as utility vehicles. They painted them all red and called them "redbird" with a number. Once they died, they were pushed off a bluff to land on top of the last "deadbird". I haven't thought about them in years!
Cut-downs or skeeters were common terms for light weight modified stock cars used in oval racing in the south. But they did have bodies and many had primitive wings. In other parts of the country they were just called modifieds or supers. These cars were mainly created by using production auto frames and parts, with hot rodded motors. Gary
I remember cutdowns from the fifties. Their idea was to emulate a sportscar, not anything like the stripped cars mentioned throughout this thread. We recently found one at a sale in East Texas. They took a 1932 3 window, welded the doors on and the trunk lid, then "Cutdown' a deep V in the doors so they could easily step over the V to get in and out of the car. On that 32, they also cut off the roof because European sportscars were open cars. You can do a search to find out about this car.
OT, but in the 80's we were always buying cheap cars and cutting the tops off to produce a party car this could last a week or summer depending on the drivers and luck! Looking back it's a damn wonder no one got hurt from all that jagged sharp metal! Thank you Lord for looking out for our dumb asses! No thought process involved, just a junker and a sawsall! We did a '66 Chevelle 4dr, a '70 Lesabre, several Caddys and a few I don't remember, those cars and the alcohol brought out the daredevil for sure! WOW!!
And they did a Corvette just recently........ In my pre-teens I hung around the lumber mill in my home town in east Texas hoping one of the drivers would not show up for work and I could drive one of the "stripped" Model T's or Model A's that they had taken all of the sheet metal off of, just leaving the cowl ( to hold the gas tank) and pull lumber buggies (actually old push carts) from the mill to the planer and stowage buildings. Was the first thing that I got to drive by my self. I got to work on some of them and the old mechanic taught me how to pour Babbitt rods. Man that sure brings back a lot of memories ...... but it is sad to say .. when the mill closed they scrapped all of the T's,A's and all of the yard trucks and any of the log trucks that they could not sell.The yard trucks were mostly 50's Ford and Chevy pickups,most were never registered and tagged for road use . Kenny
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zId1gDyTunk there ya go did that to an s-10 i was using as a donor frame. youll have to click on the link ,i dont know how to put the video in the thread ....
i the 60 s to 80s a lot of farm kids made them and shortened the frame also, many had homemade fenders, many had roll cages , most just had gauges for a dash and 2 bucket seats. most were 100hp flatheads, light and fast some are still used for field cars
In Connecticut we also called them doodle bugs.In my early teens I made one out of a 53 Dodge. The only thing left of the body was the cowl. The frame was shortened so much you could touch the rear tire while sitting on the drivers (tractor) seat.Even though it was only a little 241 Hemi with a 3 speed it managed to scare the hell out of my buddies and I on a number of occasions.Young and crazy........Now old and crazy
It was called a brush buggy but I almost killed myself when I was 19 by driving my cut down 54 Buick through a barb wire fence It was shortened up enough that you could put your foot on the front tire and hand on the rear tire at the same time without stretching too much. I've still got the scars under my chin and on my leg that took a total of about 25 stitches. Damned thing was fast though.
We did that to the old 4-door Plymouth savoys, cut them down to nothing but the firewall,dash and windshield,shortened the frame and driveshaft.Used a pallet for the bed and that was the best woods car and alot of fun.It would go anywhere and if you got stuck just pickup the ass end throw something under it and go again.Found some of my best fishing holes with that old cutdown.
We used to do it to make sand buggies out of them. I'm sure the terminology and basic usage is localized what you called a cutdown we called a dune buggy.
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