Great stuff Al. Today's craftsman put the folks from the 50's and 60's to shame. Just waiting for someone to bad mouth the red wheels! ! ! !
Really nice metal work! Getting a B-400 top to look right is the hard part, and makes or brakes the finished product IMO.
I have known him a long time,.... Paul Reiter from Reiter's metal craft, He does nice work. "Only 25 vehicles are in existence today, this one was hand fabricated from a 32 Ford 2 door sedan. We started by cutting apart the body of the sedan and leaving only the cowl section and doors. Our skilled fabricator, Matt, built the whole back end, including new floors, new wheel wells, quarter panels and chopped the doors to the correct height using the original specs from the Ford blueprints obtained from the Ford Archives!! Don, another of our skilled fabricators, is now working on duplicating the bows for the convertible top and fabricating the steel garnish moldings. This car is one of a kind, it will be showcased in the Detroit Autorama on March 6,7,8, 2009. Please come take a look at it and many others at the show!! " http://www.reitersmetalcraft.com/History.aspx
Yup Paul and his crew are true craftsman. My dad had them do some work for him years ago and it was perfect. I looked that car over at autorama the last two years and it is amazing
Wait a minute, are we looking at early construction photos of this years Ridler Award winner? If so, the top came out perfect so forget what I said in my earlier post.
Reiter's also rebuilt Lou Wolf's B-400 stocker year before last. The back half of the car was a brazed bubble gum mess. Reiter's had Lou's car at autorama with one half completed and the other half as received. Impressive to say the least. Not suprised that they would tackle building one from scratch.
When I see the pictures, makes me regret selling my B400, although it's about 75% done up in Wisconsin. He got the top right but only after a lot of work. Sold it so I could continue on a 32 delivery.
Someone should be re-doing there. Brooksville are you listening.. I think it would be a hit... My favorite body of any early car
actually, they fit right in with the non-friendly and non- traditional hand fabbed panels. I'm sure the new steel wasn't checked for a pedigree for that all important "soul" factor.
I don't think those who COULD build the bodies to resell are too concerned with the uniqueness of the originals, they'd be much more concerned with making a profit. And I for one would be more than happy to let them profit from ME! I'd be first in line to purchase one!!!
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