Why don'tcha just come buy house.. 1/2 million will do it.. sunny weather,, 1 acre of land , big shop,, I be outta here. even leave EVERYTHING IN THE GARAGE.. cars , projects, tools. I'll go elsewhere, start over as a virgin..
I agree, the whole roadster bodies would have to be a good price to beat 'gl***. IMO, there might be more of a demand for Tall T doors ( I have a theory they all got destroyed jalopy racing in the 40's &50's. One race every weekend & 2 doors a race).
Trust me business decision aren't made by people on this forum. It's just a good way to get feedback from other car enthusiast. Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
Have you seen the thread from a few years ago on the 26-27 Roadster body I fellow built in Pennsylvania? One off, but it was real close to an original. I think making the replacement pieces others have mentioned work be the way to go. Some how saving an original body with replacement parts would appeal to more people than buying a reproduction one. Bob
Make a steel 1940-41 Willys body and name your price. This would probably be a much better business move, IMHO.
Hey, 1954fordcustom, a coupe and sedan with steel reinforcing might be cool. Many rodders I know and people I have talked to chose a Model A over the T because of the work necessary to strengthen and stiffen the early bodies. That fact has kept the overall price of T closed cars low. Personally, I would jump on a coupe OR sedan in 26/27 if either was repopped. Frames wouldn't pose a problem because of their simplicity, and lots of us would probably use an A frame anyway. Good luck if you decide to go ahead.
be interesting to know how many repop 40 Ford Coupe bodies have been sold to date.. It's good to have the separate panels available though to repair original Henry steel ones.
There is a company in Livonia, Mi. that stamped the model T bodies for Ford's 100 anniversary and they MAY still have the dies laying out back. BUT you would have to get Ford's permission. Costly . OH the also stamped all of the Shadow Rods '27 bodies.
Had a lot of good feedback on this and I think its a good idea. Start out producing the high demand items like Turtle Decks, Lids, Doors and Subrails and then move on to complete bodies. I don't know how much 28-29 and 32 bodies are in the US but I know there is a lot more parts/labour involved in the 32 over the A's and I would say the T's are less again. A good quality gl*** 32 body made in New Zealand costs $14,000 here. At say $7,000 for one of your T items in steel sounds a good price. The market for complete bodies may not be very high yet but it will soon and the chance to build a steel roadster that more people can afford seems good, I was going to build a gl*** 32( to replace a Henry one I had in the 80's) till I found my 26 RPU and found just how much extra car I got for $10K. I bet there will be market for your T's and parts of. Good luck. JW
Dennis Carpenter is listing 40 ford coupe bodies with doors and trunklid hung for $15,450. the fenders are another $3100. All licensed by Ford. Basically all the new sheetmetal to build a 40 coupe for $18,550... I've had some of those stampings here and they were very nice. Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to see how they fit but they were looking good. Keep in mind Bob Drake's backers left him hanging because they didn't think the demand was there I'd price up all the repro bodies,incl Waddington's from Australia,the Swedish ones...all of em...that's plenty of compe***ion in a limited market.
have you considered the 27/28 dodge, just my personal opinion but i thought they were cooler looking, but a tall T body steel repo would be real neat to do (what about an aluminium option) . maybe just stamping out the parts is a more economical middle ground. people can buy a whole bunch of your parts and put together a whole body if they wanted too.(like a kit or something) the world is your oyster these days with the net and all, i think maybe broaden the horizon to other markets other than just hotrodders, people keep making those ugly little kitset things maybe try an cut into there market and sell em some real style to put there fiat motors into.
Performance & HotRod Business has an article this month. http://performancebiz.com/magazine/digital-version-library
As far as demand, if I had to pick a steel body to reproduce, the Willys is way up there. If you wanted to "ease into it", start with trunk lids and rear quarter panels, enough pieces for guys to convert original Willys sedans into coupes. I think there would be a pretty high demand for those, enough to turn a profit. Using the same investment capital, and the same processes, consider just making a handful of much-needed steel replacment parts instead of a whole body (of any car). It might not be as "cool", but if you're in business to make money, Willys trunklids, T turtle decks, Merc grille shells and '36 Ford coupe rear fenders will sell a ****-ton more than complete T bodies for street rods would. You've been given a great opportunity to make lots of people in the hot rodding and restoration world happy, and make yourself a nice profit in the process. Use it wisely.
i would buy a complete steel roadster body. the wescott fibergl*** body goes for 8 grand. its done right with a steel inner structure and all that jazz, so a steel body in the same ballpark would be righteous.
I like a26/27 roadster, but have you thought about a 32-4 ford pickup? you'd make a killing in doors alone!
Agree all the way on those choices over an entire T body. Problems with the T; Not as much demand as other bodies. That's why A's, 32's, 34's, etc have been done first. T's are cheap. Older resto's for the price of your repop body. Still considered entry level car. Fibergl*** T choices galore. Consider starting with the turtledeck and deck lid and other parts Squablow mentioned. Consider the cost of doing business in CA. I don't think 500k will get you anywhere close to production quality dies to stamp an entire body of panels. Consider SAR has suspended 34 coupe and Drake had issues getting the 40 off the ground. Licensing through FoMoCo?
try marketing them in china, start a hotrod craze there and youd make your money back before ya knew what happened, just look at the waiting list for a harley davidson alone in china is huge,
You would sell one to China and they would copy it (kind of !!) and sell them for $500-$700. If you could take $2K from every complete body,just saying, you only need to sell 250 units to pay back the initial $500K. JW
I'm awful late to the party, but it seems like there might be a market for a steel non-Ford body of the same era. I'd try the 1934 Chevrolet Standard roadster.
Bantams are case cars probably not much use for a steel race car when you can get a gl*** one cheap and light. Now an American Bantam coupe would be an entirely different story I don't think that anyone makes a steel or plastic body and while they don't seem to be too popular I think that it is because they are basically unobtanium. if they were there they would be built. Getting back to the original question how close can the '27 be reproduced to the original and what price range are we looking at? I have seen some '27 roadsters some rough and some not so rough and they never seem to go for more than 1500 bucks and as low as 700. *Me personally I would not be willing to give 20K for a repop when I could find an original for less than 5K. Make sense? *nominal numbers for comparison sake.
A steel non Ford reproduction body is a big risk. Ask the guy who decided to put his money into reproducing a 32 Chevy roadster, not a 32 Ford roadster!
I considered that, actually, but that steel '32 Chevy was very street roddy and was probably wrong for the market just then. Plus a '32 Chevy isn't noticeably different from a '30-'31 Ford except where the cowl meets the doors. I think his money would have been better spent on the '34 body. Just make it stock but without the wood.
A couple companies in the past have tried the 34 Chevy body in gl***,(names escape me) and didn't sell very many. Just isn't the market for early Chevy bodies that there is for Ford, they've been the mainstay for hot rods since the late 20's and I don't think things are going to change in the near future?
I agree with that, but as far as where there's a market that hasn't been saturated, it would seem like Chevrolet would be the next best thing. There certainly are a lot more surviving ch***is and engines than there are bodies--and there were never many open Chevrolets to begin with.
The profile for the tops of doors and body panels on a T open car too. Most non mint T's I have seen almost ALWAYS have had something dropped on them. Dents, nasty dings, & rot on the cowl and the tops of the doors and body panels is a pretty difficult thing to tap out or patch. An off the shelf option for replacing the whole area would be super useful. I could use a pair of thee top of a cowl and a several feet of top rail to fix the cars I have going right now.
If you can do them cheap enough, '26/'27 coupe full door skins (fit '28/'29 pu's as already mentioned) and '26/'27 Roadster 1/4 panels.
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