TELSTAR: Return to Radical-Ness-Ness

update time!

been working on the fins and taillight openings.....

still need to build the other fin and taillight opening,,but now i have something to measure off of....

to finish off the taillight opening, i'm considering building a concave bucket possibly painted body color, and for the taillight itself, perhaps floating a piece of three inch chrome tubing with bullet lenses (or maybe some other shape) one each end,,,hard to explain,,,but hopefully you get the idea..

here are some pics..

ps- pimpin paint....guess we'll have to just agree to disagree ..believe me, i have no love for VWs myself, but it closely resembles the shape i was trying to fabricate from scratch..i do recall seeing many sports cars customized back in the little books,,and i'd imagine that folks probably cut panels off of them as donor pieces..i think jaguars have some beautiful curvy body panels, and i would not be adverse to cutting one of those up either if it would yeild the shapes i needed,,,,just so happens i cut up a ghia,,,in my mind, same difference...it's all just metal........

 

Rock on Jim! I think you just smacked the Ghia right out of it!

 

Jim, if you had ground the paint off before you took the photos and told the peanut gallery that you fabricated it, most wouldn't have connected the dots. And yes, customs can break "rules". I would love to have come by the shop, but I wasn't aware of your open house. Oh well, It'll be at the show next year.

 

Ignore the naysayers Jim, you have a creative side most just dont understand. I doubt there are very many of those that are ragging on this that have ever even tried to build a one off custom.

The fins are looking great and I think you are making great progress on blending the donor sheetmetal into the total overall look of the car.

Now with that said you need to get back to work so we can see more progress pics soon!

 

Hey Jim,

No animus incurred ! The great thing 'bout building a kustom for yourself is at the end of the day you only have to please one person, the one who's name is on the title

I totally get the fact that the shape of the Volkswagen tin was what was called for in your mind's eye, and the mega number of hours it would take to fab said panel on a wheel, power hammer or even to take something semi-oem and cut it down to size, to fit, but the Ghia snout was too easy, and not on a par with the balance of your work.

Ya mentioned Jaguars & kustoms, and the one done by Joe Wilhiem on the 140-5? chassis is the pinicle of ''sports kustoms'' in my book! It's head ans sholders above the one done by the Barris shop for Barry Goldwater, but I'd bet serious money neither one contained any VW d.n.a. Wilhiem hasn't ever got full credit for what he brought to the kustom table!

I've really enjoyed the hell outa your build, and judging from the following so have many..............jus' not the Ghia snout. It's like dancing with a girl with big boobs & a big nose- when she asks"why are you looking at my boobs?'' I say ''cuz I don't wanna look at your nose''

"The real pity in America is that the people who really know how to run the country are all tendint bar and cutting hair " -George Burns -

 

Ahh ..... Kustom7777 , always a pleasure to see your moods in metal ...
Been following all along ... And Its always a trip .


Opinions are many .... Some useful , Others blind and stumbling in the dark ...

 

ok, I'm back on board. I saw that tail light treatment coming... and I love it!

 

clap..clap...clap.bravo!

 

Looks great. Love the new fins - but you are really flagging up the Ghia nose by using the nose vents for your tailights!

 

one thing i really appreciate on a car builder is when nothin is set on stone, change your mind as much as it is needed, no matter how much work went into it.
i applaud the use of VW parts....
keep at it.

 

But I assume you saved the roof for something else?

It's a cool roof, very '50s low-volume European sports car. One really shouldn't think of the body as VW: though mass-producers, Karmann were something a bit more special than the Wolfsburg factory, and the design was by Luigi Segre of Ghia. And I think the work of the likes of Ghia was something the famous customizers would readily try to emulate.

I can't think what I'd have used the roof on, though. It needs to be on something with a longer nose than the K-G.

 

Maybe something like the AC Willment Ghia Cobra - a Fiat 8V Supersonic body that was put on a Cobra chassis in the Sixties.





Hell it´s not too shabby as a "stocker"!





Better save that roof for the next one Jim!

 

That my friend is a perfect BURN

Great build Jim keep the progress photos coming

 

Of all the nutty things ...

 

Never know what a guy might find taken a leak out ack. Good eye man, a word of warning, never pee on an electric fence, it can be quite shocking. I think this is so hip. Keep it up man. ~sololobo~

 

That looks friggin great Jim. You are, hands down, one of the most truly creative people I have ever met.

 

Man you nailed it ! cool, You are going to turn a lot of heads with this one.

 

Oh yes!

Funnily enough one thought that went through my mind while writing my last post was using the K-G roof on a Cobra replica: though marrying the steel roof to a glassfibre body might be a greater can of worms than one might like to contemplate. I'd had the idea before of a Cobra on (somewhat shortened) Deuce rails, otherwise set up like a traditional hot rod with big and little skinny wide whites on steelies with hubcaps, and with the front wheel wells cut away like on a Ferrari 250 Testarossa, inspired by those more ambitious Austin and MG specials that had Barchetta-like pontoon bodies. If one solves the materials thing a K-G roof could make for a coupé version.

 

Jim, how about losing the ghia openings and maybe not have the taillights flow into them. Something like this.

 

I like the fins a lot brother!!!! KEEP THEM!!!!

Great to finally meet you at the roundup man!!!!!!

 

I was wondering about a `53 Corvette style plexi license plate cover on the back.

 

thanks everyone,,,,,

expecting to make more progress today...
working on the rear pan/license/exhaust area today..

should have more pics very soon,,,

 

This is some good kind of crazy.

 

Looks great man keep up the good work. I love the idea of multiple bullet lenses on each side, ever thought about sequential turn signals, relays are already available as well.

 

I absolutely love the blue construction paper all over the floor in the pix...that's the way I'd do it...mock it up in paper first...

R-

 

.........gulp....
Bullseye.

 

I like the leading edge of the fins...reminds me of '57 Lincoln and Barris' El Capitola (and the rear of them reminds me of a '60 Ford)...I love your ingenuity on the rear portion, but I gotta admit it still looks like a Karmann Ghia being towed backwards (only a little though)...but based on the rest of your stuff, I am certain you will finish it off in a creative way that it will all be incorporated into the overall design...and of course it already provided the shape and look you were after.

 

VERY cool!!!

 

Hey Ned,

It's kinda interesting that you should bring up the Volkswagon Ghia design & Luigi Segre as said designer............ Much like the fourty-nine Ford, several have claimed to be its' daddy! Luigi Segre, Mario Boano & Giovanni Savonuzzi, all worked for Carozzeria Ghia, and all three have claimed to have designed the Karmann Ghia. Virgil Exner of Chrysler Corporation design had made drawings of what was to be the 1953 Chrysler D'Elegance, and later built by Ghia. These drawings predate Ghia's work on the D'Elegance! The D'Elegance was built on a 125'' New Yorker chassis, with a Hemi, and at over 200'' in length, actually looked as it was designed, unlike the ''pirated, dwarf in a tuxedo'' design that Ghia would sell to Karmann.
Exner's design work made it to other Italian coachbuilt designs, and many designs of Italian designers made it to "Yank Iron " in the fifties. The Exner/D'Elegance lines worked on the larger scale, but not on the foreshortned pan of the Volkswagen, and thus not on the Schewbaux platform.


'' All great truths begin as Blasphemies "

 

I am impressed with the look of the Ghia parts and the taillight. I think the sharp rear edge of the fin conflicts with otherwise curvy soft style. I think the basic shape works if you round the edges to flow into the trunk area. Just some thoughts...