’50s Fiberglass Frenzy
Think of today’s carbon fiber and how it has revolutionized motorsports. In the early 1950s, fiberglass’s “miracle” properties captured the imaginations of car builders, from backyard mechanics to designers in Detroit.
Compared to sheet metal, this stuff was inexpensive, lightweight and easy to work, and it fueled the dreams of DIY builders from coast to coast. Enthusiasts, bored with heavy sedans and infused with hotrod fever, yearned to drive sporty roadsters powered by American V8s.
Fiberglass allowed the dreamers of the ’50s to become the carbuilders of the ’50s. The decade’s offerings promised jet age styling for anyone willing to invest the garage time, and the day’s magazines gave these creations ample ink.
Seeing this need, innovative builders responded. Years before the big players rolled out mass-produced composite sports cars (the 1953 glass-bodied Corvette and the Kaiser-Darrin the next year), nearly 50 tiny companies offered fiberglass specials, in kit or finished form. The rush was on.
With no pesky government regulations to fret about, car building presented a wide-open market opportunity with relatively low upfront costs. Glasspar, Atlas, Allied, Victress and others offered a variety of glass bodies in some stage of DIY form.
Some also sold scratch-built frames, although many DIYers found it cheaper to modify an existing chassis, and 1940s Ford frames and drivetrains proved to be popular choices. In 1953, Victress offered a body shell for $595 ($620 with both doors), and its advertising claimed the average mechanic could build a car for under $1000–not counting labor, of course, which might add up to 2000 hours or more.
Build instructions ranged from a couple of murky mimeographed sheets to detailed, well-illustrated booklets complete with measurements and diagrams. A Victress build brochure tried to prepare prospective builders for the challenge they faced: “It must not be expected that a car body can be made without a certain amount of determination…. A little knowledge of fiberglass and resins cannot but help the individual in their use.”
Bucking long odds against completion, many builders were not up to the task. Geoff has recovered numerous unfinished builds, all displaying varying levels of engineering, craftmanship and materials. “Some builds were well executed and some were horrible,” he says. “Each is a time capsule that reveals the builder’s budget, tools available and skill level. They worked with what they had. Many display some really ugly stick welds, which we generally leave untouched because they’re part of the charm.”
Despite the low number built, top examples rivaled Motor City’s finest in generating attention. During the ’50s, they were featured on more than 100 magazine covers and viewed in person by tens of thousands at big shows, including the Petersen Motorama in Los Angeles and rod and custom exhibitions in Chicago and Detroit.
Other companies, including Victress and Bocar, gained fans by setting records and winning races. In 1953, a specially prepared, Hemi-powered Victress became the world’s fastest sports car with a record-setting, two-way Bonneville run of 203.105 mph.
“A few of these cars equaled Detroit’s concept cars for publicity. They became really famous for a short time,” Geoff says, “and then they disappeared just as quickly.” According to a 1977 letter written by Road & Track Publisher John Bond, from 1951 to 1957 (the period on which Undiscovered Classics focuses most of its efforts), as many as 1000 fiberglass and metal specials were built. Based on his research into production records and one-off builds, Geoff confirms this number and estimates that between 250 and 500 survive today.
Restorations, Today and Tomorrow
Undiscovered Classics and its clients have rescued and restored dozens of these cars. They currently have nine more in various phases of renewal and another dozen candidates waiting in the wings.
Geoff chooses his restoration affiliates carefully; most are one-person shops. “Not every shop is qualified or even interested in working on cars like these,” he says. “There’s little reference material. Often we need to fabricate oddball components simply because parts are not available. I look for old-school knowledge and fabrication skills, someone who is able to analyze what we need and has the talents to build it.”
Geoff’s shops work to restore these specials–including the gray Siebler Special and the brown Grantham Stardust, one of which stars alongside Tony Curtis in 1954’s “Johnny Dark”—to their original glory.
Putting Geoff’s Ph.D. and former corporate experience to good use, Undiscovered Classics has developed an elaborate flow process that outlines every step of a car’s comeback, from research to restoration management to concours debut. Included are 3D preview renderings created by Dan Palatnik, an artist based in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. For each restoration, Geoff develops and assembles an online/print book that details each phase, along with press releases, magazine articles and specifications that support an entry’s show debut.
We visited three Tampa-area shops and examined works in progress. At Corvair expert Jody Summey’s garage, we found the Asteroid, a radical, one-off, show-circuit survivor based on Chevrolet’s 1963 show car, the Corvair Monza SS. This center-driven creation was laboriously shaped in metal by customizer Bill Meador with an assist from Jesse Cochran, who contributed a donor car to the project in 1966.
Geoff tracked down the 82-year-old Cochran, who has helped with details of the original build. Retired after its show career, the Corvair spent 40 years in storage until it was discovered in rough shape. Now it’s getting a complete restoration, and this shop had just finished rebuilding and installing the engine and transaxle.
At Ralph Smith’s shop we spotted a 1953 Grantham Stardust (12 were built, four remain) that was featured in the 1954 movie “Johnny Dark” starring Tony Curtis. This V8 Ford flathead-powered roadster now has a restored chassis and drivetrain. Bodywork comes next.
Ralph, who ran a hotrod shop for 30 years, is also refurbishing the shapely, Ford OHV V8-powered 1955 Siebler Special prototype, which California-based creator Dick Siebler built from scratch in 1955. He spent, he told a local reporter, $1200 and 4000 hours on the project. In the article, this builder also shared his dream of commercial production, hoping to sell his specials for under $4000. Life intervened, and he was destined to finish only two. Geoff tells us he loves tracking down and sharing forgotten particulars like this, and supporters of the Undiscovered Classics website agree.
In Rob Hernandez’s shop, we found the Cannara I, a one-off, Chevy V8-powered wedge crafted from aluminum and fiberglass. It was conceived and built by teenaged Ray Cannara, who drove this topless creation from his home in Florida–his mom riding shotgun–to L.A.’s Art Center of California, where he was a design student. He completed the car in 1968, used it as his daily driver, and sold it years later.
When Geoff traded for the badly abused Cannara, he had no idea what it was or who built it, and neither did its owner. Undiscovered Classics spent months following a trail of clues before it was identified. Geoff was then able to track down the builder, who, after a design career at Chrysler, had retired to Florida. Remarkably, he lived just 30 minutes away. After 40 years, the creator was united with his car.
If a new-from-scratch, 60-years-out-of-production fiberglass special rings your bell, Undiscovered Classics can sell you a body shell. In fact, it has six models available. For example, you can buy a new Byers SR-100 (in various stages) and mount it on a modified C2 or C3 Corvette chassis.
The first of these creations is now up and running with a Corvette ZR-1 engine and ZF six-speed. Back in the day, R&T called the Byers “the world’s most beautiful sports car.” Publisher John Bond built one of his own and, in 1957, featured another on the magazine’s cover. Undiscovered Classics also has plans to reproduce Allied Swallow and Victress S-1 bodies.