My dad and I built a Bradley GT MkI in our barn in the mid 70s. It was rather 'quirky' to say the least. The gullwing doors were tinted acrylic. They did not fair well in the NH winters. Eventually, they both had acrylic 'band-aids' Dad was a composite materials engineer. The head light doors were operated by an old fashion Frankenstein style lever and cable. Dad had me help him hop up the engine, so it did scoot pretty well. Dad had an obsessive love for esoteric vehicles, which he passed on. He passed away a few years ago, but I am a gearhead due to those weekends in the barn. Great video! Thanks for the memories Steve!!!
I was wondering about that headlight lever, when I was young and dumb, one of my buddies who is also the same bought one cause it looked so cool I remember a lever to the left of the driver ,under the dash, pull that and the headlights popped up. I tried to Google some pics to see if it would jog my memory. I thought the dash wrapped around a little more than just being flat. It hadda be one of these though. I don't think he drove it more than 3-4 times after getting it home I recall it had some issues and his dad said sell it
@@MrTheHillfolk yeah, my dad and I mounted his on the center console. I got in trouble a lot cause as a 10-12 yr old boy it was way too tempting to pull that lever all the time. I do clearly remember the satisfying 'chunk' it made
@@OkieRA29 Haha I think we cranked that back and forth a bunch as it sat in his driveway,broken Ya know ,sitting behind the wheel making vroom vroom noises 🤣🤣
Hey Steve, I grew up with a GTII. 1980, white on white. My Dad was building it. Chassis on one side of the garage, body on the other. The amount of hours I spent "behind the wheel" imagining I was driving could not be measured. You are correct, all the hardware was very much hardware store grade. The hatchback in the back was indeed glass, both the release for it and the engine cover were just to the left of the driver's shoulder, inside the door. The whole roof structure was a separate piece in the kit, but was meant to be permanently in place as it did contain the roll cage and the windscreen. My Dad's car was never finished and was finally sold on long after I'd moved out. I dearly hope it was eventually put on the road. I'll never know. But that serves as a HUGE motivation for me to "finish" my project car (C3 corvette) every time I embark on an upgrade for it. (went for a drive in it today) I still hold the steadfast rule of never putting anything "on" the car, no matter how disassembled it might be. No boxes, no parts, no anything. Too many images of cars that never leave the garage, covered in "stuff." Love the channel.
Oh man, the Bradleys! Back when I worked at the local VW shop we had this older dude who had a Bradley GT Mk1. It was molded in the root beer brown metallic gelcoat. Had the white leather (?) interior, the chrome tubular bumpers, Keystone mags - this thing was the bees knees! The old dude knew it too, he'd always be sporting his skinny jeans, brown Members Only jacket, Marlboros in his pocket and had the slicked back grey hair.
That would be a neat body to pic up, put a tube frame chassis underneath, and build a 3/4 scale custom Vette. The fiberglass on that looks like it can be saved.
I took my friend to pick up his sister at the airport in 1987. I was driving my brand new, 1987 Formula 350 Firebird. It was bright red and had the stripe delete so it was ALL red. As she climbed into the car she commented on what a nice car it was and asked what it actually was. My friend quickly blurted out that it was a Ferrari!!! She oohed and awwed as she sat down and said she had never been in a Ferrari before seemingly so impressed. I looked at him and busted out laughing. She thought I was really weird to just laugh for "No" reason. We never did tell her it wasn't a Ferrari.
A guy who lived up the street from me back in the late 70s had one of these. By the way he flaunted it and babied it, it seems that he sure thought it was a Merc. If my memory serves me and not my imagination, I believe he also had a mullet. LOL.
My friend has a gullwing .I was lucky enough to sit in her touch and feel her and check her out head to toe.Barry takes her out 2 to 4 times per year.Thank you steve.
at 7:00 it's mentioned this is a 411 engine, but it seems to be a dual carb motor. We can see the choke housings under the air cleaner tubes. I suspect this a type 3 engine & chassis, circa 1966 or 67. 1968 would bring EFI to the type 3. That orange color was VERY popular on the type 3 as well.
My Dentist, when i was a teenager, drove a root beer brown gelcoat metalic Bradley GTII with white leather interior. His was beautifully done. But the thing fell apart fairly quickly once he made it his Daily Driver. But a very striking little car "for a couple years anyway".
It's hard to describe to younger generations how cheap and plentiful VW sedans were in the 70s and well into the 80s. My stepfather worked at a junkyard for a couple years and decent, serviceable examples with clear title arrived daily. The price of a kit body like this far outweighed the cost of the base vehicle to build it on and ended up being well worth the time invested in assembling
My first car was a 1971 VW Fastback. It had electronic fuel injection. It was nothing but headaches. At the time I owned it it was about seven years old.
I never saw one of these back in the day, but about 10 years ago someone showed up to a wedding reception in a Bradley GT. They were still using it as their fair weather daily driver. The owner was shocked I even knew what it was. You got to be hard core to drive something like this every day. BTW, awesome title Steve. You crack me up.
Vilem B Haan and his cool ads for stringback driving gloves, Lucas Flamethrower driving lights, weird rally clocks, and bulbous looking racing mirrors. Takes me back to the days when sports and foreign car drivers would wave and flash their lights when they passed on the road and wore those caps with the snap brim on the front. And I'm pretty sure Road & Track was put out by John and Elaine Bond from somewhere down on the PCH near Manhattan Beach. You ran Castrol R in your Porsche or BSA Super Rocket and if you sat at the light too long, it boiled out through the breather vent. Thanks for the memories Steve.
I helped build a Fiberfab Jamaican when I was 15 years old. We used a Karman Ghia floor pan and VW bus engine. Shifter and pedal assembly were moved rearward 15 inches . Used pinto tail lights, as I recall. They called them kit cars , but all you got was a body shell and 2 fiberglass seat shells and a shopping list.
I use to want one when I saw them in magazines. Then I saw one in the wild a I thought I might as get an Opel which I did not want, then I owned a VW Super Beetle and am really glad I didn't waste the money. I know a lot of people like them, but I was raised by a father that owned nothing smaller than an American six cylinder. Finally I could get use to a Japanese four cylinder. Not fond of the Jeep fours but after all the years I can sort of when no freeway is in front of me. I have seen some nicer Bradley's at car shows. I wouldn't touch one of the Mercedes Kits without at least the Ford 2.3.
The headlights on a GT2 were electric unlike its predecessor. It has a solid crossbar "steel pipe" that both headlights attach to. This crossbar was connected to a VW wiper motor via a welded flat piece of steel. Had to replace the motor on the one I had 30 years ago.
I recently drove past one of the original production facilities for Bradley in the small town of Cokato, MN. I think the building is part of a car dealership now. BTW, that hacked up VW sitting next to the Bradley is a later model Type 3, not a 411. Type 3's got fuel injection in 1968. If that engine isn't seized from water intrusion, it would be a good core for rebuild possibly.
@@corey6393 - If you are of a certain age and grew up in Minnesota you know exactly what it was like to lay in bed early in the morning and anxiously listen to WCCO and hope your district was called as being late - or better yet - CANCELLED for the day……..!!!!!!!
I knew about the Bradly GT, a classmate's dad tried building him one. But gave up and bought a 280Z. Never knew there was a II. Just goes to show, never miss an episode.
I remember seeing ads for these in my Dad's Motor Trend magazines and thinking they were cool - until I became aware of the differences lurking under the sheet-metal of a VW, and something like a GM A body. Once I learnt what a V8 was, it was all I wanted.
I knew a guy in high school that had a dune buggy based on a VW chassis. A person was flirting with death riding in that thing on the highway. I am not sure anyone has done it but it would be interesting to see a crash test on one of these kit cars. No matter which direction you get hit from you are toast.
@@davidgarris2513 We went to the 1998 Brickyard 400, and when we were leaving after the race, (in a Lincoln Mark VIII) I saw a pickup truck with people riding in the back, but it wasn't just a normal pickup ride. The truck had a hard tonneau cover over the bed, so the two passengers back there had the tailgate open! I watched that truck get onto Interstate 74 with us, and with those people still in the back with the tailgate still down!
A guy in my high school started driving one his family had. Something like a tricked out 1800. No brakes on the front axle. Lot of tube around the driver and passenger. It was quick and even with all terrain tires he clocked something like a 14 flat in the quarter. Lost track of him after high school. I could see there could be problems….
I watched an unfinished one of these deteriorate under a horseshoe chestnut tree for 15 years. It was orange. The house it was at had dragsters on trailers and motorcycles coming and going. Drunken week long party's. Always something happening. That orange shell growing more moss and sheltering mice. I finally moved away in 88. I would think about the orange fiberglass lawn ornament from time to time so I would look on Google earth and keyhole before Google got it and it was gone. Tukwila WA. The large plot of land behind the that house became an apartment complex in the 90s so the township probably made that party house cleanup the yard.
Good Morning Steve, There was a Avenger GT12, In a shop in Danbury ct, I worked there for 7 years helping out when he was Busy, When ever the owner was coming he would have me working on the Car, Just to show Progress.I thing it was a storage thing Really.
When I was in grade school in the '70's, our neighbor had a Bradley GT and a Dodge Daytona. I was too young to know exactly what they were but I did think they were very interesting! Up until about a couple of years ago, there were still a couple of Bradley GT's in storage back in my home town about 40 miles from here, one was under a canopy at a former Ford dealership and another one was hiding inside a long closed car wash which has since been torn down.
I can picture the heavy metal flake paint job on this. Every time I saw one in a magazine, my heart would beat a little quicker. There was one about a mile away from where I grew up, once I saw it up close some of the lust dissipated. Fiberfab as a company has an interesting story of its own. Thank you, as always sir and super Shane!
Yeah, that car is way more under-refined that I would have thought. The dash really does look like it was just grabbed from a boat mold. I'm very underwhelmed.`
Wikipedia says about 500 kits were made and sold before the end came in 1981. I've seen maybe 5 in my lifetime. Mostly before 1990. Thanks for watching and writing. -Steve Magnante
I remember those very well. I lusted to build a project at the time.Sadly I was a poor student and my parents were not on board with giving up their garage while I stumbled through it.
The original Bradley GT did have gullwing doors. I think they were one-piece tinted acrylic, I'm not sure, but they were easily removable so that it looked like an open t-top and that seems to be how most of them were used. A neighbor had one of these IIs near me when I was a kid in the '80s. Checking it out the first time, I realized it was a VW underneath, but still cool looking. Builder was lazy and built the headlights to be permanently up. He also often drove around with the doors open. Kind of a goof, I guess, but I always liked the styling and that it wasn't a bad copy of an existing car. I miss riding around on my BMX bike finding unusual cars that seemed to be in at least one driveway of every block of even lower middle class homes. Now outside of the occasional ugly, boring new exotics, I almost never see anything interesting.
I liked the Kelmark GT kit car. I recall Car & Driver had an artilcle back in the late 70's show a Kelmark with BBC in the aft gunning for 200 MPH. Nasty looking piece as I recall. As always, thanks for the daily show.
The quality of the plastic molding on that center console is the equivalent of what you’d find as packing material for a countertop appliance today - cheap, cheap, cheap……..😮 If one of my buddy’s bought one of those things I’d get him a white t-shirt with “POSEUR” in nice big black letters on the front as a gag gift…….😂
man, last night i was at the car show at NE Patriot's stadium and a fella had what looked like a GT1 body kit stretched over a Jet Ski. but the front end was different so he said it was a different kit car--back end was the same, though, and he had it set up like some James Bond creation with toy machine guns on the front fenders that pretended to fire. apparently he had a bit of fun with it on his lake. and then this morning I see this video. Bradley GTs seem to come up often for sale here, but not the GTII. wouldn't mind either one, but they never appear when my driveway is clear.
As a teenager in the early 80s I was heavily into kit cars, just loved the idea of an inexpensive way to get yourself a hot rod or a cool looking car. The Manta Mirage was the pinnacle for me, and I finally saw one about 6 years ago at a car show.
@mgguygardening Back when I put a 350 Chev V8 into a Pontiac Fiero, I came across a company called PISA (Phoenix International Sport Automobiles). I was tempted to get their Scorpion, Artero or ZR-2 models. And then the Fiero crowd went nuts and started raising the prices on their "priceless" gems. That ended the kit car plan for me.
I recall seeing a good handful of kit cars as I grew up in California and as I think back, sure, they maybe weren't the coolest but I admired the effort the owners put in to their projects, sort of like big model cars. And thanks for another history lesson, Steve, and the removal roof would make for an interesting date. "Hey baby, I'll be there at seven in my convertible. Do you have any safety goggles?" 😀
In 1970, my mom's friend had a Fiberfab Avenger GT-12, gold metalflake, based on a 1957 Beetle floorplan. I was 13 then, and was a passenger when we took the thing to Island Dragway in Great Meadows, New Jersey, where Don Garlits had set the first official 200 mph NHRA record in 1964. No, we didn't take it on the track. Instead as I recall, we watched Bruce Larson set a 6.71 track ET record in his USA-1 Camaro funny car. I still have the receipts and assembly manual for the Avenger. Fiberfab also made a tube frame V8 mid-engine version called the Valkyrie.
The Monteverdi Hai Matchbox was one of my matchbox cars when I was a kid. I knew it was cool but it was a long time before I knew it had a Hemi in it. ( or even knew what a Hemi was!)
a few thing for builders who need to know tail lights are BUS LIGHTS, electrical system switches are LUCAS and gauges were VDO units used very widely in most kits of the era ( also was NEVER offered or intended as a roadster - but it DID have an EV option - actor Ed Begley Jr had one _
I remember those back then & actually got to see one in a grocery store parking lot once when I was around 10 & knew what it was as I had seen it in all those car magazines I used to read all the time! Fiberglass seems to be in decent shape & almost complete, someone should start a project on it ✌💖☮
Man I remember those thing’s! They where advertised on every car magazine you bought in those day’s! As a matter of fact! I still have hundreds of car magazines from late 70s to all the way 2009! And on the 80s magazines is where I saw plenty of those advertising! Maybe they where other copies! The bad thing about those, if you have a head on collision or any crash! You better kiss your a$$ goodbye!😂 not safe at all! Thanks for the video Steve!
Ugh, as a kid in the 70's my friends and I were very much into the sports cars and prototypes of the day. When vw-based kit cars came out alleging to copy some of our favorites, we were disgusted. The one I remember seeing in my small town was a "Laser 917" which was supposed to be like the Porsche 917 racing cars circa 1970. My god it was awful!
Agreed, kit cars are usually forced onto a too-short chassis - with a resulting distortion of the classic lines of the "original" / bogey / target vehicle. I also remember those hideous Laser 917's with the sickly aluminum turbine wheels. Take those wheels away, put on some VW steelies with VW hub caps tha 90-percent of the illusion is lost. But to each their own, right? Thanks for watching and writing. -Steve Magnante
My uncle had the avenger. I went for a ride in the chassis once when I was a kid. VW chassis with corvair 6 cyl hanging off the back. That thing ripped!
I always thought they were cool. I don’t remember which one it was but I did have a ride in one with a tweaked out VW engine it definitely moved along. I’d like to find one in good condition, much cooler than a bug. Most people weren’t terribly concerned about safety back then, few of us even wore a seatbelt back then.
My neighbor fooled me with a Porsche Speedster kit car. His boss let him drive it. Looked great. I opened the bonnet looking for fiberglass mat and resin. There was none. That’s because it was an immaculately restored original Porsche Speedster from like 1956 or something. Da boss man is clanking with coin, that’s for sure.
@@SteveMagnante Thanks! I'm just a semi-literate motor head, so to be compared to Tom is a big deal to me! Peter Egan, Brock Yates, McCahill, all those dudes are who taught me to read, lol
It’s very cool (and I hope it finds a home) But that oddball wheel arch in the quarter panel drives my OCD bonkers lol Id have to do something about that immediately lol
The hacked up car in the background is a Type 3, not a type 4. I spent a fair amount of time looking over a completed Bradley GT2 on display in an airport during a layover in the late 70s and realized where the tail lights came from. The tail light lenses were actually from a school bus. They were Cats-Eye 600 series warning lights which were a squared off shape that was common at the time.
That Bradley does look like it was never worked on. You popped up the headlights they were clean inside no bulb. Plus, the body is on a trailer. I bet it came from an estate sale.
My dad and his brothers built a first Gen GT as teenagers, that my cousin and I dug out of storage many years later. Considering we were all over 6’ tall, it was nearly impossible to drive with the plexiglass gullwing doors in place. They spent extra on the chrome Sunstar (iirc) spoke wheels and the first digital 8 track player. It was nearly impossible to work on the engine with the body in place. My cousin and I never could get it to idle properly.
Jonathan Livingston Seagull is a story about a bird that flew really high. It was a bestseller in the 70s. Um, yes, it was the 70s. There were no books about turtles that moved really slow, but if I had a time machine I think I could go back and sell one.
Hi Steve, and hope youre well..Im sure some Corvair nut : } out there that ran a flat 6 as well..I wonder if you remember the small factory in Monson in the mid 70s that made dune buggy bodies? It was on the right side, just before the bowling alley as you were coming in from Palmer on 32. What a treat it was to see while riding in my uncles Opel Kadette !
I don't recall the dune buggy shop but do remember the antique store that replaced the bowling alley. Thanks for triggering the Monson memory! -Steve Magnante
I have been reading a few of the comments. What the hell is all of this safety talk? I STILL hate wearing a seat belt! Riding in the back of a truck is somehow "crazy dangerous"? Are you guys serious. That stuff is NOTHING. My father used to make me "perch" on the snowplow on the front of out pickup WHILE HE WSA PLOWING just to get more downforce so it would scrape up a little better. sheesh. What, are people made of friggin sugar nowadays? live a little danger is fun! getting hurt now and then is educational. Do whatever you like but actually do it. Don't go by the consumer report type BS. get out here and learn! Yes, I have been in several pretty bad accidents had many fairly severe injuries. But i never did any of them twice. that is education. I think some of the people commenting, are the same ones that make their kids wear more armor than the soldiers got sent into battle with in WWII.😛 How can you know your limits if you don't find them yourself? How can you be safe if you don't know your own limits?
Good call. We can "do dangerous things safely" and live to tell others that "danger" isn't really danger. Thanks for watching and writing. -Steve Magnante
In ‘77 a teacher in summer school had a GT in coarse silver metal flake. The other kids were impressed with its lowness but my 11 year old car nut self wasn’t fooled. The finish was ski boat and the skinny exhaust in the back gave up the game. Nothing volkswagen was fast or cool back then.
I'm with you, NOTHING mounted on a VW Bug chassis - except maybe a pure Meyers Manx dune buggy - has any cool-factor. But not everyone gets the point. Imagine owning a rough but real 383 Cuda in the late 1970's and losing your girl to a geek driving one of these imposters? I bet it happened! Thanks for watching and writing. -Steve Magnante
Love the word play. Found a fiberglass Bugatti Type 35 body from the 1970's (I believe it was a demo body for the manufacturer) And have been building it into a pretty serious recreation on my channel. Would be cool to see that Bradley GT with a tube frame and modern driveline.
We gotta get out while we're young!!! Reminds me of the Swedish politician who made up a bunch of campaign posters...they read "BJORN TO RUN". Thanks for watching and writing. -Steve Magnante
Lucas in the UK bought a VW 411 to investigate the Jetronic injection, they had just started fitting fuel injection to TR6 and 2500 saloons, they realised they were playing at it after taking the VWs engine apart
low production numbers and "home built" usually mean no crash tests and in many states, no emissions testing, although there are inspections for safety items like seatbelts, signals, wipers, defroster, etc.
Those are pretty cool when completed... i had a puma... puma were sold as a kit, or you could buy one complete.. same idea as the bradley, but i think way better looking.. people had no idea what it was when i took it for a ride... I'd like to have it back as i sold it in about 07.. fun car with a pumped up vw engine... thanks for sharing ...oh and just re ently one of the bradleys were for sale in my area missing one of the doors and i thought where are you going find one door for a bradley !?!
My dad and I built a Bradley GT MkI in our barn in the mid 70s. It was rather 'quirky' to say the least. The gullwing doors were tinted acrylic. They did not fair well in the NH winters. Eventually, they both had acrylic 'band-aids' Dad was a composite materials engineer. The head light doors were operated by an old fashion Frankenstein style lever and cable. Dad had me help him hop up the engine, so it did scoot pretty well. Dad had an obsessive love for esoteric vehicles, which he passed on. He passed away a few years ago, but I am a gearhead due to those weekends in the barn. Great video! Thanks for the memories Steve!!!
I was wondering about that headlight lever, when I was young and dumb, one of my buddies who is also the same bought one cause it looked so cool
I remember a lever to the left of the driver ,under the dash, pull that and the headlights popped up.
I tried to Google some pics to see if it would jog my memory.
I thought the dash wrapped around a little more than just being flat.
It hadda be one of these though.
I don't think he drove it more than 3-4 times after getting it home I recall it had some issues and his dad said sell it
@@MrTheHillfolk yeah, my dad and I mounted his on the center console. I got in trouble a lot cause as a 10-12 yr old boy it was way too tempting to pull that lever all the time. I do clearly remember the satisfying 'chunk' it made
IN A BARN!? That's Farm privilege, 😂
@@OkieRA29
Haha I think we cranked that back and forth a bunch as it sat in his driveway,broken
Ya know ,sitting behind the wheel making vroom vroom noises 🤣🤣
Hey Steve, I grew up with a GTII. 1980, white on white. My Dad was building it. Chassis on one side of the garage, body on the other. The amount of hours I spent "behind the wheel" imagining I was driving could not be measured. You are correct, all the hardware was very much hardware store grade. The hatchback in the back was indeed glass, both the release for it and the engine cover were just to the left of the driver's shoulder, inside the door. The whole roof structure was a separate piece in the kit, but was meant to be permanently in place as it did contain the roll cage and the windscreen. My Dad's car was never finished and was finally sold on long after I'd moved out. I dearly hope it was eventually put on the road. I'll never know. But that serves as a HUGE motivation for me to "finish" my project car (C3 corvette) every time I embark on an upgrade for it. (went for a drive in it today) I still hold the steadfast rule of never putting anything "on" the car, no matter how disassembled it might be. No boxes, no parts, no anything. Too many images of cars that never leave the garage, covered in "stuff." Love the channel.
Oh man, the Bradleys! Back when I worked at the local VW shop we had this older dude who had a Bradley GT Mk1. It was molded in the root beer brown metallic gelcoat. Had the white leather (?) interior, the chrome tubular bumpers, Keystone mags - this thing was the bees knees! The old dude knew it too, he'd always be sporting his skinny jeans, brown Members Only jacket, Marlboros in his pocket and had the slicked back grey hair.
Saab Sonett comes to mind for reason.
That would be a neat body to pic up, put a tube frame chassis underneath, and build a 3/4 scale custom Vette. The fiberglass on that looks like it can be saved.
Steve, For a 40+ year old Minnesota car, it has a nice, rust free body. 😉
It was likely Ziebart'ed
Resinfarted
Fiberglass body rust free.
Flubber & Plastic Food Token love from Tolkien-ville🥝✔️
Yeahhhhhhh! Zebart, it’s us or rust! Silly wabbit ,it’s fiberglass!
I took my friend to pick up his sister at the airport in 1987. I was driving my brand new, 1987 Formula 350 Firebird. It was bright red and had the stripe delete so it was ALL red. As she climbed into the car she commented on what a nice car it was and asked what it actually was. My friend quickly blurted out that it was a Ferrari!!! She oohed and awwed as she sat down and said she had never been in a Ferrari before seemingly so impressed. I looked at him and busted out laughing. She thought I was really weird to just laugh for "No" reason. We never did tell her it wasn't a Ferrari.
She also now thinks a foot equals 5 inches………😐
A guy who lived up the street from me back in the late 70s had one of these. By the way he flaunted it and babied it, it seems that he sure thought it was a Merc.
If my memory serves me and not my imagination, I believe he also had a mullet. LOL.
My friend has a gullwing .I was lucky enough to sit in her touch and feel her and check her out head to toe.Barry takes her out 2 to 4 times per year.Thank you steve.
at 7:00 it's mentioned this is a 411 engine, but it seems to be a dual carb motor. We can see the choke housings under the air cleaner tubes. I suspect this a type 3 engine & chassis, circa 1966 or 67. 1968 would bring EFI to the type 3. That orange color was VERY popular on the type 3 as well.
My Dentist, when i was a teenager, drove a root beer brown gelcoat metalic Bradley GTII with white leather interior. His was beautifully done. But the thing fell apart fairly quickly once he made it his Daily Driver. But a very striking little car "for a couple years anyway".
not to be confused with the Bradley Fighting Vehicle...
This is actually more practical. 😂
No one is Confusing those two 😅
It's hard to describe to younger generations how cheap and plentiful VW sedans were in the 70s and well into the 80s. My stepfather worked at a junkyard for a couple years and decent, serviceable examples with clear title arrived daily. The price of a kit body like this far outweighed the cost of the base vehicle to build it on and ended up being well worth the time invested in assembling
My first car was a 1971 VW Fastback. It had electronic fuel injection. It was nothing but headaches. At the time I owned it it was about seven years old.
Oh the VW kit car bodies, cars and coffee with Steve on a Friday morning great video
I never saw one of these back in the day, but about 10 years ago someone showed up to a wedding reception in a Bradley GT. They were still using it as their fair weather daily driver. The owner was shocked I even knew what it was. You got to be hard core to drive something like this every day. BTW, awesome title Steve. You crack me up.
I had a similar experience at a gas station. Old man that had it really smiled when I asked about it and was happy to share the cars story with me.
Glad you enjoy the titular titles. My English Degree didn't go to waste after all! Thanks for watching and writing. -Steve Magnante
Vilem B Haan and his cool ads for stringback driving gloves, Lucas Flamethrower driving lights, weird rally clocks, and bulbous looking racing mirrors. Takes me back to the days when sports and foreign car drivers would wave and flash their lights when they passed on the road and wore those caps with the snap brim on the front. And I'm pretty sure Road & Track was put out by John and Elaine Bond from somewhere down on the PCH near Manhattan Beach. You ran Castrol R in your Porsche or BSA Super Rocket and if you sat at the light too long, it boiled out through the breather vent.
Thanks for the memories Steve.
And hook up an UNGO Box...
I helped build a Fiberfab Jamaican when I was 15 years old. We used a Karman Ghia floor pan and VW bus engine. Shifter and pedal assembly were moved rearward 15 inches . Used pinto tail lights, as I recall. They called them kit cars , but all you got was a body shell and 2 fiberglass seat shells and a shopping list.
I was thought the Jamaican looked like the 240Z which came out after.
were they the ones using Corvair windshields?
I can't remember for sure , that was 45 years ago. I think I still have a copy of the assembly manual somewhere, though.
Made me remember of seeing all the ads in the back of car magazines where a Beatle had a Rolls-Royce Grill......
Mr. B. Here ! Morning Mags ! ☕️☕️🍩 👁️👁️ very interesting & informative!
Morning
@@tomwesley7884 Mr. B. Here ! Good afternoon 🍺🍔 just got your morning ! Service issues , LOL . Have a good evening 🌇
Good morning, Steve!
I use to want one when I saw them in magazines. Then I saw one in the wild a I thought I might as get an Opel which I did not want, then I owned a VW Super Beetle and am really glad I didn't waste the money. I know a lot of people like them, but I was raised by a father that owned nothing smaller than an American six cylinder. Finally I could get use to a Japanese four cylinder. Not fond of the Jeep fours but after all the years I can sort of when no freeway is in front of me. I have seen some nicer Bradley's at car shows. I wouldn't touch one of the Mercedes Kits without at least the Ford 2.3.
The headlights on a GT2 were electric unlike its predecessor. It has a solid crossbar "steel pipe" that both headlights attach to. This crossbar was connected to a VW wiper motor via a welded flat piece of steel. Had to replace the motor on the one I had 30 years ago.
I recently drove past one of the original production facilities for Bradley in the small town of Cokato, MN. I think the building is part of a car dealership now.
BTW, that hacked up VW sitting next to the Bradley is a later model Type 3, not a 411. Type 3's got fuel injection in 1968. If that engine isn't seized from water intrusion, it would be a good core for rebuild possibly.
Dassel-Cokato - two hours late……..❄
@@ddellwo Snow day?
@@corey6393 - If you are of a certain age and grew up in Minnesota you know exactly what it was like to lay in bed early in the morning and anxiously listen to WCCO and hope your district was called as being late - or better yet - CANCELLED for the day……..!!!!!!!
I knew about the Bradly GT, a classmate's dad tried building him one. But gave up and bought a 280Z. Never knew there was a II. Just goes to show, never miss an episode.
I remember seeing ads for these in my Dad's Motor Trend magazines and thinking they were cool - until I became aware of the differences lurking under the sheet-metal of a VW, and something like a GM A body. Once I learnt what a V8 was, it was all I wanted.
Hardcastle and McCormick was a cool show back then
I knew a guy in high school that had a dune buggy based on a VW chassis. A person was flirting with death riding in that thing on the highway. I am not sure anyone has done it but it would be interesting to see a crash test on one of these kit cars. No matter which direction you get hit from you are toast.
Well, remember that at least 'till about the mid 90's that we would ride in pickup beds flying down the highway 😳🤔😬😛
@@davidgarris2513 We went to the 1998 Brickyard 400, and when we were leaving after the race, (in a Lincoln Mark VIII) I saw a pickup truck with people riding in the back, but it wasn't just a normal pickup ride. The truck had a hard tonneau cover over the bed, so the two passengers back there had the tailgate open! I watched that truck get onto Interstate 74 with us, and with those people still in the back with the tailgate still down!
A guy in my high school started driving one his family had. Something like a tricked out 1800. No brakes on the front axle. Lot of tube around the driver and passenger. It was quick and even with all terrain tires he clocked something like a 14 flat in the quarter. Lost track of him after high school. I could see there could be problems….
I watched an unfinished one of these deteriorate under a horseshoe chestnut tree for 15 years. It was orange. The house it was at had dragsters on trailers and motorcycles coming and going. Drunken week long party's. Always something happening. That orange shell growing more moss and sheltering mice. I finally moved away in 88. I would think about the orange fiberglass lawn ornament from time to time so I would look on Google earth and keyhole before Google got it and it was gone. Tukwila WA. The large plot of land behind the that house became an apartment complex in the 90s so the township probably made that party house cleanup the yard.
Good Morning Steve, There was a Avenger GT12, In a shop in Danbury ct, I worked there for 7 years helping out when he was Busy, When ever the owner was coming he would have me working on the Car, Just to show Progress.I thing it was a storage thing Really.
That would be cool to see that Bradley completed with a WRX motor.
Great content as always Steve.
Cheers Pat 🇦🇺
Good morning Steve 😊.
There was one of these roadside off a country road by Clio, MI for years. I'm 42 and it was there from my childhood until I moved in 2014
When I was in grade school in the '70's, our neighbor had a Bradley GT and a Dodge Daytona. I was too young to know exactly what they were but I did think they were very interesting! Up until about a couple of years ago, there were still a couple of Bradley GT's in storage back in my home town about 40 miles from here, one was under a canopy at a former Ford dealership and another one was hiding inside a long closed car wash which has since been torn down.
I think most people would just as soon, and rather have, the Volkswagen beetle itself. 😏
I can picture the heavy metal flake paint job on this. Every time I saw one in a magazine, my heart would beat a little quicker. There was one about a mile away from where I grew up, once I saw it up close some of the lust dissipated.
Fiberfab as a company has an interesting story of its own.
Thank you, as always sir and super Shane!
Yeah, that car is way more under-refined that I would have thought. The dash really does look like it was just grabbed from a boat mold. I'm very underwhelmed.`
I kinda wonder how many of these things were built, I would think getting obscure nowadays.
Wikipedia says about 500 kits were made and sold before the end came in 1981. I've seen maybe 5 in my lifetime. Mostly before 1990. Thanks for watching and writing. -Steve Magnante
@@SteveMagnante Thank you sir. I had no idea they were that rare. I was quite lucky in seeing a completed one. ~ Chuck
I remember those very well. I lusted to build a project at the time.Sadly I was a poor student and my parents were not on board with giving up their garage while I stumbled through it.
The original Bradley GT did have gullwing doors. I think they were one-piece tinted acrylic, I'm not sure, but they were easily removable so that it looked like an open t-top and that seems to be how most of them were used. A neighbor had one of these IIs near me when I was a kid in the '80s. Checking it out the first time, I realized it was a VW underneath, but still cool looking. Builder was lazy and built the headlights to be permanently up. He also often drove around with the doors open. Kind of a goof, I guess, but I always liked the styling and that it wasn't a bad copy of an existing car. I miss riding around on my BMX bike finding unusual cars that seemed to be in at least one driveway of every block of even lower middle class homes. Now outside of the occasional ugly, boring new exotics, I almost never see anything interesting.
My dad also built a Bradley gt It was on of several vw cars he built
Steve has got to be the most resourcefull guy on the planet! I'll bet he still has his huckleberry money!
I liked the Kelmark GT kit car. I recall Car & Driver had an artilcle back in the late 70's show a Kelmark with BBC in the aft gunning for 200 MPH. Nasty looking piece as I recall. As always, thanks for the daily show.
Thanks for sharing
In the uk there were so many kit car companies back in the day.. Always fun to see.
The quality of the plastic molding on that center console is the equivalent of what you’d find as packing material for a countertop appliance today - cheap, cheap, cheap……..😮
If one of my buddy’s bought one of those things I’d get him a white t-shirt with “POSEUR” in nice big black letters on the front as a gag gift…….😂
When I first saw it I thought it might be a Bricklin SV1 also a fiberglass body car
man, last night i was at the car show at NE Patriot's stadium and a fella had what looked like a GT1 body kit stretched over a Jet Ski. but the front end was different so he said it was a different kit car--back end was the same, though, and he had it set up like some James Bond creation with toy machine guns on the front fenders that pretended to fire. apparently he had a bit of fun with it on his lake.
and then this morning I see this video. Bradley GTs seem to come up often for sale here, but not the GTII. wouldn't mind either one, but they never appear when my driveway is clear.
Very cool to see how companies like this would cobble parts together from other vehicles. Thanks Steve.
Glad you enjoyed it
Pretty neat this particular kit car was somebodies dream that was never built. Wild.
I’ve enjoyed every single one of these videos. Thanks Steve!!
Glad you like them!
As a teenager in the early 80s I was heavily into kit cars, just loved the idea of an inexpensive way to get yourself a hot rod or a cool looking car. The Manta Mirage was the pinnacle for me, and I finally saw one about 6 years ago at a car show.
@mgguygardening Back when I put a 350 Chev V8 into a Pontiac Fiero, I came across a company called PISA (Phoenix International Sport Automobiles). I was tempted to get their Scorpion, Artero or ZR-2 models. And then the Fiero crowd went nuts and started raising the prices on their "priceless" gems. That ended the kit car plan for me.
I recall seeing a good handful of kit cars as I grew up in California and as I think back, sure, they maybe weren't the coolest but I admired the effort the owners put in to their projects, sort of like big model cars. And thanks for another history lesson, Steve, and the removal roof would make for an interesting date. "Hey baby, I'll be there at seven in my convertible. Do you have any safety goggles?" 😀
A friend built an Avenger back in the seventies. He used a Corvair engine mated to the VW transmission.
In 1970, my mom's friend had a Fiberfab Avenger GT-12, gold metalflake, based on a 1957 Beetle floorplan. I was 13 then, and was a passenger when we took the thing to Island Dragway in Great Meadows, New Jersey, where Don Garlits had set the first official 200 mph NHRA record in 1964. No, we didn't take it on the track. Instead as I recall, we watched Bruce Larson set a 6.71 track ET record in his USA-1 Camaro funny car. I still have the receipts and assembly manual for the Avenger. Fiberfab also made a tube frame V8 mid-engine version called the Valkyrie.
After seeing this video, and then finding others that run and drive; I must say this is one of the most quirky cars anyone would want to experience.
And the crash worthiness of these kit cars were? Not you hitting them, but grandma hitting YOU!
The Monteverdi Hai Matchbox was one of my matchbox cars when I was a kid. I knew it was cool but it was a long time before I knew it had a Hemi in it. ( or even knew what a Hemi was!)
We're all pulling for you Steve. Hope to see you soon
Most of the Bradleys had insane metal flake clearcoat bodies, often in purple or bright green.
My dad raced a Bradley GT in 1978 in KeyWest. He traded it around 1982 in Knoxville tn
a few thing for builders who need to know
tail lights are BUS LIGHTS, electrical system switches are LUCAS and gauges were VDO units used very widely in most kits of the era
( also was NEVER offered or intended as a roadster - but it DID have an EV option - actor Ed Begley Jr had one _
I remember those back then & actually got to see one in a grocery store parking lot once when I was around 10 & knew what it was as I had seen it in all those car magazines I used to read all the time! Fiberglass seems to be in decent shape & almost complete, someone should start a project on it ✌💖☮
Man I remember those thing’s! They where advertised on every car magazine you bought in those day’s! As a matter of fact! I still have hundreds of car magazines from late 70s to all the way 2009! And on the 80s magazines is where I saw plenty of those advertising! Maybe they where other copies! The bad thing about those, if you have a head on collision or any crash! You better kiss your a$$ goodbye!😂 not safe at all! Thanks for the video Steve!
There was a complete Bradley GT for sale a couple of towns over from me. It sat for years with a for sale sign on it. It finally disappeared. 🤷♂️
Speaking of the SL, I finally got to see one up close at a local car show. Guy bought it when he was overseas. Original luggage too.
That's just like my matchbox. :) I loved matchbox and hot wheels when I was a little guy. :)
Ugh, as a kid in the 70's my friends and I were very much into the sports cars and prototypes of the day. When vw-based kit cars came out alleging to copy some of our favorites, we were disgusted. The one I remember seeing in my small town was a "Laser 917" which was supposed to be like the Porsche 917 racing cars circa 1970. My god it was awful!
Agreed, kit cars are usually forced onto a too-short chassis - with a resulting distortion of the classic lines of the "original" / bogey / target vehicle. I also remember those hideous Laser 917's with the sickly aluminum turbine wheels. Take those wheels away, put on some VW steelies with VW hub caps tha 90-percent of the illusion is lost. But to each their own, right? Thanks for watching and writing. -Steve Magnante
My uncle had the avenger. I went for a ride in the chassis once when I was a kid. VW chassis with corvair 6 cyl hanging off the back. That thing ripped!
Love your videos Steve.
I think it's quite amazing all the magazines and car models laying around the junkyard...
Keep it up with these videos - really enjoy them all.
I always thought they were cool. I don’t remember which one it was but I did have a ride in one with a tweaked out VW engine it definitely moved along. I’d like to find one in good condition, much cooler than a bug. Most people weren’t terribly concerned about safety back then, few of us even wore a seatbelt back then.
My neighbor fooled me with a Porsche Speedster kit car. His boss let him drive it. Looked great. I opened the bonnet looking for fiberglass mat and resin. There was none. That’s because it was an immaculately restored original Porsche Speedster from like 1956 or something. Da boss man is clanking with coin, that’s for sure.
All the charm of a sunken pontoonboat
Great wordsmithing! You must be related to Uncle Tom McCahill? -Steve Magnante
@@SteveMagnante Thanks! I'm just a semi-literate motor head, so to be compared to Tom is a big deal to me! Peter Egan, Brock Yates, McCahill, all those dudes are who taught me to read, lol
It’s very cool (and I hope it finds a home)
But that oddball wheel arch in the quarter panel drives my OCD bonkers lol
Id have to do something about that immediately lol
It's so cool how you have the model kits of those cars. I love when you bring them out so we get to see the actual car (well, almost) 👍🏻👍🏻
Glad you like them!
Thanks for the info Steve. I’m 58 and had seen them around but never interested after I found out they were just VWs
The hacked up car in the background is a Type 3, not a type 4. I spent a fair amount of time looking over a completed Bradley GT2 on display in an airport during a layover in the late 70s and realized where the tail lights came from. The tail light lenses were actually from a school bus. They were Cats-Eye 600 series warning lights which were a squared off shape that was common at the time.
I just saw one yesterday, bright yellow.
Yeah!
That Bradley does look like it was never worked on. You popped up the headlights they were clean inside no bulb. Plus, the body is on a trailer. I bet it came from an estate sale.
I was surprised to see wiring for the bulbs.
They shipped those directly to the junkyard 🙃
😂😂😂😂 and rightfully so!!
Somebody had to say it.
Thank you.
🤣😂😅😂
😂😂😂took the words right from my mouth
🤣🤣🤣
My dad and his brothers built a first Gen GT as teenagers, that my cousin and I dug out of storage many years later. Considering we were all over 6’ tall, it was nearly impossible to drive with the plexiglass gullwing doors in place. They spent extra on the chrome Sunstar (iirc) spoke wheels and the first digital 8 track player. It was nearly impossible to work on the engine with the body in place. My cousin and I never could get it to idle properly.
Interesting video Steve! 👍👍💯🇺🇸
That imc avenger model kit is sweet, wouldn't mind having that hard to find kit.
Jonathan Livingston Seagull is a story about a bird that flew really high. It was a bestseller in the 70s. Um, yes, it was the 70s. There were no books about turtles that moved really slow, but if I had a time machine I think I could go back and sell one.
Hell - they bought Pet Rocks - you could sell them anything……..😂
That red parts car next to the Bradley, is a vw type 3. The 411/412 is different.
Hi Steve, and hope youre well..Im sure some Corvair nut : } out there that ran a flat 6 as well..I wonder if you remember the small factory in Monson in the mid 70s that made dune buggy bodies? It was on the right side, just before the bowling alley as you were coming in from Palmer on 32. What a treat it was to see while riding in my uncles Opel Kadette !
I don't recall the dune buggy shop but do remember the antique store that replaced the bowling alley. Thanks for triggering the Monson memory! -Steve Magnante
I have been reading a few of the comments. What the hell is all of this safety talk? I STILL hate wearing a seat belt! Riding in the back of a truck is somehow "crazy dangerous"? Are you guys serious. That stuff is NOTHING. My father used to make me "perch" on the snowplow on the front of out pickup WHILE HE WSA PLOWING just to get more downforce so it would scrape up a little better. sheesh. What, are people made of friggin sugar nowadays? live a little danger is fun! getting hurt now and then is educational. Do whatever you like but actually do it. Don't go by the consumer report type BS. get out here and learn! Yes, I have been in several pretty bad accidents had many fairly severe injuries. But i never did any of them twice. that is education. I think some of the people commenting, are the same ones that make their kids wear more armor than the soldiers got sent into battle with in WWII.😛 How can you know your limits if you don't find them yourself? How can you be safe if you don't know your own limits?
Good call. We can "do dangerous things safely" and live to tell others that "danger" isn't really danger. Thanks for watching and writing. -Steve Magnante
"Chicks" in the description, language from back in the day
I used to see those around when I was a kid. I thought they were pretty cool until my brother explained that they were built on a Beetle chassis.
Awesome video! Thank you for sharing your knowledge!!! I normally watch/listen while wrenching in the garage. 🇺🇸💪🏼
We had a Bradley gt2. If you’re over 5.5 you can’t drive it . Unless you take the doors off. Ours went to NH
Thank you Steve
In ‘77 a teacher in summer school had a GT in coarse silver metal flake. The other kids were impressed with its lowness but my 11 year old car nut self wasn’t fooled. The finish was ski boat and the skinny exhaust in the back gave up the game. Nothing volkswagen was fast or cool back then.
I'm with you, NOTHING mounted on a VW Bug chassis - except maybe a pure Meyers Manx dune buggy - has any cool-factor. But not everyone gets the point. Imagine owning a rough but real 383 Cuda in the late 1970's and losing your girl to a geek driving one of these imposters? I bet it happened! Thanks for watching and writing. -Steve Magnante
Love the word play. Found a fiberglass Bugatti Type 35 body from the 1970's (I believe it was a demo body for the manufacturer) And have been building it into a pretty serious recreation on my channel. Would be cool to see that Bradley GT with a tube frame and modern driveline.
Death trap…suicide rap 😮
We gotta get out while we're young!!! Reminds me of the Swedish politician who made up a bunch of campaign posters...they read "BJORN TO RUN". Thanks for watching and writing. -Steve Magnante
Lucas in the UK bought a VW 411 to investigate the Jetronic injection, they had just started fitting fuel injection to TR6 and 2500 saloons, they realised they were playing at it after taking the VWs engine apart
Fascinating about the govt. not doing the crash tests. Wonder how often that happened.
Great video.
low production numbers and "home built" usually mean no crash tests and in many states, no emissions testing, although there are inspections for safety items like seatbelts, signals, wipers, defroster, etc.
Cool looking car ,Steve …
Back during the disco era ypu would see those parked outside along with Opal GT's and 240 Z's. Poser cars.
In Québec, they built The "Manic GT" in the from 69' to 71' wich looked à lot like this. It was a full car. Not a kit car
How many of us picked Johnathan Livingston Seagull for a school book report because it was the thinnest book on the list?
Those are pretty cool when completed... i had a puma... puma were sold as a kit, or you could buy one complete.. same idea as the bradley, but i think way better looking.. people had no idea what it was when i took it for a ride... I'd like to have it back as i sold it in about 07.. fun car with a pumped up vw engine... thanks for sharing ...oh and just re ently one of the bradleys were for sale in my area missing one of the doors and i thought where are you going find one door for a bradley !?!