The wonderful world of one-off fiberglass kit cars | Barn Find Hunter - Ep.42
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- Опубликовано: 16 окт 2018
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"There's no other place on the planet that can possibly resemble what we're about to go see right now," said Tom Cotter as he parked his car outside of Fiberglass Farms in Tampa, Florida. In this episode of Barn Find Hunter, Tom meets up with his old friend, Geoff Hacker, to dive into the world of one-off fiberglass kit cars.
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From a European POV These kit cars are a fabulous collecting subject. Don’t let them wither in the sun, but rebuild & restore them and preserve a important piece of history ! Great video, btw.
You're European
No one cares about your opinion
I'm 41 years old and I remember kit car bodies when I was a kid , but never thought I'd be looking back at them like an era that once was ..
LOL! yea,, something just doesn't seem right about that. Egads!
You guys have to increase the length of the video, seriously.
I WANT MORE..........WAY MORE CONTENT!!!!!
The guy seems to be active in getting these cars restored, hopefully all goes well and I'd LOVE to see the results!
I own an Australian fibreglass car built from 57-60 called a Buckle Coupe. There were a number of fibreglass manufacturers building their dream cars at that time. Very few have survived. LOVE this video and hope there is more to come.
You mentioned retightening the fasteners in the Woody, iv played with old wooden boats, an old salt told me when I pull the fasteners to dip the threads in varnish and reinstall, helps save the wood and prevent the screw from backing out.
How about some medium strenght loctite?
@@SpaceShipDeathstar loctite only works on metal to metal fasteners 😎
All those fiberglass shells just rusting away!!!
Haha. Good one!
😀
They were garbage when they were new.
well you have to wonder how many are destroyed by all those fallen trees and limbs
Yeah, I see what you did there. Good one.
I am 65 and I remember many of these cars from my Dad's Popular Mechanics, Mechanix Illustrated and other magazine he subscribed to in the 1950s. I always wanted to build a fiberglass car. My most recent dream was a Ford GT replica. In the 1970s the Fiberglass trend kind of culminated in the Brubaker Box, another dream of mine.
Another Great Episode. Can we see a couple finished ones like maybe the one on the trailer? Loved the fact he knew all the history of them. Keep up the great work.
Cooooool stuff!!! Really....all these cars are worth getting back on the road,i think. Fantastic to see this creative collection..Thanks !
Designing cars is a lot like singing we all can sing but few of us can make a living at it .
Wow he is full of facts and information, a real petrol head and car fanatic .... thank you for another great video 🇬🇧🇬🇧
I’ve always loved cars but have had some bias towards metal and not appreciated fibreglass anywhere near as much. However, when I see the variety, history, and vehicles that range from beautiful to crazy, it makes me appreciate them and the work to design and build them much more than I did. I would love to explore those cars and discover the stories and the shapes in all of them. The fact that so few were completed makes them compelling too.... people have dreams but those dreams are rarely realised... sometimes even the remnants can be something worth preserving and sharing. Thanks for another great episode. You may have to cover a lot of miles and you may not always have tome to explore as much as you want... certainly for some viewers the 3 hour edition still wouldn’t be long enough because there was a shed door left closed or an overgrown wreck that wasn’t dug out ;) I think I’m one of those. If I went for a visit they’d ask me “don’t you have a home to go to?” My reply might be something slightly politer but still along the lines of “Cars. Busy.” :)
Back in the 70's when early Toyota pickups had a body corrosion problem, someone came out with a kit that would turn one into an MG clone. I can't find anything about it now.
All 70's Japanese cars had corrosion problems
So happy I discovered this series. I wish to have a life like Tom. So many incredible stories to hear and travel to
Longer episodes please
That's amazing, the collection and knowledge that this man has is phenomenal, lived to c some restored
That's it..... I would have liked to see even more. Maybe a few restored ones.
4:50 this car will never be finished either
Hi I'm new to the show discovered it last week and was glued to my laptop went back and saw all episodes. Love the vibe and the info given by Tom. I live in Aruba and I own a 1968 Ford F250 Camper Special
Tom Cotter for President
Love this show! Can’t get enough of it, makes me want to hunt for classics!
I look at this collection of interesting concept cars and think about how many of these cars were built with the dream that they would become successful designs that would stand the test of time. I give this guy coodoes for not only collecting the cars but the stories that go with the cars.
"Where nothing is organic." That's great!
Love this series. Thank you!
I thought I had seen them before but when he said Ray Evernham and Americana TV show it connected the dots. This is a much more inclusive look at the cars there. Very interesting .
Matt Robin s
Man the at 0:59 the Blue in the background, m pretty sure i grew up in Florida next to it. awesome collection!
I spied the McCormick kit car. That needed to make the show. It is amazing. I didn’t realize there were so many beautifully stylized fiberglass cars out there. I will say aside from the McCormick, my next favorite fiberglass car is the Chevrolet Cheetah followed closely by the Lotus Europa.
Always fun thanks for taking us along.
Me and my childhood buddy ,we used to go parts hunting together but in old private junkyards that were on people's farmland.We were gear heads back then and still are to this day! I freakin HATE these old VW Kit Cars.I had 1-2 of their names on my tongue but now I forget again?! Love this program tho!
Got my fingers crossed that when you come back in ten years that all are restored and are able to drive down the road !!!!!!!! Good Luck no wait a d!@ minute, Great Luck Sir!!!!!!!
Please put these gems inside!
Amazing video, love geoff he seems very in the know
Awesome cars!thancks for that view!
I miss the old station wagon wonder if you could bring that back my wife and I love seeing you drive it. Thanks for all the great work you and your team have done on this series we enjoy it immensely.
Mick - Thanks for the kind words!
I always dreamed of building a Cobra... The mad dreams of a small boy and a magazine ;-)
Same! And actually still do, ha
"Littering the Country" - well said.
First episode Tom doesn't know about every screw and detail. #humanCarEncyclopedia 😁👍 These cars are very special and Jeff told a lot about them in a short time. ☝️😉
I'm looking for a Manta Montage for a long time. This is the perfect KitCar for me. #beautifulLines
New show beyond the barnyard, would love to see his collection inside
well, another place I would like to see SIX 15 minute shows of...........
A word of caution ...any glassfibre bodied car left out in the weather will almost certainly have osmosis it is very difficult and sometimes impossible to get rid of
the vehicle would have to be stored in a warm atmosphere for at least 6 months then have the gelcoat stripped off then it would have to be re-gelled ,flatted and polished
this is a very expensive job ..I have re-finished several boats this way so I know what I am talking about Kind regards from the U.K.
Osmosis in boats is both serious and expensive, but it's normally in the Hull, which sits in water and so is in constant contact for months of the year, I have seen osmosis in the upperworks on boats and cars but it is in general no where near as severe or as expensive to repair, never let the threat of it deter you from owning a fibre glass car, I have been dealing with the material for forty five years, I know a bit about it and am still learning, knowledge never remains still.
Great video Tom but we need more !!!
So many spectacular machines!
Those vehicles are magnificent!!!!
Good looking individual cars. 👍👏🏻
Wow!
Amazing cars!
Jeff is such a cute daddy bear 😍
These cars are really cool old kit cars
I liked the color of one towards the end. I think it is called Florida Moss Green...
I had a 1957 Turner Sports fibreglass car with an Austin engine. The body had warped and the tin floor panels had all rotted.
A year later in about 1971 I saw another that I could have bought for $12.
Love the shark car great canidate for a custom car bubble top
I really would like to see the restored car on the trailer @ 11:52. Looks real nice !
Wonderful , well done
That outdoor storage is somewhere south of optimal.
Jesus Christ, that man can talk.
At 0.75 speed he sounds somewhat normal, but Tom seems a little bit tipsy. :D
Walking encyclopedia of kit cars...
Bad case of Columbian Flu
100%
sniff sniff, must be allergies ..... wow
Bring back the country squire wagon for an episode, I like that one.
Back in the day there used to all kinds of kit cars available if you thumbed thru Hot Rod or any other car mag back in the 1960's you would find kits for sale. In the 1970's a friend of mine bought a then current mid engine kit car called a Valkyrie that used a Corvair 4 speed transaxle turned around with the ring gear swapped to the opposite side. He put a 1968 Chevy Z28 302 in the car and it made for a very quick little car. The size & layout was close to the original Ford GT. I think the single most heavy body component was back glass that came from a 1966 Plymouth Barracuda, it was huge and the rear body section was hinged and counterweighted to help open the engine compartment.
Bet that was really bad ass! The 302dz was a beast. Mid engine and the big glass would look a bit like the cuda under glass I think.
love this video! i have a Fiber Fab Jamacian on a Triumph TR4 chasis that was pre ca smog titled. kinda looks like a 62 ferrari 250 gto
That was cool ! I’d like to some finished examples too..
Amazing! (seriously amazing!)
That one car has been sitting out there awaiting restoration .... since 1984??? Less talkie-talk and more workie-work required at Fiberglass Farms!
A couple of years ago, I saw a pickers show from Canada. They found a guy near Calgary, Alberta that had a field full of, I believe, Hudsons. I don't know if you go out of the US, but it might be worth a look.
I just bought a 1959 Victress S4! Delivered from WA to NY State. I am starting the teardown. It has a 1949 Shoebox Ford frame. No engine or trans. I would love to go Hemi or maybe 327 and run it all period.
This man could have a building made to display them on his property. It would be very popular with kit-car lovers, and other car lovers too.
He needs to employ more people to get ALL these cars back on the road :). WOW nice collection
As a boat restorer I could be all about one of them.
He has a NB jacket "hanging" in the back? The sweatpants hanging in there too? ahahahahahahahahahaahaha
The hood scoop on the red car is from a hydrodyne ski boat from the sixties
I enjoyed this a lot, on top of everything else I can't remember the last time I heard a reference to Eckerd Drugs!
I was trying to google Jeff Hacker and noticed is name is spelled Geoff. Just an FYI.
Channel favorite
The weather is destroying all those glass fibre bodies - he really needs to get them all out of the elements .
I really want that car with the unused lincoln engine.
Awesome video, i still hoping to find a brubakerbox to build.
This guy is cool. Great salesman.
Gonna check this out later.
I would really like your 67 ford wagon , the big block 4 speed car !
For kit cars there pritty cool..I would like to see them done..
Awesome this car
Just when you thought you seen it all 👍
Treasures in the grass softly laying in the wind and sun.
The amount of work and the degree of skill required is one reason you can find kit cars in a wide range of completion and level of quality. That is why some "kit" cars today a sold as complete turn key cars and generally the prices reflect the labor and parts needed to complete one.
Awesome thanks
Any one of those cars you could restore for $150,000, and it would be a breeze to sell them for $10,000 or $12,000
There in lies the basic problem with all kit cars, you never get back what you put in. If you build a kit car as an investment you are a fool. You do it for fun and nothing else.
I'm pretty sure that's the business model for most of these old restorations. It's speculative.
country could get caught up on are debt problem if we funded idea's like this
Jesse W Hell no it will not. We will only get caught up on our debt problem when we get rid of bought and paid for greed and power driven politicians.
I can't imagine the thought process that goes into thinking that a kit car is a good idea.
- Kit cars have been around at least since the 60s , and even when they were done correctly they were still a bunch of schit
- Selling them makes a lot of sense, take advantage of people's stupidity. I guess the dummies look at the finished car and I think "Duhh, I can do that".
- A project like that would come down to the process sheets, seeing every step of what's involved - estimate the number of hours - which is of course way over the head of the average idiot.
- And of course the balance sheet, you have to add up all the costs of materials you'd have to buy.
- Additionally anybody that's dumb enough to take on a project like that without carefully playing it out - probably doesn't have much going for him in the first place, better things to do. Darwinism at work. Too bad having children doesn't require a lot of thought.
Darn it, I wanted to see his toenail clipping collection too!
Next on car hoarders, see incredible cars that have historical value rotting away slowly as the owner lies to himself and the rest of the world as he proclaims to “one day” restore them to showroom quality.
Some day most cars will be gone. Fires kill most of them eventually. In 500 years there will be only 4 cars left in museums that survived wars and natural disasters.
Might be addicted, liked before the video even started! 😄😂
Keep going awesome thanks
My fiberglass kit car “thumbnail” gets driven every weekend. Its a 1969 Porsche 917 powered by a 1985 chevy S10 2.8 V6 mated to a 1967 VW transaxle.
Such rare cars...just sitting in the elements
me and my dad rebuilt a Fiberfab Jamaican about 10 years ago. it looks like a Lamborghini Muira i drove it in highschool i sold the vw motor still have the car. im wanting to do a 2.5 subie turbo for its next life. i love kit cars.
6:02 maybe cause I just went to the weed store today and am really stoned right now but buddy must of spotted the crew and was like
I spent 15 or 20 years before I became disabled looking for a old one off glass bodied cars to make a drag car out of. I looked on and off for years between years of working my self to death to having some more free time to look and never found one and I lived in central Florida were every one had one that was finished. not untell 10 years after I became unable to work on one did I find one and now I know of a few hounded in back yards and on car lots half done and it burns my soul to no end not being able to get one and finish it. I worked on cars for 35 years and wanted one for a project car all my life and now it hurts not being able to do one
That guy has done a few lines for sure
Yeah, but he can do a 2000 hour restoration in only 500 hours. So....
Those hood latches at 3.45 and hillman minx or California trunk hinges. I need it😂 plz find a hillman
They call it "collection" !:)
Holy crap this is my favorite episode so far. At 12:08 that looks like a gorgeous vehicle don't even know what it is and the car right after that I forget the name put the door slides into the quarter panel if I'm not mistaken. I would love to hang out with this guy for one day
Looks like a Kaiser-Darrin, but I don't think it is one.
@@atomicmillenial9728 I think you're correct I don't think it is one I wish I could see the front end or the rear pocket for the tail lights. Would love to know what it is
There should be a museum of unrestored junk.
I would think these bodies still exist because they're fiberglass and not scrapped when the price of steel goes up.
But he says many were scrapped. Maybe chopped up and thrown into dumpsters?
Great episode. Would love to see the rest of these bizarre creatures!
they used to call them "specials" in the UK . you could buy them for buttons .