Undiscovered Classics Contributors Click on each name below to view articles and information contributed Domestic Contributors Geoff Hacker – Founder Rollie Langston Guy Dirkin Craig Johnson Nate Bowne Kyle Feller Merrill Powell Paul Sable Dennis Kazmerowski Erich Schultz Joel Driskill … Continue reading
Category Archives: * Must Reads
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Above: Dan Palatnik’s Dramatic Rendering of our 1948 Kurtis-Omohundro Comet
Hi Gang… Dan Strohl of Hemmings Motor News posted an article this weekend on one of our favorite people – Dan Palatnik (you can scroll down in this story and follow the link to read the story in Hemmings about … Continue reading
Fifty Shades of Rust (Book) By Tom Cotter Foreword by Wayne Carini Introduction by Tom Cotter and Geoffrey Hacker Ten Stories of Handcrafted Cars Published 2014 … Continue reading
Hi Gang… For the last several years we have done small “tours” of Fiberglass Farms as time allowed and interested folks surfaced. Time and time again we’ve been asked about the origins of this special place, and we’ve shared the … Continue reading
Hi Gang… We search long and wide for detailed information about the vintage handcrafted car builds of yesterday, and recently we hit paydirt – video (actually film) from the 1951 Petersen Motorama. Wow! It’s hard to believe that it survived … Continue reading
Hi Gang… Last month we published part 1 of this series – an article by Robert Cumberford that appeared in Car and Driver Magazine in September, 1962. Click here to review part 1 of this series. In that article, Cumberford … Continue reading
Hi Gang… Small books were published throughout the 1950s by various automotive magazine publishers. The largest producer of these books was Petersen Publishing – the organization that brought us Motor Trend, Hot Rod, and other such luminary magazines. But Fawcett … Continue reading
Hi Gang… As I’ve mentioned before, I feel like one of the luckiest “car guys” around. I’ve always been fascinated with corners of the world that are “less traveled.” This has taken me on some of the most amazing journeys … Continue reading
Hi Gang… We’ve come to a point at Forgotten Fiberglass where we need to step back and answer some larger more analytical questions. Recent contributions to the website by Joel Driskill and Rick Feibusch have provided excellent food for thought, … Continue reading
Hi Gang… Guy Dirkin is leading the effort on challenging us at “Forgotten Fiberglass” to answer the following question: “Why has Forgotten Fiberglass…..been Forgotten?” Most recently, he posted his first salvo in the “comments” area at the bottom of the … Continue reading
Hi Gang… This article was a very important article for John Bond – new owner of Road and Track Magazine as of November 1952 – just three months prior to this article’s publication. How could I know this article was … Continue reading
Hi Gang… Plastic bodies… Built-in radio telephones… Power by solid fuel…. Air conditioning…. Living room comfortable seating… Automatic “crash detector” systems… How promising and “futuristic” the “future” must have seemed back in ’42. Today’s story came in from a good friend … Continue reading
————————— “No one is stirred more than (Henry) Ford at the prospect of seeing that all-plastic-bodied car….” Popular Science, March 1941 Read on to learn more…. ————————— Hi Gang… In just 10 years America would see their first production fiberglass … Continue reading
Hi Gang… Ah the glory of research…much of what you find is questionable or useless. Still other bits of info can be insightful, remarkable, or even intriguing in every way. Take today’s article from the Editors of Road & Track … Continue reading
Hi Gang… We always think of Henry Ford being the first in fiberglass with his 1939 Ford trunk lid and the introduction of his prototype “Soybean Car” in 1941. So who’s number two? Who was brave enough to design, create, … Continue reading
Note: This is the second installment of multi-part series of articles on: The “Big Bang” of Fiberglass: Motor Trend, November 1951 Click here to read the first part of the story. ——————————– Hi Gang… Hot rods in Detroit in 1951! … Continue reading
Hi Gang… Ok…the thumbnail picture of Hemmings Motor News Magazine with a 1954 Venus on it hasn’t happened yet. But we’re getting closer 🙂 Rick D’Louhy and I have taken our message of fiberglass sports cars to all parts of … Continue reading
Editor’s Note: Rollie Langston….this story’s for you! (maybe Guy Dirkin too and interestingly both are/were Byers SR-100 owners…) ————— Hi Gang… I’ve been holding back on you – but that’s now about to change. I want you to believe in time … Continue reading
Hi Gang… Think back to how early this article is gang….July 1952. Fiberglass cars had just been introduced as a possibility 9 months before at the Petersen Motorama in November 1951. By now the American culture had heard about this … Continue reading
Hi Gang… I know what you were thinking when you woke up this morning. You were wondering….. ”With so many stories about fiberglass cars posted lately on the Forgotten Fiberglass website….what’s the oldest known surviving fiberglass car in the world?” … Continue reading
Hi Gang… The golden age of building your own fiberglass bodied sports car was 1951-1956. This is what Rick D’Louhy and I call the “First Generation” of fiberglass sports cars because designing and building your own car from scratch was being … Continue reading
Hi Gang… In order to introduce you to the topic of the article that will be touched on today (and discussed in more detail in the second part of this story), I need to first introduce you to the author. … Continue reading
——– Note: This is the first in a series of articles on the Robert Jackson sports car. Click here to review all articles in this series ——– Hi Gang… Let’s go way back….way back to the early 1950’s. Now tell … Continue reading
Hi Gang… Who was the first author to critically review and research American postwar automobile manufacturers down to the tiniest detail? That might seem like an unusual question, but that’s what Rick D’Louhy and I started to ask early on … Continue reading
Hi Gang… When do you celebrate a birthday? How ‘bout now! I’m actually about 2 months late…..our website “Forgotten Fiberglass” was a year old as of November 16th, 2010. And this anniversary is just an arbitrary point in time. Jon … Continue reading
Hi Gang… Just how old are kit cars or sports cars that you can build? The Glasspar G2 is one of the oldest starting in 1951 – right? Not in any way, shape, or form. In fact, it’s off by … Continue reading
Hi Gang… Research is where it’s at. The more you learn, the less you know (or at least that’s how I feel sometimes as I push forward in the early years of plastic and fiberglass). In doing our research, Rick … Continue reading