What A Sound Car To Start From For A Full Restoration – This Will Be Exciting To Watch

Hi Gang…

What’s better than having just one Glasspar G2 to restore?

Well if you ask Tony St. Clair it’s having TWO Glasspar G2 sports cars to restore.  And in the last few months, Tony has kept us busy here at Undiscovered Classics.  We started restoring a Glasspar G2 that that he had owned for 10+ years but…..just as we started working on it with Ralph Smith heading our mechanical restoration team, Tony found and bought another Glasspar G2 which was even in nicer shape.

And I thought Glasspar G2s were rare sports cars!

Work Begins

So….we pivoted and put his first Glasspar G2 in storage (might this Glasspar G2 be for sale???) and started work on the second one.  Ralph Smith, one of our Undiscovered Classic Affiliates who restores cars for us and our customers, received the car and jumped right on it.  He checked body fit to the frame and we quickly discovered that it would be best to shorten the frame by about 1 and 1/2 inches.

Ralph has been restoring handbuilt American sports cars for us for quite some time and he quickly noticed some upgrades necessary to give the frame added strength.  With these issues in mind, he pulled the car apart, made the changes, re-assembled the frame and is now in the process of putting it back together with all the mechanics needed to make this a safe, drivable and fun sports car.  Go get ’em Ralph!  As you’ll see from the photos below, Ralph is making nice progress and the foundation of this Glasspar G2 will make it an excellent car to drive.

Choosing a Drivetrain

The Glasspar came with a Chevrolet 6 cylinder engine, but Tony wanted something more powerful and interesting.  He choose a Studebaker V8.  Many times when we are looking for a drivetrain we end up buying a car to make sure the entire engine/transmission works well.  This is what Tony did and he sent our team a 1955 Studebaker shown below:

It’s an interesting process restoring one of these cars.  When we find a nice donor car like the one above, it’s never at a loss for the car.  Either parts are sold off helping others restore their cars or the entire car goes on to live its life with a modern (most of the time) drivetrain.  That’s what happened to this Studebaker when we sold it.  The new owner was thrilled to get such a nice car and has plans to put an LS engine in it.  Everyone wins and that’s the way we like it 🙂  You can check out the engine below – nice and clean and runs very nicely (tested before we took it out).

Chassis Work

Ralph Smith always takes a frame down to its essence and makes repairs and improvements.  The photos below capture this process after the sandblasting, repairs and painting.  He’s in the process now of brakes, mechanics and the rest of the drivetrain.  This process from frame to running car is always an exciting process to watch.  Check out the photos below.

Summary:

So…..we’re off and running and Ralph Smith is leading the charge.  When all mechanical work is done, Rob Hernandez, another of our Undiscovered Classics restorers, will take over and he will begin work on the body and paint.  Then…off to another one of our team for upholstery.  We’ll be tracking Tony’s Glasspar restoration from start thru finish so watch this space for updates gang.

We’ve got quite a process in place here in Florida at Undiscovered Classics to restore these handcrafted cars.  If you are interested in bringing us on board to restore your handbuilt car, click on the link below for more information:

Click Here To Learn More About The Services We Offer

And those of you wanting to consider purchasing one of our cars to restore or partnering with us in ownership and restoration, click on the link below:

Click Here To Review Our Cars For Sale and Those Available For Partnership

Hope you enjoyed the story, and remember…

The adventure continues here at Undiscovered Classics.

Geoff