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Motor Trend Magazine was so impressed by the success of fiberglass sports cars and the excitement over them that by late ’53 they featured a 6 page article featuring 7 different fiberglass cars you could purchase or build yourself. They opened the article with the following introduction:
“Fiberglass, until so few months ago big news merely because it existed at all, has now obviously made the grade. On these pages, Motor Trend brings you the latest designs in this versatile material.”
Today’s article is the second in a series that presented these cars to a ready, willing, and excited worldwide public.
Click here to review all articles in this series
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Hi Gang…
Motor Trend dedicated a full page or more to each of the cars presented in this article. Today’s article is on the second one they presented – the Detroiter by Ray Russell
And away we go…
And remember…as with every image here at Forgotten Fiberglass, use your mouse and click on the picture to make it appear larger on your screen.
International Success: The Detroiter
Motor Trend, October 1953
From the Great Lakes to the Pacific to the North Sea, Fiberglass Has Become the Favorite of these Designers
The Detroiter, newest baby of the Detroit Accessories Company of St. Clair Shores, Michigan, is a fairly conservative car. Ray Russell, its designer, planned it “to stay in style for a number of years.”
Through the pilot model shown here was built on a specially shortened Cadillac chassis, production bodies will be primarily for ’52-’53 Ford chassis, which they will fit with no tailoring. Furthermore, an astonishing number of standard Ford parts (glass, windshield frame, dash panel, floor mats, etc.) are used in the car.
Summary:
This is our first story on “The Detroiter” designed and built by Ray Russell of Michigan. I look forward to sharing more about this car in future articles here at Forgotten Fiberglass 😉
Hope you enjoyed the story, and until next time…
Glass on gang…
Geoff
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These 1952 Ford convertible windshield assemblies looked very good on this boxy styling. They had nice stainless steel trim and were used on 52 to 54 Fords and Mercurys. The Edwards used then, too. The next good one was the 1955 and 56 Plymouth and Dodge as Jim Webb used on his Savage. Lower priced convertibles of this era were quite high production, hence many were in wrecking yards. It almost looks like a 52 Ford trunk lid was used for part of the ‘buck’. The taillight housings are 52 Ford also.
Geoff,
Great introduction to the Detroiter and Ray.
He was an amazing, creative and interesting guy. His son had some wonderful stories to share with me about his father. Without spoiling too much of the future, Raymond Russell, Zora Arkus-Duntov and this car are linked!