Hi Gang…

One of the challenges we have here at Forgotten Fiberglass has to do with the very reason that the cars we study are so special – their rarity.  And because of this, the number of cars under restoration that need fiberglass panels, hoods, doors, trunks, etc are limited.  Very limited.   I’ll give you an example.

Several years ago we had one of our group – Guy Dirkin – who needed a hood for his Victress S1A roadster.  There’s quite a bit of expense tooling up for a part (a hood in this instance) when the number of Victress S1A’s known out there is less than 30 – and all but one have a hood.  So…what’s a car guy – or in this case a car historian – to do?

Well…we here at Forgotten Fiberglass have teamed up each time we need a part with a local company or professional that knows that “volume” is something that won’t happen in making these parts available to the public.   If we had a call for three hoods in one year that would be like the depression era “run on the banks.”  Not going to happen folks.  So, all of our focus goes on creating the highest quality part while balancing the need to control costs.  Think “just in time inventory.”

Last year’s challenge was producing a dashboard for a LaDawri Conquest and Daytona, and good friend Jim Walker was our first recipient of a LaDawri dashboard – the first to be produced in nearly 50 years.  The second person was Dan Horenberger.  So parts are needed – especially given the rarity of the cars.  Even so, you can see what the challenges are  – create parts to facilitate restoration and control costs for ourselves and the folks needing the parts.  Not always the easiest balancing act.

A Victress Part is Born:

Our latest challenge is creating a front and rear end of a Victress S1A for a car under restoration.  Craig Johnson steered the fiberglass restoration of our 1962 Shark Roadster back in 2012-2013 and he’s our “go-to” guy for projects just like this.  And…this is our first major project that we are completing in our new workshop – known as “The Glass Menagerie.”  Click here to learn more about our “Glass Menagerie”.  Victress parts are blazing a new trail for us once again.

In the photos shown below, you can see the prep work that Craig Johnson had to do in order to use another one of our Victress S1A roadsters (slated for restoration) as the “plug” for the mold.  And…each of the steps leading to creating the mold, pulling the mold, and getting it ready to lay up the first part.

Exciting times down here in Tampa, Florida 🙂

The Victress Hood:

As mentioned earlier, we’ve created a mold for a Victress S1/S1A hood.  Our second hood sold in 3 years is shown below – glad we could help Chuck Klinger in his restoration of his Victress S1A.  Go get ’em Chuck!

The LaDawri Treasure Trove:

And we have molds to create hoods, trunks, hardtops, and dashboards for the LaDawri Conquest and Daytona:

More Fiber Parts Available:

We also can make a hardtop for your Glasspar G2 sports car.  It matches the original perfectly, and I’ll post photos of it in the near future.  You can also check out our “Parts Page” for a listing of most of these parts by clicking here.  And keep in mind that we have more parts under development too.  We have to stay busy and anticipate the needs out there by throwing “resin” on the “fire” (best analogy I could do at 1am…)

Summary:

So….we have confidence in you gang – start your restorations soon and we’re ready to help you meet the impossible – quality parts for cars so rare they don’t have the words “radio-delete” in their description *wink*

Hope you enjoyed the story, and until next time…

Glass on gang…

Geoff