Bet you've at no time heard of the Woodill Wildfire of the early 1950 however it was America's first fiberglass-body production sports car.

Bet you've at no time heard of the Woodill Wildfire of the early 1950 however it was America's first fiberglass-body production sports car. It also was a trendy looks Angeles car bought by movie stars, and appeared in major Hollywood films.

The 1952 Wildfire smooth beat the first Chevrolet Corvette, which had a fiberglass material part to market by one year.

Fiberglass -- then called Glass Reinforced Plastic -- seemingly has been around at least since the 1930 however actually was developed in the 1940 during World War II. It was considered a miracle material, especially for cars in the 1950 although it was used to easily and quickly make everything from swimming meres to large boats. California was the site of greatest in quantity fiberglass experimentation.

Owens-Corning used fiberglass for Bill Stout's radical experimental Scarab III auto in 1944 moreover the material had no major influence in succession cars until 1950 or in such a manner

The Lancer and Skorpion plastic sports car kit bodies from Costa Mesa, Calif., for the tiny Crosley auto chassis were expanded but they soon disappeared. However, those kits got the ball rolling for the fairly large provide of rakish fiberglass body kits that fit production car chassis. The principally successful of the fiberglass visible form [i]or[/i] frame pioneers was Bill Tritt, of Montecito's virid Dolphin Boat Works.

Tritt and a not many partners started the Glasspar Co a major name in fiberglass boats based in Santa Ana. Tritt's first fiberglass car carcass was done on commission in 1950 for the wife of a friend, Maj. Kenneth abides Brooks gave his wife an olive-colored Jeep for shopping, still she thought it was too drab to be seen in.

Tritt thus came up with a fair two-seat fiberglass convertible body that resembl the rakish Jaguar XK-120 convertible sports car of the early 1950 It was present on the Jeep chassis and painted an attractive light leafy recent Mrs. Brooks loved it.

The car -- called the put up withs Boxer -- drew lots of attention. The Connecticut-based Naugatuck Chemical Division of U Rubber, which supplied Tritt's fiberglass resins, said it would purchase the first batch of the Tritt convertible sports car bodies if he would make them.

High-circulation Life magazine then wrote a full-length feature article to the "miracle plastic" car. Naugatuck eventually bought Mr Brooks' auto, and used it as a exhibit to car for years.

Glasspar announced in early 1952 that it had kit bodies that were replicas of the Boxer auto for $650 Shortly thereafter, Tritt got a visitor from nearby Downey, Calif. The man was ligneous Woodill, who'd taught aeronautical engineering at the University of Southern California during World War II.

Woodill was the youngest Dodge dealer in the region and also operated a Willys car agency. Inspired by dint of Jaguar's XK-120, he'd decided to build a sports car for himself, and was searching for a sexy of the present day convertible car body to set on a Willys-based chassis. Tritt's auto dead body looked so good that Woodill bought couple of them.

Woodill had Shorty column a well-known West Coast chassis builder and auto customizer, create a sturdy ladder-type frame from steel tubing. station then used rugged Willys Jeepster front-end suspension parts, a Willys engine and transmission and Tritt's car material part

support added a false hood excavate different windshield and Willys Aero car taillights plant in extended fenders. The auto also got Jeepster full glasss and wire wheels, which were all the rage for sports cars.

The car was finished in time for Petersen Publishing's major beholds Angeles Motorama car show in November 1952 Woodill's car drew for a like reason much attention that Willys borrowed it and shipped it to its Toledo, Ohio, headquarters, where plans were made to effect it as a Willys sports car.

As hazard would have it, major auto agriculturist Henry Kaiser suddenly bought Willys, and decided to cause the striking Kaiser-Darrin sports car with sliding doors instead of Woodill's car.

Undaunted, Woodill built another handful of cars with Tritt's dead body for California customers. Woodill also reflection a market existed for visible form [i]or[/i] frame and chassis kits for auto do-it-yourselfers. greatest in number backyard hot rodders used Ford V-8 and other Ford parts to make cars, in this way Woodill reworked the Post frame to use Ford suspensions and V-8 although any V-8 would work.

For solely $228, you could get a Woodill frame kit. The modified Glasspar visible form [i]or[/i] frame wasn't cheap at $995, on the contrary it came with hinges, hugs and even upholstery. Woodill said uniform Glasspar's kits left too many things for a backyard car builder to do and called for too many mechanical skills. on the contrary he said the Wildfire -- Woodill's name for the complet kit car -- could be built in 16 hours. He steady appeared on the popular television program "You Asked For It" and assembled a Wildfire in fore-rank of the cameras.

However, chiefly Wildfire kits were put together by way of auto dealers or race car workshops Successful Indianapolis 500 race car builder Frank Kurtis built one Wildfires with powerful Cadillac V-8 Buick V-8 also were used, if it were not that most Wildfires received cheaper, easily hopped- up Ford V-8

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