1941 I believe. Not actually 'plastic' like we think of today and not really a spaceframe either but the caricature of one.
WW2 came along and that put a stop to any production of it. I know who both the men in the picture are. The one in the dark coat is Robert Boyer, a chemist. The man on the right is his boss ..you can guess.
[This message has been edited by maryjane (edited 11-07-2021).]
If you read about the strength of the body that was added, survivability was perhaps enhanced significantly by the body. They would bend or flex under stress or impact but not break. (sound familiar?) But, in those days, crash proof worthiness wasn't as big of an issue as it is today...
[This message has been edited by maryjane (edited 11-07-2021).]
I'm not sure which company that is nor who....But I remember seeing Henry Ford whacking a plastic trunk lid with an axe way back when.
The 2nd car I was really intrigued with (After the Pantera) was the Bricklin SV-1 which had plastic body- sadly, the car was not well designed nor did it perform well.....
[This message has been edited by cvxjet (edited 11-07-2021).]
That is Henry Ford standing beside the soybean/plastic car and his chief chemist Robert Boyer, The vehicle was originally planned to be made from hemp products but the govt banned hemp a few years previous.
There is a lot of discussion regarding the car, what happened to it and what it was really made from and who actually made it but it was pretty revolutionary for it's time.
The vehicle Ford is hitting with the ax was actually his personal car that had been fitted with a trunk lid made of the same material.
Interesting thread. I have seen a few decent examples of the Bricklin, and had hoped that the whole “high-end” 3D printing revolution of 2015- would allow us to print our own cars… hasn’t really happened, sadly enough…
I grew up working on flatheads, as my father had an auto shop and there were still plenty of them around in the early to mid 60s. I hated the in lines, as setting the valves was a pain in the butt way down there thru those side covers and they were forever over heating and blowing head gaskets due to thin castings. 24 head bolts on each side, and the earlier ones had 21 studs. The only thing easy to get to on the v8 Ford was the generator and carb. and of course, that big old bypass oil filter that was always sludgy as hades.The water pumps on those old things was HUGE!
I'm probably one of the very few here on PFF that ever worked on a Pontiac straight 8, or a Packard straight 8.
[This message has been edited by maryjane (edited 11-08-2021).]
Yes, I spotted the flatty in your picture. I also worked on a Pontiac straight 8 and a Packard straight 8. Both were in the shop that I worked in in the early 70's. The guy with Pontiac convertible planned on restoring it. We were hired to rewire it and rebuild the engine. I yanked the motor and tore it down. While the block and crank were at the machine shop, I rewired the car. We later were told that the crank cracked when they tried to straighten it due to being bent. We never found a crank while I was there. The 1954 Packard belonged to a regular customer who used it as a daily driver. I got to tune it up once. When I was finishing up the tune, I lowered the idle just to see how low it would go with out stalling. I had it down to 350 RPM and you still could have put a full glass of water on the head without spilling it. It was so smooth!
I grew up working on flatheads, as my father had an auto shop and there were still plenty of them around in the early to mid 60s. I hated the in lines, as setting the valves was a pain in the butt way down there thru those side covers and they were forever over heating and blowing head gaskets due to thin castings. 24 head bolts on each side, and the earlier ones had 21 studs. The only thing easy to get to on the v8 Ford was the generator and carb. and of course, that big old bypass oil filter that was always sludgy as hades.The water pumps on those old things was HUGE!
I'm probably one of the very few here on PFF that ever worked on a Pontiac straight 8, or a Packard straight 8.
Oldsfiero, the Packard I worked on belonged to one of my father's best friends and it was 54 Patrician with the 359. I rode in it once, for about 150 miles on a brand new Interstate 10 out to San Antonio. It was big, roomy, comfortable cloth seats and was like riding on air. I hated working on it tho. It sat low to the ground, it was heavy as hell and seemed like everything on it was rusty.
BEFORE THE CAR GOT THE PLYWOOD BODY 40 CHEVY there was a war WW2 dad worked on the early B-29 preproduction so he had gas rationing beat but you could not buy a new car so he got a rolled chevy and rebodyed it twice
IT HAD A PLASTIC ONE but dad did not know about UV-degrading the plastic he used so his body fell off and the plywood replaced it
first three picture top row are the first woodie the very odd looking one in the middle is the second hyd drive car he built that one from scratch
the alloy sports car is an mg with his custom body front and rear are identical he called it the gadabout the other alloy body sports car is an other hyd drive total scratch custom as is the 2nd woodie
later about 1955 after he saw zora's vetts [yes that zora chief engineer at corvette who lived upstairs at our lake front house] dad did a f/g body for ford he called the detroiter
------------------ Question wonder and be wierd are you kind?
[This message has been edited by ray b (edited 11-23-2021).]
Do I understand that the Ray in the links is your own Dad Ray? I know you've mentioned his builds in the past but it's nice to see them now. An Automobile innovator even if they didn't all work out as planned.
first experiments in automotive engineering occurred in summer 1941, when he built a plastic-bodied car, what he claimed to be the first such car in the country (though he would have to contend with Ford’s experimental soybean-plastic car for that title). Russell’s plastic car used a framework of welded steel tubing to support a wire mesh contour, to which he applied ethyl cellulose plastic up to 1/8-inch thick with a modified caulking gun. The envelope body styling might have been considered revolutionary, but the 1942 Chrysler-like grille bars suggest Russell had his eye on the latest Chrysler designs, including the envelope-bodied Thunderbolt.
thanks for the links. He certainly had a lot going on. Cars, airplanes, music, arts and a family to boot. Featured in Mechanix Illustrated and Popular Science.
