55 ford body questions

not sure where to post this since its more of a body question but i figured here would be best.

what im looking to do is build a new car and use a 55 ford fairlane body, build the old jukebox style promod that was shortly lived in the early 90's. i know bickel racecars were the only ones to originally build the car, when i called them they told me if i could a molding/body and i had it shipped they would do the car. now the only ones i know who does so or even offer a body in that style is suncoast racecars, ive tried calling multiple times and all i get is richard is out of the office, they take my number and he will call me back, this been about 3 months now, im not bashing them, i just would like to build a car that ives always liked since i was a kid, plus it would be nice to be different then everyone else. does someone know of anyone with the molding? or where i could get a body made? glass or carbon

That's interesting. I knew that Wizner's Mega Ford P/M was originally built by Suncoast, so I just figured that the JukeBox P/M was too.

Building your own one-off body won't be cheap. IIRC back in the day it was either the Mega Ford P/M, or the Christine P/M, that the many factory body modifications, the fiberglass mold pulled from the modified factory body, and the first 'glass body out of the mold had a combined cost of $140,000 in the end.

yeah, after calling around and finally getting through, and talking to bickel himself the jukebox fairlane was a one off build. he told me he love to build another but id have to supply the mody or the complete body with wing, sad;y enough as you stated a mold would cost north of 140k just to build a one off car. when i finally got ahold of suncoast
racecars and talked to richard he told me that the mold was down and it had some cracks in it, there arent alot of people that are request the body so he highly doubts itll get fix. sad but understandable. on to looking for a new car to build

Suncoast race cars list the Norm Wizner 55 body on their site. When looking it does not show the body, just states they have it and call for price.

yeah i saw that talked to Richard, the mold has a crack and is down and he says theres no plans to repair it. sadly, the 55 fairlane build would be s dream

Rickytx630 wrote:yeah, after calling around and finally getting through, and talking to bickel himself the jukebox fairlane was a one off build. he told me he love to build another but id have to supply the mody or the complete body with wing, sad;y enough as you stated a mold would cost north of 140k just to build a one off car. when i finally got ahold of suncoast
racecars and talked to richard he told me that the mold was down and it had some cracks in it, there arent alot of people that are request the body so he highly doubts itll get fix. sad but understandable. on to looking for a new car to build

You should ask if he’ll sell you the mold. Then you can fix the cracks and use it.

145k for the mold. just sad there isnt another out there.

but trust me, if i could get my hands on it, id fix it and build away

Hmmm, the mold is broken, he's not going to fix it to make you a body so it's basically junk, BUT, he will sell you said piece of junk that's not good enough to use for a body for ONLY $145K. What a guy!

Mike R wrote:Hmmm, the mold is broken, he's not going to fix it to make you a body so it's basically junk, BUT, he will sell you said piece of junk that's not good enough to use for a body for ONLY $145K. What a guy!

The mold isn't "broken" or "basically junk" just because of a few cracks. The deal is there would need to be a decent demand before it would be worth Richard investing new money into the mold. And he's not going to just give it away either because of the money already invested in it. He's not being a dick, most any 'glass body maker would do the same thing. It's just business, and nobody is in business to lose money.  

You gotta understand that is/was the going dollar rate/range to produce a one-off mold. And regardless of the mold's age Richard most likely has a ton of labor hours invested in it's creation. And on top of that before the mold could have even be created there was also even more labor hours invested in doing all the required "Pro Mod" body modifications to the original steel body (chopping the roof, channeling/wedging the rocker panels, wedging/pie-cutting the roof & hood nose-to-tail, stretching/moving the rear wheel openings, fudging around the wheelbase, and etc, etc, etc), so it could be used as the original body "plug" that the mold was pulled/created from. Making a P/M 'glass body isn't a "weekend" or "hold my beer" project.

DILLIGASDAVE wrote:

Mike R wrote:Hmmm, the mold is broken, he's not going to fix it to make you a body so it's basically junk, BUT, he will sell you said piece of junk that's not good enough to use for a body for ONLY $145K. What a guy!

The mold isn't "broken" or "basically junk" just because of a few cracks. The deal is there would need to be a decent demand before it would be worth Richard investing new money into the mold. And he's not going to just give it away either because of the money already invested in it. He's not being a dick, most any 'glass body maker would do the same thing. It's just business, and nobody is in business to lose money.  

You gotta understand that is/was the going dollar rate/range to produce a one-off mold. And regardless of the mold's age Richard most likely has a ton of labor hours invested in it's creation. And on top of that before the mold could have even be created there was also even more labor hours invested in doing all the required "Pro Mod" body modifications to the original steel body (chopping the roof, channeling/wedging the rocker panels, wedging/pie-cutting the roof & hood nose-to-tail, stretching/moving the rear wheel openings, fudging around the wheelbase, and etc, etc, etc), so it could be used as the original body "plug" that the mold was pulled/created from. Making a P/M 'glass body isn't a "weekend" or "hold my beer" project.

Sorry you took it the wrong way, apparently sarcasm doesn't transmit well over the computer

Heh my bad, sorry about that. Sometimes car chassis/fabrication money related crap kinda winds me up.

It just gets under my skin how some people won't blink an eye spending a ton of money on a race engine. But then they turn around and expect to get chassis/fabrication related stuff for pocket change, or a case of beer or two.

wasnt looking for anything for cheap of free was just a little disappointed was all. i completely understand why he wont fix it as there isnt a high demand for it like the mustangs or camaros etc are, it was a just a dream build i wanted to do and since im in the process to start a new build i was looking to do so, with that being said and with bickel having to do the original that norm wizner drove for a short time, and that mold gone it wont happen, guess ill be doing the 57 fairlane over the 55