I have had this discussion with several of my friends previously about the demise of the fiberglass bodied Hot Rods. It seems in recent years that FG has become a “Dirty Word” to people who talk Hot Rods. I for one, do not agree on FG bodies not being acceptable for building a Hot Rod. Sure if a steel version is available for the same price, then it is a no brainer, buy the steel. However, when I see high end professional built FG cars going for $30-5K I think people need to put the “talk” aside and buy one. You will have some great times in the car without breaking the bank. If you walk through the sea of roadsters at the LARS you will see people thumping on the sides of cars to see if they are steel, some even carrying magnets to test the composite of the body. Really, is this necessary! These are beautiful Hot Rods and without them many of us would simply not be able to afford one.
Maybe you are the type of person that doesn’t care to own a FG car, and that’s O.K. You should stick to you guns and buy/build what you want. On the other hand, if you want a nice car to drive and enjoy with your friends — don’t let the “talk” keep you from buying a nice FG car. Remember, until Brookville and Rod Bod came along — Westcott, Rats Glass and Gibbons were just a few offering quality reproduction bodies for the masses. Those cars are still great cars today. I saved my money to purchase several Wescott roadsters and phaetons over the years and I have been very happy with all of them. I don’t see many ads in the magazines for FG bodies but I am sure they still offer them. You should know up front that the residual will be not as high for the FG cars but neither will the initial investment. I always used to carry a sign that stated, ” Yes, it is GLASS, please don’t thump it!
Lets enjoy our hobby by appreciating the cars for what they are, not for what they are made of!
Stay Tooned!
Lynn
In 1972, a good friend of mine, Mike Martens built the first set of fabricated Deuce rails, installed a Brown FG body and drove it to the NSRA Nationals in Detroit. Mike went home with the Best FG award and went on to build lots of Deuce frame rails.
Walking around Brizio’s Shop Party you literally see lots of Deuce roadsters. Determining if they are FG, Steel or Original takes some time. But I don’t think the drivers of these beautiful cars are really concerned with the composite of the bodies they drive…they just have fun.
Roy has a fleet of his own roadsters and has driven them across country several times. This one is a Wescott and beautiful.
Roy built this one and Benny drives the roadster everywhere without a thoughts of it being FG (Wescott).
This owner had Roy build him this beautiful Wescott roadster and then decided he wanted a steel one and had another one built.
Roy built the second roadster using a Brookville. I think if you have that kind of money go for it! I liked his first one better.
Boyd built several of those Wescott bodied hiboys for his customers, including me.
The suspensions on his cars worked really well, but were not traditional, which at the time, I liked and still do to a certain extent.
Chad Adams builds some beautiful FG bodied hiboys and they sell for around $50K which is less than half of what a Boyd car cost.
Another friend of mine picked up this beauty for a good price and it is also a FG bodied car.
Starting with a Wescott phaeton like this you can build a beautiful Hot Rod as shown below. I believe this one is being built in Ohio today.
Gary built this one in the 80’s using a Wescott body and it is still going strong. All steel except the body.
Enjoy the car without worrying what the body is made of. Wescott’s last forever.
Here is my Wescott phaeton that I traded a 40 convertible for. I loved this car!