One of the benefits of the VW Beetle’s ubiquity and easily un-boltable body has been the plethora of fiberglas kits that can make the car a personal expression of your own indomitable personality. Whether faux Ferrari, covert classic or futuristic freak-mobile, the VW platform was like the stage at a free-form jazz festival. That has caused many a garage tinkerer to throw caution to the wind and undertake their own back-yard Henry Ford effort. What we’re wondering is, have you ever been bitten by the kit car bug?
Right now, sitting immediately to my right, is a book entitled Automotive Self Expression, the Kt Car Phenomenon. The copyright says 1976, and I think I’ve had it for at least that long. It’s a compendium of almost all the kit-car makers of the time, from Aubur Speedsters to the 240Z-aping Triad which inexplicably had four wheels. Around the same ime I bought this book, I also sent away for the brochure of the Fiberfab Jamaican. Yeah, I thought I might want to ingest some fiberglass dust and attempt to wrestle with the anaconda that was someone’s back-yard attempt at cobbling together a wiring loom.
Saner heads prevailed and I instead began what would eventually be the ownership of a long line of British cars. But at least I had someone else to blame for their foibles. Now, some years later, I no longer have the urge to – Frankenstein-like – birth my own automotive offspring, but I do appreciate the tenacity, if not the construction acumen, of others who have.
And have you ever wanted to join the ranks of the amateur car builder elite? These are people hewn out of a different stone from the rest of us. While we maybe sitting at the kitchen table, a Rochester carburetor splayed unglamorously in front of us, at least we have the tutelage of others to guide us. The kit car builder has but an awkward mimeograph of someone’s cocktail napkin drawing from which to glean direction. And that makes them different, and perhaps elite.
Are you that elite? Have you ever actually undertaken the creation of your own set of wheels? If so, how’d it go? Or maybe you, like bygone era me, never stepped off that precipice, but always harbored the urge to do so. If so, what kind of a kit would you build, and do you think someday you might?
Image source: [priceofhistoys.com, whatkitcar.com]