From Soup to Nuts…Let’s Build a Falcon (UK) Sports Car


It All Starts With The Donor Car – This One’s a 1931 Austin 7. And I Thought Our 1940’s Ford Donor Cars Looked Ancient!!!

Hi Gang…

Film from the 1950’s showing how to build a fiberglass sports car is even more rare than the cars themselves.  With the help of Greg and Ted Griffin (Woodill Wildfire owners and historians) we were able to find a film from America showing how to build a Woodill Wildfire in 4 hours or less.  It appeared in 1955 on the show “You Asked For It” with Art Baker.  Click here to review this film and story behind it.

That was the only professionally found film we found for quite a long time.  Then…..some of our fiberglass friends from overseas located another film, and we’re showcasing that film today.  And it’s in color to boot!

The donor car in the film is reported to be a 1931 Austin Seven.  Now… given that I’m more of an American Fiberglass guy, I’ll have to accept that the narrator – whose language and description throughout – is accurate or closely accurate during the film.  But you have to love the way he talks.  My favorite line is…

“some people do this the way others light their cigars with 5 pound (dollar) notes”

You gotta love it…  Listen closely to the narration – you will.

No Matter the Country or What Car… Much Planning Goes Into Building a Fiberglass Sports Car

I was struck with the delicate looking wheels on the Austin 7 donor car.  Not sure how they would have translated to a sports car, but I imagine some type of strengthening would have been required when moving from a 1931 tire/rim to a late 1950’s tire/rim.  But then again, the finished product in the film looks like no change was made.

Perhaps I just tend to overbuild cars (I hate to see wheels and tires fly off my cars..never a good feeling!)  Also…don’t forget to checkout the price of the Austin 7 – it’s shown on the windshield at the very beginning of the video – 11 pounds or what translates to about 25 USA dollars at the time.  Not a bad deal for a donor car!

Our good fiberglass friend from the UK, Rob Daniels has a wonderful website similar in every way to our own Forgotten Fiberglass website here in the USA.  Click here to visit the main page of his website called “1950s Specials”.    Then, if you would like to learn more about the fiberglass sports car that’s the subject of today’s video/film, click here to bring you directly to the Falcon Shells Sports Car Page.

Rob has done a magnificent job at creating and documenting Fiberglass Sports Cars from over the world.  If you enjoy this type of journey, be prepared to be consumed by the wonderful new information for many hours.

So….with no further delay….here’s the video.  It’s just over 3 minutes long and you’ll love every minute.  Enjoy it and then continue reading below.

[vsw id=”MDLa19EoUxk” source=”youtube” width=”425″ height=”344″ autoplay=”no”]

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So… who out there has a Falcon bodied sports car they want to share?  Send some pictures to me or post in the Forgotten Fiberglass Forums.  Either way, we’d love to see your car and hear the story and history of how it was built.  Maybe even on an 1931 Austin 7 drivetrain too.  You gotta dream…

Hope you enjoy the video gang and as always..

Glass on…

Geoff

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Comments

From Soup to Nuts…Let’s Build a Falcon (UK) Sports Car — 1 Comment

  1. The YouTube channel for the video is gone. If you search “Car Transformation AKA Rebuilt Cars” you can see the original on Pathe’s site.

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