The Hellings Victress Flyers #2 – Build Your Own American Sports Car! (1953+)


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Note:  This is a multi-part story on the advertising, flyers, and brochures put out by Hellings in support of Victress sales.  These primarily occurred when Hellings was the exclusive distributor for Victress in ’53 and early to mid ’54.

Click here to review all of Hellings Company flyers and sales literature

Click here to review all stories related to Hellings and Victress

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Hi Gang…

So you want need to build a frame for that Victress body (or other 100” wheelbase sports car body) you just bought?

Great to hear!

The Hellings Company was ready to help with their 2 sided 8 and ½” x 11” flyer.

Let’s see how:

Side 1:  Frame Modification Procedures

Here the folks at Hellings (most likely Virgil Rice) showed you how to change a stock Ford frame into a lowered chassis for use with the Victress S1 body.  There were 4 basics steps, and these are shown below.  The only step that was discussed but not illustrated was the last step where the “X” section was fit back in and welded into place.  This is not shown in the flyer.

Let’s have a look:

 

Side 2: Body Mounting Dimensions

These are nicely drawn with specific dimensions shown that would be needed to give your Victress S1 sports car the proper stance on its newly built frame.  It’s helpful to note that in all of the pictures you can “see-thru” the body and identify specific locations and measurements for chassis positioning.

Let’s have a look:

Summary:

I’ve found dates on several of these Hellings Flyers from ’53 all the way thru ’57.  No doubt that if a customer wanted to buy a Victress body from Hellings, the folks there were ready, willing, and able to help – and provide guidance on the construction of its key elements too 🙂

This flyer from Hellings would have been a useful tool to many a car guy “back in the day,” and may have been all a competent builder and designer of a hand-crafted American Special needed to complete their custom-built sports car.

We’ll feature more of the Hellings legacy with Victress here at Forgotten Fiberglass in the near future.

Hope you enjoyed the story, and until next time…

Glass on gang…

Geoff


Comments

The Hellings Victress Flyers #2 – Build Your Own American Sports Car! (1953+) — 2 Comments

  1. Merrill…the date is handwritten on the bottom of the flyer. There’s no corresponding dated envelope so…we just keep gathering data and looking for convergence of patterns, dates, details, etc.

    Just the process of research 🙂

    Geoff

  2. Geoff, it’s interesting that you have found flyers dated as late as ’57, when Hellings and Victress parted company in early ’54. I have no explanation for that.

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