mnwildpunk Posted March 30, 2013 Posted March 30, 2013 Anybody remember this god awful idea? I remember a friend did this to his 86 Elky he spent like $3000 to do it. I seem to also remember a kit to convert your chevy truck with a 49-53 chevy looking front end. what other silly kits where out there? I have another in mind but don't remember much I think it was a lincoln that you could convert into sometype of duesenburg looking thing I want to see silly conversion kits Quote
slantasaurus Posted March 30, 2013 Posted March 30, 2013 I didn't take any pics but just last month I was at a car show and saw a 90's T-bird with the 49/50 Ford front and rear conversions........it didn't look any better or worse than the car they started with. Quote
my66s55 Posted March 30, 2013 Posted March 30, 2013 (edited) You mean like these? I took these pictures at Turkey Rod Run on the Friday after Thanksgiving at the Daytona Speedway. Edited March 30, 2013 by my66s55 Quote
mnwildpunk Posted March 30, 2013 Author Posted March 30, 2013 Doug funny you should mention the turkey rod run because that is where I first seen them Quote
The70judgeman Posted March 30, 2013 Posted March 30, 2013 I didn't take any pics but just last month I was at a car show and saw a 90's T-bird with the 49/50 Ford front and rear conversions........it didn't look any better or worse than the car they started with. There is something like that around here in Milwaukee...90's T-bird with the conversion. It's at just about any car show in the area and I still refuse to take a picture of it. This is just my opinion...it's just too stupid and it's not even cool. I guess beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. Quote
Joe Handley Posted March 30, 2013 Posted March 30, 2013 Didn't realize that Stude conversion was a kit, done with the right paint, it should look decent if it did. Always thought the Shoebirds looked good too. Now that S-Truck conversion, somebody needs to be smackex for that disaster! Quote
Rob Hall Posted March 30, 2013 Posted March 30, 2013 The period styling of the custom parts just doesn't jell well with the modern lines of the donor. I don't get why people do this kind of thing, but whatever floats yer boat. I've seen a number of the C5-based Corvette conversions that use '50s and '60s front and rear Corvette styling and they just don't look right...something always looks odd about them. One truck based one I saw a while back was an S10 w/ a late '30s style Chevy truck nose, just hideous. Quote
kalbert Posted March 30, 2013 Posted March 30, 2013 How about the Ferrari and Lambo kits for Firebirds and Fiero's? Don't see many of those around, which is probably just fine! Likewise with the Rollswagon cars like Willie Mays Hays had in Major League http://imcdb.org/i045610.jpg Quote
mnwildpunk Posted March 30, 2013 Author Posted March 30, 2013 Oh yes I remember the awful pontiac ferrari. Quote
mnwildpunk Posted March 30, 2013 Author Posted March 30, 2013 I saw a conversion of a caddy I think into a delehaye. It was the most god awful thing I ever saw. The guy said it was a kit but after 30 minutes trying to find it on google I think he was lying. Quote
peter31a Posted March 30, 2013 Posted March 30, 2013 The T-Bird/49-50 Ford is still available from a company called Easy Rods. You can find their ad in Street Rodder. Quote
Mark Posted March 30, 2013 Posted March 30, 2013 They're still around...only now they try to make a new Challenger look like a Barracuda, or make a new Camaro into a GTO Judge or a '69 Trans-Am. Great idea...spend thirty grand on a new car, then tack a bunch of fiberglass parts on it. And if any of them get damaged, you're locked in to one source for replacement parts, so you pay their price...if they are still around later. A while back, there was a conversion that was supposed to make an S-10 look like a '39 Studebaker pickup. But when you have to paint "39 Studebaker" on the front of the thing to tell people that's what it's supposed to be, then maybe the conversion isn't too convincing. There was one with a Deuce grille shell, that went on a VW Beetle. The '40 Ford nose is passable (a Chrysler Airflow would have been more so IMO) but a '32 Ford don't look anything like a VW. I've actually got one of those '49 Ford/Thunderbirds pretty far along, with a Revell '90 or '91 kit. At first, it was pretty close to the way the 1:1 conversion was done, but the '49-'51 hood rises up too much at the center to look right on the T-bird body. I did flatten the hood out, it looks better, but right now it's back in the box awaiting further inspiration. The T-Bird only cost me three bucks... Quote
Draggon Posted March 30, 2013 Posted March 30, 2013 (edited) Does any one remember the VW beetle conversions for a 70's Lincoln hood with a Continental kit for the rear deck lid or a 40 Ford Hood ? They Actually had a Lincoln kit made up for the Ford Pinto as well. My best friend had the fiberglass 40 Ford nose on his 58 Bug. He spent a fortune having a metalworker duplicate it in aluminum, and then modifying the rest of the body to look like a mini 40 Ford. When he ran out of funds and needed a driver, he chopped the front and back ends off, made it into a Baja Bug and dropped a Capri V-6 into it. What a mess. I had forgotten how hideous that Rollswagen was. Edited March 30, 2013 by Draggon Quote
Chuck Most Posted March 30, 2013 Posted March 30, 2013 How about the Ferrari and Lambo kits for Firebirds and Fiero's? Don't see many of those around, which is probably just fine! Likewise with the Rollswagon cars like Willie Mays Hays had in Major League http://imcdb.org/i045610.jpg Looks even 'better' on a truck. And by 'better', I mean not. Quote
Ace-Garageguy Posted March 30, 2013 Posted March 30, 2013 (edited) There was another turd of a kit that warped and squashed a GT-40 on to a Fiero; horrible proportions and looked like a hot-wheels poorly scaled mess, but they sold and some folks seem to be proud of them. Edited March 30, 2013 by Ace-Garageguy Quote
Craig Irwin Posted March 30, 2013 Posted March 30, 2013 I'm no good t posting pics, but google "Pintara"' a kit to make your Pinto into a Pantara, and yes, it was kitted in 1/25. Quote
Ace-Garageguy Posted March 30, 2013 Posted March 30, 2013 (edited) Then there was this awful mess built by Automobile Atlanta, loosely based on a design I did for them to stretch a 904 on to a 914. Again, bodged proportions and impossible to build as their "fiberglass expert" re-designed it. After it became apparent that what they had was junk, (it wasn't symmetrical, being as much as 7/8" different from side to side, some parts wouldn't come out of the molds properly and it took a VERY competent body shop to install what was billed as being a father-son project) I was commissioned to entirely re-work the car back to my original design. The work is shown here in progress at my place. This gen-2 version was never completed (due to financial and legal issues), though a lot of folks have taken credit for the design and the work. Edited March 30, 2013 by Ace-Garageguy Quote
Ace-Garageguy Posted March 30, 2013 Posted March 30, 2013 I'm no good t posting pics, but google "Pintara"' a kit to make your Pinto into a Pantara, and yes, it was kitted in 1/25. Quote
Mark Posted March 30, 2013 Posted March 30, 2013 From 1982: the ultimate conversion kit. Factory-built. Available in four versions: Cadillac, Oldsmobile, Buick, and Pontiac... Quote
Tom Geiger Posted March 30, 2013 Posted March 30, 2013 Here's a sweetheart... That's what happens when you soak an old promo in brake fluid Quote
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.