Fiberglass car make or model ID help needed

[wisch79]

Hey all, I need to pick some of your brains. A student came to me today and showed me some pictures of a car they have. He said it was a 1948 Crosley, but they can not find any other pictures of one that looks close to this one. The other thing is it is a completely fiberglass body. I am leaning to the fact that it may be a kit car type thing, but dont know for sure. It has a crosley engine, and gauges. The dash, firewall, and inner fenders appear to be plywood. They have had the car for 30 years or so and it is stripped down to bare glass and the engine is locked up. It has been in a garage the whole time. Does anyone recognize it or have any thoughts as to what it may be? Here are some of the pics that I have of it.

 

[Senile Old Fart]

Looks to me like someone took their Crosley and tried to make a sports car out of it . The glass layup looks very poor for it to have been any type of prototype imho.

 

[Bob Heine]

Childhood next door neighbor had a Crosley. A VW was plush by comparison. If my neighbor was a typical Crosley owner, a well-equipped machine shop was a necessity. Far as I know Crosleys were all steel.

It looks like a Crosley owner wanted a Super Sports after buying the base model. Owner probably made their own fiberglass boat to go with it.

http://crosleyautoclub.com/Details/Details_Roadsters.html

 

[Bob Heine]

I Googled "fiberglass body for crosley" and found the car you pictured. Looks like it's a Speedster body by Ziegler. You can see the rear fender opening and outline of the grille in your photos.

The ad is here:

http://www.oldcaronline.com/ocdetail48123.htm

 

[wisch79]

You know, I have probably looked 4-5 hours and never found that picture. Amazing what the same word in a different order will produce in google. I think you are right though, it looks very similar! I may go look at it sometime and see what they want for it. It is definitely different! Thanks for all the help!

 

[Britishmarques]

This is not an original Ziegler as WJ Ziegler only made one car which was his personal car from 1955 to 1984 (that car survives intact and untouched from new, a real time capsule). Although Ziegler had hoped to build more than one (and offered to sell bodies or the original molds at different points in time), this never came to pass...the fact that only one body was ever made is well documented by his son John. The car in question above looks to be a very careful copy of the original "Ziegler Special". Some of the dimensions are off from the original but the overall car mimics most of the car reasonably well. Someone took a great deal of time to build this car and I hope someone puts it back on the road or sells it to someone who will. Neat car, Best of Luck with it.