Thread: Roadster Body Recommendation

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Hi, I’m looking to build a 32 roadster and have a similar question to another person on this board getting ready to build a 32 3W coupe. I’m thinking of buying a Brookville body rather than a glass body. Part of the consideration is resale and my question is: Will a roadster built with a repo steel body sell for at least $5 to 6K more than one built with a glass body? Thanks for you help.

simple answer---no. There is so much more goes into resale than what the body is made of. Not even sure identical cars, one in steel and one in glass would have that much difference in price. The quality glass bodies are very good.

It's been my experience that there is a resale "ceiling" on rod prices. I would hate to try to get $5000 more for a steel body vs. glass. My money would be on the glass body, as better from a resale standpoint. The performance and repairability of the glass bodies are very good.

In addition to the $5,000 premium for a steel body you are going to spend more on body work. The Brookville bodies are not even close to paint ready when you get them. An experience body man will put more time, at least 100 hours more, into preping one (a steel body) than a glass one. If you are planing to build it yourself the glass body will be much easier to prep.

If you're building the rod to sell, don't quit your day job. Unless you're one of the "bigguns," it's dicey at best. More rods have been sold at a loss than at a profit.

Build it for yourself and enjoy it. If you can sell it for a profit later on, that's a bonus - but certainly not a sure thing.

Thanks for the responses. I'm not planning to build to sell, but from past experience I can say that a few years down the road another car will ignite the fire and I will probably have to sell something. Hopefully it wouldn't be the roadster.

Hey thanks for a great thread with comments from the "Pros"! I just put a down payment on a '29 roadster 'glass body from Bebops and was feeling a little guilty about opting out of the Brookville steel body. My choice was for the same reasons given above, the thought of all that bare steel gave me worries about "new" rust even while I built the car and wondering how to treat/paint all the undersurfaces. If the 'glass body is roughly the same in resale value as steel I can take some comfort in the "no rust" angle. I have worked with original Model A parts and usually rust is everwhere so for no other reason than lack of rust I prefer the 'glass and if it is roughly the same value as steel that is great in my view. There is of course a sort of nostalgia value attached to original steel, even with rust, but if it's repro anyway I would probably get rust during my slow building time and end up paying a lot to a bodyman to properly prime all the under surfaces. One of my neighbors is working on what looks like a perfectly restored '29 Tudor with Balsam green over black fenders and it looks fantastic, but yesterday I found him stopped along the road stalled due to sucking rust into the fuel line from a rusty gas tank (on the inside) so let me say the terrible four letter word about preferring fiberglass, "RUST"! I am glad to learn from you professionals that the value of rustless fiberglass is still very good, thanks for your experienced answers. As far as preferring the smaller '29 body that is partly based on the fact that apparently every part for a '32 seems to be about 1.5 times more expensive than for the '29 and the fact that I just like the "cute little '29 body".

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

I found a Glass basket case 32, traded parts and cash and now it sets up on the home depo racks while I gather parts, I'am to cheap to do the 1 800 credit card build. I stopped in to see my brother and he said he was thinking about selling his project 302 29 A steel roadster. and when he said what he was talking about for money I pulled out my check book. His investment in parts , was less than just a rod chassis would cost. I am like a kid ina candy store, more projects than I'll probably finish.

Is rust really a problem on a new steel body if you metal prep it and prime with an etching epoxy primer as soon as you get it home?

I don't see surface rust on new parts as any problem at all.

For example, if I were painting the car, I would sand it, scrub thoroughly with metal prep, and then wipe down with degreaser, and prime it. Never had a problem with that, and would gladly guarantee it!

In short, don't worry about it, if your painter exercises caution.

We have a new 32 roadster body that has been sitting in the shop for 8 months with no surface rust. Like Hotrodpaint says, you're going to prep it anyway.....you surely wont spray directly on the as-delivered metal....even inside.

It all depends where you are. I worked for a place that built a lot of oem parts for Harley. at the shop in salinas, ca the stuff would rust overnight because of the salty air blowing in starting every afternoon. we had to spray everything with wd 40. In Arizona at the chrome plating factory the stuff could stay out for a month with verry little rust.

tomothale, That scares the hell out of me! I have had "painting nightmares" happen from WD 40!

WD-40??????? I won't even have it in the little garage and all I do there is spray primer. Might as well coat it with silicone.

Most of the The Harley parts got chrome plated. hot Electro acid wash. Di water wash. DI water rinse Nickel then chrome etc. It removed oil. polishing compound residue, everything A few pieces were powder coated. At home i take the Little pieces and wipe with thinner then spray can until I can do them right and spray enough parts to make it worth while get out the paint gun. just the fumes from certain solvents can cause paint problems. At the Ford factory they used a street sweeper inside the building to clean the forklift aisles. On day one of the operators added some solvent to the soap and water. the fumes traveled to the air intakes for the paind booth and about 20 new cars had a wrinkle finish.