Thread: Best place to purchase a rolling chassis and body

Tweet

I am in the market for a 32 roadster in the form of a rollling chassis and a body. I have found several good builders but they are on the east side of the country. Are there any suppliers of rolling chassis and bodies on the west coast?

Thanks.
Garson

One of the best builders of 32 bodies is right there in Boring Oregon. I am sure they can recommend a chassis to go with their product. Call Wescott Auto at 1-800-523-6279

Try Superior Glass Works. They sell body and chassis packages and they are in Molalla OR. www.superiorglassworks.com

i saw a guy who bought his frame right from a car show. It was a rolling chassis and he got it for a little cheaper than normal. The kicker was that they had built this one paticular frame almost show quality, perfect welds alot of attention to detail because of coarse it was being looked at by everybody at the show.

SoCal has a shop just south of Portland in Tualatin, but be careful - I'm still correcting their screw-ups 2 years later. If going that route I would advise just buying their parts and doing your own assembly. More cautions - while their frame seems well built it has some quirks - it was too narrow in the rear, features a drop-out trans mount yet you can't remove the trans because the rear traction bar crossmember goes under it, and if your car sits low the driveshaft may hit the crossmember behind the trans. It also did not accomodate manual clutch linkage well. As for bodies you have the steel RodBod in Reno (Sparks) and Wescott near Portland (fiberglass), both within driving distance of your locale.

Another steel body source, and better quality IMHO, is Steve's Auto Restoration in Portland. They assemble Brookville bodies on their own jigs. They don't prime it (which needs to be removed anyway) and if you drive over and pick it up you save on shipping and crating. Also, you get the body quicker than from Brookville. Yes, you can get a Rod Bod almost immediately, but that should tell you something about demand for it.

Good point - I wasn't aware of Steve's having them when I got mine. I opted for the RodBod for several reasons that have been discussed before - I preferred their tubing reinforced updated body to Brookville's authentic '32 style, and the ability to get it quickly and pick it up was a plus. For the most part I haven't been disappointed with their quality other than the cheapy trunk latch and a door latch linkage that failed twice. I'm much more disappointed with SoCal NW's workmanship. I wouldn't do that again.

Looks like the site is trying to die again, so we'll see if this makes it.

The factory bracing is a definite plus for the Rod Bod. Below is a pic of what Steve's does for the Brookville, extra cost of course. Maybe Rod Bod has upped it's act, it's been about 4 years since I've been around one of their bare bodies. The two that I saw in process of build had bad body lines, especially the left cowl, and the quarters had more waves than a Rose Parade. General fit and finish was pretty poor. Both bodies took mucho hours to make good enough to paint. Brookvilles need some work too, but not nearly as much as those I saw. If they're better now that's a plus for them.

As for the SoCal guys in PDX, you're not alone in your tale.

<<As for the SoCal guys in PDX, you're not alone in your tale.>>

So why haven't I heard about others' problems? I have searched here and on other forums and have not seen a negative word. I figured it was just me, so had kept my opinions (mostly) to myself. I could write a book on what they did to my car. The latest to show up is when I took it in for alignment and found out the tie rod was too long. They had tried to fix it by hacksawing off one end, but since it wasn't threaded deep enough they just put it back together that way and left it for me to resolve (without telling me of course). With a huge amount of toe-in it handled great, but tire wear was severe. And don't get me started on their clutch linkage or brake line work.