Dream Projects

[Shev]

Someday when and if I get mad skills I'd like to build something like this....if anybody has any info on it let me know...

[CARS]

I thought one of my customers brought me a dream project a few years ago. A Plymouth Superbird. That p.o.s. has damn near ruined me so I am really trying to find a new "dream" project to pull myself out of this hole.

I have always wanted to chop the top of something or do a custom. Not a vintage custom as in a Rod and Custom Mag. car, but maybe a modern custom. One idea I had was a '78 to '87 Chevy Elcamino with the roof of a '78 to '83 Malibu station wagon. Basically turning it into a sedan delivery to use as my shop truck.

[T. Weesner]

Ahh, so many cars, so little time.

This thread brings to my mind a legal question that's been bouncing around in my head for years. There are a multitude of drop dead beautiful factory concept cars out there that have been built but never made it into production. The one that I'm drooling over currently is the Ford Shelby GR-1 built 6-7 years ago.
www.seriouswheels.com/cars/top-ford-shelby-gr-1-concept.htm

Of course it would take deeper pockets than most of us have to scratch build a car like this. Even with a re-body of a high performance Mustang the cost of a donor would probably still be expensive for the average Joe, but could be accomplished.

So here's my main question: What are the legalities of using a major manufacturers (non production) design? Surely there would be copyright questions, but would it be totally non-doable from a legal standpoint???

Thanks, Terry

[Shev]

Terry,
I would assume that if you were going to build a personal one off car they couldn't/wouldn't do anything to you. If you were going to produce a production vehicle and make money off it they would do something about it...

[Chris Bspoke]

Mark that is one sweet looking drawing .
i hope that you will share the build with us here.
Cheers Chris C

As for me my dream project at some point in time would be to build something that was a bastard child of a porche spyder and masserati 250 , twisted i know but thats me

[jhunter]

A Lamborghini Miura. One of the most beautiful cars ever.

[52pickup]

Originally Posted by jhunter

A Lamborghini Miura. One of the most beautiful cars ever.

Meh... I've worked on one. The factory craftsmanship is ummm... questionable. I worked on a S that was being converted to a SV model, if I remember correctly. The SV had bigger fender flares, more power, beefier suspension. You're right though, they are beautiful cars.

Oh! R&R of the engine/transaxle is a PITA! Especially when every thing is all panted up nice blocked out gloss black. I'll see if I can find some pics of that car.

[jhunter]

Originally Posted by 52pickup

Meh... I've worked on one. The factory craftsmanship is ummm... questionable. I worked on a S that was being converted to a SV model, if I remember correctly. The SV had bigger fender flares, more power, beefier suspension. You're right though, they are beautiful cars.

Oh! R&R of the engine/transaxle is a PITA! Especially when every thing is all panted up nice blocked out gloss black. I'll see if I can find some pics of that car.

I've heard about the questionable craftmenship on all the older Italian cars. The protectors/defenders of them like to refer to it as "character" rather poor workmanship. I guess on the up side, one could build a crappy car and then just call it "authentic".

[52pickup]

There you go! Seriously though, you could literally see hammer marks in places where a hat channel piece was supposed to fit flush against a flat piece, and they apparently wailed on it to make it fit before they welded it... and I don't mean little crescent divots, these were 1/8"+ dings in the metal. The guy I worked for when I was working on that car kept telling me not to worry about making things "too" perfect, because they were never that nice to start with!

[Chris Bspoke]

I know a guy that is restoring a ferarri Dino , saw the chassie about a fortnight ago and the craftmanship is shocking we were joking that he would have to weld lefthanded with his eyes closed to replicate the original standards .