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StillOutThere |
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Location: Under the X in Texas | We don't seem to have a specific forum for pedal cars so I guess posting these here is as good as any. Recently completed by http://www.dspedalcarrestorations.com/ Owner, Dave, sent me these pix. Pretty nice, I think. (DS1.jpg) (DS3.jpg) (DS2.jpg) (DS4.jpg) (DS5.jpg) (DS6.jpg) (DS8.jpg) (DS7.jpg) (DS9.jpg) Attachments ---------------- DS1.jpg (65KB - 394 downloads) DS3.jpg (112KB - 391 downloads) DS2.jpg (68KB - 369 downloads) DS4.jpg (119KB - 380 downloads) DS5.jpg (105KB - 369 downloads) DS6.jpg (121KB - 360 downloads) DS8.jpg (102KB - 363 downloads) DS7.jpg (128KB - 349 downloads) DS9.jpg (113KB - 421 downloads) | ||
roadkillontheweb |
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Expert Posts: 1357 Location: Iowa USA | You beat me to it! Dave sent me the same pictures. This car was in the Harrahs collection and then spent a good amount of time in th LA area before being purchased for this project. It appears to be a fiberglass body made by the guys at Harrahs using the remnants of an original plastic bodied car (they tended to break apart). It has the design of a plastic body with the seperate bumpers and full opening trunk lid but the body is fiberglass. The Robel body was fiberglass but the bumpers were built into the body and only the top of the trunk lid opens | ||
StillOutThere |
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Location: Under the X in Texas | Ya gotta be quicker, Lee. | ||
roadkillontheweb |
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Expert Posts: 1357 Location: Iowa USA | Was posting on two other forums, and ate supper. | ||
57burb |
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Expert Posts: 3967 Location: DFW, TX | That is amazing. How different is this car from an original Firemite? I did not realize they had opening trunks. Is that how the interiors came? It looks great the way they did it, I like the airbrushed chrome effects. My dad is restoring a '55 Tbird electric car. | ||
roadkillontheweb |
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Expert Posts: 1357 Location: Iowa USA | 57burb - 2010-01-07 7:36 PM That is amazing. How different is this car from an original Firemite? I did not realize they had opening trunks. Is that how the interiors came? It looks great the way they did it, I like the airbrushed chrome effects. My dad is restoring a '55 Tbird electric car. I have a lot of original shots of Firemites. I will post some of them here. If your dad needs parts for his Thunderbird JR I make them. (Ian0073.jpg) (Ian00741.jpg) (robel.jpg) (S_MITE14.JPG) (mite21.jpg) (Rear_DeSoto.JPG) Attachments ---------------- Ian0073.jpg (33KB - 403 downloads) Ian00741.jpg (120KB - 357 downloads) robel.jpg (78KB - 354 downloads) S_MITE14.JPG (56KB - 341 downloads) mite21.jpg (47KB - 405 downloads) Rear_DeSoto.JPG (70KB - 357 downloads) | ||
d500neil |
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Exner Expert 19,174 posts. Neil passed away 18 Sep 2015. You will be missed, Neil! Posts: 19146 Location: bishop, ca | This car may be worth more than what its OEM counterpart cost, originally. | ||
roadkillontheweb |
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Expert Posts: 1357 Location: Iowa USA | The original bodies were made with plastic bodies that were vacuum formed Styrene. Between the vibration of the motor and sidewalks and cold temperatures in Novmber december 57 when they stated shipping them combined with juvinile drivers the bodies started breaking up shortly after they were recieved so they hurried up and started making Fiberglass bodies through Robel like is shown in the literature above. In the plastic bodied cars the side trim was extruded aluminum and the Roble bodies it was molded in. The plastic bodies have seperate bumpers where the Robel bodies they were part of the body. The trunk lid on the plastic bodies opened like is shown above and the Robel bodies had the small opening like is shown on my black body. The basically took the better detailed plastic body and formed a Fiberglass mold over the top of an original and started making them in Fiberglass. I have both the plastic body and the fiberglass Robel body but the one above is a highbred version. I would suspect the guys from Harrahs got an original plastic body that like mine was breaking apart and used it to make a mold and a fiberglass body. There are differences. My front bumper is closed in with a decal for a grille screen. etc. D500neil Not only did this cost a heafty sum to by the car in the first place the proffessional restoration was not cheap either The pictures show my original frame and the worst side of the original body. Luckily for me whoever owned it tended to keep the parts that fell off so it can mostly be glued back together to make a mold so I can make a replacement body. I am looking ot make a replacement frame for my Fiberglass body with the pedal controls clear out by the grille like the used on the Powercar products. at least that way I can drive it. I will make a replacement body for my original frame since the original is toast. Luckily I have lots of experience making parts for these wince I make them for so many other Junior cars If you have not visited my Junior car website go to http://www.jrcentral.com and check it out. also check my youtube videos just look for roadkillontheweb on youtube Edited by roadkillontheweb 2010-01-07 9:19 PM (firemite007.jpg) (decal.jpg) (firemite5.jpg) Attachments ---------------- firemite007.jpg (141KB - 394 downloads) decal.jpg (41KB - 343 downloads) firemite5.jpg (29KB - 351 downloads) | ||
Lancer Mike |
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Location: The Mile High City | ...and the restored Firemite is even fuel injected! err, maybe alkaline injected? | ||
Lancer Mike |
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Location: The Mile High City | Adventumite? | ||
57burb |
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Expert Posts: 3967 Location: DFW, TX | I had not noticed that, Mike. WOW! Where did those come from? I assume they made them up? I still want a pair of the full-size versions. | ||
Diesel45 |
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Expert Posts: 1539 Location: Farnborough. Hampshire. England. | It's even got a Benrus in the steering wheel !! Amazing detail, and I love those cute suitcases in the boot........ | ||
dspedalcars |
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New User Posts: 4 | Ok Guys it’s time for me to chime in on this discussion. I am Dave Kleespies the Owner of D & S Pedal Car Restorations and the Restorer of this 1958 Desoto Adventurer. And yes, we used Tom White’s car as an example to create this car for our customer! I am also the restorer of all the cars that you can see on my other web site powercarcompany.com. If you visit my web site you can see that I have already restored a Robel Fiberglass body Firemite. And I have a Robel Divco Milk Truck coming up in a future restoration. I also want to get something Straight “This is not a Pedal Car” These types of cars are gas and electric powered Promotional Cars. This car is over 7 feet long and weighs 200 LBS. I would love to meet the kid that could pedal this car!! With that said, I have had some experience restoring cars made by Robel. While I consider Lee to be an expert on these cars and rely extensively on his wealth of knowledge and quality parts when it comes to all of these types of cars, I have to present my opinion of this Desoto. First, the frame that came with this car was made by Robel, in my opinion. It has the same characteristics as the first Firemite that we restored. With the exception, it had been extensively modified during its life time. After removing all of the unnecessary brackets and additions, the Robel frame appeared. By analyzing the methods in which the frame was manufactured and comparing it to not only the first Firemite but also the Divco, the manufacturing method is the same. The welds, bracing and materials that this frame is made from are the same as the other examples that I have as reference. Also many of the items that came with this car in the “As Purchased Condition” are the same as the other Robel Desoto cars that I have literature on. During the restoration process we discovered many features with this body, or I should say imperfections, that are also found on the Robel Fiberglass body. But also, this car has many features that the known Robel bodies do not have. I won’t go in to detail in this Forum. Now for the good part! In my opinion this body was probably a proto type and or even a first run Buck. It has no part lines, or Mold Lines, as the fiberglass bodies do or any other traits that a production run body would have. This body is also not made in the traditional method. It does not have glass matting in the structure of the body. This was a common practice when making a buck. If you analyze the many configurations of this body you can see that it would take as many as 10 different molds just to make the body and bumpers. This conclusion is based upon consulting with the two fiberglass experts that I use to produce the many one off parts that we make to create these cars. This is not a cost effective body to produce. When you look closely at the known Robel bodies you can see that they were made in a more economical method. They were made by using the more commonly used three piece mold method. Front, Rear and Center Sections. This is clearly seen in the pictures of the bodies in their raw form. To my knowledge there are only two known fiberglass Robel bodies. The first is the body that I have restored and the second is the body that Lee now owns. I received an email this week from a man that stated that the original molds for, not only the Desoto but also the Divco are owned by a man in Long Island, New York. Which were purchased from a man in PA. I have yet to verify this information. But he does show the body on his web site mightym1dgets.com. Again, I refer you back to our web site to assure you that I have restored over 20 of these types of cars from many different manufacturers. I have experience with these cars. Now back to the Desoto. From my research and what little information that I was able to uncover about the Harrah’s collection, it is hard for me to believe that they would spend any time and or money to make a body like this. From talking to the man that purchased the car from the Harrah’s collection, in person, before the car was purchased by the current owner. And the information that I was presented at that time, I believe this car was not made by Harrah’s. More so, it was sold at auction in as “Purchased Condition”. One point that supports this is, that the car came with a personalized license plate for the child “Roddy” which was fashioned after a California Blue Plate. This tells me that the car was owned by a child in California prior to Harrah’s ever purchasing the car. For those of you that are involved in this forum and are truly interested in this car and the restoration please contact me at (480) 759-5131 MST. Or if any of you are planning to come to Phoenix for any of the Car Auctions during the week of the Barrett-Jackson Auctions. This car will be on display at the Car Show held on Saturday January, 23rd at the Pavilions Shopping Mall south of the Barrett-Jackson location. I will also be in attendance during the show so look me up and I’ll be more than happy to discuss this car and any others with you. Thanks, Dave Kleespies | ||
roadkillontheweb |
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Expert Posts: 1357 Location: Iowa USA | Dave good luck getting them to quit calling them pedal cars. I get that all of the time and normaly respond "yeah they have pedals, gas and brake" I thought this one was the blue one frome the collection in LA? Don had told me that this one came for the Harrahs collection? If this is not the blue one than there is another one out there. as you can see the trunk lid was missing when I saw it. The blue one had the seperate trim like the plastic bodied versions but it had a fiberglass body and some of the details differ from the plastic body. But it had also been modified a lot. The originals were the plastic bodied cars that had a real bad habit of falling apart like mine is. The draw was so deep while vacuum forming that it left thin sections in the plastic and the cold weather of November December 1957 and vibration of the 6B Briggs motor made things worse. Robel stepped in and made the fiberglass bodied cars and it looks like they made a mold off a fully assembled plastic body. My literature collection is in storage now during a remodel but if I remember Gilman plastics provided the sheet materials and hansen? vacuum formed the bodies and all of the little parts. They actually did a article in the annual 1958 edition of modern plastics magazine that shows all of the pieces that were formed. The body shown above is a beast all it's own that I am not sure what to make of it. it's vintage but it differs from the plastic bodies and the fiberglass ones How does my plastic body's frame shown above compare to the other Robel frames? For all I know they may have ben the frame maker all along but only took over the bodies after the plastic ones failed? This is the original brochure front that shows a 1957 in the illistration to really confuse things | ||
roadkillontheweb |
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Expert Posts: 1357 Location: Iowa USA | I will attach some imges of the little plastic parts. the bumper pods are two seperate pieces glued together as is the hood ornament, hubcaps etc. Here is a shot of my original vacuum formed front bumper. Luckily I have two vacuum formers and lots of experience in mold making and vacuum forming so I can remake all of these parts. Edited by roadkillontheweb 2010-01-11 7:03 PM (1958desotofiremite026.jpg) (1958desotofiremite030.jpg) (1958desotofiremite023.jpg) (1958desotofiremite040.jpg) (1958desotofiremite035.jpg) Attachments ---------------- 1958desotofiremite026.jpg (132KB - 323 downloads) 1958desotofiremite030.jpg (136KB - 322 downloads) 1958desotofiremite023.jpg (134KB - 331 downloads) 1958desotofiremite040.jpg (103KB - 309 downloads) 1958desotofiremite035.jpg (96KB - 312 downloads) | ||
dspedalcars |
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New User Posts: 4 | Lee, The car that we restored is the Blue car from Don Chambers. And the Truck Lid came with the car. I will be posting pictures of the car in "As Purchased" condition on my web site next weekend. There were no signs of any modifications or repairs to the body that I could find from the time that this car was made. By the way I made the Bumper-ets/Exhaust pipes from metal. The originals were to bad to use. To my knownledge there are no other cars like this in CA. Thanks, Dave | ||
d500neil |
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Exner Expert 19,174 posts. Neil passed away 18 Sep 2015. You will be missed, Neil! Posts: 19146 Location: bishop, ca | One important thing to remember about Harrah's Collection, Bill wanted to acquire the best ORIGINAL-condition artifacts that he could find. I can't imagine that he would have been interested in getting a modified or a rough condition anything, unless that item were virtually to be the last-only remaining example in the world. Bill's shops did do some reconstruction work, whenever necessary, but Bill's interests were diametrically opposed to the over-restoration, or customization, or the 'creation' of ANYTHING, as is/are commonly seen, crossing the auction blocks, today. | ||
narleycharlie |
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Expert Posts: 1812 Location: Slidell La. | The Desoto has unbelieveable detail . Does it still have the gas powered engine ? From the looks at the trunk space it doesn t . Edited by narleycharlie 2010-01-13 9:35 AM | ||
dspedalcars |
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New User Posts: 4 | The car curretly does not have the gas motor installed. But the owner does have the engine that can be installed at a later date. | ||
lawrence |
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Expert Posts: 3951 Location: Bama | 58 Adventurer Go Kart | ||
big m |
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Expert 5K+ Posts: 7808 Location: Williams California | Beautiful work on that Firemite! ---John | ||
roadkillontheweb |
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Expert Posts: 1357 Location: Iowa USA | Hey Dave How does my frame from the plastic bodied car (pictured above) compare to the two you have done with the fiberglass bodies? Same or different? I wonder if they just changed the body to correct the issues or switched manufacturers completely? For all we know right now Robel may have built all of the frames and just the bodies were initially produced by the other company. Until the new wonderful process of vacuum forming the bodies failed miserably. | ||
dspedalcars |
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New User Posts: 4 | Lee, From what I can tell from the pictures of your frame. The steering system is the same as the first Firemite that I restored. The second is the same with the exception that it has a rack to operate the steering motion. The plastic car frame has the two loops, front and rear of the operator's compartment. Neither of the other two cars have them. I think that when they went to the fiberglass bodies these loops were no longer necessary to suppoert the body. Also it appears that your frame is shorter in height. The Gas and Brake Pedals are the same and as are the Steering Wheel and Hub Caps. Most of the Motor mounts on the second car had been modified for the huge electric motor that had been installed in the car but there was enough left to match it to the first Firemite frame. Thanks, Dave | ||
Jason413 |
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Extreme Veteran Posts: 378 Location: hampton mn | I remember as a kid, my neighbor had a few of these old cool pedal cars, similar to the ones pictured. I makes me sick now to think of what we did to them | ||
57burb |
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Expert Posts: 3967 Location: DFW, TX | I thought you pedal car guys might like this picture, even if it isn't FL related. I also have a couple of pictures of a '55 Pontiac Jr that my dad is working on. | ||
B/G 61 |
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Expert Posts: 2612 Location: Parts Unknown | All of those pictured are awesome no doubt BUT, this is more the "look" that grabs my attention even though it's not Ma MoPar (pedalgas.jpg) Attachments ---------------- pedalgas.jpg (30KB - 320 downloads) | ||
d500neil |
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Exner Expert 19,174 posts. Neil passed away 18 Sep 2015. You will be missed, Neil! Posts: 19146 Location: bishop, ca | A RAT ROD pedal car.... Those Thunderturds must have looked very nice, in their various colors. | ||
suburban61 |
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Expert Posts: 1480 Location: Australia | hey roadkill... i was going through all my '61 items and putting all the paper items safetly in folders and came across this photo of which i thought you might like to see... not firemite but cool anyway... my scanner is playing up so the best i can do right now is this photo... cheers adriana (P1110849.jpg) (P1110851.jpg) Attachments ---------------- P1110849.jpg (168KB - 400 downloads) P1110851.jpg (131KB - 322 downloads) | ||
roadkillontheweb |
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Expert Posts: 1357 Location: Iowa USA | Thanks for the great pictures of the 1960 Fury Junior I will add them to my collection. They went 1/4 scale in the final year so they could only be used by little kids but they sure looked good. I am sure there are more in old dealer magazines since they were used by dealers for sales promotions (rb2.jpg) (P1000663.JPG) Attachments ---------------- rb2.jpg (84KB - 348 downloads) P1000663.JPG (47KB - 345 downloads) | ||
PolaraPaul |
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Extreme Veteran Posts: 335 Location: California/Wisconsin | I wonder where RODDY the the owner of this desoto is today. Does anyone have a friend that live in california with the nick name Roddy. It would be interesting to find him or her. | ||
PolaraPaul |
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Extreme Veteran Posts: 335 Location: California/Wisconsin | Still would like to find out the original owner of this 1958 Desoto firemite. His nick name was Roddy and live in California. | ||
d500neil |
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Exner Expert 19,174 posts. Neil passed away 18 Sep 2015. You will be missed, Neil! Posts: 19146 Location: bishop, ca | This car's license plate is not the 'blue' one, that is mentioned at the outset of this thread, but, rather the 1958 Year-of-manufacture "Chrome Yellow and black" plate which existed from 1956- 1963. No big deal, but Personalized/Vanity plates began in the 70's, IIRC. "Roddy" was probably the nickname of the adult owner, rather than a child of his (otherwise, how do you keep Roddy out of this car, and driving it all-around?). Where are the lifting points on this car? Edited by d500neil 2014-06-24 4:32 PM | ||
roadkillontheweb |
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Expert Posts: 1357 Location: Iowa USA | d500neil - 2014-06-24 3:29 PM This car's license plate is not the 'blue' one, that is mentioned at the outset of this thread, but, rather the 1958 Year-of-manufacture "Chrome Yellow and black" plate which existed from 1956- 1963. No big deal, but Personalized/Vanity plates began in the 70's, IIRC. "Roddy" was probably the nickname of the adult owner, rather than a child of his (otherwise, how do you keep Roddy out of this car, and driving it all-around?). Where are the lifting points on this car? In my collection I have an old dealership magazine from the late 50s that shows the first personalized plate being installed on a Desoto. I do not remember what state it was. | ||
d500neil |
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Exner Expert 19,174 posts. Neil passed away 18 Sep 2015. You will be missed, Neil! Posts: 19146 Location: bishop, ca | There were HAM radio call numbers put onto license plates in the 50's; they were personalized, but their vanity value......? At 200lb, would four men be needed to handle this thing, one at each wheel? Edited by d500neil 2014-06-24 8:05 PM | ||
d500neil |
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Exner Expert 19,174 posts. Neil passed away 18 Sep 2015. You will be missed, Neil! Posts: 19146 Location: bishop, ca | Surprised that nobody has yet posted this 'finished' publicity photo, from the above photo set-up session. (PICT0635.JPG) Attachments ---------------- PICT0635.JPG (105KB - 282 downloads) | ||
Doctor DeSoto |
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Location: Parts Unknown | What exactly is the toy car that started this thread ? It is NOT a Firemite. The overly enormous headlight "pods" look more like a 58 Edsel than DeSoto. Kinda looks like a 58 DeSoto whacked out on meth ! Here are a couple more of the Firemite: (Firemite58.jpg) (570913390.jpg) Attachments ---------------- Firemite58.jpg (119KB - 298 downloads) 570913390.jpg (46KB - 295 downloads) | ||
Rebels-59 |
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Board Moderator & Exner Expert 10K+ Location: .Norfolk..Mafia.. ,England UK | Quote from Above post DOC.. Says "probably a proto type" dspedalcars - 2010-01-11 4:41 PM In my opinion this body was probably a proto type and or even a first run Buck. It has no part lines, or Mold Lines, as the fiberglass bodies do or any other traits that a production run body would have. This body is also not made in the traditional method. It does not have glass matting in the structure of the body. This was a common practice when making a buck. To my knowledge there are only two known fiberglass Robel bodies. The first is the body that I have restored and the second is the body that Lee now owns. I received an email this week from a man that stated that the original molds for, not only the Desoto but also the Divco are owned by a man in Long Island, New York Thanks, Dave Kleespies Edited by Rebels-59 Coronet 2014-06-28 11:06 AM | ||
1958firemite |
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Regular Posts: 66 Location: Washington,DC | Cool. | ||
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