Comparing our cars to our competitors
- Resin. Check to see what kind of resin the fiberglass body
is made of. Our fiberglass body is made of superior DCPD resin than the general purpose resin
or even the vinylester resin that a lot of our competition is using. This DCPD
resin produces a straighter body that will resist shrinkage and warpage far more than
the others.
- Thickness. Check the thickness of the body. Our body
is 1/8 - 3/16 inches thick depending on the area of the body. Some sections of the body
need to be thicker than other sections.
- Labor. How many hours of body work does it take to get
the body ready to paint? Do the doors, hood and trunk fit the body in their locations
or do you have to grind and or fill to make them fit? Our body requires 40 hours
or less labor to be ready to paint. Most kits require close to 200
hours of labor to be ready to paint. Since body shops charge between
$30.00 and $50.00 dollars per hour, this can and will become
very expensive. Compare the fit and finish of our bodies to
any manufacturer, even the gelcoated in color cars.
- Chassis Strength. Check the strength of the frame.
Will it twist and flex when driven over potholes, speed bumps, going in and out of
driveways or under the hard driving of competition? Our backbone chassis along with
just a few other backbone (semi-monocot) chassis are all far superior to
all the ladder frame cars. Our ladder frame has four each 2 x 3 rectangle
tube frame rails which gives comparable if not more torsional strength than the two round
tube frame rails and definitely more beaming strength. Remember, there are more
stress cracks in fiberglass bodied cars due to flexing frames than due to bad fiberglass.
- Frame Treatment. Our frames are painted with a chassis black paint.
We also offer a powder coating at an additional cost.
- Safety. Does the car have any kind of side
protection below the door? If so, is it just the outside lower frame rail
or does it have another bar just below the door opening? Some kits do not have
any side frame rails. Remember how low the lower frame rail really is.
Does the car have any side protection in the doors? If so, are
they attached with heavy duty hinges, hinge mounting brackets, latches and strikers? Do
they attach directly to the frame or to the fiberglass? Remember, most replica cars
do not have any protection in the doors and if they do the
hinges and latches are not strong enough to hold against impact.
Our backbone chassis comes with door bars, heavy duty hinges and latches
secured directly to the frame. For an additional cost of $499.00 dollars you
may add these door bars, hinges and latches to our ladder frame. Does the fuel
tank have any protection or is it protruding beyond the frame? Our backbone
and ladder frames have a metal perimeter protecting the fuel tank.
- Interior space. Our backbone chassis and our ladder
frame have enough interior space for people over 6'.
- Suspension. Our front suspension geometry works
better for handling and or everyday driving than other manufacturers. We
achieved more anti-squat by changing our rear suspension locating mounts on the frame
which also lowers the roll center instead of at the axle which
raises the roll center.
- Hood and trunk hinges. Both our frames come with hidden
hood and trunk hinges that do not attach to the outside body skin. Our backbone chassis
hood hinges mount directly to the frame. Our ladder frames hood hinges mount to a header
bar bolted in between the inner fenders. Both cars trunk hinges mount to a metal support
bolted to the inner trunk liner. One that has metal plates glassed to the
outside body skin will eventually draw a line in your body around the metal.
- Engine and transmission choices. Both our backbone
chassis and our ladder frames accept a wide choice of engine and transmission
combinations with bolt on motor mounts instead of weld on.
- Wiring harness. Our kits come with a wiring harness.
You don't have to try and pull out a donor car wiring harness
and stuff it into your kit's Body.
- Quality of gauges. Our car comes with high quality
Stewart Warner Gauges, not the cheaper quality gauges on the market or the
gauges you have to pull out of your donor car.
- Total cost comparison. Be sure to look closely at
your total finished cost. Not only do we offer a far superior chassis and
body but our total finished cost is very competitive. Remember,
you have the option to add or delete parts to custom build your own kit.