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Dave Peterson Restores a
Kellison made Byers SR-100 |
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My allure with the Byers SR100 began with
the silver Byers bodied Kurtis that you see on this site. I
race in the same vintage club with owner, John Furlow, and
would encounter his car as I walked through the garages late at
night on the way to the showers. There were plenty of
interesting cars, but I was always taken by the Byers with its
beautiful shape that seemed to talk to me. I found myself many
times standing there in the silence, feeling like I was missing
something if I didn't just stop and take it in for a moment.
On one occasion writer and kit car expert, Harold Pace, caught
me standing there entranced. "Beautiful car isn't it," he
said. Yeah, I replied - too bad they're so rare. That was
when Harold enlightened me about the Byers body as I had
thought the car was totally a Kurtis creation. He told me there
were still a few out there. Not expecting to find one, I asked
him to keep his eyes open.
I would occasionally search "kit car" on
Ebay and found an ad titled "1967 Kit Car." It primarily
featured a modern tube frame chassis, but almost as a
footnote, included an unknown body. I looked the body and
thought it was a tacky kit Cobra until I noticed the unique
teardrop curve of the front fender. The rest is history as
they say.
The history of the car is vague. It sat
in a storage lot in Tulsa, Oklahoma, until the last owner bought
it and took it home to Marshfield, Missouri. Although he
stored it indoors for 20 some years, he scrapped the original
chassis, which he described as a Model A Ford, and lost the 1967
title.
The 1956-62 Vette windshield has a
1981 state of Oklahoma registration decal on it, but I don't
know if this applied to the Byers or the donor Vette.
The only other note he had was that drag racers had
chopped some inner structure out of the car.
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After talking to Geoff Hacker who
graciously arranged a three-way conference call with Frank Tift,
the only living Byers employee, we established that all the cars
built by Byers in California were hand-laid glass. That
baffled me because mine is made from chopped glass, where the
glass is applied to the mold in a slurry laid down with a
"chopper gun." This process is more typical of high volume
manufacturers. So, after studying the materials on this site, I
noticed the Byers SR100 featured in the 1964 Kellison catalog.
That seemed to fit logically with the purported 1967 title. As
such, we are assuming this is a Kellison built Byers body. As
a footnote, the white gel coat is extremely thick on this car. |
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The body appears
identical to the hand-laid cars with most of the modifications done
by past owners. These alterations include:
Cockpit opening
enlarged toward rear of car.
At this point it is hard to tell if
the short hood scoop is an owner modification or not. It is
obvious that the opening of the scoop was plugged by somebody.
The diagram in the Kellison catalog does not show a short
scoop. Once the nose is sanded, it will be evident if the part
of the scoop was removed to allow a shorter hood cutout. |
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Unique gauge pod dash
was created in a mold and fits directly over the original Corvette
window channel with its own identical channel. Part of the
original dash was removed. It appears a
fiberglass firewall was cut out, along with part of the trunk floor,
rear wheel houses, and front wheel well inner splash guards. |
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Telltale inboard
taillight pedestals were shaved and plugged in favor of
outboard 1938-39 Ford versions. Lights were wired on all four
corners. Byers manufacturer, Frank Tift,
said they originally used round Pontiac taillights. |
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Well, it appears this car was very close to
running at some point. Side-lit gauges were in the dash (dates them to 50s or early
60s). There was a rearview mirror mounted on the drivers side,
as well as hood hinges, body mount tabs, bolts for mounting a
grille and holes in the trunk floor where it was bolted to a
chassis. |
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There once was a side
fuel filler with a channel cut in the trunk floor to accommodate.
This mod may have been ordered from the factory because the green
paint on all the trunk wood seems integral with this alteration.
Would like to know if anybody is aware of
Kellison using green painted wood in their bodies for some
reason. |
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The modern chassis was built for this body
about 10 years ago and includes Afco coil-overs all the way
around, Chevy front calipers/spindles and a 9 inch Lincoln
Versailles disc rear-end. The motor mounts are for a
small-block Ford and the rack and pinion is probably a GM
unit.
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The body is currently off the
chassis for fiberglass repair. I have it at a friend's shop
where I can sequester myself for three days every month to make big
progress (yeah right). The fiberglass repairs will require
significant time, but the engine is very close to done and I have
acquired most of the trim parts. |
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| I plan to make a very
vintage appearing interior with Green line gauges and all vintage
switches. This will be a street car and occasional pace car
for vintage races. |
Thanks to Geoff Hacker, Guy Dirkin for
coaching and Jon for this great site.
Dave Peterson
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