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Glasspar History |
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During the Korean
War, a West Coast prototype sports-car maker named Bill Tritt
was having difficulty obtaining polyester resin for fiberglass
car bodies. The Naugatuck Chemical Company (NCCO) came to the
rescue, sending him plenty of Vibrin resin - and a request for
one of his early sports cars, the Glasspar G2.
NCCO, a division of U.S. Rubber Co. (later Uniroyal, Crompton &
Knowles and Crompton), wanted to use the car to promote its
resin product to the Detroit auto industry. It displayed the car
- dubbed the Alembic I - at the National Plastics Exposition in
Philadelphia in March 1952.
When Chevrolet engineers became interested in the body material,
NCCO Vice president of Sales Earl Ebers showed the Alembic I to
GM in Detroit.
GM's legendary chief stylist Harley Earl was impressed with the
shape of the car and the possibilities of glass-reinforced
plastic body material. This encouraged him to speed up his own
sports car work, and 15 months later the first production
Corvette drove off the assembly line.
Thus a predecessor to Crompton contributed to the creation of an
automotive icon.
"All this honors Naugatuck and Crompton as pioneers in the
plastics industry," said Bill Hoover, registrar of the Glasspar
G2 Club. |
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Established by Bill Tritt to
produced fiberglass bodies for Tritt's Glasspar sports car
(1950-1956). Also supplied bodies to other manufacturers such as
Woodill for the Woodill Woodfire (1952-1956)
Glasspar went on to produce a line
of pleasure boats from 1957-1969.
The Glasspar became the first
ever mass-produced fibreglass-bodied car. Bill Tritt was born in
1917 and entered the plastics field in 1948 when a friend wanted
a corrosion-proof, lightweight boat. The Green Dolphin Boat
Works at Monteciot, Calif. was formed and, with a partner, Tritt
built several plastic-bodied boats of various sizes. In 1950 he
formed the Glasspar Body Works and a major part of his business
was in the building of the increasingly popular Fibreglas boats.
It was only natural for the enterprising Tritt, who had an
extreme fondness for sports cars but who was never able to
afford one of the trim European models then being seen in
increasing quantity throughout America, to turn his design
talents to the automobile body. Shortly after the showing of his
"Boxer" at Motorama, Tritt designed and built a new body mold.
The sports car which was built as a result has been shown all
over America... The exhibition of Tritt's car, backed by the
Naugatuck Chemical Company, plus the accompanying voluminous
publicity, began bringing in orders, mostly from individuals who
mounted the body on modified stock Ford, Mercury, Singer and
other chassis. "Every Joe Dokaes who has read the fascinating
literature on Fiberglas cars thinks it a cinch to build his own
sports car. As with any new material, there are bound to be
problems and disadvantages. After 3 and a half years, I can
truthfully say here at Glasspar we have had our share -said
Tritt"
"Woody" Woodill bought
fiberglass bodies from Glasspar and modified them, adding
hinges, locks and so on. The chassis was engineered to take Ford
parts, and some cars were sold complete, making them the world's
first fibreglass- bodied production car. Exact production
figures remain a mystery: 100-300 Woodill Wildfires have been
made and who knows how many Glasspar kits. Glasspar folded at
the end of 1955, Woodill in 1958.
Bill Tritt is still with us, and the son of Woody Woodill is on
the Net!
This is the first complete and
accurate history of the Glasspar G2. There have been many
accounts of Bill Tritt and this unique car, but most cover just
a part of his far-reaching influence and of the car's impact on
the automotive world. Those short, but brilliant, seven years in
the early '50s when the Glasspar G2 was being produced was a
turning point in not only the auto world but in other industries
in the use of fiberglass in construction. The Glasspar G2 was
the world's first production fiberglass-bodied car; this account
traces its evolution.
The History
The Glasspar G2 was born in
1949 when Air Force Major Ken Brooks showed Bill Tritt the hot
rod he was building, which consisted of a stripped down Willys
Jeep with a highly modified V8 engine. Bill, at the time, was
building small fiberglass boats in his Costa Mesa, California,
factory and he convinced Ken that fiberglass was the best
material to use for the hot rod's body.
Bill made sketches of a body and, with Ken and his wife's
approval, proceeded to make the body plug and mold for a
low-slung, continental-style roadster. It was a good year and a
half, with lots of trial and error, until the body was finished,
set on the chassis and christened the Brooks Boxer in mid 1951.
Bill Tritt was born in 1917 and had an abiding interest in
boats and cars. Before the war, he studied marine architecture
and boat building. He worked for Douglas Aircraft's Production
Planning and Illustration Departments during WW II, and by 1945
had built a number of catamaran sailboats. In 1947, John Green,
a yachtsman friend, commissioned Tritt to design and build a
high-performance sailboat in the 20-ft. range. Fiberglass seemed
the logical construction material, and Otto Bayer of Wizard
Boats was enlisted as laminator. The boat was named the Green
Dolphin, and four were built. This was Tritt's introduction to
fiberglass-reinforced plastic (FRP). By 1947 he was building
small fiberglass boats, and built the first ever fiberglass
masts and spars for sailboats. This company became the Glasspar
Company, and moved to larger quarters in Santa Ana, California,
in the early 1950s. By the mid 1950s, Glasspar was producing 15
to 20 percent of all fiberglass boats sold in the U.S.
The Brooks Boxer was an immediate success when shown at
the 1951 Los Angeles Motorama, along with three other early
fiberglass cars, the big Lancer, the small Skorpion and the
Wasp. Only Tritt's car went on to be the first production
fiberglass car. The Boxer mold was used to produce the beautiful
Glasspar G2 sports car that year.
The Korean War was going on, and Tritt was having trouble
getting polyester resin for his cars and boats. The Naugatuck
Chemical Company, after seeing the Boxer, sent Glasspar plenty
of Vibrin resin and an order for a G2 sports car to promote
their product to the auto industry. Naugatuck's G2 was named the
Alembic I and was shown at the Philadelphia Plastics Exhibit in
1952. Life Magazine then did a feature story on the car, as did
the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and just about every
auto trade magazine. The Glasspar Company then went public and
sold stock to raise capital.
The Alembic I in Philadelphia
After Naugatuck's Alembic was
shown in Philadelphia in 1952, the car was presented to Harley
Earl, the Chief Stylist of General Motors, in March of that
year. The car was borrowed by General Motors for a month of
evaluation, and Chevrolet then designed and built the fiberglass
Corvette. Bill Tritt's friend, Brandt Goldsworthy, was a
consultant to them on their fiberglass problems and techniques.
The Corvette fiberglass bodies were fabricated using the faster
but less rigid pressure-molded process rather than the superior
and stronger hand-laminated process used at Glasspar for all
their car bodies. This accounts for the fact that the Glasspar
bodies are as sound today as they were when they were built.
The Glasspar G2 Sports car
The Glasspar G2 sports roadster
has a 101-in. wheelbase and a standard 55-in. to 59-in. tread
using 600x16 tires. With the engine set back behind the front
axle the car has a perfect 50-50 weight distribution on the
wheels, and with the light weight and wide tread, the handling
characteristics are superior. The factory Glasspars came with
interiors and engines to the customer's choice with the
suspension preferably Ford.
Glasspar designed a new stiff 2"x3" tubular frame for the G2
body which took '39 to '48 Ford running gear and almost any
engine. Of particular note was the racing Mameco Glasspar with
its 230-hp, 284-cu.in. C.T. Ardun Mercury engine. With this
powerful engine and new frame, the car was a sensation on the
track in speed and handling, passing most cars at will. The car
weighed only 1,900 lbs. This frame was fabricated by Mameco and
was used by Glasspar for their factory cars and kits. Woodill
also used this frame for their Series II Wildfires.
Glasspar made about 10
production cars at the Santa Ana factory, some for famous
persons such as Gary Cooper and Rosemary Clooney. A factory car
sold for $2,950, the rest were sold as kits, with the cost of
the 185-lb., 3/16"-thick body with molded cockpit and trunk,
$650, the frame, $200. There were many extras provided by
Glasspar, such as a molded dashboard for $18 and a second door
for $75. Additionally, you could get a fiberglass hardtop,
bucket seats, hood air scoop and wind wings. The body always
included aluminum posts for the two-piece windshield. Almost any
engine could be mounted in the G2 - Cadillac, Buick, Chrysler,
Lincoln, etc., with the most popular being the Ford flathead.
Bill Tritt produced the G2 and
other car bodies, starting from the Boxer in 1951 until the end
of production in 1955, producing well over 200 - about 100 G2's,
100 Wildfires and a number of other interesting cars. The
Glasspar was also listed in the Standard Catalog of American
Cars, '46-'75.
The Woodill Wildfire - As the
Glasspar G2 took off, Robert "Woody" Woodill, a very successful
Dodge and Willys dealer in Downey, California, made plans for a
sports car with Willys components and Tritt's fiberglass body.
Glasspar made the first two bodies for him, which were the G2
body modified with MG-type raised cockpit cowls, squared rear
fenders to take the Willys Aero taillights, and a false hood
scoop. The cars had an angle frame by Shorty Post with a
Jeepster front axle and Willys components. Power was a Willys F
Head 90-hp engine. These two cars were known as the Series I
Woodill Wildfires, and one was shown at the 1952 Los Angeles
Motorama.
Series I Wildfire
At this time,
unfortunately, Kaiser bought out Willys; and Dutch Darrin, a
Kaiser designer, had taken a Glasspar G2 and remolded it into
the Kaiser Darrin sports car. Because they were promoting this
car, Kaiser would not back the Wildfire, so Woody was on his
own. He redesigned the Series I body with a new grille, higher
doors with windows, a continental spare tire kit, longer cockpit
and many other features, calling the car the Series II Woodill
Wildfire. This car used the new Glasspar 2x3 tubular frame.
Series II Wildfire
For not the demise of Willys,
this car might have gone into full production, but Woody made
only about 10 factory cars and the rest he sold as kits. A fully
assembled factory car initially sold for $3,260 and, as a kit,
the body cost $995 and the frame $228. He attempted to market
the production car worldwide and succeeded in having the
Wildfire featured in three movies; "Johnny Dark" with Tony
Curtis and Piper Laurie, "Knock on Wood" with Danny Kaye and
"Written on the Wind" with Dorothy Malone and Rock Hudson. Woody
Woodill finally closed down Wildfire production in 1958 after
selling about 100 cars, all bodies provided by Glasspar.
The Volvo P1900 - Glasspar
designed and built sports car bodies for the Swedish carmaker,
Volvo, in 1955. Volvo technicians were trained at Glasspar and
20 bodies were fabricated there. These bodies and the molds were
shipped to Volvo for assembly and further production with a
total of 67 Volvo P1900's finally produced. Volvo never actively
promoted the car.
Volvo P1900
The Vaughn Singer - This was
only one automobile. Bill Vaughn of the British Singer Car
Company commissioned Bill Tritt to ship a Glasspar G2 body to
New York and adapt it to a Singer SM 1500 chassis. The body
arrived on 2x4's and Tritt and a welder, working in a loft in
Manhattan, stripped the metal body off and adapted the G2 body
to the Singer chassis. The car, outwardly identical to a G2 and
not running, was moved to a New York City Auto Show for display
and promotion. Only one G2 body was ever delivered to Singer.
Vaughan Singer 1500
The Yankee Clipper - Only
one was made in 1953, by the Strassberger Motor Company of Menlo
Park, California, using the standard Glasspar G2 body, Ford
components and a Ford flathead engine. Strassberger was one of
many companies who desired to, but did not get into fiberglass
car production starting with a G2 body. Their car was a standard
Glasspar G2 kit.
The Kaiser Darrin - As
noted previously, Dutch Darrin, a noted designer for Kaiser,
used the G2 body as the starting point and basis for the unique
Kaiser Darrin fiberglass sports car. Kaiser produced them in
1954 with 435 made and over 300 still accounted for by the
Darrin Owners' Roster.
The bodies were made by Glasspar and were delivered in
seven pieces -- the hood, doors, top well cover, deck lid, rear
section and front-end assembly. The 300-lb. body, when
assembled, was mounted on a modified Henry J chassis, and the
engine was a 6-cyl, 161-cu.in. Willys F-Head producing 90hp. The
car weighed 2,175 lbs. and sold for $3,668.
The sliding doors were the unique feature of the Kaiser Darrin
and this required side curtains for windows. The car was very
complete, including a convertible top, and there were many
extras. Production of the Kaiser Darrin came to a halt after
only nine months.
Autopia - Disneyland, in Anaheim,
California, was building its Autopia automobile track, and
commissioned Bill Tritt and Glasspar to build the fiberglass car
bodies. These were small, single-seat, self-powered cars and the
order was for about 30 car bodies and 1955 delivery. The cars
were to have an aluminum wrap-around bumper provided by sponsor,
Kaiser Aluminum, but later changed to the more suitable steel.
Power was a Briggs and Stratton lawn mower-type engine with a
centrifugal clutch and governor.
The Ascot - Although Bill Tritt
had contented his company with fabricating and supplying, in the
main, just car bodies, he wanted to build another complete
sports car embodying the great experience he had gained. In
1955, Bill designed and built the Ascot, a modern and striking
car meant for the adventurous, and meant for the road with its
fine power-to-weight ratio and 50-50 weight balance for
handling. The Ascot was a complete car with roll-up windows,
convertible top, good trunk space and the special feature of
detachable fenders. It weighed in at 1,750 lbs. and was to sell
for $2,600. It was powered by a 100hp Studebaker Champion engine
with high-performance add-ons and used Studebaker components
with the ease of parts supply from Studebaker. Bill built five
cars and was ready to move, when the Glasspar Board of Directors
applied the brakes. They were not at all interested in cars, but
wanted to concentrate on the more profitable Glasspar boats.
This 1955 corporate decision brought an end to the Ascot and the
G2, both ahead of their time in style and construction, true
American legends.
The Glasspar G2 Today
Bill Tritt is the "father of the
fiberglass car" and his G2, the forerunner of all production
fiberglass cars. On 2 June, 2000, a brilliant red Glasspar G2
was placed on the exhibition floor of the Smithsonian's National
Museum of American History in Washington, DC, as an American
original, alongside other unique cars that have made history.
Dale Dutton graciously donated his car so it would be enshrined
properly among the world's best. Designer and builder,
Bill Tritt was there to receive his and the Glasspar G2's
honors.
Later that same day, most of
the Smithsonian well wishers traveled to Glasspar G2 owner Bill
Hoover's home to drive his car. This was a historic moment for
all, especially Tritt, driving a car he had produced some 48
years before.
Bill Tritt Driving the G2
There were other notables at this
historic occasion, and they gathered around the car for the
group picture that truly shows the timeless beauty and style of
the Glasspar G2, the world's first production fiberglass car.
A great source of Glasspar
history can be found in two recent car magazines. First, the
January, 2002 issue of Kit Car has a terrific article and
pictures by Harold Pace, a great friend of the Glasspar, on page
38, a must read. It is titled "American Treasure". Second, the
British magazine Classic and Sports Car of July 2000 has great
coverage of Bill Tritt in "Plastic Pioneer", page 102.
For more information please
read:
Harold Pace - Glasspar - Kit
Car magazine - January 2002
Plastic Pioneer - Classic and
Sports Car magazine - July 2000 |
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