|
From Patrick Dawes:
Your call and the website
were a big welcome surprise for my family. We appreciate the work
you've put into this. Clearly my Dad has some fans! He passed away
only a few years ago and it’s very unfortunate that you did not find
us sooner. There's nothing he liked better than chatting up old
times, and he would have been flattered by the attention.
We all had a good laugh reading through the
history page. Rumors are great! Some of it is nonsense; some have a
germ of truth. For example, my Mom did go to Canada with the kids
while my Dad took a business trip to Mexico: that's probably where
the divorce / Central America sojourn thing came from. My Dad was
not in the RCAF, and did not attend college, except for possibly
some drafting courses. (He probably thought he was too smart for
college and didn't need it. He was not a trained engineer, yet
worked for McDonnell-Douglas and was even sought after by NASA).
Also, there were no LaDawri shop fires or IRS problems. Expenses
just exceeded income, and they couldn't pay the rent. I assure you
that my Dad would not in a million years have destroyed any molds.
I know because I hauled those molds around my entire life, every
time we moved (which was often). Molds were worth their weight in
gold to him because to the end he believed he would be building his
cars again someday. I'm sorry to report that the molds were disposed
of after he passed away. (BTW they were all fiberglass/wood
framework, not concrete).
One of those
stories is pretty close to the truth. After LaDawri closed my Dad tried to get something going
again in Canada. In 1967 my family was towing a prototype (the
"Vendetta") to Canada behind a VW station wagon. Around midnight a
big flat bed truck with a driver asleep at the wheel drove overtop
of the Vendetta (which had a very low profile) and smashed into the
rear of the VW, dumping my family onto the highway. My dad broke his
back, but recovered.
A piece of
trivia that might interest you: the name LaDawri did obviously come from LA DAWes, but the "WRI" at the
end apparently came from Don Wright, my dad's best buddy in Canada
(still alive I'm told). I don't think he had any hand in building
the first car though.
---Patrick Dawes---
The Last Short History of LaDawri Coachcraft, Inc.
by John Gulow
Les A.
Dawes was a Canadian, who came from the Vancouver, BC area, who one
said was born in Toronto, in 1933. He was
a clever young man with good design and technical abilities and who
worked well with his hands. Les' design of a sports car,
the CONQUEST, was conceived during the 1947-48 period, but it was
not until years later when he learned of fiberglass technology that
transferring the design to reality became possible for him. During the early 50s, he became interested in
fiberglass
manufacturing and by 1953 had built the prototype CONQUEST sports car
using a modified Ford car chassis. Photos of this prototype at
its first public showing were taken at an Auto Show in the Show Mark
building on the grounds of the Pacific National Exhibition in 1953
where Les Dawes offered to build additional completed cars to
prospective buyers. By 1956, Les Dawes had started a company
called "LaDawri Coachcraft of Canada" operating somewhere in the
Vancouver area as documented by several factory snapshots of his
first CONQUEST (with 1956 British Columbia plates) that are rubber
stamped on the back with "LaDawri Coachcraft of Canada". The
name LaDawri is a
derivative of the Les A. Dawes name ... combining the "L.A. DAW"es
part into the "La Daw"ri.
[A piece of
trivia that might interest you: the name LaDawri did obviously come from LA DAWes, but the "WRI" at the
end apparently came from Don Wright, my dad's best buddy in Canada
(still alive I'm told). I don't think he had any hand in building
the first car though.
---Patrick Dawes---]
During
late 1956, Les Dawes moved his operation to the United States, in the Wilmington (and then later, Long Beach) area of
Los Angeles.
During these early
days, he devoted all his spare time to the manufacture of a better
body mold for his CONQUEST. Les drove the Conquest over to ROAD & TRACK magazine
and demanded that they see it. The result being a front
cover color picture of his red CONQUEST and article in the
July 1957 issue. His first published brochure (in Black/White) was
released in 1957 featuring only the CONQUEST model offering options
such as a removable hardtop, hood air scoop, form-fitting fiberglass
seats and two different dash configurations. Several significant
options were the incorporation of a molded-in steel tube roll bar
within the integral windshield frame; and the availability of a
custom designed 2" x 4" rectangular tube chassis frame. Les Dawes wrote all the text printed in his sales catalogs and
bulletins. A local Long Beach printer, Jackson Printing Company,
printed all of the LaDawri sales catalogs and promotional
materials.
One
individual spoke of his visit to the LaDawri plant during 1956 when
LaDawri was operating on a shoestring. Les had finished
a beautiful 5-piece interlocking mold for the CONQUEST body. This
witness stated that the first CONQUEST produced here was painted
"Texaco Red" and was painted by Les Dawes right in the shop
because the painter could not get the job done quick enough for
Les. Les just went out and got the paint, came
back to the shop, wet down the floor, and just started painting ...
that the job came out just beautiful. This
witness said he was very interested in getting a LaDawri at that
time, and that in lieu of money, offered to work at the LaDawri
shop as part payment. The first shop-built CONQUEST was reported by
this witness to have built on a Henry J chassis and is reported to
have incorporated a revised method of bolting the body to the frame
[1/2" bolts thru a hole lined with 3/4" steel tube, and with 4"
square 1/8" aluminum plates over/under the plywood flooring bolted
together in each corner, and using a Ford rubber body mounting
biscuit cut to half thickness
for isolation. This is said to have greatly lessened the tendency of
the bolts to loosen and finally work through the plywood.]. (NOTE:
Ultimately, this witness said he got his CONQUEST which he built
with a set-rearward Chevy V-8 engine using a Power-Glide
transmission; in a Henry J chassis, and using the LaDawri
recommended adaptation of the larger front Ford brakes.)
By 1958,
based upon public response to the CONQUEST, LaDawri announced the
availability of a smaller version of the CONQUEST named the QUEST
Q.T., designed to mount on an MG, Austin Healy, or Volkswagen
chassis. The new body offerings were made possible
through use of an interlocking body mold design that allowed the
original CONQUEST to be scaled down to a smaller size by the removal
of mold sections. Further design changes to a full width grille
opening resulted in the release of three new models in 1960; the
largest wheelbase DAYTONA, the intermediate SEBRING (of QUEST Q.T.
size), and a new shorter size DEL MAR intended for 84-to-92 inch
wheelbase chassis use.
In
1961, LaDawri acquired the Victress Manufacturing Company and line
of car body molds resulting in a considerable expansion in the
number of designs offered. This total acquisition by LaDawri
at that time resulted in the largest single source for fiberglass
kit body cars in the U.S. LaDawri immediately renamed each of
the entire model acquisition and refined many of the designs and
molds to incorporate LaDawri developed techniques, most notably,
door liners. Victress brought in two different coupes, two
full sized convertibles, two competition roadster designs, a slick
dragster shell and a T-body shell.
Also acquired during this time period, was a large size size
convertible LaDawri called the
CENTURIAN 21
(originally designed and built by Jim Webb,
an Art Center student,
as the SAVAGE. George Barris shows this car in the Petersen
Publications Spotlite Series booklet #S-531 entitled "Customizing
with Fiberglasss" on page 45)
A Class H formula style competition
shell for Sprite/Crosley chassis use was also added to the line up.
The
first 1961 color catalog shows the availability of a "Convert-A-Top"
removable fiberglass hardtop for 1952 to 1954 Ford Sunliner
convertibles, and also shows a novel "Flip-Top Cargo Camper"
designed to provide a fiberglass hinged lid for use over Ford
Ranchero and Chevy El Camino pickup beds which when raised allowed
canvas sides to unfold providing a camper type enclosure in the rear
bed.
[Les Dawes
later got into this business - Jon Greuel]
Business through the early sixties was good and the plant in Long
Beach was especially attractive with about 12,000 square feet of
manufacturing space. Les and his family moved into a
very elegant home in the Tijonga Canyon area.
It
was reported that LaDawri built the
body for the first "CHEETAH" sports racing car owned by Bill
Thomas.
Les Dawes also designed and built a unique one-off monocoque constructed
Fiberglass body shell that had several steel
tubes molded in place that was built for Ted Traver (of Corvair
adapter fame). This body was part of a record setting car that ran
in its first year at Pike's Peak and placed 6th overall. During
that first year of competition, it was reported to have taken 47
Class first places, 8 Class second places and no DNFs in 55 season
starts before it was "banned" from further competition.
About 1965
LaDawri again expanded their line of models with several new
offerings which included a GT station wagon based on one of the
earlier fastback coupe shell designs.
An entirely new concept
called the FORMULA LIBRE coupe where shell dimensions were
fabricated to specified order dimensions for front, mid, or rear
engine locations.
LaDawri further expanded its offerings into the
competition dragster body shell line by offering Austin Bantam, Fiat
coupe, Willys coupe, English Anglia and other new designs that were
in favor with the drag racing crowd of the era (and still are).
They further added a complete line of
fiberglass replacement body parts such as fenders, hoods, trunk
lids, gravel pans, full noses, doors, etc for a comprehensive line
of foreign and domestic trucks, passenger and sports car models.
All this activity was well depicted in the last color catalog
released by LaDawri in 1965.
Business seemed to be on the down
swing during mid 1965, perhaps as a result of the availability of a wide variety of
factory optioned performance autos and the "muscle" cars.
[The Dawes family told us that income was simply overcome by
expenses which forced the closing of the doors. - Jon Greuel]
In
the end, Jackson Publishing had over 2,000 pounds of LaDawri
printed matter on hold, for payment, which they later
destroyed. Business times were
difficult for other Fiberglass body manufacturers as the majority
went out of business.
Apparently the LaDawri catalog brochure
cover picture entitled "Bodies by LaDawri" was some kind of an
in-house pun as the two attractive women that grace the cover of the
color 1961 and 1963 color catalogs are in fact Les' wife (seated in
the white car) and his wife's sister. The children that appear
inside the catalog are Les' children. The man pictured holding
the complete CONQUEST body over his shoulder is Les Dawes himself.
The three men seated in the trunk of a LaDawri (with a
dog) are Les Dawes (to the right rear) and two LaDawri employees ("Frenchie" and "Wolfie").
Another
story recently heard was that Les A. Dawes received disabling
injuries in a traffic accident in California during 1965, while on
his way from British Columbia.
One last
note, during my inquiries, a number of LaDawri owners commented
that upon preparing their body shells for painting, it appeared that
the shells had been bonded together from a number of sections rather
than having been produced as a single shell manufactured in a
complete body mold. At least one witness has stated that the early
LaDawri bodies were indeed made as one complete piece. During my
investigations, I came across at least two owners who had complete
LaDawri factory-shipped bodies that were sent as sections requiring
bonding together. It is therefore apparent that somewhere along the
line, LaDawri changed over to manufacturing by sections. This
was probably a logical consequence to save costs during shipping.
In none of the Assembly Instruction Manual documentation that I
uncovered, has there been any reference to assembling the body by
bonding sections together. Strangely, the early documentation
discusses the use of an integral stiffener section across the door
opening areas to assure the proper dimensional alignment of the
body. The stiffeners were then intended to be cut out after
body assembly operations were completed. It should be pointed
out that several sources that bought complete bodies from LaDawri,
received their shipment by truck as a large space-frame box
enclosing the complete body shell. They talked that their body
shell was a glossy black (gel-coat) finish and was virtually
flawless. Kit shipment loose parts included only the two
doors, the trunk lid, and the front hood; and for those lucky ones
who ordered one, a hard top. The package of documentation was
usually included with the shipment which included a Statement of
Origin to enable titling as a hand-built car in those states
allowing this designation (Note: In many states, the car was
titled by virtue of the manufacturer of the chassis/frame ... so the
kit builder needed the title for the donor auto chassis to permit
title licensing of his finished kit car. As an example, I
bought my LaDawri in New Jersey titled/identified as
a 1954 Ford convertible!!) One other note concerns the fabrication
technique used to make the bodies. Early bodies were made with a
brushed gel coat over the mold followed by successive layers of
hand-laid fiberglass matting and resin leading to a rather thin, but
strong, body shell. The Daytona body of my car was fabricated about 1961 and is
of the hand-laid construction.
As
one LaDawri owner reported that he had his restored LaDawri DEL MAR
(originally owned by Howard Emery and pictured in the LaDawri
catalogs) out one day (back in the late 70's) down to the beach at
Santa Monica (CA). While parked there, he noticed a woman who
came over to the car and looked at it for about an hour. When
he went over to his car to talk with her, she said that she
recognized what kind of car it was because she was, some years
before, Les Dawes' secretary at the Long Beach LaDawri plant.
John Edw. Gulow
57 Old Academy Road
Chatham, MA 02633-2038
(508) 945-4234
17 May 1996
|
