Kilbourne glass roadster bodies

[ragtag]

Does anyone have any experience with Kilbourne 32 roadster bodies. I bought one of their 32 5W many years ago and was really happy with it. Now I'm thinking of buying one of their roadster bodies. They seem like a good deal for the money. What do you think?

[rumrumm]

The only thing I have heard about his roadster bodies is that you will have some trouble fitting a BopTop or other after market top. The body is not quite dimensionally the same as a real '32 body. But as far as strength and quality, I think his bodies are well made.

[reborn55]

Have one here locally--guy is not real pleased with the way the doors fit--nice looking ride though

[WZ JUNK]

I have had two.   No unusual problems.  I would buy another one.

Kilborne sold the original 5 window molds to a local guy.  He has started producing the bodies but I have not seen one yet.

John

[DRD57]

Something to consider when purchasing a body is resale value. Whether or not you are building this with the intention of selling it, the day will likely come when you will be ready to send it down the road.

Like it or not, there is a ceiling on the price of glass 32 roadsters no matter how nice they are. Right now I'd say that ceiling is in the $40k neighborhood for a really nice car. The exact same car built with a Brookville body could easily sell for two to three times that amount, again if it's a really nice car. The steel bodied car doesn't really have that ceiling that the glass car has. The value of the car will be determined by the overall build quility of the car rather than by the perception that glass cars aren't worth as much.

That selling price difference easily justifies the additional expense of the Brookville body if you can scrape the money together now.

That's my opinion, I could be wrong.

[Topsterguy]

We've made a few Topsters ( soft top frames) for guys that have used this body and they are diferent from stock bodies and the better glass ones. For one they seem to be narrower than most for whatever reason, as in the distance between the top mounting tabs behind the doors on stock bodies and Wecott ones is about 50", and on Kilbourne ones it's about 1' to 1 1/2" narrower. I emailed Kilbourne once and asked them why this is but never heard anything. So, if that measurement's out then others will be too most likely so parts that are "right" might not fit. Persoanlly, if you're building a roadster I'd suggest making sure you get a good body, it'll be worth it in the end.