Reader John M. has been putting his down-time to good use while on a business trip. While surfing the area’s craigslist for parts for his Austin Healey, he came across this ad for a Fiberfab Jamaican. It is sitting on a Big Healey chassis, but is missing the drivetrain and most of the interior. John would snatch it up, but distance and lack of time are keeping him from buying it. Hopefully one of you will be able to save it. Our thanks go out to John for sharing his discovery with us!
When this car was built sometime in the ’60s, Fiberfab was known for producing high quality kit cars. However, that doesn’t mean that whoever put it together knew what they were doing, so we would be cautious with this one. We would like to visit this South Carolinian field to see what else is hiding here. We wonder if any of the other cars are for sale too.
This could turn out to be a big project, but if the chassis is still solid it shouldn’t be impossible to get it back on the road. The engine bay has already been prepped for a V8, so you would have a number of powertrain options. Finding parts shouldn’t be much of an issue, but given how long this car has been parked outdoors, we are going to guess the chassis is rusted and will need structural work. Heck, for $1k it might be worth buying just for parts. Would you part it out or fix it up?
The car is Ok I guess but I would rather have the 61 Starliner in the backround!
The Starliner in the background caught my eye too
I’m for the starliner too.
Has anyone checked on the Starliner ?
Wow I would like to poke around that yard.
cool Hudson & I like those old Chryslers from the mid 50’s.
The guy has a bunch of interesting cars for sale – search by the posted phone number “1-864-348-6079” on that craigslist and you get 42 hits. Prices aren’t that bad either – of cpourse you’re just looking at pictures.
Carolina ain’t Arizona… it’s gonna be rusted out, for sure.
I know of a couple for near Portland, Oregon (Estacada). The owner puts them on CL and eBay once in a while, gets offers and then no one follows through. He was planning on putting one with a Maserati biturbo that he knows of. If anyone is interested, email me and I’ll forward his information.
I like the ford and 50’s Hudson also the Packard.
aaaa…….Wayne is right………….that ’61 Starliner……….dang. There is a light green Starliner in SoCal on the show and street circut…well, if you have ever seen one dressed to the nines you know of what I write. Not very common a view.
As for the Fiberfab…..too much work and no break even. But I like it although there just ain’t no demand.
Can someone identify that panel wagon in the background? It is on the Craigslist ad.
Did you say no demand? Your joking right? Seems I have bought/sold several of them over the years for a profit, as well as parts and such. But maybe I am not the norm.
Great car, but for parts it is useless, and a real value I would put at a few $100
there might be some worth saving if you went and looked at the cars in person. but from the pictures on CL i see just a lot of parts. still a great find
Not much like.for the fiberfab but man I would like to.see.more of that starliner.
There was a period when every issue of every US car mag had ads for Fiberfab or other ‘glass bodies. You could change your ordinary Brit sportscar into an exotic. Great in theory, and maybe some people who did that were happy with the result, but I remember that a lot of them seemed to never get finished, and when they were finished they still had a kit car look and the only people who mistook them for a Ferrari had probably never seen a real Ferrari.
Personally, I could never think of taking that great ‘little boat’ cockpit of a Healey or MGA or TR and change it into wrap-around ‘glass everywhere. It doesn’t surprise me that vintage ‘glass kit cars are making a comeback—pretty much everything vintage eventually does—but they have nothing like the value of the exotic cars they tried to be like, and it seems they don’t even have the value of a nice ‘regular’ Healey, MGA or TR.
I’m with all those who would go for the ’61 Starliner instead.
There was a guy in Westchester county NY who you could buy a Fiberfab Valkerie ( sort of a Ford GT looking car) tube frame, Jag suspension & either a Corvair Turbo or 4 carb boxer 6 cyl motor, or a V8, the finished product was quite nice, mid engine.
Sounds like your friend in NY was making pretty good mid-engine cars more or less from scratch. I think that’s the right way to do it, rather than taking Healeys/MGAs/TRs apart, many of whitch probably never get back together again, like the car in this listing.
Click here: Hoobly: Classic Project Cars For Sale
The guy who owns this property has a well-deserved reputation for being impossible to deal with. He’s asking top dollar for these rust buckets. Buyer beware.
Aren’t they all, that’s why the collection has gotten out of control from guys who keep collecting but somehow never sell anything, because they always want too much $’s.
i dont really think much of the kit car… although that yard has a lot of interesting other cars.. but like many other guys..i have what a friend calls ..”project overwelmation” so i better not go crawling thru others yards right now.. although being a car-nut i cant help drooling over that starliner..ha ha ha
I would rather have the 1961 Ford next to it.
CarWrangler has it right. I live about 20 miles from this field and had spent several hours looking at everything he had at the time. But he thinks they are gold. But if you have something to trade he deals a bit more. Most of his cars are rusty parts cars. There is a lot to see.