No, it’s not a toy! Thanks to Chevy55 for this unusual find! Located in Benton, Kentucky and listed for sale here on craigslist for $1,500, this 1948 Crosley chassis and running gear was re-bodied in 1962 by the Halsey Machine & Fabrication Company in Rialto, California. The resulting car proceeded to take first place in a car show in San Bernadino in 1963 (the trophy comes with the car!). I did find that there was a Halsey Machine & Manufacturing in Rialto from 1965 to 1996; their former location is now an EPA remediation site and apparently they are still in business in Fontana, California. I wonder if there are any records going back this far? The car itself looks fairly solid, although it looks like a restorer would be fabricating a rear bumper to match the front and replacing one hubcap. Crosley parts are fairly easy to come by and the Crosley Automobile Club recognizes specially-bodied cars, so you’d have some support there. What do you think should be done with this automotive oddity?
Renew the rubber on the pedals and roar off down the sidewalk cruising the local lemonade stands,
Jamie that car is absolutely brilliant.
To bad I live in aussie although my microcar selloff has reduced my collection drastically I would find this one compelling to keep although instead I have made a decision to keep my triumph based fibre glass sports cars.
There is something quirkily interesting in the hand formed body. I like the winged look that probably simplified the forming of the shape. If you are a micro nut you know how hard it is to get decent proportions on a small body.
Although not as Good as some micro design, for a hand formed body it somehow improved on the slab design. I think it was a successful attempt for its time.
Rusty,
As the owner of some triumph-based custom bodied cars myself, I’d love to know what you have! And I liked this one, too, although I wasn’t sure about the nose…
hi jamie we once already discussed what i have…Bond Equipe GT [first model & probably only one in Aussie though I know of a later 2 litre here] plus an Aussie 1959 Buchanan Cobra one of 7 maybe 8 production cars. [nothing to do with AC or Shelby but on Standard 10 running gear Buchanan used the name first. ] Plus a twin headlight Aussie Herald the only non Vitesse to officially have that evil looking Vitesse front. Plus keeping a rare Aussie J&S Hunter. All big projects except the herald. Due to ill health and an interstate move selling my other cars off including my microcars [2 stroke smoke makes me very sick] Time to move on but still keep a small “thanks for the memory” collection unless the relocation costs are too much. hee hee.
I remember now! I really like the looks of the Buchanan Cobra — very evocative of other cars yet still it’s own shape :-) And the J&S Hunter — what a cool car!!!! I hope you can keep your favorites!
I thought this car looked familiar. It was the first car I ever drove.
http://s3.amazonaws.com/citybuzz/2014/07/neversee-milwaukee/never-see-milwaukee-12.jpg
hee hee now that would be a treat as a kid..
Hi rusty, that picture wasn’t me, but I did ride in that car. The photo was taken at a place called “FunTown” at the newly opened Capitol Court Shopping Center in the early ’60’s in Milwaukee. They even had 1 of those little Crosley fire engines, like at the BJ(?) auction a while back, and would come to your house on your birthday( pre-arranged by Mom, of course) and pick up you and your friends and then end up at FunTown. Can you imagine the legal implications on doing something like that today?
howard great stuff back then….gotta say as an Aussie kid in the 60/70s we would see these great American kids rides on saturday afternoon TV those 1950’s movies..we never really saw anything like them in Australia so it was all wonderous. The american kids car look differed so much from our stuff as we were more pommy inspired more austere. In reality we only had train rides no cars on rails that I knew of. Gotta say there was so much excitement in seeing 1950/60s American movies for us Aussie kids. It was like every movie was like “the house of the future” type of thing. Good memories you’d have from that little kids car. Subconsciously maybe that’s why I dig this featured car..it does look like those kid rides I saw on TV.
For years and years, I had a recollection of riding in some sort of Thunderbird amusement park ride as a very young child near Rochester, New York. A couple of years ago, I decided on a lark to research it, and darned if the ride isn’t still in operation! Seabreeze amusement park!
Far out thats great…lucky kids…good stuff and look freshly restored too
Is that a 49/50 Mercury grille or do I need more coffee this morning? That is as close as I can get to saying anything nice about this thing…
Denis, I believe you’re right on the grill. That’s what I was thinking too or… we both could be wrong.
I’m wrong a lot-just ask my wife, JW..lol
Am I the only one who sees the resemblance?
hee hee
I see it fred
even the steering wheel sticking up too high
1
Nah, I see it too. I also see the side chrome molding “look-l-like” of a ’57 Chev. No windshield, no rear bumper, 49-50 grill; I call it a Frankenstein. Not for me. You guys with TR-6s are ahead of the game.
From the side I like it. The front…. not so much. For the price though it would be a fun novelty to have around. Seems like a decent price just for the Crosley drive train
’59 Pontiac front end on the pedal car….
We just heard from George A and he has some exciting news!
From George – I just bought the Halsey Crosley from the Callihan family! I am going to fully research it and restore it.
Thanks for the Barn Finds tip!
George A
We want to congratulate him on his purchase and hope he will keep us updated on his progress!
Way to go, George!!! We want to see pictures and the whole story!
excellent
Glad to see someone picked up this odd little car. Personally, I really like it. It has a very tri-5-esque look to it from the side but that front end is something all it’s own. I would love to have this little project car and restore it to it’s former miniature glory. Seems like it would be a fun little car to tool around town in. Odds are you’re not going to run into another one anytime soon.
Was this MicroCar DeathTrap week on BF?
i was thinking the same thing. if they wrote up a King Midget we would have them all!
Nice to hear someone bought this quirky little car. Nice to know there are folks that can prevent people like Jamie and I from adding to fleets that already exceed limited car storage space, motoring budgets and available wrenching time. I’m really glad some of these recent finds have been too far from South Carolina. This one was getting rather too close for comfort.