Quote Originally Posted by Dave Severson View Post
The Drake car is looking good, how was the quality in person??
I'll have to be a bit vague on that Dave. Individually the components look pretty decent, but of course the real test is how well they will fit/flow once the body is assembled, and the way they've got the pieces floating near each other doesn't allow you to see that (which may be why they did it that way?). They had a somewhat confusing sign in front of it announcing a body "kit" would be available the early part of next year for $14500. Of course we're talking about "Backorder Bob Drake", so I'd guess that's going to slide. I say the sign was confusing because after referring to it as a "kit" it goes on to describe what sounds like a fully assembled body shell. So does having the fenders, hood, grille, etc separate constitute a "kit" nomenclature? Unsure. And didn't bother to ask, figure it will all come out in a serious announcement when it's really ready. Quite an endeavor though!

As an example of the notion of separate pieces looking good until hung to gether, the Dynacorn Mustang convertible showed what can happen. If you recall the cove that goes down the side starting at the back of the front fender, through the door, and ending at the front portion of the quarter panel, those lines have to flow evenly to look right. Well, the driver side door top line is a full 1/4" lower than the corresponding line on the quarter, when the bottom line aligns with the quarter and the door gap is fairly decent. Now, to be fair, this is an early production piece, but if it's made from production tooling they've got a relatively big modification ahead. There are lots of nits to pick on this kind of thing, especially if a buyer is expecting a body that's ready to go to paint prep right out of the box. That is an unrealistic expectation no matter who makes the body (even an original), but still, they should get it as close as possible to start with.

So time will tell whether Drake will have the commitment to put out a good product. No matter what he does there will always be some complainers (valid or otherwise), but it seems that $14500 is comparatively cheap when you look at a Brookville '32 3w coupe or a SAR '33/4 3w coupe.