550 Spyder

It's obviously a loose copy of a Beck.  There have been a few companies to do this (that we are aware of), 2 companies out of Brazil (NOT our Chamonix facility) and one out of Mexico.  One of the Brazilian companies sold a few cars through a Florida outlet and called themselves Eurocar or something similar, and the company out of Mexico was called Autos Classicos.  There are a few guys on the SOC or SpyderClub forum that have had the Autos Classicos bodies and may know some tell tale signs.  The Brazilian ones sold as Eurocar (or whatever it was) generally had carpet over top of the main 3" frame rails through the cockpit.  Obviously anyone could do that, but it isn't too common.  They also had open tops on the rear shock towers and I have seen them both with and without the support between the shock towers.

I know that isn't much help, but it is all I can tell you about what I see.

 

I'd like to see a closer shot of the front and rear lights, as well as some interior/dash shots if possible

 

A lot of oddball replica used cars went through a shop in Arizona called AZ Specialties.  Jerry Jones is the name of the owner.  It is a long shot, but he may be worth looking up and sending some photos to.

Thanks for your input. Your. The second person to suggest Mexico Classicos. When it comes to more than one picture on this forum I seem to be only able to post one per reply. The green "+" icon on the lower left requests the use of flash player. My Mac stuff doesn't allow for that download. I was told it was an old Steve Jobs feud. So I guess I'll post pictures one at a time. This car did come from AZ Specialtes/Jerry Jones. I emailed a Cliff Speerstra. (Manager) and he responders would check it out. Haven't heard back. It's possible they might not want to resurrect the past here. The car from what little information I got from the scraps of papers with the car lead me to believe it was totally misrepresented. The poor guy that bought it couldn't drive it without numerous problems. He gave up after only 97 miles and subsequently spent over $20K on repairs and new replacements parts before giving up on the project. That is primarily why I'm dismantling the entire car and restoring it. The work on the chassis/ body is of excellant quality. The drive line must have been junk. It was represented as a new hand made replica with less than 100 miles. The pictures that follow won't show the front turn signals. From the photos they appear to have been fastened by two stainless sheet metal screws. The plastic clear covers were semi dome shaped coming almost to a point. I'm going to start with a picture of the body plague under the hood. Thanks again for your help.

OK. I have discovered that of all the similarities between my Spyder and ALL the images I can find this car has at least one difference that I don't see in any other images. It's the three fake vents on the rear quarters. They are parallel to each other +/- 4 3/4" long. The other images have no vents or a panel with four vents  each one shorter than the other. So I am leaning toward a builder that was in Brazil importing cars though a dealer in Florida. Not the current chromalox company. I can't seem to get a picture posted of the vents unless I start a new thread. I've been asked not to do that so I'm looking for information about this defunct? Brazilian builder please.

I see the Tro-Grim insignia on your lights.  They are a Mexican light/lens manufacturer and I don;t see them being sold in the US often (to the best of my knowledge).  Also, doubtful a Brazilian company would have used a Mexican specific light... but you never know.

 

I don't know much about the company in Brazil that was supplying the FL guys (Eurocar or whatever), other than it was started by a former client of ours who splashed our body and copied the chassis.  The Mexican company did the same thing.

 

Things like the louvers and subtle changes like that are fairly easy, so I wouldn't base a TON on that, unless they made the specific change to the mold, in which case it would be a "tell-tale" sign of their molds...

 

 

I was going in the direction that you had suggested earlier. (Brazil). My car has torsion bar suspension. It had rotors front and drums aft. I'm changing the system to all rotors. The cockpit 3"rails are carpeted. Full racing seat belt harness set up and the rear upper shock attachment tube is open at the top. I've stripped this car down and I'm starting from scratch with everything new. Still would like to know where this little orphan came from. Thanks for you input

FOUND THE CAR! The actual car is featured on a site; Premier Classic Spyder and sub headed Autos Clasicos. I emailed the company hoping they will get back to me with some history regarding the car. Thanks for your help regards, Hal

Autos Classicos is the Mexican company I was referring to.  Raul Silva was the owner last I knew.  All I really know of them is that they started with a Beck and made molds and jigs from that.  Glad you got to the bottom of it.