Has this car been hit in the front?.....

Your expertise is appreciated in helping me ascertain if this car has been hit and repaired. It's a CMC; first note how the distance between the headlight and the turn signal light is different on both sides (this of course also shows up in a different distance with respect to the front bumper). Second; is it me or do I notice a protuberance right in the center of the right front wheelwell? (check out the light reflections on it). Any help is appreciated!

Look underneath the front area to see if there is any sort of fiberglass repair. It will be pretty obvious is a repair was performed. If not the bulider may have just located the turn signal in a less precise area.

I think if you drive the car with the front wheels really wet, you'll be able to see if the frame, axles... were twisted, by the tire tracks.

diz

Like Joe said look underneath if the shell is all smooth and even it probably hasn

So Bruce, was my observation with respect to the slight hump in the front wheelwell correct? Or is that hump common?

Ricardo, Please define hump.If the front was repaired you may see a non-uniform area in the glass. Telltales such as different fiberglass mat/cloth, globs of access resin, obvious grinding marks,tec. If you really think the front was damaged look for any indications of repainted portions or if it is gelcoat look for a slight mismatch in color. Simply ask the owner were any repairs. Or ask to contact the original builder to gain a history. Take it to a body shop or pay a body man a few bucks to take a look at it. If your are not sure of the car look elsewhere.
Good luck
Joe

The obvious uneven gap between the headlight and horn grills would be enough to make me walk away from the car. The Speedster is all about shape, lines, and balance. The headlight placement, grills, the hump, bumper, and what I perceive to be an uneven stance to the driver's side are flaws..... There are too many good Speedster Replicas on the market to accept anything less than a good solid, correct body. Engines, wheels, tires, brakes, tranny, etc are relatively easy to fix or replace...

Ricardo: I vote with Jim.....356's are a very balanced, fluid design and should look "correct". CMC bodies came from the factory with no cut-outs for the horn grills, bumper mounts or tail lights, among others. All of these had to be cut by hand by the builder and it was up to his measurements, his "eye" and his desire for perfection as to how closely they matched and how close they were to the "real" 356 - CMC supplied no templates for placement of these items (and I'm willing to bet good money that builders like JPS, IM and VS have placement templates for these items (Now, after building my CMC, I do too!!).

I remember agonizing over lots of pictures of "real" 356's and taking, literally, hours to get the measurements of where the lights and horn grills were supposed to go before I started to cut, and then was nervous as hell that I might get it wrong. I even went to a few meets and asked to measure things on other people's cars as a reference. Not everyone takes the time to get it right, but then the flaws just jump out at you (like in your pictures).

If you're nervous about it now, you'll ALWAYS be wondering if you did the right thing if you buy it. There are some awesome, correct replica's out there.......mechanicals under the covers" are relatively easy to replace, but not the body, it's basic.

Probably better to walk away from this one.

gn

It looks like the whole passenger side of the body is sitting higher on the chassis and maybe the builder was trying to compensate for this. Try measuring the height of the body on both sides just in front of the rear wheel. then measure the height of the rear torsion bar tube off the ground on both sides. If the chassis is even on both sides and the body is not... :(

WALK AWAY.....

Thank you all guys!!

I have a '59 CMC "D". They didn't make that many. Your car you are considering has windows, buy not the "D" windshield or windshield pillars. If that aspect was done half assed, imagine what you can't readily see. I suggest you walk away from this one.

Joe