Dick Read’s T-era – almost finished

ITCHING EXPERIENCE

In this last article on Dick Read’s Show Car, the T-era, we show you the second part of how it was created.



Go to part one, or part two of the Dick Rear T-era, Show Rod.

We let Dick tell the story in his own words.

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Thanks again for the interest in my Show Rod.
As to how I came up with the design, I sort of had 3 concepts in my mind. I wanted the nose to look sort of like a Ferrari Formula 1 car of the time, the body to have some sort of semi-fenders over the tires with the eye catch being a wacky roof line, and the rear end to show a spoiler which was just coming into NASCAR. All of these features had to be molded into one flowing design front to rear. I made a few sketches, although I wasn’t much of an artist, and just started cutting plywood at about 1 foot sections of the sketch. It then all just flowed together. I used a plaster over the wire mesh and that proved to be the hardest part just getting it sanded in to a smooth shape with some plastic body filler over that. It was a long job. The fiberglass mold needed to be 17/19 parts just to be able to get it to release from the plaster model. The mold was then bolted back together and the actual body was hand layed up inside of the mold. I can still remember the smell of the resin and the constant itching from the fiberglass. I think the whole process used more than 2 drums of resin. It was truly a learning experience for me, but when it was all done the wow factor of having done it was hard to explain to someone. When you do a large project like that personnel pride and the feeling of accomplishment lasts a lifetime. That was the feeling I had when you found the old car for me.
Dick Read


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Another look at the mold. This was actually build up from 17 or 19 parts which were screwed together. Without the separate parts it would have been impossible to to remove the single unit fiberglass body from the mold.
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Dick is carefully removing the front sections of the mold to reveal the fiberglass body.
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Dick taking his first “test” drive in the fresh out of the mold body… Huge smile on his face. After all the hard work the car is finally taking shape. Behind the body you can see the mold that created the fiberglass body. The seams on the body show where the separated mold sections were joint. 
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Testing the fit of the Buick engine.
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After the body was all cleaned up and painted it was time start the assembly.
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The car nearly completely assembled at the Buick Pontiac dealership.
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The last photo before the car was completely finished and ready to be heading to the Oakland Roadster Show in 1969. In the background you can see the office space of the Buick Dealership from Dick’s father.
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