[ back to shop tour index ]

Sorry, I don't have any pictures of the outside of the building.  However, if you're planning a visit, a picture of the building won't help you find them!  Kilbourne IL is about 10.5 hours from Milton, 3.5 hours from Chicago.  It was a good two day trip.

In this picture the rear quarter panels are being cut out of a sheet of 'glas.  All their bodies are hand-laid fiberglass.

They way they build bodies makes a lot of sense.  The floor is built separate from the top portion of the body.  It is then attached to a '32 frame that's the same for body #1 and body #1000.  Body mount holes are also consistent.  The body is then attached to the floor and lined up with the cowl.

Here's a roadster shell after "molting".  It's ready to be put on the floor and have its steel inner structure welded in.  Much of the structure is 1-1/4" square tubing, with other bracing where it is needed. Doors and trunk have a steel inner structure which the hinges and latches are attached to for long life and strength.

After a fire destroyed much of Doug's shop a few years ago, he's had to rebuild many of his molds.  The 5-window isn't available quite yet; he's quite busy making roadsters and 3 windows.  He builds them with a philosophy not unlike Mr. Ford: Sure you can have any colour, as long as it's black.  Doug builds his bodies the 'original' way - with the cowl bead, stock ribs on the firewall and rear wheel well, eyebrow above the windshield, etc.  They're not smoothed over, and he doesn't intend to make them that way.  People don't seem to mind... they keep buying his bodies!

Here's one of their beefy frame tables.  Kilbourne will make a body/frame package as well as individual bodies/frames.

hmmmm... '34 pick up in fiberglas?

Load 'em up!