Building a Complete, Accurate Ferrari Body Using Photos

(Note: Kent's intention with this article is to illustrate the overall process of doing a job like this. Even though there are digital methods of accomplishing much of this nowadays, the energy and detail required still remains the same. He hopes that you are inspired and educated by this large and complex project. This took two men two years, and cost $132,000 in 1990.)

In late 1951, the well-known Swedish ice racing champion, "Hooky" Sundberg, ordered a new racer from Ferrari with a special custom spyder body from Vignale.

Upon taking delivery of his new car at the Ferrari factory in Modena, Italy, he drove it back to Sweden himself, over the midwinter sandy and muddy oads of northern Europe.

He raced the car only three times, during January and February of 1952, before the newly designed two-inch spikes mounted on the car's tires proved to be treacherous. During the third race, the spikes offered too much traction in a turn and the car overturned, crushing "Hooky" underneath and killing him.

With the car's body demolished and a chassis still very new, it was sent back to Vignale where a new coupe body was constructed (with a bench seat). The car was discovered four years ago, with a spyder racing history and a coupe body.

The new owner decided to have the original spyder body reconstructed from twelve photos and some press clippings.

The project was undertaken by The Tin Man, a company in Nevada City, California, well known for competition Ferrari restorations. The coupe body was first lifted in its entirety from the chassis.

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