This is the last pair of these I’ll subject you to, I promise. But I couldn’t let this week of weird customs go by without showing you all these two creations. One of them I’ve seen for sale for a while, and I’ve been waiting for the right time to feature it. I guess that time is now.
Yesterday we went cheap, and, well, you get what you pay for. The monsterized Buick scared most of you, so the slammed Ranger ended up winning by default. Quite a few commenters wanted to put the Ranger back to some semblance of a functional truck, which I guess is possible. The Buick is pretty much beyond saving.
That little Ranger isn’t my style, but I can see how much work went into it. It was probably a nice show truck once upon a time, but it has been mightily abused since then. If someone really wanted to return it to its former glory, it could be a fun project. It’s certainly cheap enough to start with.
Most folks just walk into a dealership, buy what they sell, and drive it as-is. But for a bold few, the way a car comes from the factory is just a starting point. I’m not one to customize cars myself (at least not real ones; some of my model car creations are pretty far out there), but I have long been an admirer of custom vehicles. I especially enjoy it when someone comes up with a way to customize a car that I never would have thought of. One of these I’ve seen before, but the other one is new to me – and probably all of you as well. Let’s check them out.
1960 Morris Minor on 2002 Toyota Prius platform – $10,000
Engine/drivetrain: 1.5-liter DOHC inline 4 plus electric motor, CVT automatic, FWD
Location: Hayward, CA
Odometer reading: 27,000 miles
Operational status: Runs and drives well
Most of the time, when someone customizes a car, a boost in horsepower is part of the formula. When the car you’re customizing is a Morris Minor, it’s hard to make the horsepower lower, so a boost is virtually guaranteed. I’ve seen Minors with all sorts of engine swaps: V6s, V8s, Mazda rotaries, and more, but this is a new one. What we have here is a Morris Minor body swapped onto a first-generation Toyota Prius.
Swapping the Minor body onto the Prius’s platform changes the drivetrain layout entirely. This car is now front-wheel-drive, with a 1.5 liter gasoline engine, an electric motor, and a very clever continuously variable transmission between them. Taken together, they’re about double the power of the Minor’s original four-cylinder engine. The seller says this car runs and drives very well, and completed a long road trip down the coast last summer with no problems. You can’t say that about a lot of custom cars.
The interior is pretty much all Prius, and it appears to be in good shape. Ironically, one element of the dash is the same between the two cars: a center-mounted speedometer. The stock airbag steering wheel has been replaced by a wood-rimmed Grant wheel – not strictly kosher if this car is legally considered a Prius, but fine if it’s considered a Morris Minor. I don’t know which is the case. It has working air conditioning, which is funny, because it has no roof.
A 2002 Prius is about seven inches wider than a Morris Minor, so the bodywork had to be widened to make it fit. It looks a little off, but only if you know what a Minor is supposed to look like. It has been decorated with a few tiki statues, which is an interesting choice. It looks like this was originally a Morris Minor Traveller wagon, rather than the more common sedan, which is kind of a shame. Travellers look cool the way they are.
1973 Chevrolet Corvette custom wagon – $20,000
Engine/drivetrain: 350 cubic inch OHV V8, four-speed manual, RWD
Location: Richmond, CA
Odometer reading: 87,000 miles
Operational status: Runs well, but not drivable
Corvettes, especially C3 Corvettes, seem to get modified a lot. Sometimes the result looks pretty good, but other times not so much. This ’73 Corvette was sort of a mixed bag when it was built: the shooting brake conversion works pretty well, I think, but I’m not as sold on the row of rectangular headlights it once wore.
It seems to be a fairly standard Corvette under the reworked fiberglass, with a 350 V8 and a four-speed stick. It sat for 25 years, and the seller has done a lot of work to revive it. Mechanically, it’s ready to go as soon as the bodywork is done. The engine, brakes, suspension, and cooling system are all new.
This is the only interior photo in the ad. It looks like it’s in reasonably good shape, but the dash is disassembled. The seller says the power windows work, but it needs a lot more wiring work to be roadworthy. I’m assuming all the dashboard parts are included to finish it.
The custom bodywork was designed by a guy named Harry Bradley. He also designed a bunch of Hot Wheels models for Mattel, as well as the Dodge Deora custom pickup truck. That makes this car a bona-fide piece of hot rodding history. It has seen better days; the custom front clip is gone, and I have a feeling it’s because the car was wrecked. There’s some damage to the left rear as well that has been partially repaired. It now wears the front clip from a newer C3 Corvette; I guess the intention was to modify it to match the original. The trim surrounding the original six-headlight setup is shown in one photo, and I assume it’s included.
The trouble with custom cars is that they’re the product of one person’s individual tastes. They may love it, but that doesn’t mean someone else will. And that makes selling one a difficult proposition, especially something as left-field as these two. One is a combination of two vehicles no one would have ever thought to put together, and the other is a semi-famous one-off looking for someone to bring it back. Which one appeals to you more?
MT clearly using this week’s horror shows to bias us before presenting some K-car matchup.
I don’t hate either of these cars. Both creators had a vision and implemented with some skill.
I’d be attracted to the Vette wagon, but at twice the price and in its damaged, some-assembly-required state – nope.
The hybrid Morris looks fun, and is ready to cruise. Plus the Prius underneath is almost unkillable. If I were really ambitious, I’d try to build a wagon top for it. I’m not that ambitious, so I’d probably just rig a bikini top for a little sun shade.
I’ve seen that Morris offered for sale numerous times over the years.
I was all set to vote for the Morris, but then I saw it had been widened, and now I can’t unsee it. I don’t know why it bothers me so much, but it does. So I guess I’m getting the Corvette.
I sort of get the pricing for the Corvette, but it would take a pretty specific buyer to pay that. My take on it would be to strip any remaining cheesy 70’s “kustom” crap off of it and build it as a phantom stock C3 shooting brake. Maybe even backdating the front end to a ’68-72 chrome bumper configuration. Ironically, this might be one of the few customs to actually improve on the usability of the original car as this generation of Corvette didn’t have external access to the trunk.
The Minor looks vaguely gross and is also grotesquely overpriced. This is a “fuck it” toy for real car money.
Corvette today. Not for what it is, but for what it could be.