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?
I’m into the ‘vette. Not $20k into it, but I’d take it and $20k for my c10.
A useful Corvette is nice.
Needs a heavy receiver at the back, maybe a stock front end.
The original looks like a movie car, but no Deora.
Since Discord doesn’t work, let’s talk cats!
I woke up with distraught cats, so I count and one’s missing.
Find a plaintive meow coming from a small mostly full drawer!
There’s no back access to the furniture, so they had to open the drawer, which isn’t easy, but they’ve done that before.
Then a cat went into to it by choice looking for something, and the other cats completely closed the drawer!
Probably pleasant at first, but I don’t know how many hours that cat was in there.
Then they act like I put the cat in there!
Penny the deer’s fawn is running around on her own now, sometimes with a pet dog, tonight on her own.
Lots of young deer on our street tonight.
I’m surprised a) that the vote is even close; and b) that the Corvette is in the lead. And $20K for something that looks like that? That’s some mighty fine crack.
I was one of the Vette voters. I agree it seems too high, but it looks like mainly body work (on fiberglass which isn’t hard) away from being nice.
The problem I have with Minor Prius is that if it is a Prius chassis with a Morris Body, then about 3/4rds of the Prius’s unibody chassis is gone and replaced with cabinets. Without a LOT more structure than a roll bar that could be made out of exhaust pipe for all know, this thing is going to shake worse than a Labrador retriever coming out of the lake.
If the Minor Prius is actually a Minor with a Prius drivetrain installed, a single messed up grounding wire will make it flaky to run. Given that the back half is wood, this looks to be almost a given.
I’ll go with the Prius-Morris as it’s half the cost. If that Corvette wasn’t so rough or was the same price, then it would have swung my vote. As is, it’s way too much money for the given condition.
The morris on a first gen Prius has be up there on bizzar stuff add in the the weird tiki bed. I’m not sure it’s really worth $10k but someone must have a decent amount of money tied up into that thing. It’s so weird it’s almost why not. Has to be a fascinating story behind it and people a character that has been dead a decade at least.
Im shooting brake FTW every day but $20k is crack pipe
Corvette, but only because there’s probably someone out there that likes it (not me).
OMG, fuck both of these
I’ll just take the cool mid-century modern clock on the wall beside the Corvette, thank you
I’ll take the ASC Mclaren Capri next to the Vette!
Going with the ‘Vette. For some reason today I’m wanting to turn a sports car into a hearse, and this one’s well on its way.
Yeah, Bud Cort RIP
While rare the C3 sportwagons trade for far less running and painted:
Very Rare 1977 Corvette C3 Sportwagon Can Be Yours For Just $16,000
The Morris is too expensive as well but less of a money pit.
Ooof, what a pair. If my arm were twisted correctly or I was blackout drunk enough I suppose I could be shang-hai’d into Moyota Porris
I’ll take the Morris/Prius (Morius?) just for the Tiki man on the back!
Porris
“The seller says this car runs and drives very well, and completed a long road trip down the coast last summer…”
That’s weird; the registration sticker on the license plate expired in 2021. I still prefer the Morris to the ‘vette though.
Neither is pretty but both are pre-smog and will haul dogs, flipped a coin and it landed on the ‘Vette.
The ‘Vette has a known pedigree that is surely worth the price for the right buyer.
The Prius convertible is nothing but a series of question marks.
A known petigree that was micturated upon like Calvin on a Ford badge.
I could have seen past the station wagon roof extension – the taillights are unforgivable.