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I saw this on ebay and won it for $10. I thought it had a lot of potential. It's only about 5" long so I decided to mate it to an Eldon chassis. The Gilbert Body dates early 60's and appears to be a '40 Ford. They called it a 'Ford Jalopy'.
The wheel wells were very small and needed 'drummed out' with a dremel tool to clear the Eldon wheels. I added a couple of body posts, painted it black and added some custom decals to the body and engine, a front window was also added using a piece of plastic pop bottle . Just a fun 'what if' project.

It looks really sharp. Nice work.

Patrick

Yes sir, that is a nice ride. Well done as usual.

A Very nice ride!!Bet she is fun to drive also.Those Eldon chassis can be like a big Ol' t-jet.
thanks for sharing

Rusty

Wow!

Awesome!

That sure does bring back some great memories!

For Christmas of 1961, I received one of the A.C. Gilber "Auto-Rama" race sets! It has a pair of the 40 Fords in it, I believe one was red, the other yellow just like in the photo you posted.

Yes, the tires were small and mine did get smaller with all the use I put on those slot cars.

It was a figure 8 - over / under configuration. I think I wore grooves in the track, but it got lots and lots of use!

The car had a guide flag with pickup shoes that were made out of a copper type of material. The guide flag was on a swivel.

The motor was a 'Pittman-like' one with a worm gear on the shaft. There was no braking circuit on the controller, but with a worm gear, you don't need no steenkin' brakes! When the motor stops turning, so do the rear wheels.

Thanks for sharing!

Great makeover! Very nice work!

This brings back memories for me as well. I got an A.C. Gilbert track back in 1962 (I think), it was also a figure 8, but mine came with two Corvettes. The cars were 1/43rd scale (O gauge) to match the American Flyer trains, they had Pittman type motors with worm gear drive. Soon I had ordered more track and a pair of the '40 Fords. I bought a second track and more cars from a friend and also bought some large radius turn sections. The track was fully landscaped and was 36 feet long. Eventually I bought spare chassis and put aftermarket motors in them like the Revell RP77 and the Russkit 22. I used Pyro bodies on those cars.
I wish that I had taken some pictures of that track.

My brother and I had 2 of the "Which Lane Chicane?" sets with the go carts and the figure 8 intersection. We had one set at our house and one at our Grandparents. As I remember, the go carts were a poor choice for the "intersection" figure 8 because with that type of boddy there was no protection for the lead edge of the hard plastic guide.....'snap' :( . I think I still have the track around someplace!

Great vintage toy!

The original MINT new-old-stock bodies from 1962 are still available online!

I think ALL of the various Gilbert bodies are available...

I bought two 40 Ford Coupes and yeah - complete time-warp perfect original bodies arrived in the mail - definitely worth $15 per - especially if you we're restoring an original toy.

I have a complete Gilbert 40' Ford. The chassis has a steering mechanism in the front. This has had some work but the motor runs.

Yep that's the same chassis that was under the go carts....the body ended right at the front of the chassis so that hard plastic guide was right out in front! Crash!