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Cimbria body???

M

mbautsch

New member
I just picked up a body that's been sitting in a field for a while. It's still pretty solid for it's age I'm not completely sure what exactly I have here. It seem to be a gen 1 Cimbria. The doors and rear deck have never been hinged to the body. Is the front supposed to have an opening deck lid, because this one doesn't, it's solid. At some point someone etched lines all over it that looks like it was going to be cut into pieces for making molds. There are taillight markings painted onto it in black, but never cut out. It has wiring and some mechanical parts that indicate that it was built onto a frame at some point.

I'm just not sure what to make of this thing. Any ideas?

Thanks,

Mike
 

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F

farfegnubbin

Site Owner
Staff member
That’s a fascinating project! You guys should have fun bringing it back to life.

So it’s definitely a first generation Cimbria — I have one — but it has unique, one-off modifications. It’s not any sort of special edition or rare model from the factory. It seems to be somebody’s dream interpretation of an early Cimbria.

Here are some things that are NOT factory;

1) You’re right; the hood should open. The center section of the front should hinge up in the front like most Sterling/Nova/Eurekas. Also, the center of a stock Cimbria hood is not raised like that in the center. It seems tasteful, though.

2) You’re right; there should be a scoop on the side, right behind the door, about halfway up. I’ve never seen a factory Cimbria without one. My guess is that, if you can look in the wheel well or at the back side of that area you should be able to see the scar where the scoop was. In fact, you might find that the scoop is still there and was just covered over. Please do report back if that’s not the case. That would be an even weirder mystery.

3) The area around the rear hatch has been modified but I can’t see exactly how or the reason why. Normally there is a skin on the inward-facing side of the “B-pillars” but it looks like the builder cut that out, leaving an undercut around the entire border.

4) I have no clue why those grid-like “etched” lines are on the body. I’ve done a bit with fiberglass and those lines are not in sensible positions for parting lines for a multi piece mold. Either they ARE parting lines and the person didn’t really know where to put them or…geez, who knows.

But I like it. There’s a LOT of work to be done but that should be a fun project and I don’t immediately see anything missing that would kill the project. The car was modified but it isn’t as hacked up as some we’ve seen. The one frustration you might have is with the windshield. I assume it didn’t come with a windshield. (I hope I’m wrong.) The good news: Due to a labor of love by one Cimbria owner, there is a mold for Cimbria windshields. The bad news: They are extremely rare and you’ll probably need to pay $1,500 to $2,000. But don’t let that get you down. Most other parts would be much cheaper and easier to source. It’s a very raw project but I can see it being successful. 🙂
 
F

farfegnubbin

Site Owner
Staff member
So question for you: What is caked onto the car? It looks thick and textured, almost like roofing cement. The grayish white doesn’t look like paint. What’s on there??
 
F

farfegnubbin

Site Owner
Staff member
Unrelated to that last post, there IS one almost totally unexplainable anomaly in that car: The door hinges are more towards the center of the roof than on a first generation Cimbria and yet the door doesn’t extend down as far through the rocker panel than a typical second generation car. That really is a very mysterious car you found.

What does the dash look like? That might be another clue. So weird.
 
M

mbautsch

New member
We don't have a dash. We will either need to locate one or fabricate one. The "raised" part of the hood doesn't seem to be added on. I crawled underneath and it's all one connected piece, no extra fiberglass where that would have been grafted on. It seems to have be built that way originally. Some one put aluminum tape on all of the seams and then sprayed the car, very badly, with white paint. I don't know enough about the cars to know about the doors. Like I said before, no hinges have ever been installed for the doors.

Even though I don't know much about these yet, by what I've seen in pictures I could tell there is definitely something very different about this car. Tomorrow I will crawl around it some more and look for those vents and see what else I can find. I'm using a heat gun to get all that damn tape off.
 
S

sector

Member
The rear hatch area with perimeter flange looks very different from a typical Cimbria. It does not look modified but rather built this way. Between one pice nose, missing side vents, the rear hatch, this is definitely a one of a kind. Please provide more photos of the inside. Thsnks.
 
S

sector

Member
Very cool. Everything about this body is different. Definitely should be restored to preserve its uniqueness. Thanks for sharing.
 
M

mbautsch

New member
I hope this forum will be willing to give me a lot of guidance. I have virtually nothing to go on. My son and I had discussed a lot of mods we would like but if this thing is truly a unique model we’re thinking we should keep it original as much as possible.
 
B

Brett Proctor

Well-known member
If it were my car the first thing I would do is sand all that white paint off. That will maybe reveal what was done to the body.
It looks like it was together at one time and someone stripped it down, maybe to sell the parts or had another use for the parts.
Just looking at it, It seems maybe someone was going to use it for drag racing or something. Why else would they seal all the seams up and have all the glass removed.
You would have to have the hood removable to get to the bodies mounting points that are under there.
I think once you remove all that paint and get it back down to the gel coat you'll have a better understanding of what was done to it.

Just my guess for now.
 
M

mbautsch

New member
Any suggestions for sanding the body to get the old paint off. I'm thinking a orbital sander with a foam pad to conform to contours. I've never worked with a fiberglass body, so I'm winging it here. thanks.
 
B

Brett Proctor

Well-known member
Orbital sander should work fine.
I would start with a 120 grit and see how that works. 80 grit would be the max I would go for removing paint.
Don't use paint remover, It will attack the resin and the gel coat
 
S

sector

Member
I used heat gun and plastic scraper. When warmed up the paint comes off like butter. Then finish with orbital sander. Much faster and easier.
 
M

mbautsch

New member
farfegnubbin said:
That’s a fascinating project! You guys should have fun bringing it back to life.

So it’s definitely a first generation Cimbria — I have one — but it has unique, one-off modifications. It’s not any sort of special edition or rare model from the factory. It seems to be somebody’s dream interpretation of an early Cimbria.

Here are some things that are NOT factory;

1) You’re right; the hood should open. The center section of the front should hinge up in the front like most Sterling/Nova/Eurekas. Also, the center of a stock Cimbria hood is not raised like that in the center. It seems tasteful, though.

2) You’re right; there should be a scoop on the side, right behind the door, about halfway up. I’ve never seen a factory Cimbria without one. My guess is that, if you can look in the wheel well or at the back side of that area you should be able to see the scar where the scoop was. In fact, you might find that the scoop is still there and was just covered over. Please do report back if that’s not the case. That would be an even weirder mystery.

3) The area around the rear hatch has been modified but I can’t see exactly how or the reason why. Normally there is a skin on the inward-facing side of the “B-pillars” but it looks like the builder cut that out, leaving an undercut around the entire border.

4) I have no clue why those grid-like “etched” lines are on the body. I’ve done a bit with fiberglass and those lines are not in sensible positions for parting lines for a multi piece mold. Either they ARE parting lines and the person didn’t really know where to put them or…geez, who knows.

But I like it. There’s a LOT of work to be done but that should be a fun project and I don’t immediately see anything missing that would kill the project. The car was modified but it isn’t as hacked up as some we’ve seen. The one frustration you might have is with the windshield. I assume it didn’t come with a windshield. (I hope I’m wrong.) The good news: Due to a labor of love by one Cimbria owner, there is a mold for Cimbria windshields. The bad news: They are extremely rare and you’ll probably need to pay $1,500 to $2,000. But don’t let that get you down. Most other parts would be much cheaper and easier to source. It’s a very raw project but I can see it being successful. 🙂
Click to expand...
Who would I contact about the windshield?
 
M

mbautsch

New member
I didn't see a place in the forums for this question so I'll ask it here. How are the doors hinged? I've looked though both manuals from this site and they don't cover installing the doors. Were they preinstalled? If so, what type of hinges do I need to track down for them?

Thanks
 
M

mbautsch

New member
I sanded down to gelcoat and confirmed that the raised hood was definitely original. This thing came out of a mold like this.
tempImageXnXEjv.jpg
 
B

Brett Proctor

Well-known member
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