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Below I would like to share an email I received from Kevin Miller: "I just got off the phone with Frank Dodd the builder of the bodies for the Turnpike cruiser. As you can imagine I'm like a kid at Christmas right now. I want to share with you what I've learned today before I forget something. I got to tell him how much his ride meant to me as a kid growing up. That is important to me. Frank Dodd worked with Edgar for 18 years from 1956- 1974. Frank saw a similar car at Disneyland and made a body of his own. The bodies are not bases on anything Detroit put out. They were just a hodge podge as he put it. The cars with the double headlight is an earlier model than the one with the single. I get that because he said that the Coney Island cars are a later model. The one I have was built in 1958 I know that because I have an advertisement from the park as new for 1958. If the double headlight model is earlier that would put the fantasy farm cars as being built in 1956 or 1957. I know Edgar moved cars from Lesourdsville to fantasy farm but the car pictured on the Americana site is like mine the fantasy farm cars are double headlight. The only thing I can figure is that Edgar tried out cars at Lesourdsville before he sold them. Frank built the bodies in oxford Edgar wound up with the molds but he has no idea where they are now. The chassis was as you know built at Fantasy Farm. The chassis was based on a chassis from a company in Athens Ohio, Could it be King? look at king midget cars for more on that. Frank said that the chassis was not strong enough for amusement park use so Edgar rebuilt it or beefed it up. Frank does not remember the name of the company that built the chassis but I know that King was from there. The engine and clutch from the cars were by Cushman scooters. they were the best at the time for durability. Well it might not all be interesting to some but to a guy like me tried to rebuild on its priceless. Later on guys keep up the good work." |
