By Dean Larson

Unfinished fiberglass bodies come up for sale quite often. These bodies have usually sat for a few decades in someone's garage after their buyers realized they couldn’t finish what they started. Fortunately, this Cheetah body on eBay has a better story than that. It seems that this body was one of a few leftover cars recovered from the Fiberglass Trends warehouse after production ended of their G.T.R. body.

The seller is a bit vague on the details, but claims to have proof that this Fiberglass Trends G.T.R. was one of a few unsold examples in the company’s inventory after they were evicted from a warehouse in Santa Ana, California. Since the seller’s proof is a “contact number for the landlord’s son, supplied to the winning bidder,” this backstory will have to be taken with a grain of salt, but it’s cool nonetheless.

Backstory aside, there is a nice car for sale here, and it’s selling no reserve. The Fiberglass Trends G.T.R. is respected in its own right, and has legitimate ties to Bill Thomas and the original car. After Bill Thomas decided to abandon skinning his Cheetahs in aluminum, two different companies produced fiberglass test bodies for Thomas’ consideration. Fiberglass Trends was one of these companies, but was ultimately not chosen. They continued producing their Cheetah body anyway, now deemed the G.T.R. While the G.T.R. was designed to fit on most frames, the company offered a tube chassis that was designed for the drag strip, and many of the drag racing Cheetahs you see in vintage photos are actually G.T.R.s. The key difference between the two lies in the A pillar. The G.T.R. has a conventional A-pillar while an authentic Cheetah will have a much thinner, nearly invisible A-pillar.   

The G.T.R. for sale here is in decent shape for sitting as long as it has. The seller has had some repairs done on the body, mostly around the panel gaps, which are better than expected. It is, however, just the exterior shell with no interior panels, trim or glass. The seller is including a tube frame with the car, but does not have any information on its origins. From the little we can see in the photos, it does bare some resemblance to the original Fiberglass Trends frame design, but it is incomplete and may, or may not, be worth using.

This leftover Cheetah is definitely a project and will require a large investment to complete, but if you’re looking to start a Cheetah build on a budget, this body is better than most. The car is being sold with no reserve and the current bid is $4,050 with a little over 24 hours remaining.