Harrah half and half restoration

I remember seeing, in Harrah's collection (and this is going back to the early 80's) a car that was half restored. That is, one side was restored, the other side was unrestored barn find. Think a vertical dividing line right down middle of radiator, extending to back of car.

It was done (at some expense I'm sure) to show the transformation. I remember it being a late 20's sedan, make unknown.

Who knows more about this car? Where is it now?

Inquiring minds want to know.......

there was a corvette one half restore like you mentioned in corvette fever, remember it being a v59? remember comments being made as being a half a%% restoration

David, I remember seeing a car like that in an East Coast collection sometime in the 1960's. Harrah may have bought it after that.

David, don't know about Harrah's half and half car, but do remember an auto paint shop in the Washington, D. C. area (Rainbow Auto Painters?) that did a '36 Chevy that way as a driving advertizement for them in the early post-war 40's. New cars were srill scarce and lots of the pre-war ones still going were beat up and faded. Seemed like a very clever inducement to get people to have them fix up their old cars.

November 14, 2006 I photographed a 1905 Schacht roadster in the Sarasota Classic Cars Museum in Florida that had the right side restored and the left half left undisturbed. Very interesting.

I don't know if this is the car in question, but the link below will take you to a 'half restored' 1928 Dodge Brothers Coupe at the Reynolds-Alberta Museum in Canada.

1928 Dodge Brothers Coupe | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

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Famous VW parts supplier "West Coast Metric" did a half-restored '67 VW Beetle a few years ago:

http://www.locashracing.org/01/WcmHalfcar.jpg

and

http://images.thesamba.com/vw/gallery/pix/212395.jpg

and

http://image.vwtrendsweb.com/f/8860710/0304vwt_25z+Volkswagen_Beetle+Rear_Driver_Side.jpg

(unfortunately these are not great shots of it, but as I recall they did a print ad with it that showed the contrast between the "halves" quite dramatically)

Wow, didn't know there were others out there....the Dodge coupe looks a lot like what I saw at Harrah's, but seem to remember it was a sedan.....thanks for the replys guys, interesting...

Maaco had half and half cars for years at shows in the Chicago area. Haven't seen any recently though.

Here's a cutaway Vette

How about a see thru Vette

Wow, see through cars are always neat... weren't there some see through Plexiglas cars of the late 30's, a Plymouth maybe? Where are those cars?

In a famous picture, Henry Ford is about to take a sledge hammer to a new 41 Plexiglas Ford to demonstrate its ruggedness.

I was thinking that the sledgehammer picture had to do with body panels made of some soybean material, during or after the war (just like a lot of war-time license plates were made of some other material instead of metal). If not soybean on the body panel, some new fabrication/material process, but I don't remember it being Plexiglas.....

In fact I just visited my good friend Mr. Google, and found that the panels were made of hemp and a reinforcing material...and found this statement:

"Henry Ford's first motorcar used plant-based fibers in the body and an early picture of a hammer-wielding Mr. Ford showed the world how strong plant fibers were in reinforcing manmade materials. Ford's work was stymied by the 1937 "Marijuana" Tax Act."

Pontiac displayed a 1940 Sedan with a plexiglas body at the Worlds Fair. The car still exists and was owned by AACA Nat'l Board member Don Barlup for several years back in the 1970's. The car was fully functional and a real blast to drive ( I did ). I'm not sure where it is now but it was the subject of a feature article in Automobile Quarterly many years back.

Pontiac displayed a 1940 Sedan with a plexiglas body at the Worlds Fair...

WOWZA!!!