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There were about fifty Volks-Rod kits ever made. Kent
Fuller, the original V-rod builder, had built the first one in the early
sixties. He built it as a shop truck for his own use, but decided to make it as
a kit car. He built about a dozen of them before selling the kit to Speedway
Motors, who sold about two dozen over the next twenty or so years.
At some
point Andy Brizio of Andy’s Instant T saw Kent's car and decided to build his
own kit. He sold about a dozen, mostly to friends and relatives, before he dropped
the kit from his line of cars.
After actively searching for over ten years I
was able to finally find a Brizio version V-Rod to rebuild. Approximately
twelve years ago I ran across one for sale but couldn’t talk the guy down
enough in price so I let it go. I regretted that for years.
One reason
that I was reluctant to buy that car is because it was in very nice original
shape and the car that I wanted to build would have many modifications.
One day in
March of 2001 I was telling a friend at work about my search for the V-rod. He
was not familiar with what it was so I described it to him. Shortly after lunch
was over he came to me and asked if the car in the parking lot out front was
anything like I was talking about. To my amazement there sat a beautiful white
Volks-Rod. I immediately went next door to find the owner of the car. The shop
next door does repair on European cars and the V-rod owner was there about a
Jaguar that he owned. I walked into the shop and said; “All right nobody leaves
here until I own that car” meaning the V-rod of course. The gentleman standing there held the keys
out in front of him and said, that will be $60,000 dollars please.
After an
introduction I realized that I was talking to the father of the Volks-Rod, Kent
Fuller. We reminisced about the rod runs that we used to go to in the sixties.
I told him about my search for a car and he told me that someone had approached
him about buying a V-rod that he had in his back yard. My heart leaped. I said
“Who? Where? Do you have his number?” It took about a week to finally get in
touch with the guy who had the car but when I did, I drove six miles up the
road and bought it that night.
Once I got
the car home I told my wife “Now that I have finally found a car, I will put it
away until I have the time and money to work on it”. This was the first of many
lies.
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