Just when you think you’ve seen every possible iteration that Bantam may have produced, more beautiful photos emerge in crisp black and white. This morning serves as a reminder that you never know what sort of things the factory was considering before rolling out the production 63 Series cars with the headlamps nestled deeper within the fender. The photos posted on eBay are professional photos which are clearly staged and seem to be far more than just a styling exercise and are something I would venture to guess may have been originally destined for marketing materials. However, I’ve never seen these photos published, have you?
The Speedster:
Let’s see how many differences we can find from standardized Series 63 cars:
1) larger stainless trim on the hood taking up far more real estate than what was actually used
2) Series 60 style bumper guards were mounted fore and aft (Interestingly, our 1939 roadster project which is for sale had this same style of bumper guard mounted on it when found)
3) the stainless trim on the fender skirt is entirely different from the standard issue with the three horizontal strips eschewed in favor of one single piece underscoring the bottom border of the skirt
4) chrome rocker moldings!
5) That tonneau cover is pretty snazzy if you ask me!
Honorable mention: That single pinstripe outlining the upper part of the cove is also identical to what our 1939 roadster project sports.
The Coupe:
- There’s that wide trim again!
- How about those sporty black painted bumpers? I believe the look of having everything painted black is called “murdered” these days. Was Bantam the pioneer of this?
- Look at the sheen of the upholstery. Was this seat covered in vinyl or leather?
- Is this car missing the Bantam badge on the upper portion of the grille?
Honorable mention: This car actually has a front license plate frame! How many of us have been looking for one of these?
The Boulevard delivery:
It’s unclear if this photo was taken at the same time as the others, but it is an interesting vantage point of the boulevard delivery. If so, it may illustrate that the delivery was more in keeping with the commercial cars than the passenger ones as it features the earlier style grille and hood.
The only thing that has caught my eye is that this photo clearly captures the special seat back utilized on these cars to allow for a driver to open the rear cargo hold as you can see in this photo of a restored delivery:
Everything Bantam 