Thanks to “Letterman7” over on the samba for letting us know about it. Well this is one of my favorite kit cars ever. One that sadly I have never owned. The Aquila was built by American Fibre Craft in the 1980s. The car is said to be losely based on the BMW M1 also of the same period. This is a pretty rare bird. While production numbers are not completely know, I have heard 50-100 and also seen data plates to back up those numbers.
On eBay right now are the production molds. There is just 1 photo of them so it is really hard to tell what the overall shape of then are. Also there is really no info on the listing , and the seller has a -1 feedback rating for some reason. Not sure what that is all about. Now the kicker is the price tag. Has it listed at a $10,000 BIN Price. Frankly I do not see that, nor do I see half that, but who knows. The cars have come up from time to time in the $1500-$3000 price range for projects. But once again, who knows?
Anyway auction number is 221166789965
I thinking it would be hard to sell the molds for some really popular kit car much less one that never seemed to kick off even though it was a very sweet looker ( I never saw one in person so I can not comment on quality )
In the day of custom vettes for example one company would offer a custom part and if popular what do you know the next vette company will offer it under “their” name.
Molds have a life and the more they are used and or the more time passed and how they are stored all take a toil,
Some kits sold today are being made with second rate molds meaning the body produced needs far more finish work,
In this case I can believe these are the real original Aquila molds and would need a keen trained eye to inspect them,
This also make me a bit sad, for me it’s almost like a tomb stone of yet another of the grass roots kit cars being defunct.
Pricing, hum, I sold Mikes VW dune buggy molds for 500 and he was thrilled to get it…..
Pretty neat…and yet…kinda sad – to see the molds for such a cool car sitting in a pile like so much crap….like most folks, unfortunately, I am in no position to rescue them, at any price
Well.. you can’t compare buggy molds to a 15+ piece mold for an enclosed car. While my car is far from complete, the build quality is second to none. Very heavy fiberglass pieces and well engineered. I do hope that someone saves these, at the very least for the few people that might need parts!
Rick you make it sound like these Aquila molds are yours,
How many parts do you think are in a good set of buggy molds or Vette wide body or???
Molds ARE molds then add condition and quailty.
Sorry if you didn’t like my honest reply and comments but the fact is I can compare these molds to the buggy molds or any other old molds for that matter and that was assuming these Aquila molds were anywhere near as high a quality molds as the buggy molds to start with, just from the pictures one can clearly see the Aquila molds were never taken care of as well as the buggy molds I mentioned.
Anyone into ‘glass can see from the way they are stacked the Aquila molds at the very least would have warping.
The buggies built from said buggy molds were second to none also and those molds pulled 1000’s of bodies at 100.
Hi Paul,
No worries, everyone is entitled to an opinion. They are not my molds, and yes, they should have been stored “better”. I won’t get into a debate on how many molds makes a car or how they should be built – it’s pointless as every manufacturer is different. And with these it doesn’t matter: they’re likely doomed to a landfill somewhere in California.
It’s all good, and sadly yes, they will likely end up as landfil in fact in most cases like this owners would rather trash someothing than give it a loving home, but it makes your car a zillion times more rare.
:-) With no possiblility of spare parts unless another car comes along!
Unfortunately your cars build quality would not interest me enough in the molds. I have seen an aquila and you are right they are great. BUT after who know how many years in the elements those molds, assuming they could be saved would require a bunch of time, effort and money to start making parts. With 50-100 cars made, there will not be a big enough demand for parts to sit on the molds, and building new cars? Yeah I do not think that would happen
hello rick
has anyone been able to contact this chris meuller guy to see if he would do something/anything to save these molds? Or is he only concerned of$? Yes, this will be sad if they cannot be saved, even for parts, etc. do you have a direct phone # to reach him, maybe convince him to preserve his Dad’s legacy and hard work? I’d be more than happy to phone him, to find a place to at least store them properly, out of the elements, levelthem to keep them ‘true’. call me , as you have my phone # already. ( im almost tempted to purchase that Aquila close to my home, just as a parts car-)
Jack – just found this post. Sent you an email with the info. Chris is only out for the money – these molds are listed again at twice the price. Uh, if they didn’t sell the first time…
What a shame