The History

In the early 90s, I finally realized that my trusty cruiser was not going to make it much further. Mechanically it was sound, but the body had seen better days. Over the years I had done the traditional steel repairs…they only lasted a few years before the rust resurfaced somewhere else. My last effort in steel was a full stainless tub surround from the “B” pillars back…this worked reasonably well except it was impossible to get the paint to stick and eventually the remaining steel mounts gave up and the whole thing collapsed onto the frame.

Clearly it was time for a new body. The search began … and ended almost as quickly. The fiberglass products available at that time left a lot to be desired and with my experiences with steel, stainless steel, and aluminum (we had a couple of Land Rovers as well) I realized what I wanted was a real composite tub. With my years experience in composite building of world -renowned ocean-going sailing vessels (Gozzard Yachts), I began engineering my replacement tub.

There were four main criteria:

1. It had to look like the real thing, even up close. This precluded any steel or aluminum options because it would impossible to get all the little details that, at least in my mind, made the cruiser what it was…at least without considerable effort and cost.
2. It had to be as strong as or stronger than the original body. Obviously if it were steel it could be, aluminum could also but there would be issues between the aluminum and the remaining original steel parts like the dash etc you would be force to deal with. Building in composites would create some real challenges…for glass to be comparable to steel in strength it needs to be approximately 20 times thinker. I would also have to use better quality material similar to those I already had experience with.
3. It had to be built to last…and no corrosion. With my experiences with the Rovers I was not interested in driving a battery…clearly composite would be the best answer to this problem.
4. It had to be repairable. Again this favored composites as they can be reworked infinitely… aluminum was the least favorable.

Clearly, if a composite tub could be made to look like a real cruiser and built well enough…it would be the best solution. In the beginning, all these parts were build strictly for my own personal use…it was only after I was absolutely sure they stood up to the rigors of Off Road use would and did I consider selling them…and even then only on a limited, low production bases.

The Parts

All Gozzard Composite parts are manufactured from marine grade materials. Unlike most materials used in the kit car business, this grade material is second only to the aerospace industry where light weight requirements result in much higher manufacturing costs. In the marine industry, weight is important but not to the same degree. Indeed, the materials used in the construction of these parts are the same as what are used to build some of the finest cruising sailboats in the world.

There are a number of different processes used to manufacture the various parts. The traditional hand lay up is slowly been replaced by the resin infusion process. This high tech process creates very high quality parts with a lower consumer cost. At the moment about half the parts are made this way.

The parts are all designed and engineered to withstand the hash environment of the Off Road. This makes for some very tough parts…fenders and a hood you can jump on, rocker panels that will support the weight on the entire truck…quarter panels that can take an impact with a bolder. But it must be understood that these parts are designed strictly for OFF ROAD USE ONLY and although these parts might be suitable for everyday driving they are not designed, tested or approved for on road use. A hood you can climb on while you are hooking the winch would be too strong for a frontal impact. For safety reasons real car parts are designed to fail…mine are not.

All parts are intended to work with any combination of original steel parts. Steel parts will fit on a glass truck and glass parts will fit on a steel truck. In most cases the glass parts weigh about the same as the original steel parts.