All right! One ugly monster removed from the pile of unsolved mysteries
One point goes to neilshouse, one to hugo90, and three to yourself, as you wish.
And here is the entire article - I've translated it for your pleasure:
The art of building a car – out of 8 others! - The story of Hilmer Svensson – the world’s strangest car builder from Småland
Hilmer Svensson’s recipe: Start off with a Chrysler Valiant, mix with a tad of Plymouth Barracuda and Pontiac. Add some Volvo P1800 and don’t forget to spice it up with a Jaguar E-Type. Hilmer Svensson’s garage was located in the outskirts of Forserum, which is a couple of metric miles outside Jönköping. This was where Hilmer worked for decades under the motto “It’s gonna work out”. The car you see in this article is an example of his attitude when it came to problems.
The car was a Chrysler Valiant that went off the road and was so damaged that not even Hilmer wanted to fix it. But being only four years old, the car’s chassis and mechanicals were in great condition, so he bought the vehicle and cut away all the bent metal.
Then he walked out into his car-breaker-like yard and picked some new parts. The hood came off a Jaguar E-Type, but the front overhang was a bit too long. Therefore the front end was cut off by some inches, which also made the radiator from a Hudson fit perfectly.
To make the car’s lines harmonise with the Jag hood the windshield was lifted off a Pontiac, the rear window off a Plymouth Barracuda, and the top ends of the rear wings were modified using tailfins from a Volvo P1800 customised with Chevrolet Impala taillights.
The doors were welded togetherDuring construction Hilmer started demolishing an Opel Rekord and discovered that the roof fitted his creation perfectly – mounted crosswise. To top it off, the Opel roof was equipped with a huge sunroof.
The Valiant’s rear doors could not be used since the big rear window also made up the rear side windows – so the front ends of the front doors were welded to the rear ends of the rear doors. The curved glass came from a P1800 whose windscreen had been cut down the middle. The result was windows that couldn’t be wound down. Instead, the front section were pushed sideways. The interior of the car was also for the most part lifted from the P1800, except for the top of the dashboard, which came off the same Pontiac that donated the windscreen.
The taillights from the Valiant disappeared as the rear wings were modified – but turned out to fit perfectly on the Jaguar front end. The red glass from the taillights were swapped for white glass – hey presto! Perfect indicator lamps.
It wasn’t all perfectThe car was now mostly done, the body was painted red with a black roof, and the trim around the big side windows was cut from aluminium. To get the car past inspection wasn’t a problem, either – for this was I 1968, when all laws and paragraphs were still generous to modified cars. And as everything under the shell was still in original condition, the car was even still registered as a Chrysler Valiant.
After a while, Hilmer discovered that not all his solutions were that good. After having used the car a lot over a four-year period he decided it was time for an update. Problem number one was the Jaguar hood, which couldn’t be lifted very high. So, Hilmer welded it shut, sawed a big hole above the engine and used the cutaway as engine cover. He also drilled refilling holes for oil and coolant straight through the hood.
The side windows were another problem. At higher speeds the wind blew through them, and when it rained the water seeped in. Hilmer ditched his clever patent. Instead, plexi glass windows were designed to cover the entire opening, and on the driver’s side the window winder was reinstated into service. But the big window could only be wound half-way down, because it touched the bottom of the door.
It’s hard to know where Hilmer got all his inspiration from. Regarding the retractable extra lights he was clearly influenced by the Lamborghini Miura’s headlights which appear to shine straight into the sky. But when the light is switched on they are angled forward and looks like frogs’ eyes. Hilmer’s solution became even wilder, with lamps on 30 cm long struts. When switched on, the lights were half a metre above the body. The lifting was done with a starter engine and parts from a outboard boat motor.
It ran for more than 200,000 kilometresEven with the exhaust, Hilmer had his own ways and fabricated pipes with three long, chromed exhaust pipes. To make them visible, he cut a hole in the side of the car and replaced the metal with mesh. The interior was also completed with some more stuff from the P1800, a vacuum meter of his own construction, armrests and glovebox from a Renault 16 and a spoiler between the rear wings. This gave the car the appearance it still has today.
Hilmer used his car on a daily basis during the whole Seventies, in all more than 200,000 kilometres. During these years he started having health issues. When it was time for a complete renovation of the Valiant he didn’t have the strength, and the car was put into storage.
Inspection shock
Thirteen years later, Janne Möllerström of Nässjö bougt the car. After a lot of work on brakes, rust and everything else that goes with an ageing car he drove it down for inspection – and the guys working there got the shock of their lives! According to today’s rules the car is no longer a Chrysler Valiant, and Janne is stuck in a Catch 22: The person which today modifies a car’s body to these extremes, is only allowed to do so for his own use, and he can then register it as a customized car. But it is impossible to register a car that has been built by somebody else. Buying a modified car that the builder himself has registered, is possible, though.
Which means that for Janne’s part, he has to convince the inspectors that their own colleagues accepted the car as a Chrysler Valiant during the whole Seventies, in spite of ever changing rules. I hope he succeeds, so that this undescribable vehicle yet again can be an exclamation point among all the boring sheetmetal.
FACTS Hilmer SvenssonThrough the years, Hilmer became somewhat of a mythical character, and today it’s hard to know what is truth and what is myth among all the anecdotes about his life. It is anyway true that he:
Patented his own Wankel engine. A working prototype was built, but development was never completed on the construction.
Built his own wind-driven powerplant.
Stretched a Volvo P1800 to make its luggage compartment bigger.
Welded a Ford Taunus back together – it had been hit by a train and split in two.
Modified a number of sedans into estates by welding rear ends from crashed station wagons onto them.
Built a sports car with a plastic body – that didn’t look like anything else.
Planned to install a 300-hp aircraft engine in the Valiant, but his health reduced his work ability.
Manufactured his own dialysis machines, built from parts from cars, washing machines and other things available nearby. In total, hilmer bought seven dialysis machines, both portable ones that he could carry on his back, and machines that were hooked up to the car. That way he could have dialysis while he was driving – even during a holiday in Spain.
This is what accompanies the images:- Hilmer in his glory days in 1968 (the black and white images that Ray B posted), when the side windows were still split and all the metal in front of the windscreen was one big hood. A TV documentary tells the story of Hilmer’s last months and the hunt for new kidneys. In 2000, his body couldn’t take it anymore, and one of the world’s strangest Smålands-men passed away.
- The car was to be called Dragoon. Hilmer liked the idea, and made a Dragoon emblem that was fitted to the rear bootlid.
- Hilmer had an idea that cars could be salvaged through their wheels being placed in separate niches in the rear luggage compartment.
- The car’s lines are reminiscent of the “cars of the Future” in the car magazines of the 1950s. The side window on the passenger side is one big piece of glass, which Hilmer considered to help the car’s looks.
- Hilmer’s Car caused much ado in the local newspapers.
