Meet the builder

Upon his discharge from service following the Korean war, Ben Shoemaker resumed his floor covering business. But he began to "dabble" in the relatively new fiberglass manufacturing business.

One of his first efforts may have been the design and construction of this car, the Shoemaker Ford Special. According to a 1967 trade publication, Speed & Custom Dealer, Shoemaker built his first fiberglass car from the components of a 1951 Ford. While the article, unfortunately, didn't include any images of this first car, it did go on to say that about 40 bodies were taken from the mold -- and that as late as 1967, Fiberglass Unlinited (Shoemaker's company) was producing an average of six of these bodies each year. (Surprisingly, no other examples of this body style have turned up.)

Most of Shoemaker's fiberglass projects were "one-off" designs, and, until 1960, his fiberglass work was done after hours, while he maintained his floor covering business.

In 1960 he and a partner formed a business to make fiberglass church steeples and observatory roofs. The partnership was short-lived, but it convinced Shoemaker to leave the floor covering business and to pursue fiberglass work full-time.

In 1963 he supplied bodies for the Bobsy Vanguard Formula Vee, a design competing in the SCCA's newly-approved Formula V racing class. Some time later, Shoemaker designed and built bodies for the Bobsy SR3 racer.

Shoemaker continued his fiberglass work up until at least 2001. Officials of the National One Design (sailboat) Racing Association indicate that Fiberglass Unlimited made "many" hulls from their design through the 90's and until 2001.