Your Projects: Fitting a Panhard body onto a wrecked Toyota Prius

David S.
By David S. Wallens
May 23, 2024 | prius, Panhard, Your Projects

The lump on the left is a 1958 Panhard Dyna Z that’s passed through the hands of a few GRM forum members. The floors as well as the “rolly drivey bits” are all gone. Good glass and solid body, though.

The lump on the right is a 2009 Toyota Prius that hit a deer. Daniel Cummings, builder of way cool low-buck cars, plans to mash them together to, in his words, “put the Panhard body onto the Prius like a hat.”

Check out the build thread for yourself here.

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Comments
nocones
nocones GRM+ Memberand PowerDork
5/23/24 2:18 p.m.

Oh bummer but this one is actually dead.  I ran into some issues with height of body compared to the minimum cowl height.   There would of been much engineering required to move a lot of components to get the body down the 2 or so inches it needed to not require extended height sills to cover the prius.  It almost worked though.  I had hoped that the build was going to be a straightforward  keep all the modern prius stuff get old body.

 

But fear not.  The Panhard will live on.   I still have plans for it.  I think.

Colin Wood
Colin Wood Associate Editor
5/23/24 2:39 p.m.

In reply to nocones :

Bummer that the original idea didn't pan out, but I'm glad that there's still an idea for the Panhard. Good luck!

Indy - Guy
Indy - Guy UltimaDork
5/23/24 7:45 p.m.

Ha!  I've got the remnants of this parked in my trailer.  We had a ton of fun playing with the "Prius Roadster" until I had a customer who needed the hybrid battery pack. 

 

 

I had to cut the back of it off to get it to fit in the trailer...

 

sleepyhead the buffalo
sleepyhead the buffalo GRM+ Memberand PowerDork
5/23/24 8:32 p.m.

iirc, nocones had it down to ~2450#s with the chop?

are we closer to ~2400#s now?

also... not that I have the skills or shop space for it... but I can't help thinking about yanking out the rear seat and chopping (14?) out the rear footwell to shorten this up...

 

Indy - Guy
Indy - Guy UltimaDork
5/24/24 9:06 a.m.

In reply to sleepyhead the buffalo :

Ha Ha.

 

I had a similar thought, but much shorter, making it a three seater, driving from the repositioned rear bench seat.

 

Cut out the section in red.  The frame rails are nice and straight in that area.  Gas tank is under rear bench seat.

sleepyhead the buffalo
sleepyhead the buffalo GRM+ Memberand PowerDork
5/24/24 9:49 p.m.

In reply to Indy - Guy :

I think I cut too much out... (apologies to the IndyKids)...

rough guess looks like the wheelbase is around 70-80inches?

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