A Knockout: The Aldino K/O

The Aldino K/O kit is the culmination of over 20 years of design experience by Joe Palumbo, a pioneer in the kit car industry. Aldino has been an institution within the replica arena for over 20 years and is going strong today.

Joe Palumbo, who originally designed the Cimbria, a Volkswagen-based automobile kit, introduced the Aldino K/O in the mid '80s. This new line of cars may have surpassed all of his earlier efforts.

Palumbo introduced his new Aldino K/O in the Auto Buyer magazine with a series of never before seen photos of the fiber-fabricated sports car. According to Auto Buyer, "The well conceived effort is a car bound to be a collectors delight." It seems the magazine's prediction came true.

After the former owners retired, Richard and Ellen Lichte, who are no strangers to the automobile construction industry, took over operations for the Aldino K/O in August 2002.

Richard has over 30 years of hands-on experience restoring and refinishing automobiles. He has been at this facility since 1978 and has won numerous awards for his automobile restorations and custom paintwork on classic and exotic cars. Richard says, "My wife and I looked at this as a great opportunity to put all of that together and decided to add the next chapter to the Aldino story and continue the excitement."

In those early days at his shop, Rich was occasionally asked to restore a used Excalibur. His wife, Ellen, would get involved as well. Working together they would strip the old finish from a car-literally shaving the paint from the car, separating the top coat of lacquer from the primer. Rich separated the lacquer paint from the base primer using a heat gun and a razor-blade scraper, a great way to remove paint without using harsh chemicals that would damage fiberglass.

Cars For Stars
Back in the early '70s, famous people bought these Excalibur cars, and occasionally one of them would tour the plant. It was all pretty neat to see, and to be a part of. Singer James Brown had a car built that had a bright yellow body, black fenders, black patent-leather roof, and yellow patent-leather seats. The black patent-leather side-mount wheel covers were called glazed doughnuts. Tony Curtis, Adam West (played Batman on the popular '60s TV show), Steve McQueen, and Purvis Staples of the Staples Singers, all owned Excaliburs. Phyllis Diller had five of them. The list goes on.

Singer Roy Orbison traded his white, Series I Excalibur roadster in on a Series II roadster. It looked the same but it had a high-performance Corvette 454ci big-block V-8 under that long aluminum hood. His trade-in had cycle fenders, side pipes, and a 350hp Chevy 327ci with a four-speed. Roy's Series II roadster was very fast, almost scary fast!

The second to last production car Rich painted was a special edition Series II for comedian Jackie Gleason. The car had gold plated trim, an extended frame (for the outside trunk that sat on the fold-down luggage rack), sliding windows in the side-curtains, and Kane laminated onto the outer doors. It was supposed to be used for "The Billionaire," a TV series starring Jackie Gleason, but for some reason the show never went into production.

The last production car Mr. Lichte painted was for actor Dean Martin. His wife ordered the car as a surprise for his birthday. It was a beautiful roadster with a light beige body and dark maroon fenders. It had the name Dino hand-painted in small letters on the driver door.

Being this familiar with production of a fiberglass car like the Excalibur gives the Aldino Car Company a unique advantage. Not only are the Aldino's parts manufactured to the highest possible standard, but, also, every turnkey gets a high-quality, hand-painted show car finish.

The Aldino K/O
The Aldino K/O has one big advantage: its use of the Pontiac Fiero chassis. The Fiero chassis virtually eliminates the problem do-it-yourselfers ran into with not completing their kits. The Aldino was much easier to assemble than many kits in the past.

The Fiero Chassis is built using what is called a driveable chassis, a self contained, driveable unit. It is completely separate from the flexible, cosmetic outer skin of the vehicle. This Fiero chassis is virtually its own self-contained entity, and the non-flexible Aldino outer body panels simply go along for the ride. The car could be driven cross-country with none of the outer body panels in place, and, structurally, it would make no difference.

This unique attribute makes the Fiero the perfect donor car for application of re-body panels like the Aldino K/O. There is no welding and no alteration of the original chassis. In fact, replacing the flexible body parts with Aldino's rigid fiberglass panels actually adds strength to the overall structure.

Since the changes are only cosmetic, essentially giving the Fiero a facelift, there are no structural changes to this vehicle. As such, the car still remains a Pontiac Fiero. It is still titled as a Pontiac Fiero and all of General Motors' EPA crash test results still apply to the car.

Everything is functional on this car, including the scoops. This kit redistributes the weight of the Fiero, moving the car's center of gravity forward a few inches. The transition from Fiero to Aldino improves the handling and stability of the car, especially at higher speeds and while going through curves. The front of the Aldino literally hugs the ground. The faster one drives, the more road-hugging stability there is.

The time involved in constructing an Aldino depends on one's ability to remove and reinstall a nut and bolt. In general, the car goes together quickly. This is an all bolt-on kit. So, it's fairly easy to. For example: 1. Remove the bolts holding the non-structural door panel in place and the remove the Fiero door panel. 2. Using the same holes, line up and bolt the Aldino door panel into place. Where the stock Fiero holes are not used, the use of self-tapping screws hold the panel in place.

Once you get over the initial shock of removing all of the non-structural outer body panels from a Fiero, you're ready to build a car. It's really not that difficult to do. It's next to impossible to hurt the Fiero donor car during removal of the outer body panels. On a 1-to-10 scale, the competency level needed to complete the job is about a 2. Just use common sense and be aware of safety issues while working on a car. If you can assemble a piece of furniture you've purchased, or change your own oil, or if you have any basic mechanical ability at all, you can assemble an Aldino K/O.

Quality
The fiberglass parts are made by Otto Hopfinger & Sons of Hustisford, Wisconsin. Otto and his wife, Beatrice, founded Hopfinger Welding in 1952. In 1955, the company was renamed Otto Hopfinger & Sons, when his eldest son, Frederick, joined the family business. Quite by accident, the company began fiberglass manufacturing in 1965, when a customer required the fabrication of fiberglass components and didn't know where to turn. Seven years later, custom fiberglass components became the company's main source of revenue. Industrial, recreational, signage, safety, agriculture, automotive, and display/merchandising products are all fabricated from fiberglass at Otto Hopfinger & Sons. Aldino obtains all of its fiberglass automotive components from Otto Hopfinger & Sons (www.ottohop.com). The other components for the Aldino, including the metal framework, front turn signals, and 308-style taillights, are made at Aldino Car Company.