Auction Car of the Week: Monkeemobile Replica

 

 By Craig Fitzgerald

In recent months, we gave you the rundown on the real Monkeemobile and a short history of George Barris’s proclivities. Now we’ve got a Monkeemobile replica up for auction, and it holds a pretty interesting connection with the Dean Jeffries, the original builder. This Monkeemobile is up for sale in Morriston, Florida, with a Buy-It-Now price of $60,000.

The story that goes along with the car is this: Dean Jeffries built two Monkeemobiles for The Monkees TV show in 1966. The whereabouts of both of those cars are well established. However, when the car was originally built, Jeffries made up several spare bodies in case one of the cars was damaged beyond repair. Apparently, this car was built using one of those spare bodies.

The body was originally purchased by Eric Sharp, who also owns the Landmaster from the movie Damnation Alley,  another Dean Jeffries creation. According to the seller, this is the second replica using an authentic Jeffries body. The first was built by automotive stylist Dick Dean, who worked with both Dean Jeffries and George Barris, and did a lot of styling work on the Bricklin SV-1 for Malcolm Bricklin.

 

Sharp built the car using a 1965 Malibu chassis, so the Monkeemobile replica here is registered as a 1965 Malibu. It’s powered by an Oldsmobile Rocket 350 mated to a TH350 transmission.

Interestingly, Dean Jeffries had a lot to say about the restoration of the second of the two original TV show cars. He was vocal about some of the choices made in the restoration, mostly around parts that were taken off of the original.

 

 

According to the seller, those parts ended up on this car. It features the TV show car’s Cragar S/S wheels, the dash and the gauges.

The Weiand 6-71 Roots-type blower sticking through the hood is non-functional, as were the blowers on the TV show cars.

 

 The blower belt shroud is identical to the TV show car’s as is the winged hood ornament ahead of it. The car has fully functional side exhaust pipes, with cut outs to a quieter  rear exhaust system.

Jeffries felt confident enough about the car that he autographed it, although he spelled the name of the car incorrectly when he did. Hey, the guy’s a builder not an editor.

It’s a pretty faithful replica with close ties to the guy who built it. For the price of a mid-level BMW 5 Series, you could own something that’s going to turn a lot more heads this summer.