Foam Gone Bananas

Spray Foam Magazine – February 2025 – There is nothing more quintessentially British than eccentricity, and what better way to highlight this than an unusual car! This is not just any old car, but one in the shape of a banana. Spray Foam Magazine caught up with fabricator Steve Braithwaite, the mastermind behind this automobile, to ask why a banana, and why use spray foam in this rather intriguing project.

The 6.97m long Big Banana Car was built by Steve Braithwaite and a close group of friends over a two and a half year period. The car has since become a celebrity, and it has even made the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s longest custom banana car. The base of the car is a 1993 Ford pick-up, converted into a rolling banana. The car was predominantly built in Pennsylvania and has been on the road since 2011. During that time, it has driven coast to coast and from north to south.

Originally from the United Kingdom, Steve moved to the U.S. when he married an American woman. He has always been a big fan of American hot rods and spent many hours at hot rod shows. He was inspired to build something a little different after watching an episode of the British Top Gear show where the presenters had fun with custom-built cars like a fully street-legal mobile garden shed, as well as a couch-on-wheels.

The idea got Steve thinking: how fun would it be to build something different from the usual hot rod he knew so well? The idea materialized when Steve found himself standing next to a bowl of fruit while in line at a gas station. He found himself staring at a banana, and after a few curious looks from other customers, Steve had his revelation. The car had to be a banana.

Steve now had the concept and the base part of the car; he just needed material that he could easily manipulate and shape. He knew set designers had used SPF on props and movie sets. Therefore, it would be perfect to help him create a banana shape.

Steve started the project by taking off the sheet metal from the Ford pickup, which left a nice, slender frame. Then, he went back to the grocery store and, for twenty minutes, looked for what Steve envisioned as the perfect banana. He finally chose one and brought it home, cut it into inch slices, drew around each slice, numbered them, and then projected the drawings of the slices full-sized onto particle board, cut them out with a jigsaw, and then fitted them onto the truck frame using them as a buck to make a rebar skeleton. Steve then used the lines of those slices to create the skeleton shape of a banana out of the rebar, and the more the skeleton he built, the more the wood came out. He then covered the entire thing with chicken wire.

Steve then applied VersiFoam, a closed-cell spray foam insulation kit which arrived with a U-Control dispensing gun attached to two 10-foot hoses, ten mixing nozzles, three fan tips, and nitrile gloves. Once Steve had foamed the entire chicken wire, he sculpted the foam to create a banana shape. He then laid fiberglass, with a resin, over the top of the foam, as he knew the foam would not get eaten away by the fiberglass.

Steve had never applied SPF before and found there were several voids. He was not concerned, as this project was not for insulation purposes, merely to create a shape. To fill the voids, he used over-the-counter Great Stuff he found at Lowe's. The car shape was uneven, so Steve spent hours filling and sanding and eventually had to say to himself, ‘It’s not a Ferrari, Steve, it’s a banana.’

Steve had a group of people cheering him on, including a guy named Ron Kutt who is a very skilled fabricator. Originally, Steve was using a small welder to do the skeleton; however, when it came to welding a support for a bearing for the steering, Steve did not want to use this small welder. He asked his brother, who was in the area, if he knew anyone, and he told Steve about Ron, who has a mobile welding service.

“I called Ron out of the blue, and Ron brought his trailer over and was intrigued at what I was doing. He is a superb welder and welded up a bracket for the bearing. He was so fascinated by the project he kept on coming back to help me. He had also fiberglassed before which I hadn't, so he tutored me in that,” laughed Steve.

The four-seater fully street-legal Big Banana Car has traveled all over the U.S., Mexico, and Canada, receiving lots of attention across the U.S., even having the likes of the judges of America’s Got Talent riding in the banana car in Hollywood, CA. The car also made an appearance on Good Morning America.

Known for its “pay-what-you-can” rides to fund Steve’s travels, this unique car spreads joy, getting waves and smiles across the country. People pay him anything from pennies to dollars for a ride in the quirky car, making it a unique, joyful experience that funds his adventures and interactions. With the use of materials like spray foam, this Banana will always stay ripe and a-peel-ing in every way.