I don't know... It looks like you are cutting up a side of beef.:rolleyes:
Certainly,...... you have vision!
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I don't know... It looks like you are cutting up a side of beef.:rolleyes:
Certainly,...... you have vision!
Using as many "found shapes" as possible is kinda getting out of hand, but it is fun. ...and it makes for good conversation at car shows.Quote:
Originally Posted by ScooterCO
All of our cars have interesting stories behind them. We usually drag pieces and parts from all over the country to build something. A 500 mile roadtrip to pick up parts is common. **)
Back to this one.
I'm debating on sticking headlights above the pods or in the pods like this Mercedes from the same era, except I would use smaller lights and move the grills outboard a little.
http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n...-W125-1977.jpg
The pods may help me speed up the build quite a bit too. I may be able to modify the jag front crossmember enough to fit in the pods. If I can, I will be able to use the jag steering and lower control arms (save lots of headscratching time). I think I can get away with cutting off the upper mounts and the spring pockets and then make new upper arms and mount a transverse leaf spring (maybe 2 quarter eliptics) that runs between the upper and lower a-arms. The barely exposed leafs will give it that old racecar feel that the rear leafs have.
If I do the Miller inspired front suspension, everything between the spindles will have to be fabbed from scratch.
I cut the caddy hood apart and mocked-up the front end (I'll post pics tomorrow night when I get back home). It really changes the look of the car. I think it is cool.
I also realized the low seat/high & wide dash thing sucks for visibility. The cowl is going to be a little slimmer.
Overall, I think the car is moving from the late 20's to the late-40's - early 50's sports racer feel. I need to figure out how to take a little length out of the nose/cowl...right now it looks to be about a 115-120" wheelbase.
It doesn't fit as well as I hoped it would. The shapes would do better on a single seater. It's gonna take some pie cuts to make the nose act right and the the back line up with the shape of the main body. I think I can make it work.
http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n...8/HPIM0909.jpg
http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n...8/HPIM0910.jpg
http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n...8/HPIM0911.jpg
http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n...8/HPIM0916.jpg
The thought crossed my mind to build it like a 2 seater bonneville streamliner... move the nose forward so the end of the caddy hood ends at my original firewall. It would probably be a 140" wheelbase but it should be very fast looking.
What do y'all think?
http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n...8/HPIM0909.jpg
Are you thinking of something like this?
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1088/...ccb091.jpg?v=0
More along the lines of this one.Quote:
Originally Posted by stovens
http://i447.photobucket.com/albums/q...g?t=1242515791
JMO, but I like the Mercedes/Alfa look much better. It also fits better with the Jag engine/wire wheels that you have. Also, a 140 inch wheelbase would be very unwieldy on the street. You'd have to hang one of those "beware of wide turns" signs on the back.:)
Thanks for the input.Quote:
Originally Posted by RestoRod
Yeah it was a dumb idea. ...going back to the racecar/sports car idea.
We scored a couple of neat parts at the swap meet at the Bowling Green Hot Rod Reunion that may alter the build (not sure yet).
Dad bought a Whippet radiator and shell and I bought a Jaeger 5" speedometer and mechanical tach.
I have searched a little and think the gauges are 1953 MG TD. They look cool no mater what they are.
If the caddy track nose doesn't work out, I have a cool backup.
Pics
5" Jaeger speedo and tach
http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n...9/IMG_0047.jpg
Whippet radiator
http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n...9/IMG_0050.jpg
Nice gauges. What's the little one on the bottom of the tach, a clock?
I think your parts will start dictating your total design, although I wouldn't use that fish tank, too big for a functional overflow tank!:LOL:
Thought about it a while.... I am going to continue to work on the track nose. The car needs to shrink a little though to pull it all off.
The cowl will need to be pinched a little to get the lines to work out right (who really needs THAT much foot room anyways?). The nose is gonna get a little smaller and a little lower at the front. Those pretty cam covers are actually going to poke through the hood a little at the front. The door openings are also gonna get smaller (shorter front to back and shallower).
I'm going to try and pack everything into a 100" wheelbase.
The Whippet radiator and MG gauges will go towards dad's T rebuild.
I spent a couple of frustrating days working on roofus. The heat and humidity in Memphis was aweful.
I had a heck of a time trying to make the transition from the boat tail to the track nose.
I started trying to mock up the original roof pieces.
http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n...IMG_0004-1.jpg
http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n...IMG_0006-1.jpg
http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n...IMG_0005-1.jpg
http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n...8/IMG_0012.jpg
Kinda OK, but I wasn't really feeling it.
On to plan B.
Another ROOF ! ...and a jaguar roof to boot! A 1979 Jaguar XJS to be specific.
It was a donor jag that was bought for the front and rear suspensions. I had planned on making fender skirts out of the roof.
http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n...8/IMG_0019.jpg
Cut down the middle like I did the tail.
http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n...8/IMG_0021.jpg
http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n...8/IMG_0022.jpg
http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n...8/IMG_0023.jpg
Time to cut. And bend up some new angles. (I made lots of scrap, but got lots of practice with the shrinker)
http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n...8/IMG_0024.jpg
http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n...8/IMG_0025.jpg
http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n...8/IMG_0026.jpg
http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n...8/IMG_0027.jpg
It looks like crap...too square. Does not flow with the rest of the car.
It fits the curve front to back pretty well though.
On to plan C
The cowl top needed a bigger radius. Time to make more angle pieces.
I dropped the roof panel down. Instead of trying to make the XJS roof make the whole bend, I decided to only make it do part of the bend. I positioned it down lower on the car.
http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n...8/IMG_0032.jpg
http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n...8/IMG_0033.jpg
http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n...8/IMG_0034.jpg
http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n...8/IMG_0035.jpg
Not 100% sure on the peaks. The flat top dash was definetly wrong though.
http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n...8/IMG_0044.jpg
http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n...8/IMG_0045.jpg
The "hood" will butt up to the cowl. Curves actuallly match up pretty good.
http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n...8/IMG_0043.jpg
(3 of the four firetruck are visible in this pic)
http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n...8/IMG_0040.jpg
Cowl top will be filled in with cadillac door sheetmetal.
In the pics, the red panel looks really flat. In real life, it has a decent amount of shape and follows the curve of the framework fairly well.
On the subject of curves, do you guys think that the hood and cowl should be peaked, curved, or flat down the center?
I'm kinda up in the air over this one.
I'd vote for flat, but it's hard to get a good mental picture. It's looking great either way. Man, them are some serious I-beams holding that garage up.
Actually they are independent from the building. The building has it's own posts.Quote:
Originally Posted by falconvan
When dad built the shop, he had the idea that he wanted to get a 50ft wooden boat to restore. He started building a hoist so that he could lift it up out of the way when he wasn't working on it :eek:
Those I-beams are actual railroad bridge I-beams. :3dSMILE:
There is a second cross beam at the back of the shop. They are on rollers so they can go front to back. He has bigger chain hoists, but they are a pain to deal with. We normally use 2 ton hoists for everything.
http://216.77.188.54/coDataImages/p/...321/garage.jpg
Wow; that is too cool! It doesn't get much more heavy duty than that.
Nice building! Did he ever do the boat?
Nope. After he did the shop, he lost intrest in the boats...or at least in what it would cost to have one shipped to his house. :LOL:Quote:
Originally Posted by stovens
It is a great place for working on cars.
Here are a couple more pics that show the overall shape of the body a little better.
http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n...8/IMG_0036.jpg
http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n...8/IMG_0037.jpg
I gotta spend a day cleaning up, the shop looks BAD in pics.
All of the sudden, I think rounded cowl and hood tops may be the way to go.
I don't know exactly what this car is, but I love it.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...y/P1050445.jpg
Picked up a pair of 16x4 space saver spares at pull-a-part on Saturday.
The plan is to cut the centers out and convert the outers to be used for use with the wire wheels. I will be converting my 15x5.5 wheels to 16x4.
Going to play with forming the dimples for the spoke nipples using a press. Not sure if I will need to add heat or form it cold.
If it works, these will be the front wheels. I want skinny 18's for the rear wheels.
Found another pretty car to influence the build. Don't know if I like this nose better or not.
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/a...3&d=1248405709
That one would be my vote; what's the handle on the drivers side?
I came to the realization that I need to work out some of the function details before I get too much farther with the form. I need to figure out the mechanics of the front half of the car.
I slid the back end of the car back a couple of feet so that I would have room on the table for the motor. I ended up making a saw horse out of a suzuki samurai roll bar.
http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n...8/IMG_0466.jpg
http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n...8/IMG_0465.jpg
http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n...8/IMG_0469.jpg
http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n...8/IMG_0467.jpg
Turns out the XK transmission won't work with the bellhousing that I have, front bearing retainer and seal are way different. I pissed away a good bit of time trying to figure out if I could swap input shafts....I finally accepted defeat and decided to use the OD trans.
Good news is that I found a new clutch and pressure plate when I pulled the trans.
Bad news is that the engine needs to move rearward a couple of inches to make everything fit in a 100" wheelbase.
Break out the sawsall!
http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n...8/IMG_0472.jpg
http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n...8/IMG_0471.jpg
I laid the stock jag front suspension on the table to see what 100" looked like. Don't worry, only spindles, hubs and brakes will be used.
http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n...8/IMG_0482.jpg
Right now there is a tube that goes under the sump in the oil pan, I am going to re-arrange the framework so that I have a hole for the sump/belhousing to fit in and lower the motor a little more. That jag motor is a tall son of a bitch for a little car.
Looks good; I was wondering how the roofus was coming.
Its the brake.Quote:
Originally Posted by falconvan
Rather than completely trashing the car to try and get the motor to fit under a track nose, I amgoing to stick to the original idea for the car and copy the little blue/gray 1930 RALLY that was pictured earlier.
Here is a front view of a similar car.
http://www.lecaav.com/faron-2009/ima...-rally_jpg.jpg
I enjoy following this thread. Great project, huge project. Building and designing as you go is tough. This requires alot of time. How do you do it?
I have a lot of downtime between work sessions (the project is 250 miles or so away from where I live). I have plenty of time to think out the next step.Quote:
Originally Posted by florida
Occasionally, what I have been thinking and planning doesn't really match up with what I remebered the car/car parts to be. :whacked:
All projects evolve though, as you do something you think how that affects other pieces and you tweak something else to match....or you see where somebody else did something better and you copy their idea.
Even though this is a scratch build, I don't think it is any more ambitious than of the complete builds documented on this board where somebody started out with an actual car. In fact, mine might be easier since nobody knows waht it SHOULD look like.
Flipper,
I'm more of a lurker, but I have enjoyed your build thread.
As everybody knows, Jay Leno is a huge car guy. He has a website http://www.jaylenosgarage.com/index.shtml where he does a new video segment every week on one of his cars. This week's segment is all about cars in the same style as the Roofus Special so I thought you might enjoy it.
Mark
No pictures to post, but I spent the weekend playing with front end parts. Mostly taking the jag front end apart amd cleaning everything up. Looks like I need to replace lower ball joints on both sides. I also picked up a manual rack and pinion from a Toyota Tercel from Pull-A-Part this morning.
Still sorting out what I want the A-arms to look like.