Projects A Speedster Comes Out of the Weeds—Build Thread

Great to see this come together, it is good!

 

No fair trying to trick us with Latin

 

mea culpa ("my bad")

 

We had a rare sunny day today so I rolled the car outside to get some pictures. While I was at it, I also tried a couple different fender mockups that I thought everyone would appreciate. Feel free to offer opinions—that’s what build threads are for!

For starters, here’s the car in its current fenderless state—the passenger door is held on with magnets. The drivers door is still sitting on a workbench.




For the rest of this, you have to use your imagination. This is older-than-old-school photoshop—meaning, the fenders are sitting on hockey pucks and the apron is held on with magnets.


Look #1: Here’s how it would look with servicar fenders all around, as it was built in the early 1950s.


Look #2: Here’s how it would look with lightweight fenders. The rears are 1930s trike that I got at the Portland Swap Meet, the fronts are a cut-down spare tire cover from the Monroe Swap Meet.


Look #3: Here’s how it would look with a blend of the two—servicar fenders in back, trike fenders in front.



Look #4: Here’s servicer in back and the lightweight cut covers in front.


There you have it! What does everyone think? I have sense of which look I prefer—it kind of jumped out at me, to be honest—but I’m also interested in opinions.

 

I'm probably in a minority but I like #3, with rear fenders tied into the frame cover a bit, or maybe just frame cover extended back farther.

 

Car looks great. I like option #2 for the fendersm

 

Full apron, no fenders. My opinion.

 

This is the look I like the best. Making the mounting brackets is going the be the hard time consuming part. I'll be back later this evening with some Lagonda photos with fenders I think you'll like to look at for ideas. Thanks for the motivation to work on my Steelback project. Bob

 

Please, feel free to kick me I had one of these less the body. Bob

 

My meaningless vote is for # 3. It's looking awsome!

 

#3! Of course, any of them are awesome, and it's not my car... but #3 would be my choice.


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No fenders for me! Gary

 

I prefer fenderless as well...

Steve

 

Clark,

I like the ideas of fenders but I don't like the choices you've given us. The servicar fenders look too heavy to me and the lightweight fenders don't look finished enough. I really like look of the trike fenders on the front. If I may, I would like to gum up the whole process and add another choice.

I saw some fenders in the classifieds. The seller only provided three piss-poor photos, but I think they might look pretty good on your speedster. I don't know the seller, he is in Sacramento, California, but you might want to check it out. Here is a link to the ad: http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/fenders.1038994/#post-11815578

Good luck with your choice.

Thor

 

Purely for looks, I think I'd use the aprons but extended to full length and no fenders at all. If I was determined to use fenders, I'd use the ones that the car came with, just for the historical aspect of it. Trike front/servicar rear would be my third choice.

 

Having some fun with your concepts Clark. I posted a hotrod with cycle fenders in the Homogenized thread (http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/...genized-hotrods.1002926/page-33#post-11775280) and thought it was kinda cool...so splashed a little color on your carefully executed fender layout and voila...
As you add things the big picture comes into play...and me likey...
You could run with many looks. These looks you have proposed all have merit...Tough call...
Its going to be a fun car to putter around in...





Maybe throw some of that art deco trim on the skirt...
Lets see a Duvallish type windshield...​

 

I like #3, although painting them blue to match is a bit much for me...maybe black would look better?

 

I like # 1 and # 3. Maybe skirts all around on # 1





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How about Auburn style pontoon fenders? I dig it with the Harley fenders too. Fantastic with, or without!

 

My worthless opinion is no fenders, with some kind of frame cover as mentioned by a couple of guys above. If you must use fenders, use ones as small as possible. Those put on it in the 50's are WAY too clunky for a Speedster. The ones posted by Thor1 would look pretty good, I think. I also agree with cfmvw that black would be a better choice than blue. That would help them blend in with the tires and not be so prominent.

 

Two tone definately might be the cats meow...chrome skirts so many options...not at the computer right now...

 

beautiful work man. I love it.

 

Stogy's skirt idea is pretty cool, I'd like to see it with all 4 wheels skirted like that. I do like the idea of using the fenders that were on the car, this car has history and it's kind of a shame to change it up too much just to appeal to 2016 ideas. The fully lengthened skirts in body color really look right to me, too.

 

Wow! Thanks for all the feedback. Some of it matches my thinking, some are interesting new insights to chew on. All of it is welcome, and I really appreciate everyone’s thinking. And the great thing about fenders is if you change your mind, it’s easy to change the look.

I’m going to try to respond to everyone in one massive post. Here goes.

I totally get what you guys in the fenderless camp are saying--hell, I'm right there with you. Fenderless is how I envisioned this car for most of the time I was working on it. A meld of speedster, racecar and hot rod—kind of like the picture on that racing program in post #262. Regardless of what I eventually do, the car will be fenderless for a long time while I get more pressing things sorted out.

But the thing is, the more I look at those old M/C/Servicar fenders, they cooler they look. You cant’ see it in these picture, but they have a lot of nice detail and a slim trim piece on the top.



These old fenders also have the benefit of preserving anther element of the original build, which appeals to me (and also Squablow).

On top of everything else, there’s the matter of practicality—it rains a LOT here in Seattle.

Yep, look #1 is the pretty much the as-built in the ‘50s. Try to imagine that with a fresh brush paint job, the homemade faring around the back, frame convers in the front, a funky DIY Duval windshield and, from what I’m told, a white Carson top. It must have been wild.

But both of those fenders together just seems like too much now. Of course, even if I don’t use them, I’ll certainly hang on to them, so it’s always a future option.

When I started considering fenders a while back, this is how I initially figured I’d go—lightweight all around, or maybe the slightly heavier yellow fenders in the back.

Thor1: believe it or not I actually spent some time considering those exact same fenders, thinking I could maybe use a pair on the front. Trouble is, according to the ad those fenders are 6 inches wide, made for a narrow tire. My 6.00-16s measure 6.5 inches at their widest. Perched on top of my tires, those fenders could end up looking like a charicature of Oliver Hardy in his bowler hat. (For anybody under 30, this is your chance to use The Google. )

OK, I’ll be honest: I did not think I would like this look. Then I mocked it up, stepped back, and damn if it didn’t look nice. Called my wife to come see, and she’s already declaring game over. She likes the little “swoops” at the rear base of both sets.

Credit where credit is due, Volvobrynk suggested this combo months ago. He’s a Danish psychic!

The problem, as Bob/The37Kid notes, is that they are heavy and will be a royal pain to mount. Also, they need serious repair work:

Stogy, thanks for the photoshop job! I love it, and it really helps with the thinking. I have to agree with you, cfmvw and Late to the Party that all that light blue may be too much, and a two-tone with dark blue or black could be better.

Inspired, my wife tried her hand at photoshop:




Note that she has the hood panels in matching colors.

Curious what everyone thinks.

 

One more for some mind twisting...Its kind of interesting...the car when you first found it looked as if the fellow was going for the big car as in Auburn look and this full fendered belly panned look here also makes it look big car. I am having fun with these proposed inspired renderings. I would suspect a low seating position would be applicable here to also give the illusion of a bigger car.
​

 

I love your mind-twisting ideas. And your attention to detail--I see that not only did you add a reflection into the fender skirts, but you also added a driver's door, left rear fender, and even and old wagon-style passenger step plate. How did you know I have a pair of those step-plates sitting on a shelf awaiting installation?

I'm liking the aprons blue, fenders black combination.

 

Heres another I'll do the Blackened vents with the blue apron too...The same thinking is part of what we live and breathe here not literally but some things just make sense like the step...








​

 

i love your car but its yours so do what you want ! , however id be fixing the ones that came on it and the rear panel as well , you have done such a great job on this car keep its providence repair the rear and cycle type on the front .

 

BTW, those aren't Servicar fenders, They're sidecar fenders

 

That's very cool! How can you tell? I originally wondered if they were maybe sidecar, but couldn't imagine how on earth the orginal builder would have found two pairs of matching sidecar fenders. But maybe they were more common wrecking yard fodder in the early '50s?