For those of you who can't find decent tin to start your project, you might want to consider forming up your own body. Here are a couple shots of the body I built last year along with a shot during construction. The cost to get the entire car on the road was $4,400 and I added another $700 to spiff things up a bit. If you are a glutton for details, you can see my journal of the entire build by going here: http://www.hotrodders.com/forum/journal.php?action=view&journalid=17166 As you will see in the journal, I am be no means a skilled metal worker. The purpose of my journal was to provide budget minded builders with a "shade tree" approach to rod and body construction. You DO need a pretty good set of tools - but you DON'T need to know or understand any of the great mysteries of sheet metal fabrication. Dewey
Hey! I saw your buildup on the other forum last year! Very cool. The whole idea was to make a complete, safe and reliable vehicle from a single donor...in this case a truck...for the least amount of money possible! You pulled it off with style. Your one crafty fella Cboy...good to have you here. Welcome aboard!
I did something similar to you with a donor truck ,and built everything else. However, my body does not resemble a traditonal rod near as much as yours. I went more for an early lakes modified look with the earlier style squarer body. Also, I gave a lot more consideration to size because I sat out to build a huge car. Anyway, you did an outstanding job, I'm really impressed. From looking at your pictures we had a lot of the same ideas. I may be wrong, but it looks like you did a pretty stout metal skeleton and skinned it, as opposed to trying to bend a bunch of panels to stand up under their own strength. What I really like is your car has the same look as mine, as far as the design fitting the parts instead of the other way around. I totally agree that once you get started you realize a lot of the "magic" of metal work is just a lot of pre-thinking and then beating and cutting until it fits your plan. Let me know how she drives. Once again it was really nice to see someone else with a similar plan bring it to life.
Did you build the truck too???? I admire the workmanship and planning.... Cool stuff, and on a budget!!!
Yes, the truck is also scratch built but I didn't build it. It was built by Charlie's Rod Shop (Charlie Titman) in Vancouver B.C. and I took delivery in Jan. 2003. Charlie is my idol and I consider him the REAL master metal worker. I just steal his best ideas. There are more pics of the truck at the journal link I provided above - just go to the very first few pages of the journal (click on the "view from beginning" tab) to see how it was built. Pretty much the same concept as my roadster - a square tube skeleton with sheetmetal formed over the top. Dewey
whoa, nice job. cut some fenderwells~sorta like nads did to get ride of his flat quarters~ into the rear quarter and call it done!
Good idea, but it would have taken some pre-planning. If you look at the final picture above and check the view through the trunk, you'll notice that the square tube skeleton that the sheetmetal hangs on is right in the area you are talking about cutting out. So it would take quite a bit of fabricating to do what you are talking about. But it might be worth incorporating into the next one I build. Here's a shot during construction of the body that shows the problem a little better. Dewey
i have read that journal from start to finish 3 times.... i just dont have the $ to do something like that right now
wonder if you couldnt run a metal rod out lineing the well shape on the quarter. when you weld in on make the top portion kinda flare out to it nice and finished and the bottom side a little sharper. make it look like you just had them filled instead of them never having been there? kinda lose on wording but i think you get the idea. though it does admitedly have the potentail of look like ass. --in a negative way tim
Further wondering...possibly weld the rod on as you suggest but then fill around the outside of the rod (lead or bondo) in a very long taper (like 12" or more) back to the sheet metal. Then just leave the inside (wheel side) of the rod pretty much as is . I think what you're getting at is there needs to be some sort of accent line around the wheel - since we would expect to see this on a normal '30s car. The "long taper" idea might accomplish this but look a little more natural and less like a mini-flare add on.
The Jalopy Journal
