Lousy heading for a post. I rolled my project outside and mocked some wood panels to get a idea how it wood look. Seeking opinions GOOD or BAD on the looks. I know it is not complete and the owners opinion is important, but hopefully you can visualize the direction the build is heading. I have built so many different versions I hope this is the final mock up for the sides. The Tailgate area is my next target. More pics in my album. Thanks in advance for your comments and or opinions.
Need a little more information on what you are trying to end up with? My first impression is it's too wide. HRP
Overall shape looks great but I'll have to agree with the cowl being too wide where it meets the frame. Most old cars are narrower at the bottom of the cowl than at the top. Aftermarket but show shape...... 28-29 30-31 32 33-34 OH..... and ya better check the camber on those front wheels!
I think the cowl is too wide also, and there are too many flat and right angle areas. If you had a shaper you could make main rails of the body that have some curves to them. If you study stock Ford woodys you can see that there are subtile curves to things. Will this car have fenders? If so you need to fab steel rear fender wells to keep the wheels at least half way inside the body IMO. Check out the '36 Woody in the early Times Tour thread Bad Bob posted that explains what I'm trying to say.
The cowl being too wide will really affect the grill area too. The car could look really strange tapering down to the grill shell unless you do something with it too............ Definitely a lot of work ! Good luck.......
Bishop the pine is just for mock up, if it ever gets done the final wood will be Maple. The cowl or lack of is a copy of a Speed Star, all hood to the windshield. Hotrodprimer / Dreddybear / Twolaneblacktop the first version was eight inches narrower. Way to narrow, could not fit two seats in the body. Thanks to all that replied.
Only because you asked. I have had a few woodies..really have a love for them. I can honestly say, I have never seen a homebuilt woodie, I've liked. No matter how well they are done, they always end up looking home built (and in this case, that is not a good thing). I can appreciate your desire to create one. Hopefully yours will be the exception. Good luck with your project.
I (personally) feel it's a bit too square. You might try experimenting with some cardboard mock-up trim pieces at the corners to soften it up a bit, esp. the top rear (side view) & the "A" pillars (front view). I don't think it'd be too late to do something like that if you were so inclined. Otherwise, I think the proportions work well. Very cool project.
No offense in intended, but one thing that all but a handful of wood sided cars have is multiple curves, sometimes even compound curves, or at least a taper to the body. The cowl area and A-pillar should be narrower, with the body steadily getting wider toward the B-pillar, and then evening out toward the C-pillar. I agree with the previous posts, you really should build from the cowl back.
Something else you might want to try is a bit more curve to the top of the cowl, to bring the centreline of the hood up a tad. It needs a slight drop from the cowl to the grille shell. The way it is the hood might look too horizontal or even as if it's sloping the wrong way, though it's hard to tell with nothing there. Try stretching some masking tape over the opening? The width of the cowl and the lack of taper - or does it taper more than it looks? - isn't quite in the early-'30s idiom, but with a bit more curvature to the top it might suggest the "razor-edge" thing that some British coachbuilders had going from the late '30s on. Take another look at the body in plan view. I think you'll find some taper through the doors quite useful. Most early post-vintage bodies had the leading edges of their doors a fair amount closer together than the trailing edges - unless they were very narrow sporting bodies. The trick is dealing with the slight change in angle at the B-pillar. Personally I'd split the visor from the body structure, as the integral visor makes the roof side rails too dominant to my eyes: though that does suggest a sort of '50s reinterpretation of the woody which might work if the rest of the build follows suit. I'd rather do the visor in sheetmetal, though, and would tend to favour slightly steeper A-pillars. What detail are you intending there?
Almost everyone has commented about the lack of taper to the body and the width of the cowl. I do have issues with the cowl width, which I may or may not change. What the pictures do not show or high light is the amount of taper in the roof line and belt line. If you go to my album and look at picture #7 you can see the compound curve of the roof line which is also in the belt line.
I see what you mean. Perhaps all you need is a hood ... Here's an example of what I was talking about earlier. Note the wide, squarish cowl. Triumph Renown, c.1954
Ned what I really like about the 1954 Triumph is the small frames around the windows and the very narrow B post. A friend has suggested to not use wood to surround the windows and B post. Use metal and paint it the color of the hood. Your thoughts?
Stainless! In cars as in buildings there are two ways of forming openings, conceptually: either you have nothing and put stuff around it, or you have something and you make a hole in it. Examples of the former would be a medieval half-timbered house, the Seagrams building in New York, and a lot of American cars around 1960. The other approach would be a Georgian house or Brownstone and a lot of American cars around 1940. I can think of a lot of good buildings in which the method is ambiguous, but in cars the cleaner greenhouse details are found where the approach is definitely either the one or the other. Conversely ugly window treatments arise from trying to make one out of the other, as was often the case with Japanese cars of the '70s when available pressings could only produce a panel from the beltline down, but fashion drove designers to try to emulate full-panel doors. Like that Triumph's window area, a woody is definitely a framed-space design, however thick the framing members become due to the nature of the material. I think it'll be stronger with the windows framed in a "framing" material, be it wood or stainless steel, than in a "panel" material i.e. painted metal. And there is something about your design (possibly the shape of the cowl and the consequent resemblance to British "razor-edge" coachwork) that makes me feel it'll benefit from the introduction of some delicate stainless steel. But I think mixed wood/stainless framing can certainly work in the body as a whole.
As others have suggested it's all about the adding the "curves" and avoiding the "crate." I can see where you have begun to add some, but the more you can incorporate (within reason), the better the design will be.
i like the home built lowcat posted but the one your build some how doesnt look right , also all the wood cars ive seen have been built using hard or exotic lumber , pine , spruce , hemlock just wouldnt be good
I think it would be worth your time to build a 1/8 scale model, either out of clay or wood. It will answer alot of questions for you.
I'm going to give you a real reaction. I like the concept, I do not think I like the execution. I think if I were going to do this that it would have to kick a little bit of ass. Meaning; your concept is based upon squareness, simple common square lines. That is not how it has to be, you can, if you are diligent or insane or ideally both make just as much a curvy linear sexy shape out of wood product as you can from metal. So where does that leave this concept? I think a bit of advice that would be good is to send you hunting for more knowledge, furniture arts, boat building, musical instrument wood arts, aircraft etc. Now that stated, I would feel that you would not necessarily have to do a 10 year masters course in wood construction to be able to learn a few cool tricks that could shape and define some lines in a simple and efficient way. Applying just some of the heap of knowledge would give you a much nicer look. It's still early and yes it can become cool. Very cool.
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