Thread: The Roofus Special

Tweet

At the front of the seat, there will be a verticle sheetmetal piece. The sheetmetal will wrap around the corners and tie into a verticle support on the frame on the outside and be the lower part of the driveshaft tunnel on the inside.

looking nice...

Looks like a whole lot of stuff to fit in there, but good use of space tying the seat frames into the spring boxes. Too bad that Jag tunnel didn't work out...it appears to be a good starting point, but my size 13 and I can understand the concern for foot space!

For the heck of it, I propped up a 36 ford truck grill to see what it looked like.



.

Somebody posted a pic of a cute car in Auatralia that has a look similar to what I think the 36 truck grill would look like all cut down. What do you think?

The grill looks nice, might make a good starting point to frame in the engine bay, shaping the body as you go towards the back!

No pictures 'cause I'm on dad's dial-up, but figured I post an update.

I "raised" the engine and trans back up to where it used to be. I want the car to be flat bottomed...nothing hanging down below the floor. I'm pretty sure this will be a really low car.

I made a hole in the firewall to poke the steering column through. The extended coulmn looks like it will be just the right length.

I cut up lots more Cadillac sheetmetal trying to flesh out the front bodywork. I think I figured out how to make the track nose work...I had the Cadillac hood pointed the wrong direction! The cadillac front doorskins are now going to be the hood. ...and the Cadillac front fenders are now the cowl. I've had lots of fun.

I would have gotten farther, but had to help dad on a project.

Where I started this trip. I decided the drivetrain needed to be tucked up inside the car. I pulled out thje 1.5" spacers that were under the frame.





I went ahead and mocked up the single chamber flowmaster where it would fit under the hood.




I made a hole in the firewall for the steering column




this neat little piece from the jag donor still fits


going from the column to the rack looks like it will be easy


It feels right


I decided that I really needed to know the body shape before I could mount the brake pedals (one of the things I needed to finalize the seat design)

Time for the "real mock-up". I tried the cadillac track nose again...this time I turned the hood around. The lower edge of the hood points toward the cowl now. A front door skin is now the hood. a piece of the rear door skin is the cowl.








The grill looked like it would work.




Also, decided to find a use for the fenders

decided to try and use more of the fender. The wheel opening is now the door opening.




The car is 14 feet long! It is starting to look fast.


I wasn't happy with the fender top as a cowl. The transition from hood to cowl to body didn't flow good enough. I went back to the rear door piece.
fender


door










I raised the door opening


insert motor noises


The curves all line up


Time to cut down the rear door piece to eliminate the overlap


tacked to the hood (door)






The fender looks good in pics, but the contour under the chrome would be a pain to deal with and it really didn't match the curve of the chassis. Bring back the 1979 jaguar XJS roof

It needs hood sides. VW squareback hood to the rescue








This thing still is a movie set prop


side re-positioned








it's got room under the hood even with the raised motor position


Before I could go any farther with sheetmetal work, I needed to beef up my horrible fright bead roller.


junk from the pile


welded on


It works!


Somehow I had offset the trans too far to the passenger side.


the tunnel was too tight anyways, so I removed 1 inch.






34 olds? dash insert looks cool upside down and looks like it might work

more mock-up pics






making plans for the body side of the trans mount

If it were only it were this easy... a photoshopped passenger side!

So do y'all like the track nose?

I like the shape, but I'm kinda disapointed that it will hide the front crossmember.

Yeah it fits the car, that build is coming along, I like the building materials you come up with. Shows what some imagination and the ability to be resourceful can do.

Me and my daughter went to dad's for the weekend. We had a great time visiting but I didn't get nearly as much done as if I would have gone alone.

I started out trying to make frames for bucket seat backs.


I was shooting for the same feel as the bench seat in my truck





It didn't work all that well. It didn't feel great and took up interior room.

Plan B One seat back.

Not wanting to mess up anything good for a mock-up...I grabbed a very rusty VW hood that was destined for the crusher.








view behind the seat. I need to figure out how the seat back will attach and how it will be supported


My daughter trying it out. The VW hood was amazingly comfortable. The shape was much simpler than my truck seat.




I also mocked up a set of model A hood sides. They might be louver donors...not sure.







I didn't take it off of the table, but I did the next best thing. I made my daughter climb on the table.



It's a sleek LITTLE car!

I also welded in the bottom 1x1 tubes that will be part of the driveshaft tunnel. (not yet welded in this pic)


I'm having a hard time deciding how the sheetmetal in this are will all fit together. I haven't found the elegantly simple solution yet. I need to blend the driveshaft tunnel to the front of the seat bases while sealing off the driveshaft...and the whole thing needs to support the weight of the middle part of the car.