Thread: The Roofus Special

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Originally Posted by Evolvo

Cool project. What's that red grill and headlight hiding in the background?
Alan

1938 Segrave fire truck.

There are also 1940, 1947, and 1950 models in there too. It was a kick I was on a couple of years ago.

Saturday morning, I played with a roll of masking tape.....trying to convince myself that the shape was right.

Might I recommend a shark-mouth paint job? Like the P-51 mustang. ( or was the the P-52 )

Originally Posted by firebird77clone

Might I recommend a shark-mouth paint job? Like the P-51 mustang. ( or was the the P-52 )

Ummmm...that would be a Curtiss P-40 Kittyhawk. I have a 12" X 18" color photo hanging on the wall behind me. But that was a WWII aircraft, so a little out of the WWI era. It might be really cool to paint the car in the theme of a WWI aircraft though.....
http://www.allposters.com/View_HighZ...5&sc=False&ct= Eurographics Trend&cw=20&ch=20
http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/sha...-1234S-001.jpg
How about an English Sopwith Dolphin....english motor in your car, right?....
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgu...%3D2%26hl%3Den
Or the english Sopwith Camel....
http://d1136943.u114.weberz.com/imag...mel_snoopy.JPG

Has anybody here ever built a car from scratch with no real plans? ....given yourself true artistic liberty?

I have a "list" of ideas and a huge library of influences of what makes a cool vintage racer, but nothing is down on paper. I have also given myself permission to change it if it needs to be changed.

It went from this


to this, in a matter of moments


I think it works.



Right now the rear suspension/frame layout is a blank canvas from the seats back.




The rear of the car will be built around the suspension.

I have thought about a triangulated 4 link with the bottom bars on the outside of the body (attaching at the node just ahead of the quarter panel skin). The uppers would be inside the body.

I have also considered hairpins attaching at the same general location.

What would you build if you were not constrained by a traditional frame/floor layout?

I like what you have so far! I think the door line works , but then again i love old aircraft too.

On a car like this, I think I would want to keep it looking traditional. Transverse buggy spring on a Maverick 8" in the rear, straight axle with transverse spring up front. Independent radius rods, 8 total, all anchoring at the mid-point of the car so that they would be as long as possible. Like this front and rear, but with longer bars anchored at the mid-point of the car....
http://www.streetrodcatalog.com/manu...es/3004A-b.jpg

Front dropped axles can lead to handling issues if the drop is too severe. You have a clean sheet of paper here, so I would use a maximum 4" drop.
http://www.speedwaymotors.com/Spring...dles,3142.html
http://www.speedwaymotors.com/Early-...rings,842.html

I see that you already have a differential, but I'm just saying that I would start with a narrow 8" for the clean look.

Oh, and one other thought, NO CHROME, NO CHROME, NO CHROME anywhere on the car. Everything painted or powder-coated.

Somebody on another site sugested suspension based on a 3rd generation camaro layout.

Anybody on here have experience with this style of suspension?

I decided to try and see how the stock jag rear suspension fit. It fits better than I thought it would. I don't think the springs would have cleared the last set of verticle pieces.

Not really sure how the springs are supposed to be mounted. Dad pulled the rear suspension out of the jag. At the time, I had no plans to use anything except the axle. Anybody got any good ideas?

So, does anybody have any guesses as to how to hold a spring tight enough in the middle so that it acts like a quarter eliptic, but loose enough that the other quarter of the spring still works?

Due to the automotive slowdown while chrysler re-organizes (I work for a supplier), my job has said we are going to a 4 day workweek. That means I have a months worth of 3 day weekends to work on my car.

I always like the positive spins that come of negative situations. Hope to see some more progress. This is a great thread from an educational stand point for me. Keep on posting.

I got my other spring box put together and started looking at how to anchor the top links and came to the conclusion that I needed more beef in my framework. I am adding some 1.5 x 1.5 front to back in a more conventional frame like position. I am also installing a 1.5 x 1.5 crossmember ahead of the forward spring support to provide additional support.

Next weekend, I will add a diagonal for the link mounts and mount the spring boxes (verticle wall at back, angled wall at front and tied to the frame sideways down low).



Hopefully after that, the pace will pick back up.

Here are the pics of the boxes getting welded in.





The link mount needs support. I will also tie the boxes in to these.



Stuff is too crowded to get to all seams. I cut the tube apart. Some of the welds are on the inside. After these welds are done, the tube gets put back together. Fun!