Thread: The Roofus Special

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I don't think it's necessarily a clash of eras. Take a look at the Miller-Ford cars from 1935. They used a tail similar to what you have built and have a modified '35 Ford grille laid back at a pretty swoopy angle. They look really cool. If I could come up with a set of wheels, I'd be tempted to clone one of them...

It doesn't fit as well as I hoped it would. The shapes would do better on a single seater. It's gonna take some pie cuts to make the nose act right and the the back line up with the shape of the main body. I think I can make it work.

The thought crossed my mind to build it like a 2 seater bonneville streamliner... move the nose forward so the end of the caddy hood ends at my original firewall. It would probably be a 140" wheelbase but it should be very fast looking.

What do y'all think?

Are you thinking of something like this?

Originally Posted by stovens

Are you thinking of something like this?

More along the lines of this one.

JMO, but I like the Mercedes/Alfa look much better. It also fits better with the Jag engine/wire wheels that you have. Also, a 140 inch wheelbase would be very unwieldy on the street. You'd have to hang one of those "beware of wide turns" signs on the back.

Originally Posted by RestoRod

JMO, but I like the Mercedes/Alfa look much better. It also fits better with the Jag engine/wire wheels that you have. Also, a 140 inch wheelbase would be very unwieldy on the street. You'd have to hang one of those "beware of wide turns" signs on the back.

Thanks for the input.

Yeah it was a dumb idea. ...going back to the racecar/sports car idea.

Pics

5" Jaeger speedo and tach



Whippet radiator

Nice gauges. What's the little one on the bottom of the tach, a clock?
I think your parts will start dictating your total design, although I wouldn't use that fish tank, too big for a functional overflow tank!

Thought about it a while.... I am going to continue to work on the track nose. The car needs to shrink a little though to pull it all off.

The cowl will need to be pinched a little to get the lines to work out right (who really needs THAT much foot room anyways?). The nose is gonna get a little smaller and a little lower at the front. Those pretty cam covers are actually going to poke through the hood a little at the front. The door openings are also gonna get smaller (shorter front to back and shallower).

I'm going to try and pack everything into a 100" wheelbase.


The Whippet radiator and MG gauges will go towards dad's T rebuild.

I spent a couple of frustrating days working on roofus. The heat and humidity in Memphis was aweful.

I had a heck of a time trying to make the transition from the boat tail to the track nose.

I started trying to mock up the original roof pieces.









Kinda OK, but I wasn't really feeling it.

On to plan B.

Another ROOF ! ...and a jaguar roof to boot! A 1979 Jaguar XJS to be specific.

It was a donor jag that was bought for the front and rear suspensions. I had planned on making fender skirts out of the roof.



Cut down the middle like I did the tail.

Time to cut. And bend up some new angles. (I made lots of scrap, but got lots of practice with the shrinker)









It looks like crap...too square. Does not flow with the rest of the car.

It fits the curve front to back pretty well though.

On to plan C

The cowl top needed a bigger radius. Time to make more angle pieces.

I dropped the roof panel down. Instead of trying to make the XJS roof make the whole bend, I decided to only make it do part of the bend. I positioned it down lower on the car.

Not 100% sure on the peaks. The flat top dash was definetly wrong though.





The "hood" will butt up to the cowl. Curves actuallly match up pretty good.



(3 of the four firetruck are visible in this pic)



Cowl top will be filled in with cadillac door sheetmetal.