Thread: started my hotrod

Next was the doors, rear body panels and main frame. The doors I removed the window surrounds to make the opening more substantial as I lowered the roofline 10mm. First mistake was not checking the direction of the grain on the body panels, the grain is supposed to run fore and aft, but it's vertical on these bits ( must pay more attention to cutting notes!! )
The main frame is also made from the drawer front, must say I dont like it. Future cars will have a chassis with longitudinal members and cross braces, more like the real thing. This will help when I dont put a bonnet etc on the front to showcase the engine.
The doors, rear panels and firewall are some maple I think, left over from something, possibly sides and back of an old drawer.
Roof and bonnet next

Ok, going alright so far, shaped the roof from another offcut, reduced it in thickness from 14 to 10mm. Sanded into shape on the linisher.
The bonnet is a block of oregon, not keen on this as its a big lump that will be a waste of timber in the long run. I think I'll follow Aussies example of his truck bonnet assembly so I can cut the vent slots into the sides and possibly have a hole in the top with a dummy air cleaner or supercharger poking through.
The grill surround and grill insert were next but after busting three surrounds while sanding I just stuck a single piece on instead, will have to get a bandsaw me thinks.
Not to worry, as its a prototype I'll paint this one so these mistakes aren't too obvious.
Will mock up the parts next before making rear rumble seat assembly.

Flying along now, cut out the bumpers bit haven't detailed them yet, I'm thinking that a curved bar will look better than these.
Mocked it up and stared at it for a while today. Will get back to it tomorrow.
cheers, billy

looking good Billy

you making your own wheels of course

WOW Billy
You are getting along with the Rod Billy.A bit of a surprise.Looks like you drink more coke than me.Maybe that is what model makers drink
I had better get my finger out by the looks of things
I have a sawdust factory now

yep, makin my own wheels, haven't decided exactly what yet, will probably make it up as I go along. The front wheels will be a slightly smaller diameter than the rear, and I'll bring the front axle up a bit to give a nice rake to the car. I want the front noticeably lower than the rear to give it a real tough stance.
I think I'll make a couple of different bumpers too as the others look plain.
I'm not sure who it was on the forum that used acrylic or something as a front screen, might try something along those lines as well.
Making the rear boot/rumble seat tomorrow, have to work out pivot points etc. so that'll be a bit of a challenge.
Out to Ourimbah RSL tomorrow night for some rock n roll dancing then
heading to Sydney Sat to pick up some woodworking mags from Cadaceus then dropping into mens shed at Homebush so don't know if I'll get much done before Monday. Yes Aussie, the black aspirin was in use this week as my neighbour doesn't like to drink alone.
cheers, billy. Maker of hotrod sawdust

Looking good Billy,great to see you finally got one underway

cheers, with the rods you made earlier what did you use for the belt on the supercharger?

Showed the photos to my neighbour ,he reckoned it was a shaving from using a hand plane.

We were under the affluence of incohol at the time, hard to focus on the computer.

cheers, Billy

its actually a rubber band,went looking for more in officeworks,newsagents cant find,for the chopper ill be making the drivebelt out of some 1mm thick rubber that i have cutting it to right width and super glueing it together to form the belt,have tried already on a little motorbike engine that i built first before starting the chopper.

cool.thanks for that. Ive got some big rubber bands somewhere, I'll check them out.

Cheers, billy

Hi Scotty, something like this? 12mm wide, 95mm long when you press it down flat.

I've got about 40 of them, do you want some?

cheers, billy

Nice work Billy, looking good

Looking hot billy!

Mine is about 6-7mm wide around 50mm long white in colour fitted perfect but as i said went looking for more but couldnt find even in nornal elastic band colour,i have a couple of red ones i found in the garage a couple of weeks ago but looked for on weekend and couldnt find them.They'll turn up sometime when lease expect it.