The Roofus Special

[Flipper_1938]

What is the best thing you can do with a rotted out 1954 four door Caddillac?

Build a boat tail speedster!!!

First you gotta cut the roof off!



Then cut the skin free. ....and slice that down the middle



Then cut apart some old porch posts to recycle the free 1x1 tubing. Bend that into a shape that follows the curve of the roof. What the heck bend it so it makes the shape of a 30's Indy car.



Prop up half a roof and see what it looks like. a ROOFus Special

[Flipper_1938]

....keep going.

Throw the first subrail away and make 2 that have smoother curves. Prop up both sides, plop a cushion wher the seat will be and make race car noises.



Study the shape and draw where the cut out needs to be.



Grow some balls and quarter the roof



Its starting to look like a race car now!

[Flipper_1938]

Go buy a cheap wrecked old jaguar and part it out. Take the engine, trans, radiator, driveshaft, rear axle, front spindles, knock-off wire wheels, steering parts, gauges, switches, and title.

Plop the major parts down and see how they are gonna work with the new racecar body.

[Flipper_1938]

Realize the fancy overdrive trans is big in the wrong places. Shifter wrong. Driveshaft too short. Swap trans out for a non-OD model. Scrub off 40 years of grime first.



And wait for the next weekend when you are free to play.

[Bonehead]

Flipper, it is good to see you on a new project. And what a project you picked. Looks like this will be a fun one.

[Flipper_1938]

Originally Posted by Bonehead

Flipper, it is good to see you on a new project. And what a project you picked. Looks like this will be a fun one.

Homie don't play.

[Flipper_1938]

A few more

[Flipper_1938]

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

[Flipper_1938]

The door cut out didn't seem quite right. Played with that some more. Drivers side seat has been cut back 6 more inches or so.

This is what we ended up with. Dad thinks it looks like a WW1 airplane







Looks better. Had to see how it felt.

[Flipper_1938]

So now that it starts to look like a car....what are you supposed to do?



Tear it all apart and work on the frame.



Did I mention that I was thinking about building this car as a unibody?

All of the 1x1 will be boxed in with sheetmetal.