High School Bus Build

[DozerII]

Very cool project. [cl[cl

[P[P

 

[Bamamav]

Good to see you joined up Anthony. I had seen his work over on the HAMB, finally got to meet him last Sat at a car show. Naturally I had to tell him about UDS! Real great guy, what he is doing with these kids will help them all their lives. We need more people like this to pass it on to the next-generation, the future of our little hobby.

 

[Torchie]

Good to see you joined up Anthony. I had seen his work over on the HAMB, finally got to meet him last Sat at a car show. Naturally I had to tell him about UDS! Real great guy, what he is doing with these kids will help them all their lives. We need more people like this to pass it on to the next-generation, the future of our little hobby.

Well said Bama.[cl
Torchie

 

[Anthony M]

Good to see you joined up Anthony. I had seen his work over on the HAMB, finally got to meet him last Sat at a car show. Naturally I had to tell him about UDS! Real great guy, what he is doing with these kids will help them all their lives. We need more people like this to pass it on to the next-generation, the future of our little hobby.

thanks for the heads up on this site
looks like another good source for info and inspiration
as far as passing the torch to a younger generation is concerned, this current generation of young folks have many interested in the custom world. The biggest problem is the fact that they are not exposed to them like we were. Most folks do not drive their customs/hotrods around daily. Or they see 'dont touch' signs on cars at shows. I personally hate those. We need more involvement from us older folks to inspire the younger. I would encourage all us older folks to check out the types of builds the young folks attempt, tuner cars, 4x4s .....if you show an interest in their cars they will be more likely to show an interest in your build.
Also, you have to look at older cars from their perspective, a fox body Mustang is considered an old car to them, They see no significance for the difference of pre 49, pre 64, trad/non trad cars. A cool old car is just a cool car to them. I use sites like this to not just expose them to older cars but to inspire out of the box thinking.

 

[Anthony M]

we have been asked to do another "rat' build for this year
I am looking at a 64 caddy, the last of the fins
we are thinking about a crazy 60s concept roadster build
using only the QTRs and fenders, a straight axle up front and headers exiting the front wheel wells

may post a drawing soon

 

[Dr Crankenstein]

Also, you have to look at older cars from their perspective, a fox body Mustang is considered an old car to them, They see no significance for the difference of pre 49, pre 64, trad/non trad cars. A cool old car is just a cool car to them. I use sites like this to not just expose them to older cars but to inspire out of the box thinking.

Also well said. Welcome again and we'll look forward to your future projects.

.

 

[Sam_Fear]

Doing a '64 Caddy as a roadster? - I have an opinion or two!

First thing to figure out is what to do with the grille!! Proportion-wise the rest of the body will be no problem, but getting the grille to fit the body and still cover the radiator is a mostly unsolved problem. '32 style grilles don't work on 60's cars because they are too tall and usually don't match the wide firewall.

So the solutions I've seen that work are to either narrow the firewall (and probably body too) to match the grille, or move the radiator to the rear and make a wide grille to your liking.

The first option, I have seen maybe 1 out of 10 that don't still look wonky.

WONKY: (guaranteed this looks more wonky from any other angle)
Wonky Roadster Pic

The second option, I've only seen a couple attempts and they still didn't get it completely right, but I'm convinced that is the way to go with a widebody. This is the best attempt I've seen and it's just a drawing, but I think she is headed in the right direction. (It doesn't look lile the body is narrowed like it would need to be in reality.)Ratillac Ratillac-different angles

I've been watching the solutions to this problem evolve for about 10 years.

The other problem is using IFS on a fenderless and getting the proportions right. If you leave the front wheels in the stock position in the middle of the motor, it'll look nose heavy like a bulldozer. This is again one of those "looks great from one angle" things. In order to move IFS out front without needing huge ugly frame horns sticking out you need to go to rack & pinion.

If you have someone doing concept renderings - do them in 3d to see all the angles. Most of these kinds of projects look great from the rear, but if you can find the rare pic from the front, they look like butt.

 

[Anthony M]

for the caddy, we only plan to use the QTR and rear door skins to form the fin area, then fit the front fenders to this tub. We will fab the floors, firewall and frame.The fenders swill be pinched to narrow them for the grill area. The front axle (straight) will be just forward of the 'grill' area. The hood will be sectioned and narrowed to form a 'hood'top and grill top. Only the edges of the hood will be used due to hopefully a lot of big inch caddy sticking up through it. The finder wells should be full of headers. We have a nice profile drawing and are working on the front. We are planning for a 60s show car vibe

 

[Sam_Fear]

Ok. I get ya. wheels out front and headers out the wells - like some of the 60's altered cars did it. Hope it works, can't wait to see it. Like I said, if you move the radiator to the back, it would give you a lot more leeway to be creative with the grille.

On the pre-war cars, the bodys curved inward toward the front which gave a smooth transition to the narrow front. Widebodys don't have that curve so unless you curve the sides of your tub in to match the pinched front, you'll have an unpleasant looking kink at the firewall. This is where I've seen most attempts like this get wonky. A few have narrowed the firewall more than the rear to match the hood lines (but then it seems like they fail somewhere else like reverse headers or something silly.)

Just my 2 yen.

 

[42chevy]

A short bus I would have been proud to ride to school in. Nice work

 

[Anthony M]

the caddy should have an ED Roth look
the cowl may have a slight bend, but I think we can make it flow
also thinking about a slight wedge cut along the bottom, this will allow for a cool raked look and narrow the grill area.

 

[Skip]

I'll bet this is a popular class. Keep up the good work.

Another way to "try" your ideas in advance is to find a model of your Caddy, and cut it up and reassemble it in the way you are thinking about doing it.

 

[user 13565]

Another way to "try" your ideas in advance is to find a model of your Caddy, and cut it up and reassemble it in the way you are thinking about doing it.

This was done by an aquaintance on a 49 merc. The real thing. His inspiration was a model the Mercster by Ed Newton. The model was a coupe.

He took a slice out of the middle, front to back, shortened it , pinched the front, and welded everything back together. Made a "Roth Style" roadster .
He moved away a few years ago, and took the car with him.

 

[26Troadster]

Been seeing that bus around town and you was behind us going into winfield the weekend before last for mule day. I got to check it out at the show but didn't get no pics. Good to have some more locals on the site. My grand son goes to tech but he thinks he wants to be a machinist.

 

[Bamamav]

I missed you at mule day Odie. Met Anthony and talked to him a good while. We were against the fence at the upper end with the Bird.

 

[26Troadster]

Brother i had one of my brother masons with me and we had the ol ladies tagging behind us so we were talking. I more the likly walked right by. I did see rusty's rat but didn't see him. I did met the new owner of james cuda, they took it back to what he had done. Still red and still has 13" wheels. We'll have to visit at the cruise in on the square, i'll bring a chair.

 

[Bamamav]

I'll be there if we can get a sitter for the gs. You know where I try to park, west side of the courthouse.

 

[Anthony M]

here is a rough rendering of the Caddy roadster
a little rough but created with students
we are working on a roof or windshield concept
should get the car this week, should be able to make a more accurate rendering soon

 

[AWM]

Update with the bus
We have put almost 20k miles on this thing
We are building a 500 inch caddy to replace the 350
Just need a little more torque
The 350 will probably end up in our 57 van build and we got a 472 caddy for the roadster build when we get back on it

 

[lowbudget50]

Very cool!