The Roofus Special

[Flipper_1938]

Now I'm even more impressed! I would have thought the old Jag would have been alot more than that. I'm very intregued with the jag engines I've seen in several rat rod builds lately. The V12's are a very cool concept! I like things being done different. I guess that's why like the jag engines.

Thunder1

The parts car was a 1960 MK2. Not really all that desireable of a car, but it was built with a lot of the same components that went into the cool cars. It has the same 3.4 DOHC inline 6 that was in the XK140.

The one I bought had been lightly wrecked in the late 80's and then parked. ...but they still cranked it every so often to keep the motor oiled. We cleaned the carbs and it fired right up.

When you figure in the fact that the $1000 included wheels, it was a smoking deal.

This is what a MK2 looks like. I didn't feel bad about parting it out.

 

[moronthethrottle]

Speaking of Jaguars...Have you seen the new leaper yet?

 

[Flipper_1938]

I am going to try and get the body framed out this weekend.

 

[cnchotrods]

Now this, by gosh is a project. I gotta hand it to you. I'm not sure which is bigger, your imagination or your ba**s for trying this build. This is gonna be fun to watch come together. Good luck, may the force be with you......

 

[Flipper_1938]

I didn't get nearly as much done as I had hoped.

The plywood sheet worked OK for mock-up, but it wasn't working well enough to build a real car.

I have a work bench that is almost big enough to build on, but it is buried under 4 years of grinder dust and misc accumulations. Half a day was spent cleaning off the table.

Finally got the table cleared an my subrails on the table. Table is about two feet too short for the body to fit. No problem. I built an outrigger to support the point of the boat tail.

Time to start building body structure out of 1x1. Square tubing may be great for building boxes, but it sucks for the complex shapes in this car. Got one hoop done in the rear body and tried to make a hoop for the cowl. Succeded in making lots of scrap out of 1x1 . On to plan B.

Make the cowl from 16 gauge flat sheet. This was my first real project with the horrible freight shrinker/stretcher. I think it went well. I think it would have been easier if I made my angle 1x1 instead of 1.5x1.5 (oh well).

Here are the pics.

 

[Flipper_1938]

I forgot to mention why the rear hoop is so far back. .....I think I cut the door opening too far forward.

I will wait until I get a little farther along before I finish out the door opening and seat area.

As it is now, it is a tight fit when you imagine pedals and a steering wheel. The current hoop allows the seat to come back 6 inches.

 

[Tripper]

Kool!

Flipper,
Looks great & I'm watching intently!!! I definitely want to do one of these too!

BoB

 

[rockb1]

Ya i think we all are intently watching. This thing is going to be awesome. So are you going to use that red grill in the background on it??

 

[Flipper_1938]

Ya i think we all are intently watching. This thing is going to be awesome. So are you going to use that red grill in the background on it??

That red grill in the background is an entire 1938 Seagrave firetruck. The grill is way too big! it is close to 4 foot tall and the shell is cast aluminum (can't be cut down easily).

I haven't decided on a grill yet. it all depends on hoe the body progresses. If it has a 30's feel, the grill will be square-er. If it looks more 50-'s-ish it will be more rounder.

I still have not done any sketches for this thing. I'm flying by the seat of my pants.

 

[falconvan]

Looks good; I just got an Eastwood shrinker/stretcher for my B-day. Looking forward to trying it. This idea is cool! You made my start thinking about my roadster-from-a-piece-of-junk project. Thanks for the motor-vation.

 

[Flipper_1938]

Its gonna be a long weekend If all goes well, I should be able to put in about 40 hours.

It should look a whole lot more like a real car after this weekend. .....that is, if I don't change my mind about what I'm building.....again.

 

[eyesore]

Its gonna be a long weekend If all goes well, I should be able to put in about 40 hours.

40 hours? Flipper, you're an animal!

ISore

 

[earthman]

Every aspect of this is fascinating, proportions will be tricky

 

[Flipper_1938]

Did some to the cowl today. Dash is gonna be high (33" from floor in center). I should be able to get away with a 4 inch tall windshield or however tall these little things are....just enough glass to call it a windshield.

Dealing with dial-up at parent's house. Only three pics for now. Kinda hard to tell what is going on, but the body flares out at the dash. Dash is 49" at widest point. Firewall is 43" wide.

 

[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.

 

[roddguy1]

This is looking awesome Flipper. You guys really have a good eye for an artful style. May I offer a suggestion? I'm thinking the flow of the body would look sweet if you swept the bottom of the tail up a little. Starting from just behind the cockpit and maybe finishing with something like 4 to 6 inches up at the tail. Just a thought for you.

 

[racer93]

COOL

I like this post alot, for some reason it remind me of soapbox racing. Too cool,......