The Roofus Special

Flipper · March 25, 2009, 08:54:28 PM

What is the best thing you can do with a rotted out 1954 four door Cadillac and a wrecked 1960 Jaguar MK2?

Build a boat tail speedster!!!

First you gotta cut the roof off the Cadillac!

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

Flipper · March 25, 2009, 08:55:11 PM

I can see it. ....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 · March 25, 2009, 08:56:16 PM

Part out the jag. 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.

phat46 · March 25, 2009, 08:57:11 PM

Keep the pics coming, I'm interested. I'm building something similar; taking a different route, but going to the same place.

Flipper · March 25, 2009, 08:57:27 PM

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.

Wait for the next chance to work on the car.

Flipper · March 25, 2009, 08:58:31 PM

FYI....This is the kind of stuff that inspired me to look at a Cadillac like that.

chimp koose · March 25, 2009, 10:51:27 PM

I would have never thought to use a big car roof to make a body like that . What a neat idea!

Mac · March 25, 2009, 11:22:13 PM

Lovin this thread. Keep the updates coming.
I've got a left over 3.5L Jag DOHC 6 that needs a wrapper. I was thinking even like model A RPU.

purplepickup · March 26, 2009, 04:25:04 PM

Very interesting idea and a different way of getting there. I agree with others....keep the updates coming.

wayne petty · March 27, 2009, 10:33:39 PM

i keep looking at this project... and i keep thinking about the exposed rear tires... and if the rear quarter panels and tail lights sections still exist..

might be able to make up some neat wheel pants for the rears...

again... this is just a thought...

Flipper · March 30, 2009, 12:14:48 AM

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 · April 13, 2009, 09:56:49 AM

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. (I'll make something similar)

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 · April 13, 2009, 09:57:27 AM

A few more

Flipper · April 13, 2009, 09:57:59 AM

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

Flipper · April 13, 2009, 10:01:13 AM

The door cut out didn't seem quite right. We played with that some more. I was actually moving my door piece and dad stopped me mid-move. He said "you found it". This is what we ended up with. Dad thinks it looks like a WW1 airplane. Drivers side seat has been cut back 6 more inches or so.

Looks better. Had to see how it felt. Feels nice.