The Roofus Special

tompeters · July 05, 2009, 01:17:47 PM

thats a very good looking nose,most of that look should not be too hard to replicate. any kind of windshield for you? no idea what the car is but with the red color it looks similar to roofus

Carnut · July 05, 2009, 05:01:28 PM

Think a Miller Indy Ford would be kind of hot rod related.

Flipper · July 05, 2009, 05:19:01 PM

Quote from: "Carnut"Think a Miller Indy Ford would be kind of hot rod related.

One of those cars is what got the whole project started. There was one on display at a car show in Cincinnatti, OH. As cool as it was, it was a little too narrow for me to do a 1:1 replica/tribute car for the street. I'm making mine wider in general and making the footwells bigger.

Since I started, other cars have influenced the shape of the car.

I still plan on building my Independent front suspension along the lines of the 36 Miller-Ford Indy cars (out of steel instead of aluminum).

Flipper · July 20, 2009, 01:20:39 PM

Picked up a pair of 16x4 space saver spares at pull-a-part on Saturday.

The plan is to cut the centers out and convert the outers to be used for use with the wire wheels. I will be converting my 15x5.5 wheels to 16x4.

Going to play with forming the dimples for the spoke nipples using a press. Not sure if I will need to add heat or form it cold.

If it works, these will be the front wheels. I want skinny 18's for the rear wheels.

Flipper · July 24, 2009, 10:13:49 AM

Not sure what this is but I like it. This car may just influence the front end shape of Roofus.

I also may add "frame rails" to my space frame.

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=715223&d=1248405709

Flipper · August 25, 2009, 07:45:40 AM

I came to the realization that I need to work out some of the function details before I get too much farther with the form. I need to figure out the mechanics of the front half of the car.

I slid the back end of the car back a couple of feet so that I would have room on the table for the motor. I ended up making a saw horse out of a suzuki samurai roll bar.

Flipper · August 25, 2009, 07:46:50 AM

Turns out the XK transmission won't work with the bellhousing that I have, front bearing retainer and seal are way different. I * away a good bit of time trying to figure out if I could swap input shafts....I finally accepted defeat and decided to use the OD trans.

Good news is that I found a new clutch and pressure plate when I pulled the trans.

Bad news is that the engine needs to move rearward a couple of inches to make everything fit in a 100" wheelbase.

Break out the sawsall!

One step forward, two steps back.

I laid the stock jag front suspension on the table to see what 100" looked like. Don't worry, only spindles, hubs and brakes will be used.

Flipper · August 25, 2009, 07:47:51 AM

Right now there is a tube that goes under the sump in the oil pan, I am going to re-arrange the framework so that I have a hole for the sump/belhousing to fit in and lower the motor a little more. That jag motor is a tall son of a * for a little car.

Flipper · December 16, 2009, 09:01:16 PM

Irealized that I have been forgetting to keep this thread up to date. Here are the entries I posted on another forum.

Rather than completely trashing the car to try and get the motor to fit under a track nose, I am going to stick to the original idea for the car and copy the little blue/gray 1930 RALLY that was pictured earlier.

Here is a front view of a similar car.

Flipper · December 16, 2009, 09:03:11 PM

Found more Rally pics

Flipper · December 16, 2009, 09:04:12 PM

One with fenders!

...cool little cars! Imagine one with a couple hundred horsepower.

Flipper · December 16, 2009, 09:04:53 PM

I finally found one parked next to something that I can use as a size referrence... a Bugatti! It does appear to be really close in proportions.

I dig the low headlights. It looks like a hot rodder got ahold of this one.

Flipper · December 16, 2009, 09:07:15 PM

12-09-09 I 'm taking a couple of days off work to go play in the shop. Hopefully I will get the front suspension figured out. Right now I am thinking I-beam shaped a-arms. I bought a set of poly "4 link" bushings from speedway...should work decent as suspension bushings.

12-11-09 I worked on the front half of the frame today. Really happy with what I came up with. Wheelbase is longer than I originally planned, its gonna be 110" or so.

Here is where I started the day. A clean table from the firewall forward.

I had to come up with an idea for a frame that would accept an IFS and look good fenderless. Follow along as I work through this thing and see what I finally came up with. ....all of the blue tube is 1.5"

Flipper · December 16, 2009, 09:08:21 PM

Making a second top rail

The lower control arm is going to be mounted on the straight piece that runs parrallel to the motor. The upper control arm is going to be mounted on top of the outer frame rail. The spring is going to be a 1933 ford transverse leaf spring.

Flipper · December 16, 2009, 09:10:38 PM

My goal is something along the lines of the baby blue car except the front suspension will be 5-10 inches farther forward so that I can get the spring pack out in front of the grill shell. I will probably do the splash aprons too (but only in the front, the "framerails" will be exposed).