The Roofus Special

Flipper · January 01, 2012, 12:08:24 AM

decided to try and use more of the fender. The wheel opening is now the door opening.

The car is 14 feet long! It is starting to look fast.

I wasn't happy with the fender top as a cowl. The transition from hood to cowl to body didn't flow good enough. I went back to the rear door piece.
fender

door

I raised the door opening

insert motor noises

The curves all line up

Time to cut down the rear door piece to eliminate the overlap

tacked to the hood (door)

The fender looks good in pics, but the contour under the chrome would be a pain to deal with and it really didn't match the curve of the chassis. Bring back the 1979 jaguar XJS roof

Flipper · January 01, 2012, 12:09:16 AM

It needs hood sides. VW squareback hood to the rescue

This thing still is a movie set prop

side re-positioned

it's got room under the hood even with the raised motor position

Before I could go any farther with sheetmetal work, I needed to beef up my horrible fright bead roller.

junk from the pile

welded on

It works!

Somehow I had offset the trans too far to the passenger side.

the tunnel was too tight anyways, so I removed 1 inch.

34 olds? dash insert looks cool upside down and looks like it might work

Flipper · January 01, 2012, 12:09:56 AM

more mock-up pics

making plans for the body side of the trans mount

GPster · January 01, 2012, 07:56:43 AM

That's a fantastic looking vehicle. By the timeI had finished and dressed all those weld joints it would have warped into an intirely different looking vehicle. Good eye and good imagination. GPster

Flipper · January 01, 2012, 11:53:46 AM

It also looks like I can install a sway bar!

I think this is the one that came off of the jag donor car...but not 100%

It snakes around everything perfectly!

Flipper · January 01, 2012, 07:09:45 PM

If it were only it were this easy... a photoshopped passenger side!

jaybee · January 02, 2012, 10:18:53 PM

Great pics as always. Nice job scrounging for bits that'll give it the contours you want. Just goes to show that the rest of us have workable alternatives to spending a year or two worth of wages at Marcel's Custom Metal Works.

Mac · January 06, 2012, 03:33:07 PM

SCRAPTASTIC !

I see an early Alfa Romeo look emerging out of that grille shell. Or, better yet a Seagrave influence. How `bout instead of Rufus call it Seagravity?

Anyway, I'm lovin this build. This is the essence of rodding right here; scabbing your own stuff together. And doing it without CAD, waterjets, lasers, billet, new DOM stock, crate motors, Currie, Tremec, blah,blah, blah.

You rock Flipper!

Flipper · January 06, 2012, 08:19:05 PM

So do y'all like the track nose?

I like the shape, but I'm kinda disapointed that it will hide the front crossmember.

Flipper · January 07, 2012, 03:33:34 PM

Next weekend, I plan on going back to dad's hose again.

I think may set this beast off of the table and do a mock-up at ground level before I cut up any more of the potential sheetmetal.

chimp koose · January 07, 2012, 05:58:55 PM

Flipper, good idea about getting it on ground level before finalizing the shape. Sometimes the perspective changes when viewed from a different level.Looks good so far,and ditto to the comment about seeing how far you can get without billet ,etc.

idrivejunk · January 08, 2012, 02:36:23 PM

Quote from: "Flipper"Next weekend, I plan on going back to dad's hose again.

I think may set this beast off of the table and do a mock-up at ground level before I cut up any more of the potential sheetmetal.

Flipper I haven't been here long or had much to say but man do I enjoy this thread. I dig a good picture story so thanks for posting this saga. I think the rough shape of the nose is gonna work with the tail. I would yep, take it down and have a look at it on the floor next. The whole deal looks like more fun than a barrel of monkeys so I'll keep an eye on ya. Keep going!

Flipper · January 15, 2012, 10:40:52 PM

Me and my daughter went to dad's for the weekend. We had a great time visiting but I didn't get nearly as much done as if I would have gone alone.

I started out trying to make frames for bucket seat backs.

I was shooting for the same feel as the bench seat in my truck

It didn't work all that well. It didn't feel great and took up interior room.

Plan B One seat back.

Not wanting to mess up anything good for a mock-up...I grabbed a very rusty VW hood that was destined for the crusher.

view behind the seat. I need to figure out how the seat back will attach and how it will be supported

My daughter trying it out. The VW hood was amazingly comfortable. The shape was much simpler than my truck seat.

Flipper · January 15, 2012, 10:41:47 PM

I also mocked up a set of model A hood sides. They might be louver donors...not sure.

I didn't take it off of the table, but I did the next best thing. I made my daughter climb on the table.

It's a sleek LITTLE car!

Flipper · January 16, 2012, 07:51:53 AM

I also welded in the bottom 1x1 tubes that will be part of the driveshaft tunnel. (not yet welded in this pic)

I'm having a hard time deciding how the sheetmetal in this are will all fit together. I haven't found the elegantly simple solution yet. I need to blend the driveshaft tunnel to the front of the seat bases while sealing off the driveshaft...and the whole thing needs to support the weight of the middle part of the car.