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Old 05-08-2009, 08:08 PM
Kerry Pinkerton's Avatar
Kerry Pinkerton Kerry Pinkerton is offline
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Join Date: May 2009
Location: Near Huntsville, Alabama. Just south of the Tennessee line off I65
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Default The Art Deco Imperial Project - Part 12

THE ART DECO ROADSTER PROJECT
10/29/07
Quote:
Kerry,

I see you are using low tack masking tape instead of the transfer tape. When did the group graduate to the masking tape? I assume it's better?



The masking tape is painters masking tape and is low stick. Transfer tape is too low stick to stick to unprimed bondo but the painters tape works fine. Regular masking tape is way too sticky for most uses imo.

I read on the other site that Jim Baile is using spray on tack with shrink wrap and covering with clear packaging tape...may have to give that a try.
Quote:
hi kerry,

i was wondering what you guys were doing to the car during mm07. from the camera view, it was impossible to see.

are you going to build up the lower sections before you start building the actual decklid ??



Yeah, we should have pulled the car in the other way so folks could see what we were working on...hindsight is a wonderful thing.

The way the fenders and deck will blend together will hide most everything below the blend except at the rear pan area which will be a reverse of the top side...I think...
11/15/07
Quote:
hi kerry has ther been any progress on the car ?

In the metal meet photos, I was suprised as to how big the car seemed when
the photo came through of the lady in the driver seat .
I know that you are quite tall as I have been following the build.
I will now go and recap on the wheel base and the dimetions

I also saw a for sale sign, I hope it was in jest.



Not much progress. The for sale sign was a joke that John and Lino pulled on me...For sale by owner, fixer upper, cheap!

When I got home from MM I decided to finish putting up the insulation tiles in the remaining two rooms in the shop BEFORE I unloaded the trailer. A neighbor has a powered sissor lift that really, really makes this easier but you need a fairly clean floor. That took a couple weeks but I finally started unloading the trucks and trailers early last week. Still have a bunch of stuff in the box trailer but have most my tools out. Now I'm trying to reorganize my 'stuff' so I won't be able to find it in it's new location instead of just putting it back where I wasn't able to find it previously. I'm filling up about 4 trash cans a week with junk.

Anyway, before I pushed the car inside, my son Cameron and I pushed it out in the yard and took some photos with the bucks on it so I could see it all together at a distance and check proportions. A little distance is a good thing. When I edited the size down, I converter them to grayscale. I'm going to be tracing the outlines and trying to make some drawings of what I want the final body to look like.



I'm still ruminating on the length of the hood. I may shorten the wheelbase by a few inches. The Corvette C4 rear MAY have to sit an inch or to further to the rear than the current JAG and I've just purchased a C4 front end. Next month Bennett and I will get together at his shop and install them in the chassis. I have lots and lots of room in front of the engine. LOTS!

In this shot, the rear fender buck and the deck bucks are not sitting square so you have to use your imagination. The dark lines on the deck buck are the truck opening. The little divot you see in the lower center of the deck is a dent and there are a couple more spots where the plaster of paris popped off the duct tape. (Don't use duct tape) Foam bucks are not as durable as I had hoped. Fortunately, I pulled two flexible shape patterns while in Oblong.

You'll also have to visualize the headrests on the decklid.








So why did I go scrap the original Dakota suspension after all my big talk? Basically it was poor planning on my part. Originally I was only about building the body, the chassis was secondary and relatively unimportant. I could always redo it down the road...right? As I progressed I made some discoveries:

1- Building the inner structures were very difficult and consumed a LOT of time and energy. I don't want to have to redo any of that so having the final suspension in place will make it a one time process.

2- The car is going to turn out nicer than I had originally thought and I realized it was worth the investment in the upgraded chassis.

3- The Dakota front end is pretty well worn out and even to get it on the road will basically require a complete rebuild. Spending the money on what would be a 'temporary' front end only to have to do it again with the final front end seems a waste of time and money. Plus, I discovered that custom Dakota springs are not available without paying for custom tooling to have them made or going with coil overs.

4- The Jag rear came about when I found a source for next to nothing. Unfortuately, they are heavy, expensive to build, and at the end of the day, this one was in unknown condition with the wrong gear ratio. The C4 front and rear has a full replacement guarantee. The rear is a 3.08 posi (not the Dana 44 chunk). Plus, because of the way the C4 rear mounts, I'll have more room for the gas tank.

In retrospect, the whole Dakota donor was probably a bad idea. While the 318/AOD combo is bullet proof, there are virtually no after market wiring harnesses/computers/trans controllers available. Going with straight street rod components like a belly button motor/trans, carbs, and a manual tranny would have really simplified the build, probably looked better and run as well, and cost about the same or less. Not to mention I wouldn't have the Dakota parts scattered around the shed. A little hindsight is a wonderful thing.

The good news is that changing the motor over would not be a major rebuild should I decide to do that down the road. I might be deluding myself though.....

I still like the idea of building something the old school way but reality is a harsh taskmaster and never stops teaching lessons.

11/16/07

Ok, I had a little medical procedure and am on house rest for a couple days and I woke up at the crack of dawn and decided to play with Photoshop a little. I really need to get a photoshop for dummies book but probably am not smart enough.

Drawing 1: OK, this is the current configuration. I drew a black line so you cans ee the fender and door openings and sketched in the line of the headrest. In case anyone is wondering if I've been working out, that is my son Cameron behind the wheel.


Drawing 2: Same thing with some coloring done. This will be what I end up with if I do not move the wheelbase around.


Drawing 3: This is the same as above but with the front end moved back about 6 inches. I still have PLENTY of room in front of the engine for the radiator, AC, oil cooler, etc.


Drawing 4: This is the same but with the rear of the front fender sweeping back instead of rounding over.



I'm leaning toward #4. But some emails have me rethinking things...Wheelbase will be in the 114-116" range. The current wheelbase was kind of arbitrarily chosen. I wanted a LOOONG nose and 120 seemed like a nice round number.

Once I saw the car from a distance with the fender bucks on it, the proportions looked a bit off??? Maybe not but that's what it looks to me. I'm open to opinions about it.

When I redo the front clip to accept the C4 crossmember it would be the perfect time to pull things back a bit but still keep the art deco long hood look.

I see their point about the fenders matching...dang it! Now I'm going to have to think some more.

John Brown wrote:
I like the non racing version with the pontoon fenders myself. Kerry as long as your car is it should lend its self to this profile easily...it is Art Deco.............john

11/16/07

I'm only after the general look. It's going to look different from any of the Buggatti thread renderings.

John, I LOVE the looks of that car but as a driver, enclosed wheels are totally impractical because the fenders have to be so much wider than the tires in order to mount the wheels and tires. Could do full fender skirts but then you get into tire clearance problems when turning unless you have these huge fat fenders.

Here are a couple sketches done in KERRY DRAW. Hopefully it is clear enough that everyone can see the general flow of the metal.



Headlights will be an XJ140 type of thing. No turn signals on the fenders though. They'll either be IN the headlight or below them.



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