The Roofus Special

cheapracer · **Joined:** Wed Nov 12, 2008 6:29 am **Posts:** 2614

Glad to see you spending value time with your daughter, treasure it as it sure changes fast .... I got 3 of them in their 20's now, I really miss those 5yo - 15yo times.

oldejack · **Posted:** Thu Feb 02, 2012 1:05 pm

cheapracer wrote:

Glad to see you spending value time with your daughter, treasure it as it sure changes fast .... I got 3 of them in their 20's now, I really miss those 5yo - 15yo times.

Both of mine are in their 20's (25 and 27 to be precise). .. There are some de-stink'd advantages to being a grandparent :mrgreen:

Those girls sure know how to bring a smile to my face, no matter whether it's current events or tales of days gone by.

cheapracer · **Joined:** Wed Nov 12, 2008 6:29 am **Posts:** 2614

oldejack wrote:

Both of mine are in their 20's (25 and 27 to be precise). .. There are some de-stink'd advantages to being a grandparent

Interesting, mine are 27 and 25 too! I have a 21 year old as well.

Off topic but I don't mind bumping this thread for encouragement as well, love this build Flipper!!

Flipper_1938 · **Joined:** Wed Apr 15, 2009 7:41 pm **Posts:** 524

cheapracer wrote:

oldejack wrote:

Off topic but I don't mind bumping this thread for encouragement as well, love this build Flipper!!

Work has been hell recently. Hopefully I will get a chance to work on it again two weekends from now.

Flipper_1938 · **Joined:** Wed Apr 15, 2009 7:41 pm **Posts:** 524

dodgedartgt wrote:

Hey Flipper,

I'll agree with your comment. It does look smaller than I'd've expected, based on all the pics you've posted. Remember a couple of things though. You are building an open wheel chassis here, based on closed wheel running gear, and sizing the body accordingly. The other thing is it's gonna "bulk up" some in height and width as you add the suspension, wheels and tires. Its been so long (and I WAY too lazy to search), what are you guessing the ground clearance to be? Six to eight inches? Right now, it looks like the car will sit right at scrub height (bottom of the body even with the bottom of the wheels). I might raise it an inch or two. It depends on how it looks on the ground.

I also never noticed the trolley and chain falls over the min door. You are fixed up for working space, except for being such a long walk from your kitchen door to the shop...LOL Dad built a hell of a shop to play in when he retired. He built it all by himself and paid for it as he built

Last question, what kind of little camper is that behind the Special, Datsun, Toyota?

It is a slide in that is being converted to work with the 1991 flatbed toyota 4x4 in the background

Lookin' good,
Mikey B

Sorry I didn't see this post when it was fresh. See above for answers.

john hennessy · **Posted:** Fri Feb 03, 2012 8:31 pm

its interesting to see the use of pre bent panels or parts of, to make somthing completely different,

i remember when i was a lad back in england many years ago, a guy took a ford e93a anglia body and made a bucket t by chopping off the roof and turning the rest upside down

Flipper_1938 · **Joined:** Wed Apr 15, 2009 7:41 pm **Posts:** 524

john hennessy wrote:

its interesting to see the use of pre bent panels or parts of, to make somthing completely different,

Even I am suprised at how well the Cadillac sheetmetal works in a different configuration than GM intended.

It is a whole different thought process to build to using existing shapes vs. forming parts to match a pre-determined design. I am pleased with the way it is progressing, but I don't know if I will try this a second time.

Flipper_1938 · **Joined:** Wed Apr 15, 2009 7:41 pm **Posts:** 524

I finally got a chance to do something!

I had a general idea of how I wanted to do my trans mount, but had no idea of how the trans tunnel would tie in. Everything I visualized got real complicated.

I went to wally-world and picked up posterboard to play with.

It worked great to eliminate a couple of ideas that didn't work in real life.

I started off making fronts to the seat bases. The beefed up bead roller is fun to use (as opposed to frustrating).

I then traced the panels to see the "box" th trans mount had to fit in.

I mocked up a mount in posterboard. It worked good enough to transfer to steel.

Flipper_1938 · **Joined:** Wed Apr 15, 2009 7:41 pm **Posts:** 524

Even though it is a short span between the seats, I felt the mount needed more beef.

I bent up a simple reinforcement to double the material and add gussets

now for the tunnel

I screwed around with the idea of a beefy safety loop, but nothing seemed to work. In the end I just made a simple tunnel.

First in posterboard

then in steel

Nothing is welded in. I am considering bead rolling the tunnel, but need to know where the seat back will be before I can finalize a design.

BBlue · **Joined:** Sat Feb 28, 2009 11:09 pm **Posts:** 723

Looking at the drive shaft tunnel, I thought "Man, that's tight!". Then I got to thinking about my car and decided I was not one who should be mentioning such things. As the man say, "Clearance is clearance".

Bill

Flipper_1938 · **Joined:** Wed Apr 15, 2009 7:41 pm **Posts:** 524

The plan is to have a bolt in piece that fills the void between the end of the tunnel and the tail of the trans.

botbasher · **Posted:** Mon Feb 27, 2012 1:32 pm

Flipper_1938 wrote:

To be honest, taking this pic suprised me. I thought the car was going to be taller than it is.

Hey Flipper!

I was sent a bunch of pics from my buddies down under in NZ and this one caught my eye because it's similar in looks to yours.

Is this what yours is going to look similar to when complete?

Cheers!

KS

Flipper_1938 · **Joined:** Wed Apr 15, 2009 7:41 pm **Posts:** 524

I also, played with front end pieces too....trying to figure out what my upper control arms might look like. I did a comparison of front spindle relative to the bottom of the car and the current rear "ride height". ...the front is about 2.5 to 3 inches lower (spindle higher). It ought to be fun trying to make this crazy mismatch of parts sit right. It should be plenty low.

Flipper_1938 · **Joined:** Wed Apr 15, 2009 7:41 pm **Posts:** 524

botbasher wrote:

Flipper_1938 wrote:

To be honest, taking this pic suprised me. I thought the car was going to be taller than it is.

Hey Flipper!

I was sent a bunch of pics from my buddies down under in NZ and this one caught my eye because it's similar in looks to yours.

Is this what yours is going to look similar to when complete?

Cheers!

KS

This (the green one) is probably the closest car I have found to what I am currently building.

botbasher · **Posted:** Thu Mar 01, 2012 4:38 pm

Flipper_1938 wrote:

This (the green one) is probably the closest car I have found to what I am currently building.

Nice.. I just drew the similarity between the long runners on both, but I like the looks of your plan much better. What is it??

Cheers!

KS

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