6 month Renovation Adventure Starts Soon

I've been tinkering with the idea of building my own real woodie wagon, while our Provincial government gets its ducks in a row to build legislation about old cars.

Here, the DOT will accept a custom handmade car, based on the frontend grille. Since some frames are still being built for some models of 1930 to 1964 Ford and Chevies, I was thinking I'd try to scoop a Chrysler AirFlow grille, hood and fenders, and make Fibreglass replicas (or buy them if I can) and mount the spares (continental-style):

AirFlow Nose:


My layout (early draft):


After having modified my dash and harness, I'm getting braver about it. The dimensioning is critical in production cars. Change the column angle by 2 degrees and you have to adjust the shifter linkage, etc.

So what I thought was to redo my wood trim in real Ash, and apply the real veneer that's already impregnated with hotmelt glue and have a bodyshop put it the oven to use flat irons to heat it on. That would give me some practice with real wood trim and exterior finishes and see if the real wood veneers work good outside. There might be better adhesives too.

 

That grill looks just like a 37 Ford. Might be a lot easier to find. I recall there were kits back when to put a fiberglass front on the original volkswagons to make them look like the 37 ford.
I helped my dad (some yrs back) build a 23 T Depot hack but that was mainly square cuts except for the roof ribs.
The curves would be tricky without steaming the hell outa them OR rip into 1/4 inch strips (keep in order) and glue together, wrapped on a home made MDF form or the actual car. I've done that with the curved arms on a Morris chair. Very hard to see the seams if the boards are kept in the same order as before the cut.

 

I posted some links on my plans, but you're right about the grille. it could be a bear to find, maybe an old early 50's Mercedes grille or the 37 Ford/Merc grille. I like the hood trim on the Airflow though.
http://www.stationwagonforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1698

This is the Furniture-grade way:
http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?page=43626&category=1,42172&ccurrency=3&sid

 

You've seen that wooden sports car those guys are making, eh?
In order to get compound curves they wove thin veneer strips of wood like a basket, and formed them on a mold.

 

Spray on sawdust! That is one slick-looking woody. And the engine! Holy smokin' hickory! Thanks, Andy.

 

Fiip it over, stick a prop on it and take to the lake!

Boat builders have tackled this already.
The W.E.S.T. system is the method.

 

The Canoe gleams. Wow! Nice finish for exteroir wood. Noah would be proud.

 

So I go to a second-hand store, looking for some bargains, and stroll over to the bookshelves. Lo and behold is a 1970's "Cabinetmaking and Millwork" bible, and an old 1967 copy of 101 furniture plans written by a guy who;s TV program was called "Mr. Chips".

Well, I go scouring the WWW for anything online about this show or the author and land here:
http://joneakes.com/

Who has a Tips database that has some 10,000 tips on everything that Murphy's Law covers.
http://joneakes.com/db/

And of course the usual books for sale, not by him, but by a Construction Trades Association, as well as DVD of some of his more complex topics:
http://joneakes.com/manuals/

Anyway, the guy KNOWS his stuff. Check the organized database. Well organized. Short and sweet. Some have drawings and diagrams or links to other free sites. He's also on HGTV if you get that on cable.

 

Bob, I found a real treat on a Russian site. Some old Fine Woodworking mag issues in PDF, and a great article on Tuning the Radial Arm saw, Router tips, and oodles more! Some are English titles, and other language titles (Russian???).
http://woodtools.10gb.ru/index.htm

I have a feeling that the website has a couple english speakers on staff. I moved my mouse over the russian link names and found some complete books and over 200 furniture and jig plans!

http://woodtools.10gb.ru/big/TAOW/The_Art_Of_Woodworking.htm

http://woodtools.10gb.ru/projects2/PlanPDF/PlanPDF.htm

http://woodtools.10gb.ru/projects2/WoodworkersJournal/WoodworkersJournal.htm

K6 means KB, and M6 means MB (kilo and mega) worth burning on a couple CDs.

 

WOW! Looks like a gold mine. Just gotta look into "Russian 101" now.

 

Stick with English. The original booklets by Thomas Chippendale and Sheraton are there with their Design books dating back to 1754! I'm an adventurous SOB, so I went into some of the listed (top-down) and horizontal non-english sub-sections and found all kinds of english documents. Then there's the entire collection of ShopNotes to issue 95, with a link to Shopnote's own site.
http://woodtools.10gb.ru/books/sheraton/sheraton.htm

http://woodtools.10gb.ru/books/Chippendale/Chipp.htm

http://woodtools.10gb.ru/ShopNotes.htm

Awesome find!
Oh, I tried downloading this morning. All of Europe's big corps do their file transfers in our daytime. Slowed down to half-speed. Better in the evening.

 

Bob, I got all of these but some on the first site are bad and a couple on the mirror site too (noted). More info than I'll likely use, but sure gives a great overview.

Had to do it with no other window open, otherwise DNLD speed really sucked.

The Art Of Woodworking
======================
http://woodtools.10gb.ru/big/TAOW/The_Art_Of_Woodworking.htm
http://mirror.woodtools.nov.ru/big/TAOW/The_Art_Of_Woodworking.htm

Done!
=====
X Advanced Routing (pdf, 84 MB) Mirror site
X Building Chairs (pdf, 83 MB)
X Cabinets And Bookcases (pdf, 99 MB)
X Classic American Furniture (pdf, 105 MB)
X Contents Of All books (pdf, 9 MB)
X Cabinetmaking (pdf, 94 MB)
X Encyclopedia Of Wood (pdf, 112 MB)
X Finish Carpentry (pdf, 93 MB)
X Hand Tools (pdf, 67 MB)
X Handbook Of Joinery (pdf, 98 MB)
X Home Workshop (pdf, 99 MB)
X Kitchen Cabinets (pdf, 95 MB)
X Master Woodworker (pdf, 85 MB)
X Outdoor Furniture (pdf, 103 MB)
X Portable Power Tools (pdf, 94 MB)
X Restoring Antiques (pdf, 80 MB)
X Routing And Shaping (pdf, 101 MB)
X Shaker Furniture (pdf, 103 MB)
X Sharpening And Tool Care (pdf, 95 MB)
X Shop-Made Jigs And Fixtures (pdf, 100 MB)
X Tables And Desks (pdf, 95 MB)
X Wood Carving (pdf, 115 MB)
X Wood Finishing (pdf, 93 MB) Mirror site
X Wood Turning (pdf, 96 MB) Mirror site
X Wooden Toys and Crafts (pdf, 82 MB)
X Woodworking Machines (pdf, 98 MB)

 

!!!FRICKING FANTABULOUS!!!
I spent a few hours today not logging in and just drooling through the articles. Don't know what else to say but THANK YOU NORM!
Now for my real problem. I live 5 miles from a Rocklers and 10 from a Woodcrafters. 20 miles from St. Charles hardwoods. I NEED to be chained down now.
MANY thanks again Norm!

 

Talk about 'torn between two lovers.!!! How do you manage?

 

Wow lots of stuff there. I just downloaded a 95mb file, the speed was around 340kb/s.
Took about 4-5 minutes.