Over the last week I’ve been busy in my spare time, researching various antique cars and the details which will inspire the street rod I am building. It’s my desire to create a one of a kind automobile. I absolutely love steampunk and rusty steel too. I’ve decided to combine these ideas into a custom speedster. Because the original car that Norm and I built almost forty years ago was fabricated from rust free aluminum I’ve made up my mind to start the body build from scratch. This time around we’ll go with a heavy gage steel which will be allowed to gather a rusty patina. It will be all welded construction but will appear to be held together with thousands of half inch dome head rivets, another look I love. With the CNC plasma cutter and a host of other metal working tools at my disposal, the build will be much easier this time. I’ll also be able to tackle much more complicated shapes as well. With all of that in mind I decided to model the car with the general style of a 1910 Willys Overland. I’ve always loved Willys and the Overland logo was absolutely cool! This was the first piece I cut, along with the many pieces of the radiator housing and cowl. This afternoon I spent a few enjoyable hours in the shop welding the first pieces together. The rivets are in transit from Michigan and will be popped into place as soon as they get here. There will be 400 rivets in this assembly alone. This is going to be FUN!
