I got the pieces cut out to reinforce my tubing bender and some pieces for the side hustle yesterday. I was going to do a bit more in the shop but I discovered there was a MotoGP race on television - about the last chance to watch racing of any kind this season. And since it was an international event there wasn't any of the political BS like NASCAR or sportsball, just racing mano y mano. Franco Morbidelli was the winner by the way.
I took a quick look at the jitney after cutting out the parts. I wanted to give some thought to changing the cockpit design a bit. One of the things I was concerned with following the original plan was mounting a decent roll cage. If I make the cockpit/tub more like the car in the previous post, I can still make a boat tail rear but narrow it up a couple of inches on each side so I can mount a hoop behind the tub directly to the frame rail as well as a couple of braces to the rear without having to poke holes in the sheet metal.
Regardless of what I settle on for sheet metal, I'm going to need a layout/template for the skin. I got out my book on making automobile sheet metal that I bought some years ago from Lindsay before he retired. The book is a reprint of a 1912 edition so all of the cars featured are some of the earliest examples of automotive coach building. And that's a good thing for a one off builder like myself. There is a lot of info on the process of building panels including, which is why I dug the book out, pattern development. It runs you through the process of drawing out two views and then developing the true length lines required to make a flat pattern.
I used to teach a little bit of this at the high school. To be honest, I was never real good at it. I always had to work through all the problems before the students so I wouldn't look like a dumb ass but I did have a fall-back if needed. Our department head was a whiz-bang with this stuff and if I needed some help he could answer any question I could come up with. Fortunately, I could answer most any question the students might have had, so it was all good. I'm going to start drawing up a couple of options for the cockpit and make a full size half pattern to see which one I like best. I'm starting to develop an image in my mind's eye that I think will work for me. It's about time to sweep the floor and bust out a new piece of soapstone.
4 comments:
Hey”Bob”
The comment about the floor and the soapstone brought back so many memories or the old man’s shop. Him and all the critters that inhabited that place, down on one knee, scratching and wiping and scratching some more, man that was a fun time. Talk to you soon, TVI
Yes sir! If you take a good hard look at what people made back in the day, it was amazing what they came up with and how it was brought from an idea to a working piece of equipment or fabrication. No computers or electronics of any kind, just a couple of guys hunkered down on the shop floor working out the details. We were both real lucky to have been able to get in on that - got me started on a great career.
Speaking of MotoGP - go to youtube and watch the King of The Baggers race on the Motoamerica channel. I actually did the pay per view. Yes, baggers at Laguna Seca. Hold your laughter until after you see the race. Some of the best roadracing I've seen in years. With saddlebags. Don't wait...watch it.
I did watch part of it. I think it was Mike that had a link to it. They were definitely gettin' after it. Didn't have the lean angles like the Moto GP but real racing for sure.
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