1949 T28 Trojan Airplane becomes a car

was this being built up to be a rear pusher?

 

Who said anything about a new car?

 

Your post implied to me New or newish, As most people ***ociate new and practical together....At least all the people I know.

 

I just found a beautiful 92 Buick Park Avenue with 86k miles for $4,000. These things get about 30 mpg, drive like a dream and the 3800 runs forever.

 

To me that isn't practical and it's newish.....to me practical is a 1980 Mercedes diesel I paid $300 dollars for and drive everyday. Or the 1998 S10 I got for free and and the 2 other free 80's s10's I got and sold to pay for the parts to fix the 98....Girlfriend drives that one....Or how about my running and driving 1967 GTO for $6000..... or that my Model A Hot Rod that should be running and driving for under $5000,( currently at 3056.78). While these aren't common deals or perfect, they suit my needs and are common enough for me to pull off. I'll admit I have a lot of good connections, But how do you think I got them? by putting my nose to the grindstone and making it happen. I just can't see buying a vehicle that diminishes in value.....I have made money on every car I have ever sold.

Sorry for the thread Hyjack.....I do think it will be cool. A traditional hot rod? No. Original idea? yes. Hopefully the mods will allow this one to stay as I would like to see what you do with it, but I understand if they axe it.

 

Have you thought about air suspension so you can drop it down to get in and out? Fenders that turn with the wheels might look good too.

 

I'm talking about a car I can buy and drive to California and back without having to do anything to it but put gas in it and change oil. I like to have something that parts are readily available for.

If you want to build something to turn heads, I can't think of anything better than an airplane.

 

It is a train wreck for certain and just like a train wreck you looked, and made a comment. It isn't your taste. I understand. You don't have to look at the train wreck. Just turn away.
I like that the club you belong to is called the Peckerheads according to your avatar/signature.

 

I suppose this thing is an art car. If I remember right, I think it is popular for old hot rods to have a lot of WWII era aircraft parts pasted on them. Some are even painted to look like they have rivets or actually have tons of rivets, bomber seats, aircraft instruments etc. At what percentage of ladling on aircraft parts do those cars become art cars? The fact of the matter is traditional hot rodding and antique aircraft have a lot of roots in common. I figured rather than take another hot rod Model A and make it look like an airplane that I would just cut out the middle man and take an airplane and turn it into a hot rod. I'm just not a real follow the leader kind of guy. I don't mean to offend anyone that owns a hot rod with old plane parts on it---- I appreciate their creativity

 

Air Cl***ics magazine in the early 1970s posted an item about a clipping from a late-40s car magazine describing a dry lakes racer - "built from the fuselage of a P-51C Mustang" - that crashed on a run and killed the driver. Does this sound familiar? Or did someone mistake a belly tank for a fuselage?

 

Useless argument anyways.....100% percent on the head turning...I could actually see some idiots getting into a wreck with all the head turning this thing will cause....

Don't let the naysayers bother you OP......

 

CooooooooooL...........Rich

 

Someone must have been watching a Monster Garage marathon or something. Tune in next week while we turn a 1937 Caterpillar D8 into a "period correct" speed boat...

 

I think this is appropriate for this thread...for inspiration. It was initially to be a some kind of Hotwheel or something like that.
I present to you sir, "Killer Dodo".

 

Looks like a new style rat rod to me ! BAH~~

 

I like the B25 look obviously. This thread is a spin off of my earlier thread on a WWII Lockheed Lodestar that I pulled out of a junkyard. I had the idea of converting a Lockheed Lodestar into a panel truck that would look like a B25.

I like your artwork! That B25 looks mean.

 

Where's the pic that the guy in black took?

 

About thirty years ago there was a guy in ohio that had a Flash Gordon looking amu*****t ride mounted on most of a tornado drive line, depending on your weight you might want to use the frame/drive line out of a GMC motorhome like the Decoliner. A rig like that is really impressive coming the other way on the highway with the jersey barrier hiding the under carriage.

 

Maybe you could build a narrow rear axle Top Fuel type/ like and mount two drive wheels in the rear. If you build an aircraft type wheel cover it will i think it will look goood.

I think it would look great to have the engine mounted rearward. With the exhaust sticking out.

And then get a big I beam front axle with wheel from a truck/big pickup

Similar setup as this one, only bigger ;-)

 

Probably lots of little doo dads on that ship that a T28 restorer would like to have.

 

I like it and I applaud your creativity. Subscribed.
Tom

 

As an airplane guy, I love it! I would imagine very little is left that a restorer could use. There are still plenty of T-28's left in various states of airworthiness. Even minor corrosion is cause for the recycle pile.

 

You should plan this out as an early custom / dream car. Lots of the GM styling exercises are certainly celebrated on the HAMB and they were all looking like various airplanes, but mostly jet planes. This could be a fic***ious late 40's styling exercise, before the big switch from prop to jet fighters.

 

From the vintage images thread today...

 

Go for it OP. Screw the naysayers.

 

I say go for it. It will be rad.

 

i love your drawings, that thing takes "head turner" to a whole new meaning, but i'm not too crazy about the bent propeller, what i would do is make a smaller scale one, that doesn't hit the ground, and then on to where as you go at high speeds it will spin! how cool would it be to do this to a corsair or dauntless, no wait, a zero!

 

There's a guy planning a cessna bodied racecar for the 24 Hours of LeMons. Great minds think alike?
http://speedycop.com/racing/24-hours-of-lemons/74-a-cessna-joins-my-lemons-stable.html

 

Have you restored a lot of T-28's?

 

They made so many spare T28 parts that they are dirt cheap in the aircraft world. There are a lot of old T28 airframes just sitting out there. There are large stock piles of them in Florida, Tennessee, California and Arizona that I know of. I sold quite a lot of parts off of this fuselage to people that are restoring T28s. Sadly, unless the parts are new in a box with certification papers, they aren't worth much. I only took in about $1000 for all the parts sold. I was happy with that though.