Plowboy Lunar Lander

Not really, but I decided that I would "come out" with my new "top secret" project, the "back door buddy" or more likely, the "Lunar Lander" I was gonna keep it on the DL but I get tired of hearing people bitch and moan about not being able to do this or find that. There seems to be a lot of new folks around here that did not see the build up of my first "all done by me" project that I ever attempted, the "spacetruck", so maybe I can give someone some motivation to get off their ass and get something built this winter.

Since the spacetruck still needs interior, and I am saving up for it, I decided that I would try to see if I could build something out of a bunch of nothing for fairly cheap. I plan on using some store bought stuff like an axle setup from Speedway and I am sure some other components as I go along.

Here is what I am starting with. I bought a 4 door model A frame, cowl, and doors off of a buddy of mine for 200 bucks. The cowl wasn't as nice as I had remembered, and the doors all turned out to be BACK DOORS as we uncovered the pile. Oh well, I am a trooper and will carry on.

 

The two full size doors are some chevy sedan doors that I had lying around that I found somewhere. I am just hacking them up for skins to fix what is missing or rusted out on what I have. My home slice yngrodder gave me a pair of slant windshield doors with the tops cut off that I will also use. The plan is to make a roadster pickup out of all of this junk. The doors will be welded shut, more of a tub actually, and it will be "Sycamore Low" out of respect for my Dawg Drew up north.

Now the clincher, I acquired a suitable donor for the bed that was square like a model A but still had some character, a 59 Ols for 200 bucks. Man, what a pile of shit this thing is!

 

I have already sacrificed this pig and there ain't much left. Here is day one.

 

I have got everything into the garagenow and will begin getting it all stuck together. Some of you may notice that I now have a bar in my garage if you look behind this pile of junk. I plan on using it quite a bit this winter and taking my own sweet time on this project.

So the run down, 34 Olds grille 60 bucks (I know I paid too much but it was there) Model a cab, 59 Olds rear, and it will most likely have a 54 Olds dash. So far I am into this project for a whopping 500 dollars.

 

Hey Bass thanks for the sketch! Can you send a bigger version to my e-mail so I can hang it on the garage wall for inspiration?

I was originally thinking making a square back cab and a narrower bed, but I got a different (wider) 9 inch rear end over the weekend (to replace the maverick 8 incher that is 49 inches wide) and I think that the carrying of the body line down the side may work out. We'll see. I did some measuring last night and it seems that if I make the ass end 52 inches wide to fit my 56 inch wide rear end (same as the spacetruck), I will have to narrow the rear by about 28 inches. 2 more than the Buick for the spacetruck.

Nads, the windshield is shot. My buddy just got one for his 60 Impala brand new from the glass guy for $350. I don't think he got a deal on it or anything. You may want to check out that option. I believe all the GM cars used the same windshield that year Caddy, Olds, and Buick.

 

Here is all that is left of the Olds. Check out that vintage air unit. I figured I had better take advantage of the mobile dumpster while I had it and get rid of some of the iron I no longer need.

 

I am stuck at work right now with not much to do so I thought I would show last night's "Progress".

I was feeling froggy last night and a couple of buds were over so I thought I would do some hacking on my new project. Bass did a nifty illustration of it that I hope I can adhere to. I realized after cutting and moving parts aroung last night that the rear section has a lot more "taper" in it than I thought. I hope I can pull it off, otherwise I'll just have to turn it into a couch or something.

I began by finding the center of the decklid and marking a line down the middle of the rear clip. I then did a guestimate of how much I was going to narrow the rear (24 inches at least) so I marked two lines 12 inches from the center on both sides. This will give me somewhere to measure from later if I change my mind as well.

 

I just wanted to get the loose quarters up there so I could see what I had to work with so I just did some really rough cuts between the scribed lines with a sawzall. I will make some clean cuts as soon as I figure out exactly how narrow I need to go.

We threw the quarters up on the frame and braced them with a bunch of shit I had laying on the floor. I then took a big length of square tubing and ran it through the tailight hole all the way up to the cowl and I tacked it in place.

 

I didn't like the way the cowl had the Double bump on it around the windshield frame and the big corners of the Lower winshield area, the only way to get rid of it all was to move the main support out of the way so I took out all of the bracing I had just tacked up and removed the spot welds from the back side of the A pillar and I knocked it out and moved it down a couple of inches after cleaning up the area with a wire wheel and flap wheel on the grinder.

 

I will cut off the corners later and will mold some windshield posts in there. I bent a new chunck of Square tube last night on my new ring roller that will go on top of the dash support that will serve as a place to weld the winshield frame and add support for the cowl. That is where I quit and concentrated on drinking a couple of beers. I think the actual work only took about 2 hours. We got distracted by watching some real builders on the Boyd show. I will continue on this tonight and possibly all day tomorrow if we aren't working.

 

It was on my Super long I'm gay post a few days ago, but here it is again.

 

Thanks Folks. Mel you should have came over yesterday. The film crew was here and everything, they didn't stay long because they said there would not be any show left once they bleeped my dialoge. Apparently I have a potty mouth.

Mine ain't gonna be nothin compared to kustombuilder's, I know because I've seen the pics! But I had to promise to keep it on the DL.

I worked out in the garage from about 7 until 2 AM Saturday night. The body lines are going to need a little work to blend the Model A into the Olds Lines. This little 6 inch area is what I spend about 2 hours on slicing and hammering to get the contours to line up. I will reconstruct the body line down the side of the olds panels using some quarter inch rod and a little creative use of bondo.

You can kinda see my homies, Guns N Fuckin Roses in the background on the TV. Metal Mania on VH1 Classic rules.

 

here it is all tacked together. Still a lot more work to go though.

 

I spent a good portion of my Sunday afternoon cleaning out my pond. Then I went and did the other side of the cowl body line area. Cptstickfigure and Silent Lance Romance were there for moral support.

The drivers side went a lot easier than the pass side for some reason. It just seemed to "flow" better. It actually only took about 30 minutes to do what took a couple hours on the other side. Maybe it was because I took it all back apart so I could take 6 more inches out of it because it looked too long! See, this shit doesn't always go easy, but I shall overcome. Then we went up to see my buddy Russ and drink some beer. I will make a new post on that subject.

 

I took some time out from being "king hoarder" and decided to work on the lunar lander friday night. I wanted to get the whole thing roughed in so I did. here is how I started the evening with the quarters tacked on. I took a cut off wheel and cut the leading edge and the panel underneath at the same time. This made a slit perfect for butt welding.

there was a small chunk that I needed to fill in on the bottom so I cut that out of the skin of the decklid that I had narrowed. Here is my electric frankenstien. Those cheapie harbor frieght butt welding clamps are a good investment. I think they are like $4.99 for 8. They paid for themselves right here. You can see how the contour changes from top to bottom here.

The finished product. I put it down on the floor for a visual of how it will look.

I used some rod to make a lower body line and to strenghten and define the lower edge of the body.

The rest of the weekend was spent at the junkyard and riding my motorbike since it was nice outside. We also stood around Saturday night drinking, watching Metal Mania on VH1, and contemplating the possibilites of the 1930 dodge I drug home. You will find it in the classifieds, but it may be sold, go check it out.

John, too much crap in there right now for a side shot.

I need to clean the garage again.

Last night I put in the 54 dash, if anyone cares.