R&C artist's concepts/sketchpad renderings.....real life BUILDS??? TRUCKSTERS!

You've seen 'em in R&C, artists like Jimmy Smith and Thom Taylor will draw up some wild looking concepts made from cheap, easy to find raw material....
Anyone in HAMBland build something inspired by the concept???

The current issue has some renderings by Thom made up of cut down pickup cabs....not "bobbers" ...but Trucksters....really cool, in art form anyway....

I particularly like the '60-'66 Chevy cab modified......I'm thinkin' of doing a real one along the same lines...
My father-in-law has hinted that he'd like a hotrod....and he just so happens to have a straight '63 GMC cab. The rest of the 1 1/2T truck has been parted out, so it wouldn't be like I'm cutting up anything special, (he's been trying to sell the remains for awhile now)....it was his old farm rig he's had for years. I think it'd be cool for him to still keep a part of that truck.

I plan on running this idea by him tonight and if he's down.....I'll pull the cab and start cuttin'!!

If anyone has built an R&C concept-type, I'd sure like to see how they turned out.....

 

DO IT!!!! And don't forget to post the pics! Those renderings got to me too.

 

I'm All About It. They Have Written Up Articles Abou The Trucksters And A Year Of So Ago There Was A Write Up About Doing The Same Thing To Sedans. Pretty Cool.

 

i have looked at those pages time and time again, if any of them could be as nice looking as those drawings they would be sweet!!

 

Though not spefically rendered, I have a pretty solid 52 F1 cab that I cant seem to get rid of. Maybe will try myself.. if cannot find any takers..

 

I am going to build one with a 54 Chevy cab. I like the one piece chopped windshield look.

John

 

If I wasn't completely dumbfounded by this iMac, I could have posted this in a before/after...instead its an after/before. I know this isn't the years they had in the R&C, but that is what inspired me to whack the top off my 39 Chevy truck and stay away from the "bobber" look.

The paint with the scallops is the product of a ton of rattle can lying around and a bunch of beers. My truck is finished now, and that's not how its painted...its now solid satin black with small blue scallops at the bottom of the doors and a metalflake blue zodiac vinyl interor. I'll post some pics when I can upload them to my computer.

 

I was struck by those renderings too. My old highschool p/u (71 GMC) is still sitting in my Mom's back yard around Seattle just wasting away. I'd love to get that old boy back on the road. Hell, the only pieces that aren't rusted to bits are the ones that I would use for such a project anyhow. .... Hmmm....

 

It is a good idea if you can find a good cab. Around here all the cab corners are rusted out on everything so it would be just as easy to build a tub with some cool doors and make your own cab corners.....

I liked the 60 Chevy truck one with the eyebrows...

 

I was hoping you'd chime in here Plowboy.....as this is YOUR territory.....
hahaha!!! That's the one I wanna do, 60's style....
The '63 cab I plan on using is damn near perfect....just a few small dings....
I figure I could find a '60 hood for the front, as in the drawing but make a different grill and shorten/narrow some bed sides for a 'mini' bed....
The cab will need sectioned and narrowed of course to look right, maybe a wedge section job....
This will be built on the cheap (I have alot of the parts needed, including a nice 283), but finished out nice with glossy paint and a little chrome when $$$ allows

 

Wasn't there one that had an olds roadster that gave you the Idea for the Lunar Lander? I was told that you are building another car is it one that you got the Idea from R&C also lets see pics.

 

working on the r&c 53 chev trk cab with wide 5's, a 250 chev six. have cut the roof off, narrowed it 4, and will cut 6 off the bottom there by getting rid of the rust, raise the floor 5, 2x4 frame, qtrs on the front, buggy on the rear and try to make some kind of folding top hope to be done for next spring.

 

Haha that one got me too. The hood would be the tough part to find to make the upper cowl section from, I think that was a 1 or 2 year only hood. Could make those eyebrow sections though.

I'd buy a cab if I could find one after seeing the rendering, it gave me temporary "Plow-vision"

 

Y'all probably already seen this. I guess I missed that R&C issue with the Thom Taylor drawing. Its a rough sketch that I did in a hurry while it was still in my head at the garage one day.

 

yup, building one out of my junky '54 chevy cab. Not sure how I want to handle the grill area so if anyone has a suggestion, just throw it out there

 

Cory -

I saved the drawing of the one with the Vette fenders on it for future reference, that looks awesome.

Here's a model I did with a '54 Ford cab.





Chopper, sectioned, and narrowed.

 

i've had a 54 Ford truck cab for quite some time i've planned to chop the roof off of before i section and narrow it a bit. my buddy used parts off the roof when he chopped his 54 Ford truck so that he would have less seams across the roof.. this can is realy damn solid. not sure why he cut it up but he was gonna toss it out and said i could have it. it's nothing i plan to "finish" but i thought i'd get the metal work at least roughed in and let somebody else buy it and finish. i have an early 50 Chevy long bed box i'm gonna cut up to go with it that i got from the same friend.

then there is the 60 Olds roadster i started building from a 4 door parts car ****o bought yeeeeeears ago. i started building it when Plowboy was finishing his truck. him and Doc Frankenstien inspired me to do something with the cool body lines of that rusted out old 4 door. perhaps some day i'll finish it.

then there is the 63 Chevy truck my buddy Chris has. we have 2 solid hoods and we figure there is enough other tin there to build 2 of those roadster trucks like in the Thom Taylor R&C drawings. i LOVE that one. again i don't intend to "finish" that one. just rough in the metal work and offer a realy cool start to somebody who might not be able to do that metal work but could otherwise finish the project. Chris wants to keep the second one.

 

I was thinking "model car" when I drew that. I'd love to see somebody make a model of it. Them Corvette fenders might line up with the sides of the truck. Your truck is killer.

 

It seems to me that the one drawn in R&C has the engine out of proportion. I plan to move my cab back on the frame about 20 inches. This will place the front of the hood between the wheels. Then I plan to Z the frame front and rear the width of the frame plus 2 inches. My plan is to use an original hood that I trim on the front and add part of a front section of another hood flipped upside down so as to get a track T look on the front. In addition I will trim the sides of the hood to remove the flared flange on the edges. I want to use quarter eliptical spring front and rear.

All of this is just a thought so far but I want to start on it soon so that I can to see what it looks like. Since I do not plan to narrow the cab, it will need tall tires to keep it in proportion. Unfortunately I have other projects ahead of this one.

John

 

Glad to see this has got some people thinking. Thom works hard at trying to make them doable and we've been trying to come up with some ideas that could be built with more investment in time than money.

 

Remember, in all those Taylor pieces, the cab is narrowed and sectioned down to "thirties" proportion. Dont just make a fenderless rod out of a giant
cab, it'll make the wheels look tiny. Making it smaller also disguises its origin.
Keep the overall proportion in mind. Build a model first, or photochop it. I do that when I'm trying to figure a car out, because I cheat too much when I just draw them.

 

Yes, I plan on narrowing and sectioning the cab....once I chop the top off....I'm thinking of narrowing it more at the cowl than the back as well....I don't think it'd look good the same width, firewall would look too wide...
In the Thom drawing, the cab is at an angle at the top but level at the bottom....I'd like to do that as well.....kinda an angle section or pie-cut....
It'll take alot of time to get it right, but not alot of $$$....

 

I too was interested in that article. I have a 71 ford I was going to part out with a running 390,c6,aand 9 inch. After seeing those sketches I think a little slicin' n dicin' is order.

 

Anyone have a copy of the article/photo they could scan for me? I dont get that mag around here.....

 

We'll ship to Canada

 

I plan to ****** some measurements from my buddy's T-roadster soon to get an estimate of how much to narrow and section mine. The model concept is not a bad idea either. Tossing around the options of running a 331 Caddy, 348 chevy or maybe an oddball hemi combo too. I already have the Caddy so who knows....

 

LOL LOL He said ******. LOL

Didja get them blades so we can start cuttin yet? And forget measurin my T, beeyoch!!! BAAAAHHHAAAWWWW

 

In the early 60's, Tom Daniels did an R&C rendering of what a combination T roadster pickup/Meyers Manx might look like. Jim Kellison did a one off for me and then made some modifications for a production run. A lot was lost in the translation from the rendering to the production model. I found a production body a couple of years ago and was going to build one like the rendering...more trouble than it was worth. It was featured in HOT VW's and R&C.

 

Have you guys doing the 47 to 54 chevrolet have you considered leaving the roof? I "think" a 5 window cut down to the before mentioned proportions would be nice. please post pics