Building the Woody Low Tide

[darkside]

You've seen the finished product, so now it's time to show how it got there.

First off was converting the 4 door into a 2 door. Just cutting out the back doors would have been easy, but it would leave front doors that were too short. Some simple planning on the cuts allowed me to stretch the front doors.





I decided at this point it looked a bit too cartoony, so out came the saw again.






It took a bit of cutting and repositioning to get the wood rails to line back up.



Cutting the interior to match the body.



Next up was the frame. I just couldn't cut up the stock frame, the x-member was too pretty to ruin so I made my own frame by laminating 2 pieces of .040 sheet for each rail.



A comparison to the stock frame and the body.





1/16" rod was used for temporary crossmembers.



It fits!

[darkside]

Time for some front suspension. I decided to somewhat replicate a Mustang 2.

The crossmember was made from square tubing and sheet.



Next up, the A arms, built from 3/64" rod.





I originally was going to use coilovers.



They got scrapped for airbags.

[darkside]

The rear was stolen from a Monogram '94 Mustang.

I had to cut the center section out to keep the pinion angle from pointing into the ground. I cut it out, drilled and pined it, then put it in place to get the right angle then cemented it. I also had to be narrowed and mounts for the airbags were added.

I've narrowed the left side in this pic.



I slid 1/8" rod over the crossmembers and made a square tube with mounts for the rear, along with bag mounts and added the C notches for clearance. also some added bracing which will get the trans crossmember.



We've got a roller.



Upper trailing arm mounts were added.

[darkside]

I love unusual engines. I wanted something unique and decided on an Offy. I found a Monogram Midget gluebomb on ebay.

Holy crap did that thing need some work, there is just some much wrong with it. I redid the head, removed the bulges from the side, made a magneto, oilpan, new header a new intake with modern injector rails and air cleaner. The trans is from the Mustang and the radiator is from a 39 Wagon Rod.





After a little cutting on the firewall it fit perfect and gave me just what I wanted, something different than the usual boring V8.



After some paint and detail. You can also see I added an alternator to it.





Some paint on the frame.

[darkside]

The body just seemed to strong, let's weaken the heck out of it.



And weaken it, it did! After this, I broke the body at least 20 times. No, that's not an exaggeration, it was probably closer to 30.

If you want to know how I hinged the doors, got to the tips section on this site. I think it's titled Exterior Hinges in the Body section.

Next up the interior. I stole the dash from the Wagon Rod, but didn't like the Euro look it had, I sanded the dash smooth and added a console made from .030 sheet for the sided and laminated 2 pieces of .010 for the top.



Also added was a tunnel for the rear to fit into.



The seats are from the Mustang, the steering wheel is a PE piece, the tilt and turn signal stalks are straight pins.



I need some tunes. A visit to Scale Dreams for some amps and subs. The sub enclosure and capacitor are scratchbuilt.



Some sculpturing of the inerior sides and door panels was added using .040 sheet.

All painted up.

[darkside]

Starting to detail the underneath. The compressor and airtank are from the Wagon Rod, the solenoids are scratchbuilt and the airlineas are black beading wire.



The brake and fuel lines are aslo beading wire, the rubber brake lines are elecrical wire.



Now back to the body.

The front of the front whheel openings are reshaped slightly, the area under the grill was cut out and pulled back to fit the grille, and the headlights were sunk.



The tailights were moved to the fenders by using 3/16" rod for the tunnels.



Somehow from mockup to final assembly, I lost me "In the weeds" stance. Seeing as camber was built into the front to simulate it being layed out, along with the suspension dropped it just looked stupid with all that ground clearance.

I added to the rear fenders and bottom of the rockers. Not the best fix, but at this point I had the chassis done.



Next up. paint.

I used a base of Craft Acrylic





OOPS! Forgot a hood hinge.



Next was a coat of nail polish.

[darkside]

The body was now cleared with Nason urethane.



Time for some wood graining. I used acrylics for the base and Uschi decals for the grain in the panels. I brush painted the base to get a bit of texture for the wood. I then followed it up with some airbrush and dry brush. I also added some Archer rivets to replace some of the wood plugs that got sanded of earlier.











The interior was Done with a wash type process to give a burled wood appearance. All the wood was cleared with a gloss acrylic, I wanted a different sheen than the the body for contrast.



All that was left was to paint the cloth top and assemble. I'll post more finished pics on the Finshed board.

[gangster]

That is so cool how you done it.
Thats for the tag along on the build..

[rustyrat1960]

This is one fantastic build!!
You "definitely" have a Winner there!!
Thank You for sharing
I really like the suspension work, front, and that engine build "WOW!"
Thanks Dave!!
WOW!
Later
Russ

[johnj]

Absolutely beautiful build. Your body work is fantastic and the engine is unbelievable. Great, great work.