Body - Scaling Dimensions & Angles

The body for this build will basically be a standard 1933 Ford Coupe. It will be  from Koop de Glass in New Plymouth. In fact the body will come out of the exact same mould that my last Coupe came out of. It will be chopped 4 inches (4 inches taken from the pillars so the roof is lower). This is done for appearance. I reckon the chopped look is a bit more modern and looks a bit meaner. The unchopped look is quite traditional and while I can appreciate that style too, it isn't what this build is going to be about.

 CHOPPED

 UNCHOPPED

The reason I am choosing the Koop de Glass option is because they are prepared to sell me a "floppy body" which is a fibreglass body straight from the mould. It won't have a floor in it and it certainly won't have any steel strengthening. This means I can chop the body up and modify it before going through the process of hanging the doors and steeling out the body for strength.

If I was to purchase a body that had all that done, and then started modifying it, it would not only be difficult but it would be a waste of money re-doing or in some cases undoing all that good work.

The other advantage is the cost of a floppy body is very cheap compared to a finished article..... sooooo..... if it turns out to be a failure I haven't wasted a huge amount of money. No reason why it should be a failure, but its nice to have that knowledge in the back of my mind.

The design I am going for is quite modified from original so I will have to change quite a few angles and dimensions. The risk here is that it can look really wrong if the angles or dimensions aren't right. A few degrees here and a couple of centimetres there and you can end up with a car that's all out of whack.

While I have a bit of time on my hands I decided I'd start planning for the body by copying a couple of side on photographs from a car I like in the US and start working out the rake angles and to also take a few measurements and scale them up. You can see here the various lines I have drawn over one picture to calculate the angles. I have drawn a line, along under both wheels as a ground level and have also drawn a vertical line at 90 degrees to that.  These are reference lines that I have then calculated angles for roof line, waist line, bonnet line, windscreen angle etc.

This next drawing I have taken measurements and scaled them up. I am aware that the rear tyre is 28 inches in diameter (from specs I have read up on the actual car) and from that have been able to work out the scale and calculate other measurements. The one I was most interested in was the overall height.... it works out to be 47 inches (give or take a bit for picture distortion)..... its about now you should go and get your tape measure and see what 47 inches looks like.......

.....okay so you measured that out...... that can't be right..... 

Oh yes it is! 

47 inches!

.