Here's A Great Big Woody Part 1

Heh heh.


Okay, the local theater group is doing a production of Grease and was in need of a "Greased Lightning". For the uninformed, Greased Lightning is the car of the show... pun intended. Anyhow because they were insane, disparate and feeling lucky, they approached lil' ol' me to whoop something up for 'em.

Who knows...

Because of space limitations on the small stage that the theater has, it had to be reduced down in size a bit. I measured out the stage, took some looks and decided I could build a Greased Lightning front end and reduce it to about a 3/4 scale. It'd all fit and it'd get the point of the car across in a pretty cool fashion. I searched the internet for a nice 57 chevy pic that gave me a good angle to work from. This one was it. Thanks to the folks at Familycar.com.

And so it went, building a 3/4 size 57 Chevy entirely outta wood. It's been said "that boy ain't right" and a knowing nod given in my direction... but somebody has to take care of the not being right thing. I documented it pretty well so here's some pics kinda in order. Sorta. Maybe. And for what it's worth, I'm not a pattern using type of feller, eyeball it and wing it and hope for the best.



Here's the beginning.










I used some material called Flexiply to form the curves of the fenders. This is basically thin plywood with all layers of the plywood having the grain run the same direction. This let's it bend fairly easy in one direction but still having quite a bit of strength laterally.















Ha, starting to get kinda satisfying now.

Next I had to build a bumper/grill so I laminated a whole mess of Poplar and rough cut it into some bumper like shapes. No beavers were harmed during this process.








I used a grinder meant for metal work, but with a different disc on it, to freehand shape the bumper parts before gluing them all together. This was just a helluva mess and if the weather would have been warmer I'd have done this outside.

I died 7 times while I did this part. I'm okay now.









And here's the bumper/grill assembly all glued and shaped and ready to hang on the car.








And there it be...









Bitchin' eh?




Then I had to make some bumperettes over on the lathe. Gotta have bumperettes. Ask anyone at Radio City Music Hall. They're all over the place there.









Now a smiling beefcake shot. I was waiting in the shop for her to come and take pics and had my pants off. She made me put them back on. I apologize to Sally and to you folks as well.










The bumper is painted and the bumperettes are on and most all of the woodworking is done. Makes me kinda giggle just looking at it.









So there you be. My blog post in the next day or two will have the finished product, paint and all and up on the stage.




J.




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