Agree, it’s nice to be a car owner. But it’s even more enjoyable to build a cool car with your own hands.
Today we will share information about what you need to build a cool car in your garage.
A Kit Car or “component car” is a set of parts from which the buyer can assemble the car themselves or entrust the assembly to a third party. Kits can vary significantly in content, ranging from those in which the complete set + instructions to those in which the set of parts is not complete (that is, for example, you will have to order the engine and transmission separately).
When assembling such a car yourself, it will not hurt you:
- spacious garage;
- a complete set of necessary tools;
- good knowledge of auto mechanics;
- support team in the form of friends who will always help.
The importance of the team is difficult to overestimate. For example, the guys in the video below assembled the car in just 7 days!
History of Kit Cars
The basic definition of a Kit Car is a car assembled from spare parts put up for sale. parts from a specific manufacturer. Most manufacturers tend to sell a full range of spare parts needed to completely assemble the car. Such kits are usually accompanied by detailed instructions and the model can be assembled in the garage on your own.
Essentially, a Kit Car is just as good as a factory-produced car, but in no case can one rule out factors such as efficiency and safety, which largely depend on the person doing the assembly.
The first Kit Car was designed by Englishman Thomas Hyler White in 1896. As you can see, it took a long time for this species to gain popularity.
By the 1950s, Kit Cars shifted into second gear and their production increased significantly. And in the 1970s, the real Kit Car began in Great Britain - a revolution associated with the fact that such cars were not considered a vehicle and were not subject to appropriate tax. Models such as the Lotus Elan appeared on the market, which could be assembled at home without paying tax on the purchase.
Most modern "build models" are replicas of famous cars from the mid-20th century. With bodies made primarily of fiberglass and polyester panels, such models were lighter and easier to handle than the average factory car.
What is in the box?
If you're thinking, "Is this crazy?" then think again!
Every year thousands of assembly kits are sold around the world. this means that when you read this article, some guys are sitting in their garage making their own car after work. Kit Cars are relatively cheap and typically cost less than $3,000.
Most companies selling these kits expect you to come and purchase your chosen kit on designated days. Depending on the company you purchase the kit from, this period can vary from 1 to 10 days per year.
Regardless of the model you buy, the basic set will include: chassis, body parts, engine, radiator, transmission, clutch, brakes and shock absorbers. The kit comes with a huge bag of nuts and bolts, as well as other parts that depend on the type of car you want to build. If you don't have an assembly manual, this will be quite difficult to figure out.
At the next stage, the most important thing is to assemble everything correctly, because people will ride in the assembled car and it is important that the car does not fall apart under them and is safe. Most kits also include an instructional video where you can watch someone assemble the car.
If the instructions provided by the manufacturer are not enough for you, you can always consult with other experienced kit cars enthusiasts for special instructions. forums and resources on the Internet, but it’s better to meet them in person (if there are such guys in your city). If you are assembling a car for the first time in your life, then use this option.
Some car enthusiasts are categorically dissatisfied with cars produced by official manufacturers. And then they decide to create home-made cars that will fully satisfy all the individual wishes of the owner. And today we will tell you about 10 of the most unusual such vehicles.
Black Raven - a homemade SUV from Kazakhstan
Black Raven is an ideal car for the Kazakh steppe. It is fast, powerful and undemanding to use. This unusual SUV was made from scratch by an enthusiast from the city of Karaganda.
The Black Raven has a 5-liter engine with a capacity of 170 horsepower, thanks to which the car can accelerate to a speed of 90 kilometers per hour when driving over rough terrain and off-road.
Angkor 333 – homemade electric car from Cambodia
Angkor 333 is the first all-electric car created in the Kingdom of Cambodia. It is surprising that this car is not the result of the development of the automotive industry in the country, but the private project of one person - a modest mechanic from Phnom Penh.
The author of Angkor 333 dreams that in the future he will open his own factory for mass production of both electric and gasoline versions of this car.
Homemade Batmobile from Shanghai
Fans of Batman films around the world dream of the Batmobile, a stunningly designed superhero car that has many different features that are not available in ordinary production cars.
And engineer Li Weilei from Shanghai decided to realize this dream with his own hands. He created a real Batmobile that looks like it came straight out of movie theaters. At the same time, the Chinese spent less than 10 thousand dollars on the construction of this machine.
The Shanghai Batmobile, of course, does not have ten different types of weapons and does not drive at a speed of 500 kilometers per hour, but in appearance it exactly replicates the Batman car shown in the latest films about this hero.
Homemade car for Formula 1 racing
A real Formula 1 racing car costs a lot of money - more than a million dollars. So there are no such cars in private ownership. At least their official versions. But craftsmen from all over the world create replicas of racing cars with their own hands.
One such enthusiast is Bosnian engineer Miso Kuzmanovic, who spent 25 thousand euros to create a street car in the style of Formula 1. The result is an incredibly beautiful car with 150 horsepower that can accelerate to speeds of 250 kilometers per hour.
Driving this red car through the streets of his city, Kuzmanovic earned the nickname “Bosnian Schumacher.”
Old Guo - a homemade car for $500
Chinese farmer Old Guo was interested in mechanics since childhood, but worked as a farmer all his life. However, after his fiftieth birthday, he decided to follow his dream and began to develop a car of his own production, which was named after the inventor - Old Guo.
Old Guo is a compact copy of Lamborghini, intended for a children's audience. But this is not a toy car, but a real car with an electric motor that can travel up to 60 kilometers on a single battery charge.
Moreover, the cost of one copy of Old Guo is 5,000 yuan (just under 500 US dollars).
Bizon - a homemade SUV from Kyiv
Over the course of a year, Kiev resident Alexander Chupilin and his son assembled their own SUV, which they named Bizon, from spare parts from other cars, as well as original parts. Ukrainian enthusiasts produced a huge car with a 4-liter engine producing 137 horsepower
Bizon can accelerate to speeds of 120 kilometers per hour. Fuel consumption in mixed mode for this car is 15 liters per 100 km. The SUV interior has three rows of seats that can accommodate nine people.
Also interesting is the roof of the Bizon car, which has a built-in folding tent for spending the night in the field.
Super Awesome Micro Project - a homemade pneumatic car made from LEGO
The LEGO constructor is such a versatile material that you can even construct a fully functional car from it. At least this was achieved by two enthusiasts from Australia and Romania, who established an initiative called the Super Awesome Micro Project.
As part of this, they built a car from a LEGO set that can move thanks to a 256-piston pneumatic engine, accelerating to a speed of 28 kilometers per hour.
The cost of creating this car was just over 1 thousand dollars, of which most of the money went to purchase more than half a million LEGO parts.
Homemade student car powered by hydrogen fuel
Every year Shell organizes a special race among cars using alternative fuel sources. And in 2012, this competition was won by a car created by a group of students from Aston University in Birmingham.
The students built a car out of plywood and cardboard, which is powered by a hydrogen engine that produces water vapor instead of exhaust gases.
Homemade Rolls Royce Phantom from Kazakhstan
A separate area of creating homemade cars is the construction of cheap copies of expensive and famous cars. For example, 24-year-old Kazakh engineer Ruslan Mukanov built a visual copy of the legendary Rolls Royce Phantom limousine.
While prices for a real Rolls Royce Phantom start at half a million euros, Mukanov managed to build himself a car for just three thousand. Moreover, his car is visually almost indistinguishable from the original car.
True, this car looks very unusual on the streets of provincial Kazakh Shakhtinsk.
Upside Down Camaro - upside down car
Most creators of home-made cars are driven by the desire to improve the visual and technical components of production cars. American racer and engineer SpeedyCop started from opposite principles. He wanted to worsen the appearance of his car, turning it into something unimaginably funny. This is how a car called Upside Down Camaro appeared.
The Upside Down Camaro is a 1999 Chevrolet Camaro with the body turned upside down. The car was created for the 24 Hours of LeMons parody race, in which only cars costing $500 or less can take part.
The uniqueness of paper crafts is that to make them you need safe materials available to any family. A small child can master such art. You can attract a boy to needlework by creating paper toys only by getting him interested in this activity. Offer the little man options on how to make and print a car, car, truck and KAMAZ from paper using a gluing template.
The uniqueness of paper crafts is that they require safe materials available to any family.
How to fold or assemble a police car from paper using origami: a simple diagram and drawings
The craft can be made both for play and as an original gift for a good friend - an adult. Since men are always boys at heart, an origami machine made from a banknote is a suitable gift.
You will need:
- Rectangular sheets of colored paper;
- scissors, glue.
How to make a toy car:
- Fold a sheet of paper of the selected color horizontally. This is the central bend of the future product.
- Bend the two halves of the sheet on the left and right sides inward, parallel to the bending lines.
- Bend the bends back inward. Then turn the ends of the sheet out from the inside out.
- The folded curves of the inner corners form the body of a makeshift paper machine.
- Make triangle folds under the wheels. To achieve maximum resemblance to a wheel, bend the corner vertices inward.
- For headlights, also bend the right corners of the car internally. On the left side we make the same bends, but smaller in size and outward.
To make your car more colorful, stick paper triangles of a different color on the headlights.
How to make a paper car in 3 minutes (video)
Gallery: paper car (25 photos)
How to make a car that drives out of paper
You can make a moving racing car out of paper. To start the movement, place such a craft on a smooth surface and blow on it. Under the influence of the air flow, the figure begins to slide across the surface, imitating the movement of a real racing car.
Necessary:
- A sheet of white paper with a side ratio of 1:7 or A4.
You can make a moving racing car out of paper
How to do:
- Fold the paper sheet in half lengthwise.
- Mark the fold lines by folding the top right and bottom left corners of the paper.
- Form a curve at the top of the sheet with inner triangles in the center.
- In the central direction, bend the existing triangles again.
- By bending the sides inward towards the center line, we form the sides of the car.
- Fold the bottom of the sheet with the triangles over the top of the craft, then bend the shape in half. Tuck the corners into the pockets.
- Now the car model can be decorated as you wish.
By helping and guiding your child’s work, you can build a whole racing fleet.
How to make a truck out of paper
The figure of the truck looks more impressive in a three-dimensional format.
You will need:
- Thick paper;
- Glue, scissors;
- Wooden skewers;
- Double-sided tape;
- Plastic bottle;
- Compass, pin.
The figure of the truck looks more impressive in three-dimensional format
How to do:
- Cut separately four squares for the cabin, three equal rectangles and two squares for the body.
- Fold two boxes from the cut out figures and connect them with fastenings using tape inside. First, you can cut out the side windows from two squares of the cabin, securing pieces of plastic from the inside with tape. We do the same with the front of the craft, imitating a windshield. Glue the cab and body parts together.
- On black paper, use a compass to mark eight small circles of the same size with a central point. For stability, glue future wheels together in two circles. Make a small hole at the center point with a pin.
- Attach the wheels through symmetrical opposite holes on the sides of the figure, placing them on skewers through the hole.
- Color the figure of the truck with paints as desired.
The stability of the model will be ensured by the strength of the wheels - the more circles glued at the base of the wheel, the better the craft will be.
How to make a war machine out of paper
You will need:
- A sheet of thick paper, dark green;
- Skewers;
- Scissors, compass;
- Pencil, ruler, glue;
- Black paints, brush;
- Paper or plastic cocktail straws.
the finished product can be further decorated
How to do:
- Draw four squares for the cabin. On another sheet, draw three rectangles and two squares for the body. Take a sheet separately, fold it lengthwise into three parts, glue it into a triangle - this will be a mount for rockets.
- Draw side windows on the cabin parts and a windshield on the front square. Glue the squares together on the wrong side with tape or strips of paper.
- Connect the car body parts in the same way. Glue a paper triangle at the top.
- Combine the finished cabin and body into a single model of the car.
- Make eight identical circles with a central point from black paper. Use a needle to make a hole in the marking for the skewers.
- Make holes at the bottom of the cabin and body with skewers, and string wheels on them. To prevent the structure from falling apart, soak the ends of the skewers in glue and dry.
- Cut the cocktail tube into equal parts, about 3 cm each. Paint all the pieces black. Let dry thoroughly.
- Carefully place homemade rockets on the body mount with glue.
To decorate a military vehicle made of paper, you can paint the finished product with dark spots on the sides (or stripes along the hood) with watercolors.
Paper racing car
This racing car figure is designed for little ones.
Necessary:
- Toilet paper roll;
- Paints, brush;
- Cardboard, compass, scissors;
- Toothpicks 2 pcs.
This racing car figure is designed for little ones
How to do:
- Clean the paper roll from any remaining toilet paper, paint it in the desired color with watercolors. Once dry, draw racing symbols with ballpoint pens.
- Using a compass, mark four equal circles for the wheels, cut them out, and paint them with black paint.
- At the base of the roll, use a pin to pierce the holes for the toothpick axle.
- Thread the roll onto toothpicks and secure on both sides of each wheel.
- Cut a semicircle at the top, bending the outer part like a windshield.
- You can put a man cut out of paper inside, attaching it with tape.
To make your car wheels spin, place a drop of glue on the ends of the toothpicks. Dried glue will prevent the paper wheels from being removed when moving.
Paper diagram of a car: how to make it
The machine's deployment diagram can be downloaded from the Internet. The presented models allow you to make any type of equipment out of paper, from special equipment to Soviet times.
To make a figure according to the diagram you need:
- Selected car model diagram;
- Scissors, cardboard;
- Glue.
How to do:
- To ensure the stability of the future figure, paste the picture of the diagram onto cardboard. Trim after drying.
- Fold the layout details along the lines. Glue them together, carefully hiding the gluing points.
How to make a paper car (video)
Assembling an origami machine or diagramming one will seem a little complicated at first. However, a fascinating and educational activity will delight the future designer. Manual work develops the baby's thinking, helping to improve hand motor skills. And the car you make will become your favorite of all toys.
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Nowadays, it’s hard to surprise with some new car model, but a vehicle made with your own hands has always attracted attention and excitement. A person who makes a car with his own hands is faced with two scenarios. The first is admiration for the creation, and the second is the smile of others at the sight of the invention. If you look at it, there is nothing complicated about assembling a car yourself. A self-taught engineer is only required to know the design of a car and the basic properties of its parts.
Historical facts
The beginning of automobile construction was preceded by certain historical conditions. During the existence of the union, mass production of cars was carried out. They could not satisfy individual consumer needs. That is why self-taught inventors began to look for ways out of this situation and did this by constructing homemade cars.
In order to make one car with your own hands, three non-working ones were required, from which all the necessary spare parts were removed. If we take into account people living in remote villages, they most often improved various bodies, thereby increasing their capacity. Cars began to appear that had high cross-country ability and could even overcome water. In a word, all efforts were devoted to simplifying life.
A separate category of people attached great importance to the appearance of the car, and not just its technical properties. In addition to beautiful passenger cars, sports cars were made that were not much inferior to factory copies. All these inventions not only surprised others, but also became full-fledged participants in traffic.
During the Soviet Union, there were no specific restrictions on homemade vehicles. Bans appeared in the 80s. They concerned only certain parameters and technical characteristics of the car. But most people could get around them by registering one vehicle with the relevant authorities under the guise of a completely different one.
What is needed to assemble a car
To proceed directly to the assembly process itself, you need to think through everything in detail. You need to clearly understand how to make the future car, and what technical characteristics it should have. First you need to determine for what purposes the car will be used, and then implement the idea. If you need an outright workhorse, then in order to make it yourself, you will need special materials and parts. It is also important to make the body and frame of the car as stress-resistant as possible. When a car is made just for driving, the only question is its appearance.
You can learn how to make a car with your own hands for a child from the following video:
How to make drawings
You shouldn’t trust your head and imagination; it would be better and more correct to think about what exactly the car should be like. Then transfer all available considerations to paper. Then it is possible to correct something and as a result a hand-drawn copy of the future car will appear. Sometimes, just to be sure, two drawings are made. The first one shows the appearance of the car, and the second one shows a more detailed image of the main parts in detail. Before making a drawing, you need to prepare all the necessary tools, that is, a pencil, an eraser, whatman paper and a ruler.
Nowadays, there is no need to draw a picture for a long time using a regular pencil. To facilitate this task, there are special programs that have wide capabilities and with their help you can make any drawing.
Advice! If there are no engineering programs, then the usual Word test editor will help in this situation.
If you really want to, you can make any car with your own hands. If you don’t have your own ideas, then you can borrow ready-made ideas and drawings. This is possible because most people who create homemade cars do not hide their ideas, but, on the contrary, present them to the public.
Kit cars
In the vastness of Europe and America, so-called “kit cars” have become widespread. So what is it? This is a certain number of different parts with which you can make a car with your own hands. Kit cars have become so popular that there are many variants of them that can be folded into any car model you want. The main difficulty is not in the assembly, but in registering the resulting car.
To fully work with a kit car, you need to have a spacious garage. In addition, you need tool kits and knowledge. If you do not have certain skills, the work will not give the desired result. If the work is done with the help of assistants, the assembly process will be faster and more fruitful.
This kit includes everything from small screws and instructions to large parts. There shouldn't be any serious difficulties for this to work properly. It should be noted that the instructions are not in printed form, but are presented in a video master class, where everything is discussed down to the smallest detail.
It is very important to assemble the car correctly. This is necessary for the creation to comply with all standards and norms prescribed in the regulations of the State Traffic Safety Inspectorate. Since failure to comply with the points leads to problems with registering the vehicle with the relevant authorities.
Advice! If there is such an opportunity, then you can consult with experts in this field.
You can learn more about what kit cars are and how to make them in the following video:
Designing a car using scrap materials
To make the task of assembling a home-made car as easy as possible, you can take as a basis the base of any other car that is fully functioning. It is best to take a budget option, since you never know in which direction the experiments will lead. If there are old worn parts, they need to be replaced with serviceable ones. If possible, you can make parts with your own hands on lathes, but this is only if you have professional skills.
First of all, you need to start assembling the car with the body, instruments and necessary interior parts. Modern inventors use fiberglass for the body, but previously there was no such material, and plywood and tin material were used.
Attention! Fiberglass is a fairly elastic material, which allows you to implement any idea, even the most unusual and original.
The availability of materials, spare parts and other components makes it possible to design a car that, in terms of external parameters and appearance, will not be inferior to the car models of the most leading automakers in the world. This requires ingenuity, good imagination and certain knowledge.
DIY supercar:
Construction of a fiberglass car
Assembling a fiberglass car should begin from the moment you select a suitable chassis. After this, the necessary units are selected. Then you should move on to marking the interior and securing the seats. Once this is completed, the chassis is strengthened. The frame must be very reliable and strong, since all the main parts of the car will be mounted on it. The more precise the dimensions of the space frame, the better the parts fit together.
For the manufacture of the body, it is best to use fiberglass. But first you need to make a base, that is, a frame. Sheets of foam plastic can be attached to the surface of the frame, matching the existing drawings as closely as possible. Then holes are cut out as needed, and if necessary, the parameters are adjusted. After this, fiberglass is attached to the surface of the foam, which is puttied on top and cleaned. It is not necessary to use foam plastic; any other material with a high level of plasticity will be useful. Such material can be a solid canvas of sculptural plasticine.
It is worth noting that fiberglass tends to deform during use. The reason is exposure to high temperatures. To maintain the shape of the structure, it is necessary to reinforce the frame with pipes from the inside. All excess parts of the fiberglass must be removed, but this should be done after it is completely dry. If everything is done correctly and there is no other work regarding the design, you can move on to interior equipment and electronics mounting.
If re-design is planned in the future, a special matrix can be made. Thanks to it, the body manufacturing process will be faster and easier. The matrix is applicable not only for making a vehicle with your own hands from scratch, but also for the purpose of improving the condition of your own existing car. Paraffin is used for production. To get a smooth surface, you need to cover it with paint on top. This will increase the ease of fastening parts for the new car body.
Attention! Using the matrix, the entire body is made. But there is an exception - the hood and doors.
Conclusion
In order to implement your existing idea and make a car with your own hands, there are a number of suitable options. All sorts of working parts will be useful here.
With your own hands you can make not only a passenger car, but also a larger and more powerful truck. In some countries, craftsmen manage to earn decent money from this. They make cars to order. Cars with various original body parts are in great demand.
How to make a Porsche with your own hands:
Original taken from aslan
How to make a legendary car with your own hands.
While looking for material for the community, I accidentally came across a blog in which the author described how he created the car. This was not just any car, but a legendary car with an interesting history - the Mercedes 300SL "Gullwing". I became interested in the history of recreating an automobile rarity and plunged into fascinating reading about how a copy of a legendary car was made from scratch, and not just a copy, but a car assembled from original parts.
Later I was able to meet Sergei, who made his dream come true, and learn some details about the creation of the car. He allowed me to take text and photos from his blog and make a post for community readers.
In the process of creating the Mercedes 300SL "Gullwing", suspension from the Mercedes W202 and W107 was used. Remembering that the best is the enemy of the good, we install adjustable shock absorbers. Particular attention should be paid to the rear axle gearbox; usually it is with this that the biggest problems arise, which is why customizers are so fond of non-split axles. On a Mercedes, this unit, along with the drives, is assembled on a subframe, which greatly simplifies working with it.
The stainless steel exhaust system complies with the Euro 3 standard, and the fuel tank is a real work of art: to prevent fuel from splashing, partitions and overflow pipes are installed in it. One of the photos shows the steering wheel lock.
In the Gullwing project, it was decided to use the next generation of M104 engines with a volume of 3.2 liters and a power of 220 hp. paired with an automatic 5-speed transmission. The choice of engine was not accidental - it is more powerful, lighter and quieter. The gearbox is primitive, with a torque converter; many are familiar with these units from Mercedes W124, W140, W129, W210. A hydraulic booster was also installed, all units are new, so there should be no problems.
We make the body.
Back in 1955, the Daimler Benz company produced 20 cars with an aluminum body and 1 with a composite body. We decided to try composite.
After the body is fabricated and the chassis is assembled, the crossing of the body with the frame begins. The process is so painstaking and dreary that no photographs or words can convey it. Assembly and disassembly, adjustment - all this takes more than one day. Many parts are modified on site, and the body is attached to the frame through special dampers with bolts in 30 places.
All body parts are installed and adjusted - doors, hood, trunk lid. There is a lot of hassle with glass - they are mounted on rubber seals, and since all the seals are original and designed for steel, you have to strictly observe the thickness of the frames of the openings. Each part is removed, adjusted by hand and only then installed in place.
Many parts for the most popular rare models are still produced in small batches in some workshops, which is actively used by all restorers. But let’s be honest: the factories themselves counterfeit their rarities, and Audi and Mercedes have especially succeeded in this.
Many museums have blatant copies. So, recently there have been a lot of Horchs. This is especially interesting considering that all factory documentation was lost during the war. Dozens of workshops use equipment from those years to produce fakes, passing them off as carefully restored products. The devil is in the details.
So we simply bought and collected all the details that could decorate any rarity for 500 thousand euros. I assure you, every nut and bolt (I’m not even talking about rubber bands) is correctly marked as 1955. Everything is original, even the seat slides.
The body has already been primed, and this is the most important point, because the composite is a special material for painting, because it requires plasticizers and all sorts of other complex things. The secrets of the primer are kept and no one will ever tell you. But it looks beautiful.
A short video of the painting process
Well, while the body is being painted, let's prepare the components for assembly. As I already said, the devil is in the details, and there are more than 2 thousand of them in the car! The dashboard, we were looking for it for a very long time.
We also find devices and relays, but of course not everything works out right away.
But with enviable patience and perseverance, you will have the opportunity to get a completely authentic instrument panel consisting of 80 (!) parts.
The main thing is that it will work later: the devices are all expensive. Cheap is never good.
The body is covered with 6 layers of varnish, it is very beautiful and there is no need to cover it with chrome film. Yes, shagreen is a must, and the grain should be fine. Nowadays they don’t paint like that anymore, they dilute everything with water, they care about the environment, they take care of nature. By the way, paint 744 (silver) is the most difficult to paint, as any painter will tell you.
The chassis and body have finally been married.
The doors were installed. It might seem like a simple matter, but I want to tell you a story. Mercedes 300SL "Gullwing" had many design flaws. One of them was the doors themselves: they were steel, heavy and attached with hinges to the roof of the body, and were fixed by a spring enclosed between hollow steel tubes with hinges at the end.
In the uppermost position, the spring was compressed, and when the door was lowered, it stretched and slammed the door with a roar. When opening, it was necessary to overcome the resistance of the spring, which simply tore out the door along with the brackets (900 euros each).
Experienced Gullwing owners know that if used improperly, this will inevitably lead to deformation of the roof, and the brackets themselves simply break. Over time, the rod and spring assembly became a frantic shortage and its cost increased to astronomical heights. Each owner of such a rarity repairs these units once a season. We decided to go the other way and install gas shock absorbers.
It would seem that it could be simpler, but it was not so. We had to develop the entire unit, which took 4 months of hard work. Fortunately, a workshop was found that brought the ideas and drawings to life. With complete external authenticity, the doors today open like the rear fifth door of a German SUV. The knot turned out to be so successful that it immediately became an object of desire for all owners of rarities; I think that soon all “gulvings” will have doors that open very effectively and smoothly, without knocking. Now this process has truly become like the flapping of a seagull's wing - graceful and smooth.
This is only one, and the simplest example of the problems that had to be solved during the construction of this car.
By the way, the door lock mechanism has also undergone changes. Despite the cost of 1,500 euros, it very often jammed and did not fix the door, but that's another story.
At the very beginning of the project, it seemed that finishing the interior was the smallest problem, fortunately there are workshops at every step for re-upholstering interiors, but now any craftsman can handle the leather. The trick is to cover a bunch of parts with leather, but as it turned out, this is a HUGE PROBLEM!
After four attempts to create interior parts in tuning studios, I realized: everything is much more complicated.
The products being created did not want to look like the originals. Everything looked like a cheap fake: the leather was bristling, traces of heat treatment were visible, the texture did not match, and no one could match the material. In short, I began to delve into the intricacies and found out that modern craftsmen do not know how to work with felt, wool and other materials used at that time. They stupidly warmed and stretched the skin, used foam rubber wherever they could, actively worked with an iron, in short, mercilessly destroyed materials, depriving them of their naturalness and nobility. I'm not even talking about durability.
After suffering for six months, we came to the conclusion that only restorers are capable of such work. They have special foam and felt. In general, we found a company, guys - wolves, guys, about 60 years old, who have been restoring only Mercedes for 40 years. What they showed and told us is just a novel about leather, and they guard their secrets in much the same way as the secret of making paper for a dollar.
The video shows an approximate progress of the process.
The interior details for my baby took 4 months to complete. The skin is simply alive.
I will also add that the leather that manufacturers offer today is chemical bullshit with impregnations. It’s not for nothing that all owners of Mercedes and BMWs are freaked out after a year of use - the interiors look like those of old redvans: not fresh, the skin stretches out and peels off. As I said earlier - the devil is in the details.
I'm not even talking about vinyl, which is widely used by the Japanese, and indeed by all manufacturers in principle. Nowadays in a Mercedes there isn’t enough leather for a jacket, it’s just bullshit, that’s why options appear - “design”, “individual”, “exclusive”. Leading manufacturers will offer you real leather for at least 10-15 thousand dollars, but you can’t even call it leather what they sew for you for 50 thousand rubles.
Wheels are one of the important parts of a car. So for our handsome guy there were two types of wheels. The first ones were installed on the civilian version.
The latter were offered as an option. They came from sports - real ones, with a central nut. Of course, it’s nice to have chrome wheels, but the price of 5 thousand euros per wheel is somewhat annoying.
How can you then hit the nut with a hammer, knowing that it is gold? The original disc for the classics is also not cheap - 3 thousand euros. So I think I really want to save 8 thousand euros.
One of the main factors in engine operation is the removal of exhaust gases (combustion products). I don’t want to remember the laws of thermodynamics here, I’ll just say that for the last 150 years the exhaust pipe has been a symbol of progress. Remember locomotive chimneys, steamships, blast furnaces. Remembering my love for detail, I want to assure you that the most careful attention was paid to the pipe. This is a masterpiece of engineering.
The exhaust system is made of stainless steel, which no manufacturer can afford, and is a complex system of thick-walled and thin-walled pipes mounted one inside the other, this made it possible, with complete authenticity of the appearance of the pipe, to solve the problem of “guzzling” - noise and heating of the interior. Well, the main thing is the sound of the exhaust, it’s just a song. The problem was solved using resonators installed inside the system.
If you want to understand what kind of car you have, look at the exhaust pipe!
Don’t pay attention to the date in the photo, you just bought a decent camera. So they clicked it, but they didn’t understand the instructions and it turned out to be the wrong date. Well, to hell with it, everyone interested - enjoy.
We made a lot of changes to the design, we try to make everything as authentic as possible. A very tricky handbrake.
The tank is a different matter; we made ours from stainless steel, slightly changing the location of the neck, but that’s a separate story.
There is a good saying - it is better to see once than to read about it a hundred times. Everyone who reads and watches my blog knows my favorite expression - THE DEVIL IS IN THE DETAILS. It is these details that I will show you today. There is no point in writing for a long time, you will understand everything yourself.
Braided harnesses and wiring, well, I think you just haven’t seen anything like this before, a two-tone horn, in short, just look, all this is called TECHNOLOGY.
The main task facing the implementation of this project was to create complete authenticity of all interior details. It would seem that it could be simpler than copying an existing sample, but as they say, everything is not so simple, and much more difficult than even restoration.
So, we needed to make all analog devices work, and work correctly with the electronic units of modern units; stick a bunch of additional equipment into a cramped little car, such as air conditioning, power steering, and brake booster. All this should work from standard toggle switches and switches. The heater dampers used to have mechanical drives, like on the Volga Gas 21, so the heater also had to be thoroughly redesigned. But the biggest problem was making the gear selector.
The whole difficulty was that the car was originally built for sports, it was small and very low, even the engine had to be placed at an angle of 30 degrees so as not to disturb the silhouette of the car. The box was located in a tunnel and had a direct articulated drive.
There was no more than 2 cm of free space between the box and the box itself. I have already said that the car itself was cramped and very noisy, this problem also had to be solved. Since a standard engine-box pair was taken, the task became even more difficult, because the automatic gearbox is much larger in size and has a completely different control principle.
After much torment, a hinge and a rod system were designed, which made it possible to completely imitate this unit, which is easy to verify by looking at the original.
Well, the most interesting thing: if you carefully study the photographs, you will see that the seats are much lower than those of the original, this is also a trick. The fact is that the car was so cramped that a person with a height of 180 cm rested his head on the roof and was forced to sit hunched over the steering wheel, but I like to drive with straight arms, so I had to change the angle of the steering column to ensure comfort and not disrupt the overall appearance. How this was achieved is a whole novel, from the manufacture of unique sleds to the redesign of the floor and seats.
I'm not the first who decided to recreate the legendary car. Back in the late 70s, similar attempts were made in America; Tony Ostermeier, a former mechanical engineer from Gardena, advanced the furthest. He managed to build about 15 cars in 10 years using units from Mercedes of those years. Today these cars themselves are rarities.
I have seen them, of course they are not nearly as high quality products as I would like, but they are the best that have been made. In the 90s, there were attempts by the American company "Speedster", using Tony's matrix, to implant it on the assemblies of the Chevrolet Corvette C03. Only 2 cars were produced. One of them is now in Ukraine, and the other is in Moscow. The cars were sold for $150 thousand.
Actually that's all. True, there were attempts to put a shell on SL and many more loud statements, but it was all zilch, people ran ahead of the locomotive, as with our e-mobile: there is nothing yet, but 40 thousand applications have already been submitted.
By the way, working with composites is very difficult. Only its high-quality painting costs about 10 thousand euros. Well, and most importantly: FORGING AND COPYING ARE TWO BIG DIFFERENCES.
They say that everything in a car should be perfect, both the engine and the trunk. On the first car they decided to use gas shock absorbers to open and secure the trunk lid.
We slightly redesigned the filler neck, reasonably thinking that if it would fit tightly to the trunk lid. this will reduce the risk of the smell of gasoline spreading inside the cabin if it is spilled.
I didn't like the idea. On this car they made it closer to the original, changing only the shape of the filler neck (the steel funnel around the cap should prevent fuel from spilling onto the carpet).
Of course, the collective farm couldn’t do it without it: they built a leather condon around the filler neck. It seems to look nice, and they abandoned the shock absorbers, installing the original mechanism (stick) for fixing the trunk lid. You could, of course, mess around with the springs, like on modern cars, but it seems to me that this would kill the very spirit of the car. The trunk looks very nice when open.
And everything looks very cool from the back. Considering that today everyone uses tubeless tires, we decided to free up space by placing a spare wheel in the trunk instead of the standard wheel. Now at least I have somewhere to throw my string bag.
Actually, the matter is inexorably moving towards its logical conclusion. Of course, it’s nice that everything ends so quickly, all that’s left is to smear it with Movil and stick the wheels on.
The wheels are temporary so as not to spoil the original.
That's basically it!
Let's go around the car.
I can only add one thing: before you start doing something, think carefully about whether you have the strength to complete what you started.
After arriving in Russia.
Video from inside the recreated car.
In this video you can see how the Germans are restoring the hero of the report, the same “gullwing”.
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