The Pretty Bows

Loop it swoop it and pull it through baby! Or is it something about a bunny going around a tree and getting caught in a hole? Or something like that? So if you have no clue what I am talking about...we are talking about bows!

The station wagon bows are in some sense much simpler than trying to learn how to tie your shoe. But it sure takes a lot more time to make it. The bows are on the roof and they go side to side. In the station wagon there was 9 of them including one of which butts up against the piece in the rear that is visible when looking at the back.

To start the process we cut the wood to a certain length and then cut it to the width of an inch and a quarter. This was to allow us to be able to make the curve to follow the curve of the roof. After we had it all cut my Dad set up what he calls affectionately "The Bow Making Machine."

First we had to make a pattern and that is the large board on top. We cut and sanded this to match the curve that we wanted. Then we marked each bow and to save from routing and causing major issues we first trimmed it with the bandsaw. Then we finished with the router.

This is them up to that point. And then we used that curve to make the bottom curve. And how we did that was that we stuck it into the plainer. And planed it down to 7/8 in which is the height of the bows. This produced a whole other bag of sawdust.

This is what they look like finished! Of course this is all of them stacked together they really aren't that big.

Now for those of you who don't know anything about a Model A or who have never been in one before this would be the width of the car. Back in the day they said they could put three people in that amount of space. To give you a reference point that is a weight bench underneath them. Not very big is it? My Dad and I were joking about this when we were looking at it. When you look at it this way you just don't think your fat butt is going to fit in their. But haven driven a Model A I know it will as long as I don't eat too many Twinkies.

We Hit the Floor!

I wanted to start with a famous young person song. But because most of you wont understand it...we will skip it. Dad and I started on the floor. For the station wagon the floor is pieced together similar to how a hardwood floor would be.

Many pieces and components are involved. The most elaborate piece of this jigsaw puzzle is the piece that runs on the outside of the floor that encompasses both doors and up under the cowl. Because this piece is quite large we had some trouble trying to figure out how to cut it out without wasting large amounts of wood. This created one bag of sawdust. For all you technical people out there the width was over 7 inches and the length is more than 50. It has many elaborate angles and cutouts. So we figured a pattern would be in order. See attached picture:

I know the picture is not wonderful but we used this to draw onto the wood and then my poor Father spent 3 nights routing, cutting, and sanding to make it look like it was supposed to. I was just used for heavy lifting. The board was almost 12 feet long and weighed close to 30 to 50 pounds.Great job Dad!

I know the suspense is killing you so we will post a few finished product pictures. Well almost finished.

This picture is of the entire piece. The way that it is laying is the driver's side of the car.

This is a close up of the part that goes up under the cowl.

As mentioned above it is almost finished. The reason being is this bottom portion will be built up another 3/4 of an inch. Because you can't find wood that thick unless you cut it yourself. Henry Ford might of been into something back then having his own forest. If anyone know how to get me one I might consider doing more of these.

The Car!

I know you have all come to appreciate my humor. And if you haven't appreciated it I have hahaha! But unfortunately this one will be mostly informational as we have recently received some pictures from my grandfather and his progress on the car.

Really it just comes down to...I'm really really excited!! It looks like a real car now!

What is Sawdust?

In the beginning of this week I found myself starting another semester of school. But unlike other semesters I find myself taking a class that is both enlightening and confusing. If any of you have taken a philosophy class you know exactly what I mean. So just for fun we're going to do the philosophers way of looking at sawdust.

Let us begin with what is wood? It's most basic parts are made of tinny tiny, itty bitty, insy winsy fibers that interlock so delicately that they form wood. But then you must ask yourself what is delicate? The great philosophers of the past might respond with "Is delicate really something we can feel? Or might it be something that we do?" I believe I will allow you, yes you, to answer this question for yourself.

So if we have this wood and we want to make something wonderful. Why is it that we end up with sawdust? And why isn't sawdust good for anything but sawdust? If sawdust is really the last form of wood and wood is sawdust and sawdust has parts then why can't we make anything out of it!?.

This is the great dilemma of the world we find ourselves in. I hope this helps you to fully understand what sawdust can and can't be...ponder with me now the existence of sawdust and enjoy my friends.

Okay now for the real stuff. We would like to throw in something fun for all you blog followers. All four of you. We are going to start counting the bags of sawdust that we make. Considering we seem to be making a considerable amount of them. So here is your challenge. We will be posting this picture which is the beginning of our sawdust collection...

Then in future posts we will mention if we have created more bags. It is your job to keep track and count how many bags total by the end of the project. Anyone that gives us the correct number will receive a special prize. I understand that some of you may have an advatage since some of these bags ended up in your trash cans because we lacked room. But please no cheating.

Happy counting my friends!

The Slats that Never End...

Up until this point things have gone relatively smoothly and quickly. And then we started the slats. For those of you unfamiliar with the inter workings of this station wagon. The slats run from the back to the front on the roof of the car. Most of the parts that we have to do for these cars (because we are doing three) come in sets of 3 or 6. So it doesn't take much more to cut them. Unfortunately each car has 19 slats in it. If you do the math that is 57 slats...yes 57. My dad's not even that old. Each one of the slats has to be rounded on all four corners. The slats are roughly 96 inches long. Again if you do the math that comes out to 21,888 linear inches. Just for fun since we're all a bunch of math people around here that converts to 1824 feet. So lets take this one step further and that equates to just over a quarter of a mile of rounding corners. Lets stop and pause for a question. Has anyone ever walked a quarter mile on their thumbs?

I know most of you are saying no. My father and I would also like to say no, but our thumbs scream out in protest.

Some of you would like to know the technical aspects of what we are doing. So for those of you who like the technical side here you go.

We started with what the wood working world would call 6/4. For those who don't know what that means it is a board that is roughly very roughly 1 1/2 inches thick. We cut it to the width that we needed and then using the saw we split it in half. And then planed it to the desired thickness of 1/4 inch. After which we did the rounding of the corners with the shaper and then proceeded to sand.

I know you are all thinking at this point well that was really easy. But those 5 simple sentences took us the better part of a full day to complete.

Just for all of you followers out there I don't want you think that I have any resentment towards these slats. Because in the near future they will prevent many of mother nature's attacks on me and my family inside my car. Or as my Grandfather would put it it wont rustle my hair.

The Beginning

And it came to pass that there was much activity in the garage of Gary. Sawdust flying, saws a turning, blades a cuttin', and all around mass hysteria. In the land of the garage Chad and Gary ventured out into the vast unknown of cutting the three woody wagons.

In preparation for the said cutting we thought a chest bump would be in order. (Just Kidding Dad's not into that.) In the true nature of my our father, friend, and countryman we went right to work. He is pretty much just above a slave driver. (I love you dad!)

Now that we have gotten past all the fluff. We really just cut up a bunch of wood. (We fluffed it up because there really isn't much excitement in cutting.) Here are some pictures for you to enjoy:

This is a picture of the building blocks of the doors, quarter panel, and tail gate. It is basically the meat that holds it all together.

The blocks in the background are the beginnings of the wood radius that go around the fenders. Sometime in this blog we will show how these little blocks of wood transform into the most difficult part of this project. I thought I would throw in a before shot as a teaser.

WOOD

Wood is a very useful product used in many applications around the world. We get to see it everyday, be with it everyday, and some of you out there may just love it everyday. But I know that most of you don't think that it would be the perfect product for a beautiful car. But to all you Nay Sayers out there I say join the revolution! Wood is In!

So because Dad, Grandpa, and I are part of the "in" crowd. Or you might say the "cool kids." We would like to share some of our wood with you. Dad and I recently went to obtain said wood.

To many of you this wood may not look like a lot (but just ask my hands) this is roughly over 400 board feet of maple and country maple. There is not much of a difference between maple and country maple. One just has a little more maple syrup ;)

We hope that this is enough for all three cars. But if you know my father we will have the perfect amount with just a little extra that we don't know what to do with.

Continue to follow us to see what said wood will become on it's journey to greatness!

The Back Story...

First and foremost this was inspired by a previous project. The back story can be found in the blog "Woodie's World" under our blog list. Please check out this blog to see the inspiration for this current project.

Last summer my family and I along with my parents ventured up to the Glen Clayton Family Reunion to enjoy some good old Boise weather. We really enjoyed the trip...

...and ended up coming away with a crazy idea. My grandfather made a big mistake in letting me and my family drive his coveted 1929 Traveler. Which was the inspiration for Woodies World.

After driving many hours all over the Boise valley I like my grandfather fell madly in love with the classic Model A. Upon our returning from our said trip I told my Grandpa that we needed to build another Traveler. After much conversation, many long hours of research. a little stress, and a whole lot of fun we find ourselves building a 1929 Woody Station Wagon.

As my grandfather is excellent at metal work and assembly of anything Model A he will be assembling all of the metal pieces in Boise and graciously bringing it down to us in Tucson. Upon arrival my father and I will build and assemble all of the wood pieces. Along with making two kit cars for a gentleman in Grandpa's Model A Club.

The 1929 Woody Wagon was the first of it's kind for Ford. Although if you talk to the few who own a 1928 Woody Wagon they may argue with you. But for our purposes this was the start of a long Woody Wagon run for Ford and many other American car companies.

I hope this is something enjoyable for all those who read and informational also.

The Culprits:





The Fabricator / Muscles







The Crazy Son / Instigator



The Engineer / Brains