The build has 3 main players - Dave Smith, the owner; Byron Thiessen, the builder; and artist Bruce Williams who took that Lotus 7/British Roadster/Hot Rod idea and turned it into a life sized concept drawing .Every time Bruce and Byron had a design idea as the build moved forward, Bruce drew it up sent the drawing off to Dave and the hammer and dolly came out to make it a reality. Byron does admit that at times the order was a bit inverted, more like “hey, here’s what we did, I hope you like it“

The initial build started with a very basic parts list, a 2005 vintage LS2 (I doubt it will remain stock for long), your basic 6 speed tranny, a Ford 9’’, and a pile of 1-3/4’’ DOM .095 wall tubing. Lets follow the build.

Cut, cope, fit, weld…Cut, cope, fit, weld over and over again, for days on end until you get something that looks like this. The frame jig keeps everything in line and square throughout the process.

All of the tubing is starting to look like a chassis. There is fit, form, and function for every piece added. The cowl, seating, and body play a very big part in determining where all of the tubing goes

More tubing to hold the 9’’ in place, Is that a fully independent rear suspension? More on that detail later. The tubing pinches towards the rear, the body panels will follow these lines.

All of this tubing requires more than a few hours of tig welding. A roadster is definitely emerging.

Within all of that tubing you will notice the Indy Car inspired push rod suspension built by Byron.

Time to start skinning the car with some 18g cold roll sheet, but first, with all of the tubing in the way not to mention the motor and transmission, using a wooden buck to form the panels just wouldn’t work.

Byron will be using 1/4" wire cut and bent to form the basic design on the body, the sheets will be formed to follow these lines.

You can see how the wire forms what will become the shape of the nose section of the car.

The first body panels are starting to show up. Following the wire form Byron and his english wheel start rolling radiuses onto the cold roll sheet.

This process is very difficult! Paper patterns are made first, there will be a pile of those before this project it done. The patterns are laid out on the metal sheet to determine how much to cut out. The English wheel is then used to roll the radius and compound curves into each panel. As each piece is rolled to the correct radius tack welds will hold them together.

The cowl will determine the placement of the rest of the body panels, here is how its done.

The step in the panel will now accept the future hood panel. It is easier to control the weld and much easier to finish with the weld on the outside corner and on an inside radius.

Both sides are done the same way. The welds are now starting to disappear after some careful welding and grinding.

After some VERY careful trimming the firewall panels are fitted and tack welded in place. Taking a lot of time here pays off at the welding stage as large gaps are difficult to fill.

Both sides are now in place and fully welded

With the cowl section almost complete,still some work to do around the rear of the motor. The nose section was completed. At this stage it’s almost impossible to tell how many pieces were welded together to make it. Notice the radius formed into the front edge, the nose is perfectly symmetrical. That’s some pretty fine craftsmanship!

Sure a lot going on in this slide. The frame rails will be covered by some neatly drilled and formed panels and the hood is starting to take shape. The trusty english wheel in the background is having the wheels worked off of it in this project!

That’s all for today. Don’t worry there will be more, a lot more. We will stay with this build until the end capturing a lot more of this quality craftsmanship. Come back often to see more of this and the other builds we will be covering. Till then.