Arizona republican., 1919-02-02
Building q Motor Gar Body

old body into almost any sort that the owner desires at comparatively slight cost.
 In redesigning let us say q touring car to make 1t into speedster the owner must decide beforehand on the lines of the car he is to build. A pencil sketch is sufficient to give him an. idea, but the better way is to get pie lures of some deSira ble cars and then sketch a body incorporating the feat ures which appeal to the owner. One important thing must be kept in mind and that is as many as possible of the parts of the old car should be retained, but very often the reteotion of some parts spells the symmetry of the new body.
 The start should always be made with the radiator. If you wish to use the old radiator leave it in place on the chassis and work from it to the rear. If a new radiator design is to to be used cut out the form of the radiator, using cardboard or wood, and mount this in the position that the radiator occupies. After the radi-. ator shape and position have been ascertained the next step is determin- ing the location of the dash which at the same time determines the length of the hood. The dash should be made in dummy form if the old dash is not to be used The dash should be mounted on the body sills, which are nothing more than two blanks of wood like the old sills and usually are of the same width as the top of the frame The sills constitute the ground work With the dash in position you have merely to make out of cardboard or paper covering which extends from the radiator to the dash and you have the hood, and if a cowl is desired this may be extended beyond the dash as far as one wishes.
 The next step is to determine the seat location and this. of course de- pends on the drivers taste. He should take a comfortable position in another car or on box and measure the dis tance from the box to his feet so that he can get the distance in the recon structed car from the pedals to the new seat. This is a matter easy 10 decide, but it certainly should not be overlooked because once the seat To- cation is determined upon the work started it is costly to make a change. At the same time that this dimension is taken the owner should decide whether the steering wheel is in the proper position, otherwise the steer ing post may have to be lowered. The method of doing this, of course, will vary with the type of car
 We now have the radiator, dash and seat locations and hood and cowl form, with all of these patterned over the chassis and the body sills in posi- tion. Working from the body sills a wooden structure must be made over which body metal is fastened This wooden structure is simply a skele- l ton with supports at such points as | to carry the outline of the body metal 1 Thus if there is a curve to be worked 1 into the lines there will have to be a 1 support al the centre point around which the metal is worked Where is i is necessary to paint the metal as for | example, in the case of the deck or 1 coWl. it may be found impracticable to do this without sitting the metal | and taking up the slack at one point The sitting of the metal will of course
 result in a certain number of places
 where the ends must be riveted to-
 gether. This will leave an unsightly 1 spot apparently, but the body makers
 method is to fill in this depression or
 groove caused by the riveting together | of the two parts and using solder for
 filling it. After this the solder is filed l flush with the sheet metal and the paint over this makes it look as though
 the metal were not cut. The wood tc
 use should be very hard, preferably ash. Where certain curved pieces are
 needed the owner may have the bend. ing done at wood workers shop. Beai