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Building a Custom Pedal

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12 views

Building a Custom Pedal

Uploaded by

isahin0508
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Chapter 10

Building a Custom Pedal Car


O ur pedal car project came about in response to an
invitation to participate in a fund-raiser auction
celebrating the 80th anniversary of the Ford Deuce roadster
a great exercise. We have since built a small-scale Model A
roadster pickup truck, but we ignored all of the pedal car
mechanics, and it was well worth the effort.
at the Petersen Automotive Museum. Various car customizers Although the stock pedal car we began with was fancy
around the country were invited to modify a standard pedal for a toy, it cried out for modification. The car’s ride height
car from Warehouse 36 to showcase their creativity and skills was unacceptably tall and the rear of the body was much too
and to pay tribute to this classic automobile, the ’32 Ford square for our tastes. For inspiration, we looked to a famous
roadster. The pedal car project was fun and challenging at the hot rod that belongs to our school, a Ford roadster that was
same time. The work involved was very much like one would modified in the late 1940s by a Californian named Paul
expect to carry out on a full-size car, but the reduced scale Harris. In 1950, Harris took the flathead-powered roadster
meant much less time and fewer materials were needed to to Bonneville, where he was clocked at 131 miles per hour.
finish the project. One benefit I had not anticipated was how Harris later drag raced the car through the 1950s and sold it
much creative problem solving a project like this demands in 1958. The roadster was raced, shown, and finally rebuilt in
and how quickly one can work through numerous solutions 1972 by James Handy, Andy Brizio, and Jack Hageman. As
to each new problem. Fortunately, we learned a lot from our a tribute to the Paul Harris roadster, we incorporated some
mistakes. Do not hesitate to undertake a free-form project of the original car’s features into our pedal car. The most
like this. You will be hard-pressed to find another way to distinctive elements of the Harris car in its early years were
learn as much as quickly. Even if you do not have any interest its track nose, custom long exhaust headers, and steel wheels
in pedal cars, building a small-scale version of a car body is with Firestone tires.

The complete transformation of this pedal car required many of the same skills one needs to restore full-sized cars—paint, trim, sheet metal, and fabrication skills—plus, it
was great fun.

244
This is the original pedal car that each builder received.
The front end of the car looks pretty faithful to the ’32
Ford, but the rear of the car is too boxy.

We looked to this unusual hot rod as our inspiration. In the


1950s, it had chrome exhaust headers, steel wheels, and
the hand-formed track nose that it still wears today. We
decided to incorporate all of the aforementioned features
into our car.

BUILDING A CUSTOM PEDAL CAR

INITIAL PLANS AND WELDS the same, and do not stop shaping until all of the individual
From the beginning we knew that the track nose would be panels truly fit the buck. You will be tempted to call it good
the most challenging and important part of our pedal car when each panel almost fits tightly against the buck. The sum
build. Creating the right look was essential to capturing of several panels being welded together when they are almost
the personality of the original roadster. Taylor Adams made right ends up being very wrong, however. The main reason
several sketches to determine the ideal dimensions of the track Taylor’s track nose turned out beautifully, apart from his
nose and constructed a plywood buck to use as a guide during considerable skill in shaping, was because he took the time to
shaping. Taylor made the nose from five separate pieces of make the individual panels sit snugly against the buck before
steel. Most of the stretching was done on the planishing he welded them together. Once he was satisfied with the fit of
hammer with a flat die on top and a crowned die on the the pieces, Taylor tack welded them together, checked the fit
bottom. Some shrinking was carried out along the edges of the nose against the car once more, and then torch-welded
of the deepest crown using the thumbnail dies in the Dake everything together. Taylor finished out his welds using the
hammer. When building a symmetrical piece such as this, traditional pick-and-file technique described in the chapter
take your time making your buck to insure that each side is on metal finishing.

245
The track nose is the original car’s most distinctive
feature, so Taylor Adams built a plywood buck and started
shaping five steel panels to make up the nose.

Taylor used the thumbnail dies along a few panel edges


to abruptly create some shape and then completed the
needed stretching with the planishing hammer.
BUILDING A CUSTOM PEDAL CAR

The nose panels were torch welded together. The center


panel was left solid so that we could fine-tune the grille
opening with the nose installed on the car.

246

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