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1 Peoplehave alwaysdesigned cars for aesthetics and attempted to blend them into their environment. However, cars today are designed around a person. Personally, I design a vehicle around two things: Is it drivable? And equally as important, will it win design awards at car shows? I decided to push the envelope of the hot rod design world and design a street rod from scratch. A large majority of the hot rod world uses pre-existing cars, bodies, frames, etc., but once you reach a certain point of redesign on an existing template there are so many things changed it is pretty much a from-scratch vehicle. Academix-Car Designer-December 2008-Issue 30 Ac ad em iX Transportation design seems to be the major endeavour for automotive youth nowadays. People see shows on TV depicting people building choppers, cars and other custom vehicles with ease. Then these same viewers think they can do the same. Contrary to first impressions, it is a tremendous task to build a custom car using existing plans, not to mention building one from scratch. All they show on TV is the interesting stuff; people welding a few things, making a few drawings and painting the final product. Have you ever wondered how that product got there? Nobody woke up and said, “Today I think I will build a hot rod.” There are literally thousands of hours of design put into these projects that is never shown to the public. What it takes A day in the life of a car designer Academix-Car Designer-December 2008-Issue 30 2 Ac ad em iX Sketching from scratch The first stage of this intricate process was the design itself. It all starts out as an idea; a mental picture, just a few shapes and thoughts. Soon those thoughts are transferred onto paper as quick, roughly sketchy ink lines. This single sketch is one of what will become a small library of concept- ualisations and form the base of the project. To other people, this sketch would look like a messy idea of a car; I see the drawing differently. I see definite flowing lines and shapes, all small portions of a greater work of art. From that first sketch I will toss around ideas and design concepts in my head. A lot of these thoughts just come to me at random times – watching TV, doing homework, listen- ing to music and even in the middle of the night. Often times I have to immediately stop what I’m doing and sketch out and idea. After about 50 or so sketches, all detailing one portion of the vehicle, they are all laid out and compiled into one design. That one final design will change and grow as the fabrication continues. I don’t abide by the dictum of form following function. My approach is the opposite; function follows form. What’s the point of the hot rod if it doesn’t look good? Being the top dog in this world is all about making the sketches of good designs work – not making something ugly that works well. We are no longer bound by function to determine the design criteria. This will become readily apparent later. Is it functional? The tedious and tricky process is getting the different design elements to harmonise, and to do it well. Once again it starts as thoughts. Then these ideas are thoroughly visualised and sketched out on paper. Thousands of thoughts and hundreds of sketches are brought together to form one complete design. Thought after thought, sketch after sketch, draft after draft, the final design will start to come together. The design phase is all about finding the perfect balance of unity between form and function. Unfortunately, that final design sometimes requires minor alteration of the original look. If I can’t see any other way around a func-tioning design I will go back to the drawing board and keep sketching out ideas. Is it safe? At this point, roughly 500 hours of design time have been logged. The main piece, the frame, is nearing the end of the design stages. Soon the beginning of the frame fabrication will start as design elsewhere continues. Something to keep in mind through- out the design process is to have an idea of what materials you have access to, or what is needed. Each material has its own unique use and ability. The frame, the basic platform for the entire vehicle, has to be strong and functional. If it fails, every- thing fails. This piece requires much more than drawing lines. These sketches are often detailed sketches with lots of trigonometry and geome- try involved. Although there are no moving parts, this is the most func- tional piece, yet it is designed within the aesthetics of the entire design. After about 850 hours of design time and about 135 hours of fabrica- tion, the hot rod starts to come alive. Even though the current project is only a model for the real thing, it involves a lot more than can be imagined. A lot of times, there are unforeseen circum- stances. This is why I build models first. It is infinitely better to mess something up on a model than the real thing. Coming to life After nearly five months, there still isn’t much to show. Basically, after 1000 hours of design and 175 hours of fabrication, all I have is about half a frame built and books full of sketches. I have spent hours upon hours on trigonometry and geometry calcula- tions – it’s all a part of the game. This just illustrates for everyone who wants to be a designer/fabricator all that design entails. It is not nearly as easy as welding a couple of pieces of metal together and calling it a hot rod. There is an immeasurable amount of time spent in just the design phases of a custom hot rod. Hopefully this article has conveyed just how much effort is required to properly piece together a truly custom car and will prove a good starting point for those interested in pursuing this art form. Source: Mike, Fifty-Five designs
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