Warbird Information Exchange

I am at the beginnings of my search for pieces to use in a custom car / hot rod / rat rod project that I want to theme around WWII bombers. My father was a mechanic on Lancasters post war and therefore want to build a car around the bomber theme.

I am looking right now for a few things.

1. A pair of pilot/copilot seats

2. Pilot Control Wheel – just the wheel, I wont need the entire assembly.

3. Any droptanks max length 5 feet. 3 that I can stack and weld together, use for gas tank

4. Control pedals – for gas pedal

any ideas for shifters, gas caps, starter etc. are appreciated also.

If you know of anything, can you please let me know. Other ideas would be great also.

Here's the one we built. Click on Back Seat Betty at the top of the gallery. Video too.

http://www.hotrodchassisandcycle.com/gallery.php

Hey Burnstribe,

I have the same sort of project going. You should be able to find usable seatbelts from WWII era planes. The bomber seats are mostly repro now... they are actually easy to make. Check out the seats in Back Seat Betty.

I am using all WWII gauges and switches. You can find mechanical warbird gauges on ebay, like oil pressure and Air speed. Some electric gauges are 12 volt, many are 24 volt and won't read correctly. Some require a sender that will be hard to find. You can always get new 12V guts put in an old gauge -but it's not cheap.

Warbird oil tanks and Hydraulic fluid tanks can make good fuel tanks and they are pretty easy to find. If you can find early Shaw Aero flush fuel filler caps, they look great. There are even B-17 fuel caps and fittings out there, but, of course, $$$.

I'm making a shifter that looks like a throttle quadrant, which will have 2 other levers next to it. You can always fit a P-51 stick grip on a shift lever, or -my favorite- a B-8 grip. They were used on early jets and are FULL of buttons and switches. Look at all the cockpit photos you can. Use lots of Aluminum and rivets. Paint stuff with green aircraft primer then Olive Drab... then steel wool off some of the OD paint to make it look worn.

The Douglas C-54 control wheel is a great choice -repros are available, check here- http://www.aviation-antiques.com/index.html for lots of photos of WWII aviation stuff.

That should keep ya busy... and broke! that's the fun part right?

Dave

I have a control wheel assembly, a joy stick for a shifter, some fuselage panels, and doors, some instrument panels with or without gages. I also have an aircraft tubular fuselage frame for the car body.
what else do you need?
Jim
mrmotomontana@msn.com

Checkout the "Bomber seat" plans on Volksrods.com




http://www.volksrods.com/store.htm#bomber_seat_plans

There's a guy on metalmeet.com making B17 seats...

AeroTRrat wrote:You can always get new 12V guts put in an old gauge -but it's not cheap.

I am seldom an alarmist, but use caution around old glow in the dark gauges because they contain radium paint inside. You wouldn't want to inhale the dust inside or lick the dial.

Don't forget the SUV kill marks on the doors.

JOHN MILLER wrote:Don't forget the SUV kill marks on the doors.

Even better would be Prius or Smart Car kill marks