Amy’s seat, Kyrsten’s lights, lots of sleeplittle nights and we are done! Off to BM to show it off tonight. I posted more picture to my flickr site. Looking forward to sitting in a chair and drinking beer for a week.
Patina is done and boy does it look great! We always have to pray to the patina gods before , but the problem this time was me grabbing the wrong chemical bottle. Little too brown for Kyrsten’s taste, but beautiful none the less.
Mike came by to wire up the lights last night, and Amy brought by the finnished seat… wow! I’m looking forward to seeing all the parts: eyes, seat, and lights together on the car at once.
Kyrsten’s rivets look great! All the forged textures and hand hammered sheet metal look great together. As I make something this complex it’s some times hard to see ahead to make sure it’s all going to work together. Today was one of those days that I felt it did. Might feel different once I turn it over and start on the tail but today the head worked for me. Kyrsten started on the lighting by building the battery box for the cutest little 12v 7amp hr gel cell. All it’s going to do is run LED so it should last the entire week for Burning Man. Had a minor time set back today when I had to visit the ER to have some metal removed from my eye. It was quiet there and we were back by lunch. Still a bit painful, but eyes heal fast.
After years of doing Burning Man I’ve decided it’s the Christmas holiday for bay area artists. We all stress out the weeks before making the perfect artistic gifts, getting the right swag, buying new outfits, deciding who your going to spend it with, prepping the food and drinks, inviting your friends, then loading your car with way more crap then you need and driving way too far to sit, talk, eat and get drunk. You don’t even have to like the holiday, but yet out of tradition and despite your grumpy anti BM ramblings, you participate and go. Then there’s the people who say they are going and then get too busy or something comes up. I look at them and think this is Christmas, why would you work on a holiday? You see I am a burner and here is my art update and just some of the people I will be sharing my holidays with.
Who needs sleep. Lots of late nights and things are starting to take shape. After looking though more pictures on flicker trilobite pool I’m going to have to make more of these! One for each one of our family minimum. So many shapes, spikes,.horns, wiggly things, leathery winged horns with multi pitted eyes.
There are going to be lots of jokes about that controllers placement!
The head sheet metal is cut and ready to install. Kyrsten’s patterning and cuts look great.
Here’s the texture were thinking to add to the head.
Kyrsten and Zolie test driving the new controller.
Big thanks goes out to Alan and especially Lauren for spearheading a major overhaul of the hot rod side of our snail car the Golden Mean. We took it out for a spin late last night and boy does it haul now.
We now have a new clutch, 85amp alternator and heat! These only a few of the amazing new things on the car for this year, more to come in the next few weeks.
Mid body is done and hoops for the frame are done. Now it’s time to fill in the sheet metal head and tackle the ribs on the rear potion of the body. After staring at pictures of millions of years of these things I finally found a set of rules to follow to make it look real. This thing is going to look like a fossil in the dust on the playa at BM.
Amy Jenkins came by to discuss the leather seat she’s going to make for us. The leather Kyrsten picked out matches the steel perfect. Amy is going to match the ribs we made in steel with leather. hopefully it won’t even look like a vehicle.
Lauren and Alan have finished the engine rebuild. Rebuild carb, valve adjustment, new 85amp alternator, ignition, gaskets, main seal, clutch, throw out bearing, heater hoses for heat in the snail, oil pan, oil change, and a fair amount of new chrome and paint! Should run like new. Tansy got quite a bit done on the new dash, and Christopher and I almost finished the Carney Wagon hitch and wiring. Still have a long list and 2 weeks to go.
Fellow builder Tom Sepe who built the steampunk motorcycle I first saw at Maker Faire a few years back is on a new project that looks to be a lot of fun. I can’t wait to see it finished and driving on the playa. I can’t think of a better moonscape photo shoot! I got to see the 1980’s cassette deck by Pioneer he picked up for it, but the reference to vintage made me feel ..well..old. Now I wish I had a way to get the SS Alpha Fox out to the playa too. Anyone have a spare trailer and tow?
The Raygun Gothic Moon Rover – S.C.O.U.T. (Science Crew Operations and Utility Testbed version 1.0)
will serve as the transportation and service vehicle for the crew of the Raygun Gothic Rocketship a 40ft tall rocket being built in time for launch at Burning Man 2009. The SCOUT began life as a 1981 Honda Odyssey 1-seater dune buggy, but after some major frame modifications (PHASE 01), installation of a 125cc motorcycle engine (PHASE 02) and future addition of scientific instrumentation (audio/visual communications, utility and marker lights, auxiliary power generation and energy storage devices, onboard analog computer system, robotic arm, remote toolshed and intergalactic portal stabilizers), she will be ready anything the harsh environment of a semi-inhabitable planet can dish up. Oh yeah there will be a satellite dish too.
Currently the project is has been green-lighted for a fast track prototyping phase, with design and development occurring simultaneously and or efforts have been fruitful: on August 4th 2009, we successfully navigated the Rover around an entire city block, avoiding numerous obstacles including a speed bump, train tracks, a motorcycle officer and a Shipyard forklift. There are still improvements and fine tuning to be made to the drive train, however we are ready to move into PHASE 03 of adding the necessary auxiliary and support equipment. Deadline for completion: August 19th 2009, which gives us exactly 14 days!
Built with assistance from Phil “Peef” Sadow, Wayne Miller, Rachel Riggin, Tory Fink, Anna Bradley, Anton Belkins, and soon Greg Jones. Hopefully. and more to come…
A big shout out to Sean Orlando, David Shulman, Nathaniel Taylor and the rest of the Rocketship Crew for all the support!
Posted Under: art cars
This post was written by Form & Reform on August 6, 2009 Comments (1)
Kyrsten and I are working everyday now tring to get her done before the end of the month. We made all of the ribs for the mid body shell yeasterday and I plan to weld them into place today.
Here I’m fullering the ends of the ribs. Kyrsten later added a rivet to the end of each one so we can hang with the cool steampunk kids later. She’s always so up on the latest metal fashion!
Grinding the parts.
New shell ready for welding. This is going to be fun to ride!
