The Improbable Car Company ([info]improbable_cars) wrote,
@ 2004-05-19 23:12:00
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Scarification?...
"So I spent a lot of time at work today pondering using the Nova for my 'Scar' artcar concept. This is an artcar I've wanted to build for a few years now. The basic concept is a vaguely mad-max style car. Something that has been living in a harsh and brutal place and which the owner has been forced to modify, reinforce rebuild and repair with whatever he could find just to keep it going. There'll be a lot of harsh edges and battered parts and an overall look of dark brutal functionality. A vehicle where everything is there for a perpose and nothing more. Nothing for pretty, nothing for show.
Large welded steel front and rear bumpers with extra spot and fog lights, pieces of rusty sheetmetal screwed to the body to provide added protection. Jacked up suspension with big tough tires. A spare tire bolted to the trunklid, battered jerry cans for gas and water bolted to the rear fenders. Strengthened roof with grab handles so it can be used as a mobile fighting or firing platform. A tank-style hatch added to the roof to premit access and a better firing position. Everything bent, battered, rusty. A car where a paint job is a pointless luxury, and shooting something quickly with black spraypaint is 'good enough'.
The interior would be loaded with extra gauges to keep tabs on the engine, as an unexpected breakdown could prove fatal. Banks of extra switches to control added features and lights. Cobbled together communications gear slung under an overloaded dashboard. Wire mesh over rear windows to protect from them being smashed in.
The drivetrain would be simple and tough. No turbos, no fuel injection. Just a simple durable engine that can take lots of abuse and keep chugging. Mufflers for when you want a little stealth, and with the pull of a lever exhaust dumping out of straight pipes. Roaring at full volume, all those horses let out to run.

Yeah, that's what I want.

Except...

Well I want the car. But two problems arise.

One I'm not sure that is what I want to have to drive every day. That car is a manifestation of a little of who I am, but not even a large part. And if I drove it every day that is the face I would be constantly presenting to the world. I even worry some that the more I present that tought brutal face, the more that part of my personality would become the primary part. And I don't wanthtat, I don't want to get any less soft than I already am.

The other is my current choice of canvas. The Nova would be a good choice for this, she is old enough to look the part and beat up enough to make a good starting point. She already has many dents and scratches and is otherwise not terribly straight. However she also only has 53K miles on her, and is still in decent shape for her age.
Before I could start 'scarring' her she would have to have other things done, like say rebuilding the suspension with new springs/shocks/leafs/etc. so she goes from super low like she is now to tall enough to look right and to handle the weight of the added stuff.

She would be facinating to build, and to drive. And would for the most part be not that expensive. In fact, to make her seem as realistic as possible I'd almost have to get as much of the parts/raw material used. Either buying it used or scavanging it from interesting places. There is a certain sort of glee in building something where less than perfect is exactly what you are going for. No angsting over something not being good enough or perfect enough.

I don't know, I really don't.

Ponder, ponder, ponder. Angst, angst, angst.

Thoughts? I am very curious of peoples thoughts."



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[info]rikibeth
2004-05-20 11:23 am UTC (link)
I have to admit I'm incredibly attracted to the idea of the tank hatch.

But I also understand that you don't necessarily want to manifest the post-apocalyptic Mad Max vibe every day when you drive around doing your ordinary things. It would encourage a certain worldview, and probably not a really comfortable one.

WHy not think of something cute and whimsical and smile-producing to do with the Nova, and keep an eye out for an elderly Jeep Cherokee or Chevy Blazer (or, all the gods help us, a Suburban, like a 30-year-old Suburban) or something else already big and square and tough to turn into the Scar Car? In return for your help on the Little Red Wagon, I'd be happy to help on the Scar Car, and ride around in it sometimes with you imagining that I'm Tank Girl. I can't pull off Tank Girl every day, but BOY it would be fun to have that option.

And if you need a place to KEEP Scar-Car-in-progress... I have a seriously underutilized garage.

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[info]pixel
2004-05-20 07:28 pm UTC (link)
elderly Jeep Cherokee or Chevy Blazer

*blink**blink* "Speaking of vehicles that are not me... Um no offense, but SUVs, even old ones are even less me than the yellow Geo Metro convertible a friend keeps trying ot foist off on me.
I also *really* can't afford a second car right now."

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[info]rikibeth
2004-05-20 07:42 pm UTC (link)
I thought of those because you said "higher off the ground," and it seemed to fit with the concept of the Scar Car.
I can't see you driving an unmodified one.

I still want to play Tank Girl.

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[info]pixel
2004-05-20 07:57 pm UTC (link)
"What I meant by 'higher off the ground' was higher than hte Nova currently sits. Right now the Nova's springs are shot, she scrapes on parkinglot entrances and I've evn scraped the undercarriage on I-84. And I'd want to be able to put beefy tires on her, and have a suspension that can handle the aded weight of all the steel and such.
I don't want to start withg a truck mainly because I'm not truck ppl. But more importantly I want it to look like it was build into what it is because it *had* to be. Because that was what they had and they had to make do, rather than be able to chose the 'right' vehicle to start with."

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[info]pixel
2004-05-20 07:58 pm UTC (link)
"And don't worry, if I do build this I'm sure *everyone* will get their chance to play tank girl."

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[info]plymouth
2004-05-20 05:58 pm UTC (link)
I think what I would do is start slow. Paint it flat black. Add some bumper armor. Put on a set of fog lights and see how it feels. The good thing about a project like this is that since it is continuously evolving you DON'T have to take it all the way. It is both never finished and always complete. And it might very well evolve into something completely different - maybe more of a comic-book version of a mad-max vehicle, with brighter colors and supersoakers instead of flamethrowers :)

No car can EVER be a manefestation of every side of you. Hell, I have two and they STILL don't have room to show all sides of me. I just picked the two that they best embody as dominant and try to insert smaller references to the other sides.

And I totally grok the thing about enjoying working on a project that is intentionally imperfect. I certainly have an intentionally imperfect vision of Syren. If I didn't then I wouldn't be able to do the exterior paintjob myself and that would be a LOT less fun!

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[info]pixel
2004-05-21 07:41 am UTC (link)
"Thanks for the comment ondoing it slow. I was stuck in the mindset of 'if I'm going to do this I need to do a two-month thrashfest to get it done[TM] in time for artscape'. Realizing I can just add to it or not as I feel like it and feel is right does make it a lot easier to deal with the concept and feeling out the idea.
Thanks."

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[info]outlandwarrior
2004-06-22 02:10 am UTC (link)
I have wanted my own "Mad Max" car for a while now, but I've got to put it off or at least tone down the level of 'post-apocalypsisim' that I can put into the vehicle as I can only really afford to have one car and I've got to keep it street legal and such.

Anyways I guess you have already started on the Nova and I hope that you'll post some pics of it.

I'm gonna offer my oppinion on it. The tank hatch seems a bit unnecessary T-tops would be much better since you'll most likely not have an AC so the vehicle would need to be quite open to provide adequate ventilation esp if painted flat black and w/ thicker "armored" pannels.

just my two cents worth

-Outlander

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[info]pixel
2004-06-22 03:00 pm UTC (link)
"I have in fact just started this SUnday. This is going to be street legal, and my only vehicle.

As for the t-tops. First off I don't much like t-tops, but more importantly the Nova has the style of doors with a metal frame around hte window, so there would bethat bar at hte top of the door at the edge of the open t-tops which would look weird.
I may end up simply putting in a sunroof and replacing hte glass panel with a metal one, but we shall see..."

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[info]outlandwarrior
2004-06-22 11:26 pm UTC (link)
Yeah T-tops are out then, the metal sunroof seems like a very good idea.

I have a question, will the car be a fully functional post-apocalypse death machine, or just look as if it was built purely out of necessity and for a purpose?

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[info]pixel
2004-06-23 02:26 pm UTC (link)
"Define 'fully functional post-apocalypse death machine' and I can answer that question more usefully.
Will it have beefed up suspension? Yes.
Will it have sheets of metal screwed to the body to act as a sort of armoring? Yes.
Will it have big steel front and rear bumpers? Yes.

Am I forcing myself to keep the vehicle to a certain very specific concept? No. I've got a vague idea in my head, but if it evolves away from that I'm not going to stress. That's the fun of building artcars."

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[info]outlandwarrior
2004-06-23 11:22 pm UTC (link)
okay, what I was wondering if you were going to go all the way with it and have it true to what you want it to look like and not just adding stuff here and there to give it the appearance that its had a hard life battling its way across wastelands and whatever else gets in its way.

So from what you have said its gonna be fully functional and true to what its intended image will be.

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