From WoodworkersZone WoodWiki
Created by John Fry
More of John's work can be seen at his website:chiselandbit
Here is what I've been working on in between some commissioned furniture pieces lately. It is a 1927 "T" pickup and I've been commissioned to do all the woodwork in selected white maple.
It's a street rod with a Chevy V6. The first time I saw this truck it was nothing but rusted pieces, disassembled. It is all original steel body parts. No fiberglass after market stuff.
I started with the bed planks. The flames were routed 3/16" deep and then the client air brushed the flames in the recesses. There will be a polished "beer keg" style gas tank in the front of the bed right behind the cab. These planks are not fastened down yet they are just set up for the pic. The process can be seen here:Flamed routed bed for the 27 “T”
The dash is veneered with fiddle back maple and is french polished. All the holes for the gauges were already cut out of the steel dash before I veneered it. Next, I will gently cut them out of the veneer with a coping saw.
I made an eight segment, finger jointed, wooden steering wheel. This was a challenge! The process can be seen here:A Wooden Steering Wheel
The model T's came with canvas tops stretched over wooden bows. He wanted this one in all wood. It is basically a large bent lamination in a frame. I used an interior 1/16" shop sawn veneer, three layers of 1/8" poplar bending ply, and then an exterior 1/8" thick shop sawn veneer. It was all laminated one sheet at a time, in a very low setting in a vac press using epoxy as the adhesive.
This is the inside shot showing the wooden bow stretchers.
I finally finished all the woodwork I was commissioned to do on this 1927 Model "T" pickup truck. The owner finally got some pictures taken and I received them today. In this picture of the whole truck you can see the back panel and window frame. The back, inside door panels, kick panels, and the top front panel above the window were all veneered in maple too. The hard part was tying it all together to the inside of the top with molding.
I was commissioned to do the bed, side gates, interior cab panel veneer work, door panels, fiddle back veneered dashboard, custom wood steering wheel, but the hardest part was the all wood cab top.
