Has anyone designed and made a car from scratch?
Posted by Random__guy-@reddit | projectcar | View on Reddit | 34 comments
I want to make my own work truck. I saw a Chevy Corvair truck with the side gate and immediately loved it. The problem is that’s the only truck like it and it’s too rare to use and abuse. Now I want to make my own compact, long bed, low to ground truck with a side gate and take gate, but with modern features. Such as more safety, a bed that is actually flat, better fuel efficiency, and more horse power and towing capacity. Is this something that I can actually do or is this a paperwork hellscape? (I live in America if that helps)
OrganicSig@reddit
Your goals are not realistic (you share trade offs, like hp and economy that are hard to reconcile), but there are many people who build their own cars. The paperwork depends on where you live, and can be anything from super easy to quite a hurdle. See LocostUSA website and forum. People there have *scratch built” everything from full on race cars to runabouts, with a strong emphasis on Lotus 7 clones.
Note, this is not a “kit car” form. People there build the chassis and bodies from raw materials (tube steel, aluminum sheet, etc.), design their own suspensions, you name it.
weelluuuu@reddit
A class C motor home from a salvage yard is what I'd be looking for a start.
TheBupherNinja@reddit
That's a pipe dream.
You aren't going to make a safer road worthy vehicle than an oem. You aren't going to spend hundreds of thousands designing and crashing vehicles.
You aren't going to make it more fuel efficient with more horsepower *while passing emissions*. If it was easy enough that some guy could do it, the oems would.
What you *can* do, is take a vehicle and customize it. But that is just buying an existing truck and making a custom bed.
SumScrewz@reddit
Anything is possible with enough will and money 🤷
Random__guy-@reddit (OP)
Yeah, I suppose the car mod/building hobby isn’t something to tread lightly in the wallet.
87eebboo1@reddit
Coming from someone who gets paid by people with lots of money to do things to their cars like you envisioned, I can assure you it is certainly not easy on the wallet
onemanlan@reddit
You suppose?
No-Locksmith-9377@reddit
Converting a a car to a pickup is not as hard as you think. Its still a shit ton of work, especially to make it look good.
Anything is possible with time, money, and a welder.
shupack@reddit
And a grinder and paint.
Safe_Chicken_6633@reddit
And bubblegum, chicken wire, toothpaste, sprayfoam, and Bondo.
Local_Bobcat_2000@reddit
Well this killed that picture! 😔
No-Locksmith-9377@reddit
I love that saying.
No-Locksmith-9377@reddit
Example: a skyline gtr pickup.
thecrushah@reddit
There’s a guy in Europe who built a GT40 from scratch including the space frame. He did modernize the rest tho. I think he used a 6.2L Mercedes M156:as the powerplant as it was easier to source than American Iron.
Big-Energy-3363@reddit
Look at Centurion tow rigs from 80s and 90s
Random__guy-@reddit (OP)
Not what I’m going for, but love these
Solid_Enthusiasm550@reddit
Alot of people "modified " existing cars/chassis.
Shelby "AC" Cobra
Hennessey Venom GT
Calloway
Most US small manufacturers use atleast a previously designed chassis/platform to base their car off of.
European small car manufacturers often do the design their own chassis, but use established powertrains.
Lotus
Pagani zonda
1453_@reddit
You will need the following to realistically undergo this project:
A garage.
Tools, thousands of dollars worth including shop equipment like welder, body tools and Oxy/Ace torch
Skill (a lot of experience) and tech resources
Time - a lot
Money - a lot more
The fact that you are here asking leads me to believe some if not all of these things are lacking. I'm not trying to discourage you but this sounds somewhat unrealistic.
How about starting off small like getting a 25 y/o Civic or Corolla and learning how to perform basic services before advancing to the harder projects.
nopester24@reddit
I know a guy .. but he has his own ways. Designed it in CAD, cut pipe and built the chassis in his shop, made fiberglass panels for the body out of his own molds, painted it in his homemade spray booth. Bsourced the engine from his dad's old work truck but fixed it up nice with new cams and pistons. He even made his own wheels on a CNC machine.
Only bought seats and tires for it.
point50tracer@reddit
Well. I've built a car, starting with just a shell and half a roll cage.
Finished the cage. Made floorpans, tubs, interior. Built the front suspension and steering. Stuck a twin turbo LS, a power glide transmission, and a Ford 9" rear diff in. Custom built fuel cell. Custom built aluminum, rear spoiler. Custom radiator. Stainless steel, fender exit exhaust. A parachute and wheelie bar as well. Made our own bumpers. Even made several custom hoods for it.
Basically everything but the body was custom built. She's street legal too.
I have an idea for a fully custom built vehicle, but that project is probably a long way off.
Natedoggsk8@reddit
That Corvair truck likely started as a different truck. You might wanna look into what to use as a starter platform unless you want to do a complete tube chassis from scratch.
wearymicrobe@reddit
I have bought a body and built everything underneath that. But it’s still just all parts from other cars and very common GM/VW parts under the skin.
Making everything even discounting the drivetrain is insanely expensive.
Random__guy-@reddit (OP)
I suppose I should have said “building it with existing parts” or something of the sort. I most likely would buy a good frame and internal, and build around it to my specifications. I’ve never really worked on cars before so this project would be an adventure for me.
wearymicrobe@reddit
You are in for a WORLD of hurt unless you have a serious mechanical engineering background or a LOT of money. I have been building for over 30 years and the parts are just the start. Tools, space, just learning wiring all of this takes practice to get to a point where you have sufficient skill to do what even the basics of what you are asking.
Starting with a project car and doing something like a engine swap that is well documented is even a big challenge for someone just starting.
Not trying to push down the dream but you need to be very realistic about your skillset and your resourcing. Starting something like this and completing it are very different things.
Random__guy-@reddit (OP)
I get that. I’m definitely going to tone down. Maybe build random stuff to get the feel for it
66NickS@reddit
Yes, but there are different levels of “from scratch”.
Like, do you contact a company that makes frames/chassis and buy that, then put drivetrain and body on it? Not quite a “kit car” but also not “from scratch”.
It sounds to me like you really just want a modified classic with some modern features. My suggestion would be to find a chassis/frame/title for something that has the right wheelbase and is fairly common. There will be many many more options for the standard Chevrolet 1500 pickup frame as compared to a GMC Cyclone/Typhoon.
Random__guy-@reddit (OP)
Thanks, I’ll look into it
salvage814@reddit
It sounds like you are more just looking for a bed and not a truck.
PresentIron5379@reddit
You could do what the big 3 in Detroit did and cut the back 2/3 of a van off and weld the rear cap to the front. That's essentially what a corvair 95, dodge a100 and Ford Econoline cargo are, just vans with the back cut off.
rezwrrd@reddit
Yeah, just get a body on frame van (not a minivan, since the back and roof are part of the structure) and do a lot of hacking, welding, and bodywork to the back. It's still not easy, but it is orders of magnitude less difficult to convert a car or van into a truck than it is to build a truck from scratch. Most of the time people do that conversion they move the back doors forward to be the back of the cab, and in this case you could turn the side door into the side gate!
cicada_shell@reddit
Kris Heil's "Daedalus" comes to mind. People design and build custom cars all the time. But how custom are we talking? The SEMA show is more or less based around highly-customized cars, many often made from scratch (that is, with off-the-shelf parts and unique coachwork).
PracticableSolution@reddit
I have built cars from frame up and that’s a fairly daunting task all by itself. And keep in mind that a corvair truck is comically unsafe by modern standards.
I think the closest you’d find in format is probably a kei truck or a Nissan N series with a drop side flat bed, both of which are fairly common, more or less.
A low ride rear gate classic might be an old C-10 or F-100 truck
d3r3k1@reddit
There was a guy here designing his own car at one point. Had a frame/shell started. Haven’t seen updates in forever though
Poil336@reddit
It has to go through an inspection and gets titled as a self-assembled vehicle. Kit cars kinda work this way; the chassis has a MCO and number, and the title for the donor car is modified with that number, and the kit car assumes the VIN of the donor for registration