# Carving A Car



## aelfric5578 (Jan 24, 2010)

I've been looking around the forums and other sites for awhile trying to get ideas about cars on stage. It seems the two most recommended solutions I've found are either using shells of former cars from a junkyard or carving part of the vehicle out of foam. I'm working on a production that needs a car on stage and we are very early in the design process, so I'm spending a lot of time researching possibilities. I'm leaning towards carving the car we need. In this case a '67 Buick. I figure the fact that the car has so many hard lines might make it easier to carve. I was wondering if any of you could point me in the direction of some resources for how to approach such a project. Any information of suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.


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## Footer (Jan 24, 2010)

I have done this a few times. Every time we got a real car and modified it. Its a bit of a pain to do. You have to drop the engine and all that good stuff. 

What show? Does anyone have to get in/out. Does it have to drive?


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## aelfric5578 (Jan 25, 2010)

It's for Assassins, the second scene with Sam Byck. Overall, we're being a bit abstract so the car doesn't need to drive, but someone has to be inside of it, and we want the feeling that he's moving. I'm thinking something like the car scene from The Wedding Singer musical on Broadway if anyone's seen it. I'm a student working in a college theater. I anticipate the problems with using a real car being lack of space and the fact that we don't have any sort of metalworking shop.


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## OnWithTheShow (Jan 25, 2010)

Our solution for Assassins was to go to a scrapyard and pull a car seat and a steering wheel. There are many yards that will let you take whatever parts you want from a vehicle. We simply had the steering wheel and car seat mounted to a wagon. It worked in the abstract design of the show. I think they charged us $25 for the car parts.

This photo was from a rehearsal so it wasnt finished yet:


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## BrianWolfe (Jan 25, 2010)

We've made cars both ways. Using a real car often requires a lot of steel work and hours of Bondo and sanding. Making it out of foam requires a good sculptor and many hours sanding and finishing. The essence of a real car is an ultra smooth finish. Anything less looks like what it is, a cheap knockoff. Depending on the model car you can sometimes get away with using wood(often bending plywood) for the large panels and using foam for the corners. Foam is never the finished product for us. We will take molds off the foam original to make either a fiberglass or vacuum formed casting for the finished car. Good luck.


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## Van (Jan 25, 2010)

I have to agree with Brian on this one. If you're gonna go ' real' then you you gotta go REAL. Carving a car is a great way to make up for lack of funds in an educational setting, since traditionally your labor is free, But if that's what you're going to do then it's gotta be GREAT or it just looks cheap. 
I really like the photo that was posted and that is alomst the exact same thing we did in production of _*Assassins*_ from a couple of years ago. The show is so very presentational / Theatatrical this design approach is very easily justified.


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## jcfalc01 (Jan 25, 2010)

We did a combo of wood structure with 3" foam built into the areas we needed for the Grease Lightnin car. I will try to attach the pictures.

It took about five days from start to finish (3 hours/day).


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## jessamarie6 (Jan 25, 2010)

I did a post on my blog about how we approached the car in Full Monty. We only did one bit of welding and that could have been done with wood instead. The whole thing cost us $300 if I remember right and you won't get it for much cheaper making it yourself.


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## aelfric5578 (Jan 25, 2010)

Thanks for all the suggestions. As I said, I'm working in a college theater with no metalworking ability whatsoever and very little wingspace. We have a decent woodworking shop. I like the idea of just using the car seat. That might be the best solution for our particular abilities, budget, etc, and I'm certainly going to bring it up with our director. Just for my own curiosity, I'd still like to toy aroud with the idea of carving it for a bit. I'm a student as well, and my goal is to learn as much as I can even if I don't get a chance to use it. So with the knowledge that it might not be the best way to approach the task, any other car making advice?


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## Van (Jan 25, 2010)

I suggest every future scenic guy / gal spend quite a bit of time scuplting with foam. It's a blast you learn a lot and it's a great skill to develop. If you have'nt yet be sure to run a search on Foam and Carving. Several of us have posted extensively on the subject.


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## Morpheus (Jan 25, 2010)

jessamarie6 said:


> I did a post on my blog about how we approached the car in Full Monty. We only did one bit of welding and that could have been done with wood instead. The whole thing cost us $300 if I remember right and you won't get it for much cheaper making it yourself.



the theatre i was at this summer did _Full Monty_ as well, it was a plywood covered metal frame... didn't look like a "real" car, but it still looked like a car without being to cheesy.


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## SHARYNF (Jan 25, 2010)

Using the front clip from a real car would work and not be too difficult if you just need the front on view. IMO you either make it look very real or go with the concept like the picture showed of just the steering wheel and the seat

Again it is theater does not have to be "real"

Sharyn


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## BrianWolfe (Jan 26, 2010)

Here is a quick visual on just how much work is involved in taking an existing car bought on the cheap and bringing it up to the level of an autobody finish. Hours and hours of Bondo, sanding, primer, sanding, painting and buffing.


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## SHARYNF (Jan 26, 2010)

Brian is used to doing projects to a very high standard, and also for film where the close up shots are very important

I would offer the alternative view on this

You are not trying to construct a show car at concourse level, in fact it could be argued that the characters in the play were probably driving a less than perfect car


I think there is a trade off, where you could do some simple chopping and then a quick spray job that could work, 

In some circles there is what is called the 1 foot rule, the 10 foot rule and the 30 foot rule as to how great the finish needs to be

On stage you probably could get away with the 30 foot rule, where a lot of the defects are simply not going to be all that visible. In addition , if instead of giving it a shiny car finish, you use a more dull coat a lot of the defects will not be all that visible


Again, Brian works to the highest production values, and produces spectacular work, I just think that for this type of theatrical use you can get away with a lot lower level/less work

Just a thought

Sharyn


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## BrianWolfe (Jan 26, 2010)

Here are some photos of foam carving four cars for Surf City. We start by making paper patterns. We trace that onto the styrofoam blocks and cut them out on our very large bandsaw(3' flywheels and 2' throat). The foam is then carved and sanded with knives, saws, cheese graters, surforms, foam planes or whatever else works fast.

The finished sculpt is coated with multiple layers of plaster and or spackle which is sanded between coats until a glasslike surface is achieved.

Some of these are cut up to make vac-form molds others are used to make fiberglass castings. You can see some of the molds on the vac-bed are wood.( yes the vac-bed is 4' x 12')


The cars are them assembled, bondo-ed, primed, painted, upholstered and detailed. 













Sorry I can't give more detail than that since much of it is proprietary.
These cars could go about 30 mph and were really fun.


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## BrianWolfe (Jan 26, 2010)

> Brian is used to doing projects to a very high standard


 
I have also been know to hand an actor a cardboard cutout of a car that they walk onstage with. Aim as high as you can afford. Stylize rather than compromise. In other words if you can't afford a high finish, design a car that is a stylized idea of a car rather than coarsely carved from foam and glopped with paint. I don't care if you are in the balcony a poorly finished attempt at a real car looks sad.


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## Van (Jan 26, 2010)

Brian ! Beautiful Pics !!! Very inspiring. Can I live out here and come work for you ???


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## cdub260 (Jan 26, 2010)

Here's what a poorly finished attempt at a real car looks like.





It's the back half of a 1958 Plymouth Savoy used in the 2009 Pageant of the Masters.

It looked much better under stage lights.


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## Footer (Jan 26, 2010)

Here is a bit of a flipside... 


This was for Miss Saigon. It was a rented set. The car was an actual 1959 Cadillac that had been stripped down and re-done with essentially golf cart parts. It had a top speed of about 30 mph. Keep in mind... in drove straight DS, then straight back. It was a bit overkill....

My favorite stage car was a 1960's era buick sedan, chopped, the roof off, spray painted the body, dropped the engine, hooked a screwgun battery up to the horn and headlights, and redid the interior with white duct tape.... and called it grease lightning.


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## natethegreat (Jan 27, 2010)

Foam carving would be a great option to pursue. As others have also stated, foam can be a cheap but labor intensive. One option to pursue is sculpting a scale model of the car you want. Then make a mold and recast the car with a liquid styrafoam. With a bandsaw cut the styrafoam model into sections that depend on the scale of your model correlating with the thickness of styrafoam you are using. Then set up a projector to shine on a syrafoam sheet and adjust the throw to where the shadow that the styrafoam section gives is to actual size. Trace around the shadow, and cut it out. Layer the sections, and sand/plaster until it looks like your clay model. If you get good enough you can actually make giant sculptures using this method and make some good money, either as a fundraiser for your theater or to go towards the inevitable college debt!


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## BrianWolfe (Jan 27, 2010)

The method that Natethegreat describes is a very effective way of enlarging complicated sculptures, especially if you don't have an accomplished artist there to do the work. One of our competitors often will take a small model and have it scanned then cnc layers of styrofoam which are layered up and carved. It has many advantages not the least of which is to establish many thousands of points exactly where they ought to be. We made a 3' tall maquette for a 50' tall angel this way. We have also made plaster maquettes we ran through the band saw to make profiles for the layered up foam. This is a head of Apollo we made for Invention of Love at Lincoln Center using similar techniques.


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## dcollins (Jan 27, 2010)

Dear playwrights: Stop writing cars on stage.


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## derekleffew (Jan 27, 2010)

dcollins said:


> Dear playwrights: Stop writing cars on stage.



And helicopters! 
And boats, trains, planes, and all other modes of transportation. 

For that matter, learn the difference between a film script and a play.


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## Goph704 (Jan 27, 2010)

natethegreat said:


> Foam carving would be a great option to pursue. As others have also stated, foam can be a cheap but labor intensive. One option to pursue is sculpting a scale model of the car you want. Then make a mold and recast the car with a liquid styrafoam. With a bandsaw cut the styrafoam model into sections that depend on the scale of your model correlating with the thickness of styrafoam you are using. Then set up a projector to shine on a syrafoam sheet and adjust the throw to where the shadow that the styrafoam section gives is to actual size. Trace around the shadow, and cut it out. Layer the sections, and sand/plaster until it looks like your clay model. If you get good enough you can actually make giant sculptures using this method and make some good money, either as a fundraiser for your theater or to go towards the inevitable college debt!



This sounds like the way to go. might I suggest two things, during a production of Greece we did a similar treatment around a Golf Cart to get the look of Greased lighting, we also used a product called Sculpt-or-coat, that can create a finish similar to fiberglass without being actual fiber glass it's made by a prof. at UNCG and it's a little on the expensive side, but worth the investment.


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## BrianWolfe (Jan 27, 2010)

> We also used a product called Sculpt-or-coat, that can create a finish similar to fiberglass without being actual fiberglass.


 
I have used sculpt or coat. It is like a thickened flexible white glue. It works fine for protecting the foam somewhat. It is not anywhere near as strong as fiberglass and it is not easy to get it smooth enough for a car finish. It is great for tree trunks, rocks and other rougher textured pieces. Just my two cents worth.


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## Van (Jan 27, 2010)

derekleffew said:


> And helicopters!
> And boats, trains, planes, and all other modes of transportation.
> 
> For that matter, learn the difference between a film script and a play.


 
And Elephants and Scene Dissolves. WHo the Hell can 'Dissolve' a scene on stage ???????


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## BrianWolfe (Jan 27, 2010)

No, no please keep writing in the elephants!


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## aelfric5578 (Jan 29, 2010)

Brian, the pics you've been posting are amazing. Those little mini foam cars are adorable And now an elephant...I wish I had even half your talent.

Meanwhile thanks for all the suggestions, guys. We're having our first props/scenic meeting this Sunday. Let's see what we decide to do.


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## Pixie (Feb 5, 2010)

I built a car for my high school. It was a last minute thing that the director asked me to do for Grease (The "old junky Grease lightning") Person who was supposed to get teh car parts for it never did it. Lucky for me it was just the front end, built a wooden frame and molded it out of chicken wire (I had built Milky White this way previously that year so director used and abused me), applied some paper mache- budget and time. Highly recommend plaster paris sheets. much better to mold and play with. drying time is faster too, painted it, used a glue mix to give it a little shine and there we had it.
Front end of a car done in two days, 2 days before opening. 
Let us know what you decide to do!


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## pkoenig (Mar 8, 2011)

I just finished making Greased Lightning for our local high school. I started with a golf cart; built a frame of 2 x 3's, some 1 x 6's and a skin of 1/8" masonite. I then made a canvas "drape" over it to be the old, junky car; this was removed during the song to reveal the hot rod underneath. I had to give the golf cart back to the school, but I have the body available, which can be bolted directly onto an EZ-go golf cart. I'm about 50 mi NW of Chicago. I had trouble attaching photos to this post; email me for photos [email protected]


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## Octopus (May 10, 2012)

Hello, everybody, I´m gonna make Cadillac 62 series year 1953...
There are not such any cheap cars to rebuilt in the Europe...
I will cut the body from the foam, cover by fiberglass, bend windshield from the polycarbonate... 
But what the hell with all that chrome grills and other accesories?


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## BrianWolfe (May 10, 2012)

Check Ebay. I bought the whole front end to a 1963 Caddy for $100 and made vacuum formed copies for Jersey Boys:


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