Alien Hot Rod

[SpyGuy]

Howdy! Been lurking around the area for a while, figured I'd finally join up and post. I've been doing some welding for the past few months - nothing really heavy-duty, just mostly artwork pieces. This just happens to be the latest one I'm working on.

I was messing around in the garage yesterday, and began looking at some of the oddball parts and scraps I've collected over the past few months. My welding has been improving (somewhat), so I figured why not try something dificult, like a new kind of sculpture? Of course, being from a mechanic background and being around cars and bikes all the time, I thought that a hot rod would be cool. Then my eyes fell on a couple of pie plates and the top from a pan, and thought, "No, what about an alien hot rod?" With that thought firmly in mind, I set out to build an Ed Roth-esque flying saucer with a monster alien "pilot."

First shots: that's an old 6" c-clamp I picked up for a buck, with a 5 lb. weight on the bottom. The c-clamp was tweaked pretty bad and unusable, so I carved a notch in it and welded it to the weight to make a base. Both were shot over in Rustoleum Satin Black.
http://i404.photobucket.com/albums/...My Welding Stuff/Alien Hot Rod/Picture001.jpg
http://i404.photobucket.com/albums/...My Welding Stuff/Alien Hot Rod/Picture002.jpg

Next, the saucer section itself. The bottom section is the lid from a pot, the top piece is a pie pan I cut up. The lid's handle was removed, and a couple of nuts on the remaining threaded stub fit perfectly inside the old c-clamp's threads. Right now, it's not welded together, as I still need to do some work on the "internals."
http://i404.photobucket.com/albums/...My Welding Stuff/Alien Hot Rod/Picture003.jpg

The "command section" - floorboard is a square spatula, dashboard is half-round spatula, gauges are nuts of varying sizes, steering wheel is buttonhead bolt welded onto a large washer, seat is a gate hinge supported by large nut, "Bigfoot" gas pedal from flat metal stock trimmed and ground to shape, gearshift is made from a 60* Allen wrench with a Coors bottle opener welded on top for the shift knob. All this is eventually getting painted.
http://i404.photobucket.com/albums/...My Welding Stuff/Alien Hot Rod/Picture004.jpg
http://i404.photobucket.com/albums/...My Welding Stuff/Alien Hot Rod/Picture005.jpg
http://i404.photobucket.com/albums/...My Welding Stuff/Alien Hot Rod/Picture006.jpg
http://i404.photobucket.com/albums/...My Welding Stuff/Alien Hot Rod/Picture007.jpg
http://i404.photobucket.com/albums/...My Welding Stuff/Alien Hot Rod/Picture008.jpg

Dig that crazy shifter, daddy-o :
http://i404.photobucket.com/albums/...My Welding Stuff/Alien Hot Rod/Picture009.jpg

A few shots of everything placed together - final welding will be done after finishing interior detail and the driver:
http://i404.photobucket.com/albums/...My Welding Stuff/Alien Hot Rod/Picture010.jpg
http://i404.photobucket.com/albums/...My Welding Stuff/Alien Hot Rod/Picture011.jpg
http://i404.photobucket.com/albums/...My Welding Stuff/Alien Hot Rod/Picture012.jpg

To be continued ......

(Oh, yeah - if you're interested in checking out some of the other stuff I've done, here's a link to my PhotoBucket album. The pictures in the "Welding And Metal Art" main folder are not mine - just pics of some pretty cool welded artwork - but all the rest of the stuff under the "My Welding Stuff" and "The Rose" folders are mine.)
http://s404.photobucket.com/albums/pp127/SpyGuy/Welding And Metal Art/

 

[TheJoker]

Very nice!!! I love those type things. Turns "something" out of "nothing" and looks very cool at the same time.

 

[SpyGuy]

Thanks, Joker. I like taking recycled stuff and making something new out of it, while still retaining what the "original" part was. Less stuff going to the recyclers that way, and more whimsical for me.

Slight update: turns out the pie pan isn't going to work - blew several holes in it trying to add details to the top, so gonna hafta junk that piece. Good news, found another pot lid that fits perfectly over the other one, so all I need is a few small tacks here and there to keep it in place, and obviously the large cut-out in the center for the commmand section. Still not quite sure what to do about the body for the alien, but i'll worry about that after i get the saucer more-or-less finished.

 

[TheJoker]

Let us know when you have a new picture of it!