Online Catalogue last updated 15th of September 2008
Written by William Neubecker.
An excellent book if you want to build a pre-World War One motor car body. Create fenders, hoods, dashboards, curved seats and all the fancy stuff from flat sheet metal.
Chapters include: constructing the bodies and panels, patterns for bodies and dash hoods, developing and constructing seats and doors, motor hoods, guards and fenders, separate dash hoods, tanks and accessories, and boat patterns.
This is for the 1912 apprentice who wanted to get into the exploding automobile industry. You get patterns for making rumble seats, racer seats, French motor hoods, crimping techniques, rolling machinery and all the details.
If there is any complaint I have, it's that this sheet metal attaches to a wood frame which is not described. But wood working is a common art these days. Fabricating sheet metal into these forms is a lost art.
And you get plans and details on building several types of small boats including a canoe and a 14' row boat.
This is an incredible book for the modeller, the auto restorer, or someone who wants to build a steam automobile and put it in a period body. For the rest of us, it's valuable in that it shows us how the sheet metal was worked. The lessons learned can be applied to other problems.
Rare info, heavily illustrated.
Code No. 009586, 148 pages, $34.00