The Mystery Project.

Downeaster

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I've been carving various Minion-related doodads out of Well-X-Trol pressure tanks. I made a mailbox and a fire pit for my daughter and a few other odds and ends. The local scrap dealer has been kind enough to set them aside as they come in and I give him $5 apiece for his trouble.
vw2.jpg


He called me the other day and said he had a couple more, so I swung by and picked up this Boiler Mate. 2 or 3 times bigger than what I usually work with, so I sent the pic to my daughter and asked her what I should make out of it.

vw.jpg


She spotted this on Pinterest. I can't imagine it working worth a damn as a grill with no way to regulate the heat, but it's as cute as a bug's ear and I figured it'd make a nice planter.

vw3.jpg


I cut the mounting ring off the bottom, did a little measuring and laid out the windows. Plan "A" was to cut them with the plasma cutter, but then I thought I could probably cut a straighter line with a slitting disk on a grinder.

vw4.jpg


Good thing I changed my mind as it had an inch or so of hard foam insulation and a plastic liner in it. The liner was so covered with rust from iron in the water that I thought it was metal!

vw5.jpg


Got all the major holes cut in it, chopped up the liner and insulation enough to drag it out and started on the "fender wells".

I plan to trim it similarly to the example with the VW emblem on the front and the rail and V trim under the windows and down the front.
 

Downeaster

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vw7.jpg


Well, I was gonna call it done, minus the planter box that goes in the top. Looking at it, I think it needs a front bumper. I shall have to survey my ju.....uh...."inactive inventory" pile.

Daughter has voluteered to give it a hippy-style Flower Power paint job.
 

Downeaster

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Hmm...going to pull a boiler and boilermate for replacement this morning...

Like I need another project...lol
Well if you go there, I for one want to see the results! If I do another one, I'm going to change up a couple of things:

1. Make the belt line higher. Exactly half the diameter of the tank seems about right.

2. Make the upper line of the "windshield" straight rather than following the curve of the tank.

3. Use steel vs. stainless for the beltline trim. I used stainless because I had a bunch laying around, but it's a PITA to try to weld to the mild steel tank.
 

Downeaster

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vw8.jpg


Plant box done. I spent some time figuring out how to make the ends overlap the cutout a bit while following the curve of the body. Seemed like a router was the best bet but wasn't at all comfy with free-handing the curve.

Then I dug out my Dad's Craftsman router from the early 60's and low and behold, it had attachments for routing circles! Got stupid lucky and the first guesstimate at a setup hit the curve I'd traced from the tank to within a 16th!

Felt good using it too, I remember when my Dad got it for a project he was working on. It was a major expenditure at the time. Oldest brother has had it since Dad passed and a few years ago realized he was never going to use it so passed it to me. I've only used it a couple of times since, but it always stirs up good memories.

Just needs the cut edges polished up, a bumper and a paint job.
 

Mikey

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Looks great DE !!
Paint wise the same blue on the bottom with white on the top :twocents:
Or just Google "early VW vans" for more color ideas
 

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