Academix-Car Designer-December 2008-Issue 30
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What it takes
A day in the life of a car designer
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Transportation design seems to be the major endeavour for
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automotive youth nowadays. People see shows on TV
depicting people building choppers, cars and other custom
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vehicles with ease. Then these same viewers think they can
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do the same. Contrary to first impressions, it is a
tremendous task to build a custom car using existing plans,
not to mention building one from scratch. All they show
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on TV is the interesting stuff; people welding a few things,
making a few drawings and painting the final product.
Have you ever wondered how that product got there?
Nobody woke up and said, “Today I think I will build a
hot rod.” There are literally thousands of hours of design
put into these projects that is never shown to the public.
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People have always
designed cars for
aesthetics and attempted to blend
them into their environment.
However, cars today are designed
around a person. Personally, I design
a vehicle around two things: Is it
drivable? And equally as important,
will it win design awards at car shows?
I decided to push the envelope of the
hot rod design world and design a
street rod from scratch. A large
majority of the hot rod world uses
pre-existing cars, bodies, frames, etc.,
but once you reach a certain point of
redesign on an existing template
there are so many things changed it is
pretty much a from-scratch vehicle.
Academix-Car Designer-December 2008-Issue 30
Sketching from scratch
The first stage of this intricate process
was the design itself. It all starts out as
an idea; a mental picture, just a few
shapes and thoughts. Soon those
thoughts are transferred onto paper
as quick, roughly sketchy ink lines.
This single sketch is one of what will
become a small library of concept-
ualisations and form the base of the
project. To other people, this sketch
would look like a messy idea of a car;
I see the drawing differently. I see
definite flowing lines and shapes, all
small portions of a greater work of
art. From that first sketch I will toss
around ideas and design concepts in
2 my head. A lot of these thoughts just
come to me at random times –
watching TV, doing homework, listen-
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ing to music and even in the middle of
the night. Often times I have to
immediately stop what I’m doing and
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sketch out and idea. After about 50 or
so sketches, all detailing one portion
of the vehicle, they are all laid out and
compiled into one design. That one
final design will change and grow as
the fabrication continues.
I don’t abide by the dictum of
form following function. My
approach is the opposite; function
follows form. What’s the point of the
hot rod if it doesn’t look good? Being
the top dog in this world is all about
making the sketches of good designs
work – not making something ugly
that works well. We are no longer
bound by function to determine the
design criteria. This will become
readily apparent later.
Is it functional?
The tedious and tricky process is
getting the different design elements
to harmonise, and to do it well.
Once again it starts as thoughts. Then
these ideas are thoroughly visualised
and sketched out on paper.
Thousands of thoughts and hundreds
of sketches are brought together to
form one complete design. Thought
after thought, sketch after sketch,
draft after draft, the final design will
start to come together. The design
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phase is all about finding the perfect
balance of unity between form and
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function. Unfortunately, that final
design sometimes requires minor
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alteration of the original look. If I can’t
see any other way around a
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func-tioning design I will go back to
the drawing board and keep
sketching out ideas.
Is it safe?
At this point, roughly 500 hours of
design time have been logged. The
main piece, the frame, is nearing the
end of the design stages. Soon the
beginning of the frame fabrication will
start as design elsewhere continues.
Something to keep in mind through-
out the design process is to have an
idea of what materials you have
access to, or what is needed. Each
material has its own unique use and
ability. The frame, the basic platform
for the entire vehicle, has to be
strong and functional. If it fails, every-
thing fails. This piece requires much
more than drawing lines. These
sketches are often detailed sketches
with lots of trigonometry and geome-
try involved. Although there are no
moving parts, this is the most func-
tional piece, yet it is designed within
the aesthetics of the entire design.
After about 850 hours of design
time and about 135 hours of fabrica-
tion, the hot rod starts to come alive.
Even though the current project is only
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a model for the real thing, it involves a
lot more than can be imagined. A lot of
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times, there are unforeseen circum-
stances. This is why I build models first.
It is infinitely better to mess something
up on a model than the real thing.
Coming to life
After nearly five months, there still
isn’t much to show. Basically, after
1000 hours of design and 175 hours
of fabrication, all I have is about half a
frame built and books full of sketches.
I have spent hours upon hours on
trigonometry and geometry calcula-
tions – it’s all a part of the game. This
just illustrates for everyone who
wants to be a designer/fabricator all
that design entails. It is not nearly as
easy as welding a couple of pieces of
metal together and calling it a hot
rod. There is an immeasurable
amount of time spent in just the
design phases of a custom hot rod.
Hopefully this article has conveyed
just how much effort is required to
properly piece together a truly
custom car and will prove a good
starting point for those interested in
pursuing this art form.
Source: Mike, Fifty-Five designs