Do you know who Norman E. Timbs is? Updated Dec 13, 2011

[Peter Lombardo]

Here is one you most likely haven’t seen before. This is a one-off custom roadster designed by a very talented mechanical engineer, Norman E. Timbs back in 1948. Norman worked with Preston Tucker (Tucker Auto Fame) and on a few Indy 500 winning race car teams. This Streamline Special is powered by a Buick Straight 8 power plant. It was built on a wooden buck, like the Cobra Daytona Coupes. The body in hand formed and welded aluminum panels. This car was sold after 3 years to an Air Force Captain in LA. He repainted it white and drove it around LA for a few years. The car disappeared and was not thought about until 2002 when it was discovered in a junkyard in the California Desert. The car was sold at auction for $17,000 and after an extensive complete restoration, it made its second debut at the 2010 Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance in a class reserved for Motor Trend Cover Cars. To see more pictures from before and after, follow this link to Rik Hovings Fotki site click here where he has a large stash of photos, both before and after the restoration.

Based on the measurements in an article in the Hot Rodders Journal, I laid out the dimensions in scale. From that I made a foam master and from that I vacuumformed the body. So far I have opened up the front wheel wells and attached all of the underbody inner flairs. I obtained a resin Buick Straight 8 engine from Kitchen Table Resins, which by the way is a very nice multiple piece casting if you are in need of one of these engines….Ken offers a number of “not your run of the mill, mills” so check them out.

The chassis will be scratch made from aluminum tubing and styrene supports, the wheels and tires and hubcaps have been ordered form The Modelhaus, so that will look great. The fuel tank and all of the plumbing will be scratch made as well as the interior.

The paint as you can tell is a deep Burgundy with a fine gold flake for highlights.

The first time I saw this car, I thought it was a little strange, but over the months it grew on me and the other day the idea hit me to build it……..it may not be a practical car, but you can’t deny the beauty of its long flowing lines. I have no idea how long this will take to complete, but I will complete it. I will begin the scratch built chassis next.

Edited December 14, 2011 by Peter Lombardo

[Eshaver]

Peter, knowing what I know of you and you're endless talents , there is no doubt that this will be a work of art ! Ed Shaver

[Nitrozilla]

Lemme see if I've got this right. Open topic, get mind blown, click on "Follow this topic", sit back and watch the incredible build taking place. Did I say get mind blown? Right ! Check !

Edited October 21, 2011 by Batzilla

[Jantrix]

Oh man. This is gonna be fun.

[Wagoneer81]

Ohh boy!!! This'll be a good one! I look forward to more!

And, having just checked out the Fotki site, I am amazed and blown away... This is one beautiful, very unique design. I see numerous possibilites with this body other than the masterfully done roadster that it is...

Edited October 22, 2011 by Wagoneer81

[kitbash1]

This car was on My Classic Car a week or two ago and it looked striking. This should be a fantastic WIP !

[jeffs396]

Another great piece from the talented hands of Peter Lombardo! Can't wait to see it come together!

I hope that even after the fiasco with the cheats that never paid you for the art deco roadsters, you'll consider selling these great shells too!

[Len Woodruff]

Very cool car Peter! Looking forward to your build!

[58 Impala]

Looks like a great start on the project. I read about it in Rodders Journal also, looking foward to seeing more.

[kennb]

This outshines my feeble efforts. The process is far more efficent and reproduceable with a fine consistant body. Very nice outcome.

[MikeMc]

Your shot is the best of them all.....The side view makes it look cab forward......

[crazyjim]

That is one good looking car.

[Dave Ambrose]

This is going to be awesome. I'm looking forward to more. (or is that "moar"?)

[bigphoto]

Common rules of decency prevent me from expletives here. But this is somthing great!

[Tony T]

Great looking lines on that...looking forward to following along, Peter!

[Randy D]

Hi Peter, Great job on the body!! Really looking forward to more of this, that is a gorgous car :)

Randy

[Peter Lombardo]

There are just some things that I will never fully understand.

I spent countless hours working on foam master for the Timbs Special. I looked at it from every angle and ran my fingers over the contours with my eyes closed just to be sure it “felt” right. Once I was sure it was as correct as it could be I then made a few bodies from it. I spent a fair amount of time cutting the body free, opening the front wheel wells, attaching and contouring the front fascia and then adding the under body inner lips. I was happy with the result…..or so I thought.

Sometime after I photographed the body and began a topic on the car, I was looking at the body and a few pictures of the real car and I realized there were a few things that were terribly wrong with the body. I am looking at the body and thinking…what the heel was I thinking! How did I miss these areas that were so off the mark? Looking at the below picture of the old body on top and the new body on the bottom you can see many of the corrections to the car. First and most noticeable, I think, is the rear fender contour. You can see how the lower body rear fenders are more rounded and curve inward, much more like the real car. Next, look carefully at the rear wheel humps. On the first body, on top, you can see that the lower area between the wheel humps and the center of the car is shallower. On the bottom car you can see how the shadow is darker, indicating that the indentations between the wheel humps and the center of the car are deeper, also more like the real Timbs design.

Next, and maybe not as easy to see, I realized that the entire center “hump” area running lengthwise from the passenger compartment area to the tail was too wide. If you look down to the lower portion of the side contour running from the front fenders to the rear you should be able to see that the “stepping area” is wider too.

On this photo of the rear ends, you can see the recess area next to the rear wheel humps a little better, you can see the lower contour on the revised body. You can also see the center of the body is narrower on the new body. The other change to the body is more noticeable from this view. Notice on the old body on the left how there is a small “peak” in the center of the body where the center hump meets the rear of the car. That peak is not on the real car….I think I just imagined it….I think I liked how it looked so I subconsciously included it even though it is not on the real car…..so of course it had to go. On the revised body it is removed and the center hump makes a nice smooth termination at the rear of the car.

Here is a shot of the front end. I opened the grille area and added the inner cowling to direct the air flow into the radiator. The Grille will be photoetched, my first attempt at that technique, and attached later. I made the headlight surrounds which will be bare metal foiled much later. If you look carefully at the front wheel well, you can see another one of my “screw ups”. I opened the wheel wells where I thought they should be…..remember, I have no hard measurements for the car other than wheelbase, track, height at the windshield and overall length, so all else is by eye. Well, after looking at it over and over I decided that the front wheels were too far forward. I built up layer upon layer of thin styrene over the area that was to be filled, then once dry I carefully grinded away the excess. Once I was close to the body I switched to sand paper. I filled in a few low areas and sanded that smooth. Once primed and painted it will never be seen again.

Here is a shot of the very beginnings of the frame. The real frame is made up of 5 inch steel tubing welded with “kick-ups” front and rear to allow for the suspensions. I am making the two lateral springs from a soda can cut into strips and then layered. The two cross members are made from multiple pieces of styrene. I am currently fabricating the rear differential which is bolted directly and rigidly to the transmission and the rear cross member.

In this last side view shot, you can see where the interior will be cut out and the cut in the body where the rear section will swing up to expose the engine, trans, gas tank (and filler) and spare tire. Think about how impractical it would be if you had to raise the rear of your car every time you wanted to “gas up”….crazy.

As a little side note…in the last picture you can see the old body behind the new one. I was thinking about it, since I started work on it, how I could build something else with it. The obvious choice is a Salt Flat streamliner. So I am thinking, I could cut out the window area (the area drawn on the top of the front) and fill that with an acetate window. Put a low driver position up front between the front tires and mount two blown “big boys” side by side in the center driving the rear wheels. Those two black lines on the center rear would be roughly where there would be indentations for the blower intakes…..just a thought.. I can see a neat complicated “birdcage” space frame work under the body and maybe a center rear fin/stabilizer ala airplane with a parachute compartment at the intersection of the body and the fin…..just saying.

[charlie8575]

Wow.

I'll look forward to seeing this at NNL in April, Peter.

I like the general lines; personally, I think it's a bit long in the back, but the shape is gorgeous. Your build will be, too. They all are.

Charlie Larkin

[Ryan S.]

Nice to see something from you back on the bench, Peter. This one has all the makings of something special. I'm looking forward to seeing it come together. Your talent astounds.

Edited October 29, 2011 by Ryan S.

[Dr. Cranky]

Amazing work. Can't wait to see more.

[sportandmiah]

This is pretty cool..can't wait for updates!

[kenb]

This is awesome. This place is great. Where else can you find so much talent. I'll be watching this for sure.

Ken

[Peter Lombardo]

Thank you very much for the nice comments....we live in the area of New Jersey that was hit hard by the freak snow storm on Saturday. We lost power at 1:30pm Sat and it just got turned back on at 4:10 pm...about 30 minutes ago...that's over 4 days of dark cold nights with no TV, Computer or modeling. Glad that is over. Again, thanks for the nice comments....I'll have more to post on the progress, as slow as it is, later.

[Peter Lombardo]

As I mentioned before, we lost power for 99 hours due to the storm here in the North East. I, for a few nights, went down to my work desk in the cold and dark with a candle to attempt some work…..with poor lighting, it is very difficult to do detail work…..duh. Any way, I have completed some work on the chassis so I thought I would post a few pictures.

First, here is a shot of the rear of the real car after the complete restoration done in the mid 2000’s so you have a reference point to begin from.

Now this is a little difficult to see, but I drew out a multi-colored diagram of the chassis to scale so I could follow it for the scale model construction….here the model chassis in its infancy is on top of the drawing.

Here, it is a little easier to see the chassis over the plan……

Here is a closer look from the rear……..

And here is an over-all shot with more of the frame-side supports on….

There is a lot more to go on the chassis, especially up front. The engine, trans and rear-end are just about ready to be set in along with the drive half shafts to each wheel. The only part here not scratch built are the two wheel hubs which are really nice white metal R & D Unique pieces. The outer drums will be added later. I have the chassis painted now with its first coat of semi-gloss black and the delicate manual parking brake wires are in place. Thanks for watching.

[Peter Lombardo]

I am about ready to give up posting to the forum....lately half the time I post to it, the post will not display properly...even limiting myself to 5 pictures....it acts like it has a mind of its own and I will not deal with this non-sense much longer......either a post works or it doesn't..and if it doesn't I will not play. It used to be great...all my posts worked..........now not so much and I don't like this. Am I the only one to experience these problems?????????? Please......am I?????????