Car Help

[davanden]

Hi, I'm really new to set design and I have found myself challenged with building the set for a production of Arrabal's Car Cemetery. I have an area that is roughly 36 ft by 38 ft into which I have to fit six cars, 100 audience seats as well as some playable space to boot. I also have a budget of just under 1000$.

the cars are going to be made of plywood and cardboard, with the tallest measuring 4 X 10 X 5 and the other five butting up against the wall: a stack of three that is 4 X 8 and two side by side which are 4 X 6.

Any recommendations/ tips would be welcome, especially of interest are the following:

I want to mock up corrugated metal siding with rust splotches, I am planning on trying to do that with cardboard, any other ideas for that would be helpful.

If it is practical to try and build cardboard "cracks" onto the floor (using cardboard again) to simulate cracked cement which is heaving and buckling .

Any other thoughts, please post them!

thanks

[Van]

Wow that's a lot of scenery for $1k! Corrogated steel is not real expensive and you can distress it easily with paint, there is also a plastic / fiberglass version which can be treated to lok like rusted metal. faking the concrete with cardboard is a pretty good way to go, you might want to search on CB foe VSsSD < vans super secret scenic dope>. It can help give that concrete look.

[jwl868]

This may cut into your budget (and time), but if you wanted to give the cars some shape other than the flat surface of wood/cardboard or the limited curves of bent cardboard, consider using rigid polystyrene foam insulation (for example, Owens Corning Foamular) that has been cut/sanded. (I think it comes in 2" thick sheets. You can glue sheets (or parts of sheets) together to get a 4" or 6" radius on a curved edge.)


Joe

[csheleytd]

I don't know the show, but I would offer the idea of doing more abstract cars and pulling fenders, bumpers doors, seats, etc. from a junk yard and attaching them to skeletal frames. You have the added advantage of reselling them to the junk yard when you're done. You may even find someone willing to let you use the parts if you pull them yourself.....just a thought.

[Van]

Originally Posted by csheleytd

I don't know the show, but I would offer the idea of doing more abstract cars and pulling fenders, bumpers doors, seats, etc. from a junk yard and attaching them to skeletal frames. You have the added advantage of reselling them to the junk yard when you're done. You may even find someone willing to let you use the parts if you pull them yourself.....just a thought.

That's a good Idea! I once did "Little Shop..." and need a Van onstage for the doowap girls to enter from. I went to my local You-Pull-it they cut the back half of a '65 dodge van off for me and I just had to clean up the cut, build the support for it, when all was said and done I recycled the steel from the van and wound up only being $35. out of pocket. 'Course I did have a real big shop and an acetylene torch.... < yeah this was before the days of plasma cutters>

Carving car shapes from foam is a good Idea as well. If you can find a local dealer and explain that it's for a non-profit or school they can hook you up with some big billets of rigid PS or Styro-Foam for a good price.