Build Sue's Wheels - by Charles Hand, Jr.

Build Sue's Wheels

Showy “Wheels” for My Sister – In a Bottle, of course, by Charles A. Hand, Jr

My sister has an apartment in a "retirement ghetto" up in the N.E. and gripes about lacking "wheels" (attached to a vehicle). She recently mentioned that I had yet to make a bottled model for her. Long ago, she lived in Las Veqas and drove a Jaguar sports car.

Accompanying photos show how my devious mind connected those. I suggested that she tell friends that her ever-loving brother gave her a red convertible, Jaguar sports car and there it is over on that shelf.

It is in a 30 ml serum bottle and took about three weeks to make. The two inner base pieces and three auto sections were carved from Poplar. The headlights are bits of round toothpicks plus a dab of putty. Taillights were sanded from modern (composition) round-headed pins.

Tires were sliced from the small end of a Paper-Mate brand Den, painted black about their perimeters, with punched styrene disks glued into each. One disk matches the red car color topped by another disk of chrome (red & chrome from an unused AAA bumper sticker). Phone wire painted black forms the steering wheel.

The car interior was painted white. The windshield is of clear plastic, trimmed with (ciq. pack) foil. After 6 or so (failed) experiments, a simple(r) tool evolved to aid in the installation of that. A bike spoke was another useful tool.

The bottle base is a scrap of South American Purpleheart - sold at a fine woodworking firm for making pens. The knot about the bottle neck is of fishing line, and the original rubber stopper was replaced with a cork. Unlike most vehicles, these wheels should not entail any expenses on her part.

Click on a picture to enlarge