[RorschachMasks]

Hi everyone, for my first post (long time silent observer) I wanted to share the tail end of my hearse build.

Now, first thing's first: I needed wheels. Because there was no way I was going to attempt this without having the coach wheels ready to go. So I found mine at a few different At Home stores. Actually they were the last in stock and I had to hit a nearby town to find the last one thankfully the right size I needed to. Unfortunately there's no way these decorative wheels would support the weight of the final hearse, so I'm having to support it on sawhorses for now.



After that, it's simply building a box on a bigger scale right? Well, at least that's what I convinced myself



And I knew I wanted some curves to soften up the boxy feel, so I routed some into the plywood walls and painted them black



Here is where I also started playing with some embellishment options. I made four skull trophies/plaques from foam skulls and wooden French provincial unfinished wood plaques both from Michaels. Stained them darker, then joined the two with glue and a screw from behind. Then spar varnished the entire thing to help protect them from the elements.



View attachment 571143







And then fast forward several days after gathering some vintage lamps off Ebay, LED candle lights from Michaels, and some winged skull designs from Necrotic Creations. The wheels at this point were disassembled and placed there just to help me visualize the final goal.



Then I felt like I need a padded seat. So pleather from Joann Fabrics, 2' foam cushioning from Walmart and some leftover plywood were stapled together to become what I wanted. Brass rod holders from Hobby Lobby and a pair of bronze curtain rods from Ross became my coffin rails. Also, some solid black iron handles were found at Hobby Lobby and joined onto the foot rest as a climb-onto feature.



And the back door: Hinges from Hobby Lobby antiqued with brass paint, a foam picture frame from Michaels customized with skulls painted black and bronze and a Victorian replica doorknob from Necrotic Creations. I used the plastic picture guard from a movie poster frame set to fill in the oval where real glass would normally go.

View attachment 571153

Lastly, I added a 2' foam roof, some black silk fabric from Joann and ivory curtain pulls found at Ross (adorn the pulls with white skulls - one each). At some point I hope to add plexiglass windows.








I'm pretty happy with it, though I am keeping my eyes open for some real carriage wheels to carry the weight in the future. I'm particularly fond of the 1313 sign homage behind the driver. I dunno why, I mean, the spiderwebs are simply solder wire superglued into place, but it references the Munsters and for some reason that makes me happy.

And as a bonus: went ahead and threw together a pumpkin sentinel to guard the yard while I plan the rest of the layout for this year.





Oh, and lastly, I've since removed the middle sawhorse support as I've carriage-bolted the seat portion to the coffin box portion making them one strong unit. Also, after these photos were taken I've filled in the corner joints where the crown molding was amateurly cut off short, blending them into each other now.

 

[Frankie's Girl]

So sorry for the delay in getting this thread through moderation. We never know what kicks off the automation to hold it back, but it should all be there now (the three threads were combined, so if you duplicated anything, you can edit this post above to your liking).



I LOVE your hearse and the pumpkin sentinel - they are both fabulous. Great attention to detail and construction and I honestly don't notice the sawhorses - until you mentioned them - they kind of blended. Welcome to the forum - looks like you'll fit in REALLY well here.

 

[Zombie4*]

This is fantastic!!! Please post pics of it with lights at nite!!!! Super job!!??

 

[Sasha87]

Wow! That is amazing! Excellent job.

 

[bettyboop]

Excellent Job. You are very talented.

 

[jdubbya]

Another great hearse build. Really good attention to detail. Strong work!

 

[LouNroxLuv]

Both projects came out amazing!

 

[90Moneypit]

That's awesome! Yes, the 1313 and spiderwebs make me smile too! Now I'm trying to figure out how to make something like that with hinges so I could do something like a pop up and locking latch system. I don't think I could bring myself to tearing it apart and I don't have a barn (well, not yet) to store something like that in. It's bad enough already that I have the wooden 'wobbly' bridge from Spirit's display last year but it compacted down well.

 

[RorschachMasks]

Thank you everyone for the kind words so far. I've never actually attempted to build anything before but I'm a die-hard believer in "put your mind to it and you can do anything."

Oh, I can assure you I don't have the space to store this guy. In fact, even as I was building it I could never quite "finalize" things because I knew I had to leave it collapsable just so I could move it from my back patio to my front yard. That means, the walls, roof and front seat portion had to come off. So everything was essentially a dry run, held temporarily in place while I built it, only to be deconstructed, moved part by part (too heavy to lift over the fence, too wide for my gate to pass through) and reassembled permanently (wood glue, proper screws, etc.) once settled into it's front yard location. The plan forward is to upgrade a rental storage space to a larger unit just to hold this thing after Halloween....

 

[ktechman]

Wow this is really awesome. It is well done, large and unique. I am sure you will get lots of viewers come by to check it out.