Autowood.net - still in business?

[Ray Whiting]

Hi to all ,

I found on the internet a guy called Jim who has a website and does wooden car body frames.

His email address according to his website is  jim@autowood.net    I have sent 3 emails to him over a period of time but they are always returned  by the internet provider with a note to say his in box is full.  Does anyone know if Autowood still exists or has it closed. If the business does perhaps someone could ask him to try and contact me   rayanddenise@xtra.co.nz

Cheers

[Dave39MD]

Communicating with Jim has been difficult according to recent customers comments on other sites. About 7 years ago I was a satisfied customer but found calling him at about 8 in the morning his time was best. 

 

There were reports of health issues as well so he may not be doing the work anymore.

 

Dave

Edited January 27, 2022 by Dave39MD (see edit history)

[jpage]

Unfortunately, when people go out of business or change ownership, especially small businesses, they often neglect to take down or upgrade their websites. Hope you can get hold of this guy and that he's doing well.

[chistech]

Jim is still in business but not doing much work. I understand he’s having a hard time getting any help and getting the thick ash planks through the planer has become too much for him. He had collected the money and promised to deliver on some Oldsmobile wood for a friend but is now not returning calls. I will be making the pieces my friend paid for but has not received from Jim. I’ve gotten many recent requests for car body wood so I’ve started to upgrade my equipment to speed up my ability to produce parts. I should be up and running within the week and will be starting on the lower body wood for a 32’ Olds 4dr. I also have another 32’ olds roadster coming in for a complete re-wood including patching some rusted areas and fastening the sheet metal to the framing. Here is the “new to me” 5 hp, 36” Crescent band saw and Ritter double sided bias sander. I’ve started installing casters and fixing any issues on both pieces and they should be ready to go in a day or two. The saw runs/cuts perfectly and I cut a piece of 8x8 red oak at an average of one inch to one/two seconds! This is more that ten times faster than my 14” Delta saw and I should be able to easily cut two sills out together in about a quarter to half the time on the crescent than it takes to cut out one on the delta. The horizontal sander with a 50 grit belt sands incredibly fast and having the ability to leave one table set at 90 degrees and the other side set to the common angles many of the pieces have, along with a 6” and 3” drum sander for the inside radius’s should make the work so much easier and convenient. The sander is set up with biased or “angled to the belt” attitude so the whole belt is used simply buy moving the pieces from one end of the table to the other. This prevents cupping of the piece edge and loading up of the belt by sanding in just one area of the belt. With the purchase of this equipment and other recent pieces my intentions are to go into business full time later in this year. Like Jim Rodman, I will also have the ability to take in a car and make/install the wood rather than just make pieces or kits. More to come.

Edited January 27, 2022 by chistech (see edit history)

[Mike "Hubbie" Stearns]

While your doing some upgrades, your going to need some serious dust collecting. I would do some research on what is required for each piece of equipment. I use a modified hf for the saw and planer. It’s more of a chip collector and not much for dust. I would look at a cyclone unit. Mike

[chistech]

I’ve already got some dust equipment actually. You can see a lot of dust on the floor because I wasn’t using any collection while I was setting up and testing the sander. For the picture, I had just attached one of my collection units. 

Edited January 27, 2022 by chistech (see edit history)