Starting a Transforming costume project; 1970s lincoln continental

[Osbor]

In my long tradition of biting off probably more than i can chew, here's a thing i started on far too late last year for halloween and forgot about until a week ago.


THE GOALS;
-create a transforming costume
-car mode will be a close approximation to a 1970s lincoln continental
-be able to fully transform from car mode to human mode within 10 seconds or so, and make the transformation somewhat graceful
-be able to drive around while in car mode
-be able to make some car noises while in car mode, as well as some lights like working headlights and tail lights
-be somewhat comfortable to both walk around in robot mode, and drive around in car mode for extended periods (no acrobatics)

SO FAR;
this is stuff left over from last September or so,i did some design studies and tried to find a good "pose" to assume in car mode to be comfortable, i realized i would need to have some kind of knee pads that held the rear wheels, and extended shoulder pads to keep my arms aligned

settled on a pose and realized i would have to modify the car's proportions to make it work

proportions of segments

some scribbles about transforming. i'm thinking i'll need to make extensive use of magnets and elastic straps to assist in transforming

and this is to help me move around. the idea is that i'm holding onto this PVC tube that has motors on either end attached to the wheels, and i have a little throttle control on here. To turn i'll just steer the bar with my hands directly. in robot mode i'll either holster this thing or just carry it around.
this will also have a few buttons on it to control some sounds or lights, controlled by an arduino with a lot of distributed bluduinos scattered around the costume (no need for wires)



to be honest, what i really need is some guidance on the transformation mechanisms, or techniques to use. i'll probably have to do a lot of cardboard mockups of components to really dial it in.

what's the RPF think?
its only 6.5 months until halloween...
and i damn sure plan to keep this costume around for conventions

 

[Osbor]

THIS should give you an idea of what the car mode will look like.
big, long, low, classic american cruiser
ten gallons to the mile and cushy all the way

 

[Grimwood]

Wow.. that is going to be a challenging project! I wish you luck! There is a guy who created the bumblebee yellow car that transformed back and forth, although the contortions he put his body through must have been very uncomfortable, it was an amazing project. He usually draws a crowd at the different festivals he attends.

Subscribed!

 

[Osbor]

Wow.. that is going to be a challenging project! I wish you luck! There is a guy who created the bumblebee yellow car that transformed back and forth, although the contortions he put his body through must have been very uncomfortable, it was an amazing project. He usually draws a crowd at the different festivals he attends.

Subscribed!

oh yeah, his costume was extremely complicated and included stilts, i'm intentionally trying to keep this thing mechanically simple (for example, the roof/windows/doors are all one piece that straps onto my back with the doors coming around my side, to minimize moving parts)