The two most important things you have to consider when making a CanCar are firstly the car itself, and secondly the cans you wish to make it from. These decisions are not as easy to make as might seem the case.
The car itself must be easy to represent by using flat panels, single curvature panels, or combinations of the two. Most popular subjects like VW Beetles, Minis, and anything modern, are virtually all compound curves. This makes them impossible to represent in a realistic way. The easy answer to that problem is to pick something easier, or compromise on the realism aspect. The Mini Moke, however, was designed with ease of production in mind. As such it is perfect for replication as a CanCar.
The choice of cans may now be decided upon. By looking at the colour(s) and graphics on your target can you have to assess how they will translate into the different parts of the car. I have spent considerable time wandering around supermarkets and liquor stores "checking out the cans". This usually creates acute embarassment for my wife, and some suspicion and confusion for the store keepers. Sometimes however, like the Coke Moke, the choices are obvious, even to me.
Having made those fundamental choices the plan may now be drawn up. The basic size of the car is decided by the size of the can. The wheels are made from the bottoms of two cans put back to back. The further up the can you cut the bottoms off, the wider the resultant wheel will be. You can't alter the diameter of the wheel so you have to scale everything else to suit. The size of usable panel you get from the sides of the can, when it is cut open, determine the size of part you can make from it. This has to be considered when drawing the plan, and sizes and positions of things often have to be jiggled about to find the best fit.
With the plan completed, and the guesstimated number of cans emptied, work may commence.
