Man Builds Detailed Model Cars From Discarded Aluminum Cans

Meet Sandy Sanderson from New Zealand. Needing something to keep himself occupied after breaking his wrist in a motorcycle accident, he started building amazing model cars from discarded aluminum cans. His incredibly intricate work below.

Sandy's something of a renaissance man; draftsman, guitar player, teacher, motorcyclist, instrument maker and model builder. When he was in a motorcycle accident which shattered his wrist and put him out of action for a while, he needed something to do. While finishing a canned beverage he thought of model airplanes he'd seen made from cans and thought why not make cars out of the same material? And thus was born the CanCar. The "Coriba Climax" below is his first effort and while impressive in its own right you see the cars keep getting more and more technically detailed with each successive build. Very cool hobby Mr. Sanderson, and talk about a unique (though somewhat spendy) Christmas present opportunity.

Coriba Climax:

Coruba Climax Can Car Gallery

The Cooper Climax was the first of the modern rear engined grand prix cars and had very pleasing proportions. I saw the Coruba mixers in cans and the Coruba and Cooper sort of got together in my head. Thus the Coruba Climax.

When you cut into a can the wall thickness is quite fine and easily distorted and creased. In order to make another 3 dimensional structure from it you must provide more rigidity.

I used card on this car and stuck the alluminium to the card with impact adhesive. Initially this worked well though was quite messy. However after a short period the curved sections started to delaminate.

During the design stage I started working out how to make working suspension and steering and realised that this was becoming far too serious. The pendulum then swung completely the other way and I ended up making this a very simple model. On reflection I think it is too simple and if I were to make it again would add more of the detail and construction techniques that evolved with the subsequent cars.

Built August 2006

8 Coruba & Cola Cans

A car like this may be purchased for $800.

The Hot Rod:

Hot Rod Gallery

I used balsa wood instead of card for the substrate with this one, with cyanoacrylate (superglue) as the adhesive. This worked much better than the card and impact adhesive, and has become my standard method of construction.

This is a much more complex model than the Coruba Climax. A great deal of detail is included and this greatly enhances the visual impact of the model. Notice how the graphics from the cans flows from one part to its neighbor.

Built September 2006

20 Coca Cola Cans

A car like this car may be purchased for $1,500.

The Buggy:

Buggy Gallery

Using the experience gained with the Hot Rod I set about creating another motoring icon, the Beach Buggy. The ironic part about this one is that I ended up making a fuel tank to look like the drinks can.

Built October 2006

30 Waikato Beer Cans.

A car like this car may be purchased for $2,000.

The Guinness:

Guinness Car Gallery

This is my wifes' favourite one. She drank the Guinness, I made the car!!

Built October 2006

16 Guinness Cans

A car like this car may be purchased for $2,000.

The Roadster:

Roadster Can Car Gallery

When people looked at the previous cars they always asked " How long did it take?" With that in mind, I logged all the hours I spent on this one. It amounted to 43 hours.

Built November 2006

28 Rheineck Beer Cans

A car like this may be purchased for $1,500.

The Guinness 2:

Guinness 2 Gallery

The Guinness cans are noted for having a widget in them. There is even a little note about them on the side of the can which I used on the dashboard on Guinness 1. While I was looking at the completed model it struck me that I had missed an opportunity to include a widget that rattled inside it. That prompted me to make this model. It does have a widget that wattles!!! It gets nick-named 'The Widget Woadster'

This is an example of taking something that has worked well and altering external details to give a different appearance. Compare the induction system and exhausts to the other Guinness car to see what I mean.

Built May 2008

11 Guinness Cans

A car like this may be purchased for $2,000.

The Jeep:

Can Jeep Gallery

Here is another motoring icon recognised the world over, the Willys Jeep.

I used round plastic to form the rim of the steering wheel, and prefer the appearance to the flat rims of the previous models. I may well go back and change them sometime.

There is a great deal more detail on the underside of this model than there has been previously.

Built January 2009

17 Waikato Beer Cans

A car like this car may be purchased for $2,000.

The Mini Moke:

The Coke Moke Gallery

The Moke is the first car I have made using cans of more than one type. This has enabled me to add more colour to the car which helps to define the parts more clearly. The original Moke was designed as a basic utility vehicle that was easy to manufacture and, as a result, is an eminently suitable candidate for making out of cans.

The name Moke rhymes nicely with Coke so there is an unavoidable tie up there, too. The cans of Coke Zero that I used are of a smaller diameter than I have had in the past, and this allowed me to make the smaller wheels that are required for this Mini based vehicle. It is to the same scale as the other cars I have made.

Because the Moke is a fairly simple model it means that, where there are details of interest, these must be included on the model. Otherwise there is a danger of the thing looking rather plain. The other method I used to avoid that are making the car a bit of a HOTROD. Bucket seats, roll-bar, racing fuel filler, high flow intake and exhaust, and beefy suspension components, all help create the impression that this little car is built for speed.

Built October 2009

15 regular Coke cans, and 8 skinny Coke Zero cans.

A car like this may be purchased for $1,500.

The Heineken:

Heineken Car Gallery

I always wanted to make this one but didn't on the grounds that it would be the wrong scale to my others. However when I got a request to make a car for my cousin in England, the scale issue dissappeared. I really loved this one.

The rim of the steering wheel on this one is also round plastic rod, this time wrapped with cotton thread to replicate the string bound rim of these early racers.

There is an 'E' in the front nerf bar and that is for Eric, my cousin. This method of naming was common practice "back in the day".

Although I love the colour you probably would not see a midget racer painted green, because they thought it was unlucky.

Built March 2008

12 Heineken Beer Cans

How They're Made:

Can Car Process Gallery

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.

The Wheels ( 8 can bottoms needed )

Raw Material ( tops & bottoms cut off )

Sat 26th Sept 09 Starting work!
Measuring up to see which part of the can will match.

Notice how the side panel appears to have impressions pressed in it. This involved a lower layer completely covered with can, and an upper layer with holes through it. The same area of can has to cover each so that the graphics follow from one level to another.

Racing fuel filler cap.
The fuel filler cap is actually a mirror screw chrome dome. It was lying about and I thought that would make a nice fuel filler cap!! The cap is sitting on top of a small disc of balsa, which in turn is sitting on top of a disc of can which has been stuck down inside out. Some pins pushed through around the outside to complete the illusion. Little details like this can be put together quite easily and the improvement they make to the car is tremendous.

Sun 04 Oct. The bottom
With there being three different types of Coca-Cola can available now, I have the option of putting more colour into the cars. Here you can see that I have used Coke Zero black for the bottom.

Wheel arches
Here you can see how the wheel arches are all lined with can. Sometimes it is impossible to achieve any cohesive alignment of the graphics, so pieces with no graphics on them are the best to use.

Grille Workings
Here I am laying out the details of the grille. The front of the car is covered with masking tape and I am about to mark where the slots go. These will then be cut out and black paint applied to simulate the slots. You can see some of my reference material at hand, you never have too much!

Roll Bar
Solid aluminium rod is used for the main bar as it can be bent properly. The aluminium tube can not be bent as it just collapses if you try. It is used for the straight support though. The mounting plates are balsa with can on them inside out, and dress makers pins through each corner.

Moke face
The grille is simulated with black paint. The head lights are discs of balsa with can stuck on in opposite ways. The indiwinkers are thin rings sliced off the end of an aluminium tube, with small discs of balsa pushed into them. Marker pen was used to colour the balsa before they were inserted.

Back Lights
These are a repetition of the front indiwinkers.

Cockpit
You can see how much detail can be added with things like wire, pins, paper clips, little screws and washers, and card.

Seats
The seats are made of 1mm balsa covered with Zero Coke can. The piping is red electronic hook-up wire.

The seats are just resting in place to see how they will look. I'll clear lacquer them separately from the car before final assembly.

Sun 18 Oct. Rear Suspension
You can see the brake plates with a hose coming from each into the bodywork. There are also representations of radius arms and telescopic dampers. This is a little HOTROD Moke so it should obviously have a beam axle rear end!

Front Suspension
Top and bottom suspension arms,trackrod end, drive shaft with CV boot, swivel hub, brake plate, and brake hose. All present and correct.