Why building a Star Wars landspeeder is definitely a good idea

After a holiday weekend binge-watching session of The Mandalorian, my desire for Star Wars vehicles in my garage has been rekindled. Luckily, YouTube mad fabricator Colin Furze created a video that gives me great hope. Watching him create a replica of Luke Skywalker’s X-34 landspeeder just makes me want to build my own—I could have the coolest car in the office parking garage.

Which would be unlikely, because if I were to use Furze’s video as a guide, I would be more welcome on a golf course than a city street. (I’d still totally drive it, even if I were restricted to golf greens.) An electric golf cart gave up its chassis for the project, but Furze fabricated everything from the frame up.

The original plan involved making the landspeeder’s complicated compound curves from foam and fiberglass; but after the first panel, Furze could tell that was not the best plan of attack. He shifted his design process and built the curvaceous body from sheet metal the old-school way, using a planishing hammer, English wheel, and a shrinker/stretcher.

All that metal fabrication serves as a reminder that no matter how complicated a repair may look at first, you can always make a patch panel. We all need ways to practice fabricating panels for our own projects—maybe we should get a spec series started. Who else wants to see a grid full of a dozen landspeeders ready to dash across great expanses? Sounds like a blast to me, but I’d probably have to sell mine to get a ride across the galaxy…

Let us know your thoughts below. Would you attempt a similar project in your garage?