This time, in a good way.

What do you do if a motorcycle accident takes away two of your favorite things; in this case, wood working and playing the bass?

A shattered left wrist left Sandy Sanderson of New Zealand with some extra time on his hands.  Thankfully for us, he put that time to good use by turning empty beer and soda cans into magnificent model cars.

Sandy began playing the bass guitar at 40 and joined a local band with whom he played for more than 12 years. His love of the instrument and skills as a woodworker led him to designing and building electric stringed instruments. Upon retirement, He had hoped that he might carry on full time as a luthier. Those plans were shattered along with his left wrist in a motorcycle accident.

Reconstructive surgery involving 4 plates, 8 screws and a bone graft made it possible for Sandy to ride again. It did not replace the loss of strength, dexterity, and sensitivity required to play the bass or operate powerful wood-working tools.

Frankly, many of us (well, me for one) would turn to drink faced with such a loss, and perhaps there were a few extra beer cans lying about that might have provided Sandy with his first spark of inspiration.

He had seen model airplanes constructed from drink cans, but those models typically had the plain aluminum on the outside. Sandy says, "This defeats the purpose of using the drink cans as far as I am concerned. You want everyone who looks to be able to see instantly what your basic resource was. Celebrate the fact, don't hide it!"

To see high resolution images of some of Sandy's creations, be sure to check out the Automotive Traveler image gallery. For more images and the complete story of how a beer can can become a work of art, be sure to visit Sandy's web site.

The Beach Buggy required no less than 30 empty cans to create. I know that I will never look at a beer can the same way. Sandy, I salute you for bringing two of my favorite things together in such an artistic manner.