[Bill Hall]

Old Blue got off the cutting board for a few laps tonight. Most of the rough stuff is done. Gear Buster posted a nifty chop top a while back and I made a mental note. Note to self: "That's cool. Gotta have one!"

The standard roof was too angular to work with for the look I was after. Didn't have a blue one anyway! A new roof was roughed out from the nose of a sacrificial XK140 and a small slice of the forward roof of a Camaro. The XK nose has nice curvature and fit perfect along the Hotrod's back trunk. Pretty much a no brainer!

The "A" pillars are the upper door sills from the XK. The hood side fills are the Camaro hood split down the middle. The whole shebang sits on a rear drop axle chassis. The AFX steelies came from a beater Nomad that got diced and sprayed onto the Orange Crush coupe. So far I like the look.

The forward edge of the roof sides still need pie cut and pulled in a bit. "A" pillars are still kinda thick, but I like them solid to start with. After they're cured it actually makes thinning them less scary.

Once the roof fits a little better I'll cut an oval window in the back prior to bonding. I'll build and prefit the remaining glass at the same time. Probably gonna go with the smoke look cassette box for glass.

This body was the lighter blue Super Modified example. The final shade will be the darker blue XK 140. Over all she's still rough but she's finally looking like a car.

 

[TX Street Racer]

Bill, ol' Blue looks pretty cool. Interesting roofline.......almost reminds me of a Vette

 

[gear buster]

looks cool

Bill,

You are going to have to stop that..You keep makin me break my keyboard. My hands are saying build..build,build.. My mind is sayin vacation..LOL

That is a sweet lookin ride there Bill. Love the roof. Gives it a whole different line and look..And the wheels are just about an era perfect look for the body style. :thumbsup:
Keep 'um comin and I will keep droolin.. :thumbsup:

 

[T-Jet Racer]

Hey Bill, DO you cut the front on the chassis to bend the pick ups back like that? Hard to see in the photo but it looks like you do. The roof in the front, will you narrow it some? It seems a little wide. It looks like it will be another great job at hackin!

 

[coach61]

Big blue looks good Bill! send it here and Iwill give a complete apprasial of it and send it back in 15 20 years.


Coach

 

[Bill Hall]

Thanks Guyz!

Coach: - Watchu talkin' 'bout? You'll get your very own. Joe said he'll cast the coupes too. If we live long enough for me to finish them. LOL

T-Jet: - Nah! I thought I'd leave those "Dumbo Ear" drip rails flappin' in the breeze! Read the text.

Yup T-Jet, all my modified deuces require front chassis mods and a chassis side shave regardless of how the rear is set up. The pickup mods are just simple snips and cuts to the front pan and rails. Clearancing 101 :thumbsup:

Buster of Gears: - Sorry to hear about your keyboard! I'm just on a crazy tear as of late. When I came to this board all you slot animals had set the bar pretty damn high. I'm just tryin' to catch up. I'm pedaling as fast as I can!

Cant wait for your last piece of my puzzle to arrive! Picture old blue with that installed. Now I'm goin nuts waiting for the postman :freak:

TX: - Yer right! That roof does look like the early factory 'Vette hardtop. Didnt really plan it that way. Like most of my stuff it just happens.

It also spawned another good idea. The vibe body this roof was made from is really thick. With a little detail filing, I can see this roof as a "ragtop up" version as well. The stock roof is too thin and not shaped correctly for any shenanigans.

Stop and think of how many different cool 1:1 deuce rods you've seen over the years. The ideas just keep comin'. It'll be a long time before I dig my way out. No end in sight! :tongue:

 

[T-jetjim]

Bill - Great work. you are a master of the Testor's melding process. The oval window will look perfect on this baby.

Jim

 

[roadrner]

Bill,
Looks great! When do the classes start? :devil: rr

 

[videojimmy]

looks great Bill.... I;m jealous

 

[zanza]

Was worth the effort, this roof is really well done... the rest also of course

 

[Bill Hall]

Jim: - Quit it Jim, but thanks for the honorary title. I'm just a slot cobbler. I'd rather buff a turd than buy new slots in the box. The process has evolved quite a bit. I've got more tricks up my sleeve. Each step has spawned other ideas to improve the technique. I'll just say that next from Frankensteins lab will be preformed sections for panel replacement. Please stay tuned.

VJ: - Back at you brother. I'm green for your toyz too! :tongue:

rr: - The classes start every time I slather some goo. I learn something new every time. Mostly what not to do!
Boo-boos are easy to fix. I just dont document my failures.

Zanza: Thanks for the props. I like to get picks up early in the process so the progression of my builds can be viewed as they happen rather than posting just finished cars. For me it's all about the journey.

 

[Bill Hall]

Roof Roughed

Old Blue got pushed aside for a while as I was rumbling another build. In the previous pics of old blue the lid was just sitting there.

Pic 1 - Shows the rough idea of the oval window I had originally envisioned.

The rear roof bond came out real nice for the first float and I'm pretty happy with the overall look from the rear. The giant drip over hangs seen in the previous post have been contoured. I had planned for this and left lots of material on the underside drip edge so it could be cut back easily once the roof was bonded. I always leave extra material whenever possible!

Pic 2 -Once this cures I'll square up the posts and thin them down. All the glass has been cut a prefit as is my custom, but I still cant wait to see it finished with the tinted glass installed.

Pic 3 - This body had a mashed rear apron and a severe shrink thru on the rear post. The rear has been floated twice and rough blocked. The lower seam will be massaged straight during the top coat sprays.

Pic 4 - I finally figured out how to use the Macro setting on my space shuttle of a camera. LOL. This pic gives a good indication of what the fills and fixes look like when they are cut back. Obviously it was a Super Modified body, note the extra bullet holes.

I ripped old blue down pretty hard with 600 and followed with 1200. Unless I really screw up I should be able stay in 1200 while I chase pinholes and boogers around. All the ghost lines and color mismatch will disappear gradually as the top coats are applied. I've all but given up trying to match color since the sprayable mix came to be.

This one is especially fun for some reason.

 

[tjd241]

My vote (if anybody's counting)...

Top up ragtop. Very old-school like a T-Bucket. Me likey.

 

[bobhch]

WOW! old blue is one cool old scool rod. I love this place! Bob

 

[tjd241]

How about....

a louvered trunk lid Bill?

 

[scratch]

Oldies

Bill,

Very nicely put out, this ride . . . Kinda like oldie stuff anyway.

Wouldn't retail packaging bubble pack with sprayed on window tint, like Testors, be much lighter in weight?

Very good "how to" as well, color scheme looks great also . . .

Cheers,
Jas

 

[Bill Hall]

a louvered trunk lid Bill?

Dave: Your a bad influence! LOL. I've been mulling this picture for a while and think I may be onto an HO scale louvre punch. I will R&D it this week. I wont tip my hand yet in case it backfires. Naturally it will involve fire of some kind!

Bob: Yeah I love this place too! How could you not? Big little boys playin' with cars. :thumbsup:

Scratch: I stole this idea from your Blue Hiboy. Unfortunatly it got mutated a bit along the way. Not exactly what I planned. I just sorta' free wheel my builds and go with the flow. I'm pretty happy with this one!

These little deuces I've been building are very tough. My preferrerd choice of window glass is cut from other raw materials; old windsheilds, cassette boxes. My rowdy driving style requires that a certain standard of toughness is met. Really though, I have a pile of tinted and clear glass windsheilds and try to use them up when I can.

Each piece of glass is cut and hand filed for precision fit in unseen channels or grooves as required. I cut bevels, notches, tabs and undercuts on the glass for the Hot Rods as the windsheild and side glasses interlock in the inner "A" pillar channels and along the top inner door edge. It works out best if the interlocking puzzle is left thick while fitting and then thinned/drawfiled from the backside prior to polishing and final assembly.

Due to the robust nature of the material my glass is "scale bullet proof", but not always scale thickness. I also like the fact that it can be polished to a nice luster and rebuffed if marred. I grant you maybe not the lightest material
I could use however the overall added weight is negligable when I weigh the advantages.

Jas, What sort of mischeif have you been up to?

 

[tjd241]

Yup !

Dave: Your a bad influence! LOL.

...You know, while I'm at it, I also noticed there were not any functioning gauges on the dash and the digital clock is 10 minutes slow!

.... just kidding you Bill. Louvers or no louvers it's a winner in my book. :thumbsup:

 

[Bill Hall]

Truthfully Dave I think the louvre's would be a wonderful part of the natural evolution of these cars. Both custom louvres and the factory verticals for the side hoods.

Each car is and will continue to be a reflection of the base design with an added twist or idea from the outside. So many good ideas have been proffered from the board and I plan to address them all in future builds.

Louvres, pipes, boxed rockers, convertible top ups, sunshades, frenched tail lights, out rigger headlamps, a revisit of the stock chrome windsheild frame in a new location with a different rake, and currently in the skunk works a much needed rework of the grill.

Ironically, last night when I was shaving the windsheild and building the dash filler strip for the Rumbler; I thought "I really need to come up with some gauges and sink the cockpit down to open up room for a more detaled interior". So I LMAO when I read your post this morning regarding dash design.

I gotta tell ya though, the LED clock is vetoed! LOL. .... but a proper Wonderbar woudnt be out of the question! :thumbsup:

I refuse to participate in the sacreligous digitization of the Deuce! :tongue:

 

[Bill Hall]

Quick shot

I cut Old Blue back with 2000 and shot the first topcoat layers.

Like the last group of pics, this pic was shot in Macro and clearly shows the effect of one layer. There's still a few ghosts here and there but the darker Vibe Jag blue is starting to over come the original Super Modified lighter blue. This is great coverage for the first blast of styrene.

Next on the color scheme list is a purple blend...hopefully; and a darker yellow made from the daredevil jump set, maybe similar to the AFX translucent yellow with any luck.