1/16 Scale Army Vega Funny Car - Finished 10/14/2018

[speedy5963]

Been a while since I have logged on, wow, this has come a long ways!

[Pro Tech]

Chris, coming along nicely bud. Keep on keeping on, there's light at the end of that tunnel.

Charlie

Pro Tech

[Mooneyzs]

Paul... Thanks Buddy... I sure miss building models with you and your Dad. This build has been a long one that's for sure and I can't wait to get it done.... Soon hopefully Soon

Charlie... Thank you Very much my friend. I am going to be putting your awesome braided line to use here hopefully in the next week or so... Very close to getting that detail added to the engine . The Light is definitely getting brighter but it has gone out with a few set backs.... 

[Mooneyzs]

Well it's that time for another update. Made some more progress but with the progress I made some steps backwards. Seems like lately when I make 2 steps forward I end up taking 5 steps backwards. Anyway last weekend I got the body all sanded down and ready for primer and was able to primer it Saturday night. Then the plan on Sunday was to get the underside of the body painted with the Hot Rod Flats Urethane Hot Rod Black. I will let the Pics tell the story from here....

Here is The Body, The Air Damns and Snorkel all ready for some primer:

 

Here is the Body and parts after they had a few coats of primer sprayed on them:

 

After the Primer was dry it got a coat of guide coat for when I block the body out:

[Mooneyzs]

Then on Sunday I got the body all taped up and ready to spray the inside of the body as I mentioned with the Hot Rod Flats Hot Rod Black Urethane. Was so happy to get to this point to be making progress on the body:

 

Well this is the part of the story where I take what felt like 5 steps back. After I was done spraying the 2nd coat of black. I was looking at their tech sheet to see the drying times and on the tech sheet it was talking about using a certain part number hardener so I though to myself that can didn't look like what I used. Well right then and there it dawned on me that I totally forgot to pull the Hardener out of the refrigerator. It was that moment that my stomach just dropped and I though to myself that I messed up big time. The paint had seemed to be dry to the touch and well I decided to call a dear friend of the family who got me into painting with automotive paints since he is car painter and been doing it for a long time. So I told him my big screw up and he told me that he has heard of people doing worse...lol and told me to contact the manufacture to see what they say. SO on Monday I call TCP Global who is the owners of The Custom Shop which is the Hot Rod Flats and after talking to the Customer Service guy. He basically told me that the paint will dry but will never actually cure But he did say that I could use the reducer and it will wipe off with the reducer. He also said I could leave it but as he mentioned it would never cure and I was afraid that when I got to back tape it when I do the color could the tape pull the paint from any where. Needless to say after I got off the phone I was Totally bummed and wanted to put the car back on the shelf. I have been pushing and rushing myself to get things done trying to make the show next month.

So Since Tuesday night I have been taking a few days to remove all of the black that I painted with the reducer as the customer service told me to. It was a paint in the A$$ because I had to be really careful not to break any of the tabs. Anyway the moral of this story is that if you are ever shooting Automotive paints don't forget your Hardener...lol. I don't want any of you to have to go thru what I did. Now most base coat/ clear coat paints you only use hardener in the clear and you only reduce the base coat. The base coats are reduced typically 1:1 or 2:1 depending on the brand and clears are typically 4:1:1. If you want it a little thinner to spray from an air brush you can safely add another 10% of the reducer which actually helps it flow out and lay down better from my experience. Anyway here is a pic after I started removing the black paint. I actually took some with my cell phone in the first few stages of removing the paint but unfortunately this morning my cell phone decided to take a BLAH_BLAH_BLAH_BLAH and break on me. the stupid on off button broke and I am waiting for Verizon to send me a new one...lol so this pic was when I had most of the paint removed:

 

Now here is the body after I have removed all of the paint off:

[Mooneyzs]

So After removing all of the black with the reducer. I had to sand some areas of the underside of the body. I used some fine scotch brite and some 400 grit sand paper since a few of the areas the reducer too it back down to the plastic. which had to be careful with it on the bare plastic it looked like when you use weld on #3, Pro amproid...etc glues like that. After sanding it got a bath in some luke warm water with some dawn and then I let it air dry. Tonight I got it all taped up again to repaint:

 

Then I used some glad press and seal material so I did not have to tape the whole body up:

 

Here is all of my materials ready to spray again. And if you can see I wrote on the top of the can a reminder to myself not to forget the Hardener ever again ;D

 

Here was after the first coat:

 

This was immediately after the second coat. They recommend spraying wet coats:

 

And here it is after maybe 15 mins of flash time:

I have to tell you guys that I am so happy to be over this hurdle. Now I can get back the nexts I was originally going to start working on before I made my little boo boo. So Stay tuned and I will hopefully have another update tomorrow and some over the weekend.

[BrentFoster]

Love it Chris.

Is this possibly the home stretch?  unreal job as always. 

[Codi]

When I read the opening part of your update, was like, uh-oh, this can NOT be good.  But sir, that was one heck of a "save" on the car and was well worth all of the extra time.  The car looks great and I'm happy for ya' Chris that you can move on with it.   cheers, tim

[Davewilly]

Nice save Chris....Seems like painting .....if your not doing it every day....always gets you with something (by you I mean all of us in the first person view..lol) But its the one thing that if its not right that everyone see's first.  and if its what  catches their eye thats as far as their eyes go...In your case would not have been a big deal being on the underside IF it was the last thing you painted and never had to tape it off ot really worry about handling it much........but Hey  you fixed it and seems like it wasnt to bad....at least it wasnt a soak in the purple pond or the easy off containment pond! 
Looks great now and you know its safe to keep moving forward with out having to worry about every time you touch it!

 Looking forward to the next update my friend!

[gtx6970]

Can color be far behind, I hope not. My popcorn is still all warmed up.

[Nytrozilla]

This is what separates the Men from the Minions. I blame the Minions for distracting you due to unnecessary supervision. In my mind, you went to the frig to get the hardener, saw the beer next to it, thought about the grief your Minions were causing you and decided the beer was a better idea.

But here's the real deal. You are the King of perseverance.

per·se·vere

ˌpərsəˈvir/

verb

 

1. continue in a course of action even in the face of difficulty or with little or no prospect of success.

   "his family persevered with his treatment"

   synonyms:

   persist, continue, carry on, go on, keep on, keep going, struggle on,hammer away, be persistent, be determined, see/follow something through, keep at it, press on/ahead, not take no for an answer, be tenacious, stand one's ground, stand fast/firm, hold on, go the distance,stay the course, plod on, stop at nothing, leave no stone unturned;

    Or, as Larry the Cable Guy would say, "Git 'er done!!!!!!!"

    

 

[gasser59]

Great save my friend. You pulled that rabbit right outta the hat and made it dance. Awesome update brother.

[Danno]

My, my, my.

 

 

 

[majel]

Amazing!!  The body is still in one piece, that takes a lot of restraint to not just chuck it!!  Great job Chris!

 

[Ben]

Outstanding work Chris!!!! I can't wait to see how fast it runs the 1/4!!!!!!!

[comp1839]

typical chris. you make a boo boo and your recovery is better than what i can produce without the mistakes! awesome buddy!

[Petetrucker07]

Bummer dude. Glad you were able to deal with it, fix it, and keep moving forward. Nice save, it looks like nothing happened. 

[Belugawrx]

Nice save Chris !!

Coming up on year 5 of this build,...tonite switch yer clock forward and Give 'er 

Really like following your progress, no matter how long it takes,...

Cheers

[Mooneyzs]

Brent... Thank you... I really hope that this is the home stretch 

Tim... Thank you. Seems like I keep Hitting speed bumps one after another lately. But I have to say that it feels good to have the underside repainted and done...lol

Dave... Thanks. That is so true isn't it. I would love to have a nice little booth to spray in considering my booth is me opening the side door of my garage and spraying in the back yard... 

Bill... Only time will tell on the color... lol Hopefully sooner than later but the way things are going may be later...lol

Joe... Thank you my Friend. Umm I will blame it on the minions... lol I won't let the little hurdles stop me....

Brad... Thank you. I am wondering how many rabbits are in the hat because I feel I am going to need a few more of them.

Danno...  its coming along 

Jim... Thanks... I was so ready to throw it and it almost got a dip in the purple pond but I would of had to of redone all of the primer as well.

Ben... Thank you. Now wouldn't that be cool if it could fire up and run... lol

Dave... Thank you my friend. I am trying to do the best I can with all of the hurdles and mistakes thrown my way. I have come to realize that it will never be perfect in my eyes.

Clayton... Thank you. I was glad to be able to fix it. I am ready to put it behind and continue with other parts of the build.

Bruce... Thank you. Yep its been 5 Long years that I have been on this. I have learned quite a bit during this build which will help me in future builds and I won't take this long again... lol I can make the Promise that it will get done this year... LOL 

 

[Mooneyzs]

Hello all... well it that time again for another quick update for you I made some more progress yesterday but just as this Journey has gone with with this build, every time I feel I am making good progress and make a couple of steps forward. I always ended up taking 3 to 4 backwards. I did get some time in with the Airbrush yesterday. I got a bunch of parts prepped and ready to paint a semi gloss mixture of the Hot Rod Flatz paint. I took their Hot Rod Black and Chassis black to create a sheen I was hoping to achieve and got a bunch of parts sprayed... Here is the progress....

I started by getting some under seat panels painted:





Then I got the Mid-Plate resprayed I may try to weather ever so slightly:





Got the Headers repainted and I think I am going to weather these just a little as well:





Backside of the Headers:

[Mooneyzs]

I have to apologize for the pics. I was taking them with my cell phone and they didn't turn out so great

I got the fuel tank resprayed but there ended up being a few pieces of dust that got into it and on the very top of the tank it seemed the paint pulled to the edges. sorta hard to see here since the pic wasn't in focus:

 

Side shot of the tank. There ended up being a few spots that the airbrush splattered some paint, like it spit:

 

Got the heat shields painted but I was not at all happy with them since it had a blemish in the paint that was noticeable to me and the fact that the paint pulled to the edge. Needless to say I will be redoing these:

 

Got the wing sprayed. And if you can't notice   there are a few blemishes that look horrible to me. This piece will get re painted as well:

 

I was so stoked to get the back window painted and now if you look closely you can see on the outside edge and the edge of every louver that the paint looks different and that it pulled to the edges. I am wondering if it was because I thinned the paint a little more so that it would lay down a little smoother. This piece is on the Re-Paint list as well...lol:

[Mooneyzs]

Well with all of the good news here is where there is Bad News... LOL This seems to be the Theme of my post lately and I don't know why but it is.

I was so happy to be able to get the Body tins repainted so that I could start installing all of the rivets into it. SO I decided to super glue a piece of plastic to the side that I could use as a handle to paint it. Well it seemed like a good idea but in reality ended up not being. You will see a few pics down. The top seemed to turn out ok:

 

Here is the bottom and where it goes down hill from here. So in the middle of spraying my first coat on to the Body Tins. I started out by spraying the bottom side and then was going to move to the top side. All was going well until when I started to spray the top side and literally the handle broke and it was like slow motion that the tin started to fall. Now keep in mind that the super glue held perfectly but the plastic that I had super glued to broke in mid spray. I will say this I was lucky enough to have caught the tins from hitting the rocks on the ground in my back yard. Some how I was able to save it from hitting the ground. you can see in this pic where some of the paint had smeared from my fingers hitting those spots and I caught the tin in the rear of the hoop area on the right:

 

I will be honest.... this is where you may not want to look...   LOL. The pic turned out blurry but you can see the area where the plastic broke. It just dawned on me right now where I should of glued the handle now. Too Late now...haha.... SO this is the 3 or 4 steps backwards spot and sucks that I have to fix the tins yet once again:

 

Here is a side view of the piece that broke off. You can see that I super glued a piece of plastic tube to the tins and then I place a piece of brass tube around the plastic tube to make the handle stronger because the tube seemed pretty flimsy:

 

Here is a somewhat straight on shot of the piece. The only good news is that I believe that it should be pretty easy to put that piece back in place and Super Glue it in. SO hopefully the fix won't be that bad:

 

Needless to say I have had a few more set backs with this but I am going to the bench now and I am going to be working on stuff on the engine and parts to take a break from all of this body stuff. Hope to show some progress later today.

[Danno]

Soldier On, Chris!  

You can do it!   Not a big setback.  You will prevail.  

 

[Mooneyzs]

Danno... Thank you my friend. We shall see what this week brings. I have a few thinks I would like to get done this week for sure.  Hoping to have an update later it may not be a very big update but it will be some progress. So stay tuned   ?

[Petetrucker07]

Dude! It seems as though something doesn't want you to finish this yet. Man, that really blows that something so little, will cost you a bunch of time fixing it. I know you will get it right, get back on track and on to the next thing. Hopefully the setbacks are tapped out and you can keep it going smoothly.