Peter Lombardo

Great job...nice collection. Man, that guy was on another planet back then. He was a one of a kind crazy guy. I briefly spoke to him once back in the early '60's at a car show. He was doing the custom tee shirt thing with Rat Fink. He was nuts, but we are all better for his creations.

After I posted this I spent a few minutes looking for a picture of a snake that would be appropriate for this car. This a Pit Viper. This is the perfect pattern for the car.. The green I mixed up will work perfectly with this. Here is a regular Viper in the Snakeskin Green. Pretty mean looking guy...don't you think.

Well I wasn’t planning posting an update on this car but I thought I would if for no other reason to show the hinges I used and how they can be used to make a door hinge that can either open a door inward (modern) and outward (classic). For the Viper ACRX, the doors needed to hinge inward. To accomplish this, you need to mount the movable end inside the door and the two fixed end rods to the inner front fender. To make the door open outward, just reverse the installation and fix the hinge end to the inside of the fender. I use aluminum tubing on the fixed end and permanently attach the tubs to the car and allow the brass hinge rods slide freely in and out of them. This way you can remove the doors during the building process to make whatever additions you need. I my case here, the doors will need to be removed for completion of the inner door wall and to be final painted. As you can see I finished off the top of the car with appliance white, lightly sanded and then topped with pearl white which was then clear coated. I did the same for the wheels. I still have to insert the air valve and paint the lug nuts and then mount the wheels on the tires. The tires have a very minimal tread pattern which will be sanded off since the ACRX has slick tires….you know, I will have to look around, I may have a set of slick tires that will fit…we’ll see. Once the top coat of pearl white and clear is completely dry, I will apply the striping masks and then work on the top coat color. I mixed up a batch of the Viper Snakeskin Green for the top coat. I feel that I hit the color exactly right. I mixed the two pearl powders in with the clear lacquer. First I mixed in a small amount of the yellow in with the clear….it made a nice pearl yellow. Then I mixed a very small amount of the pale green into the yellow and kept added very small amounts until the color looked right. At the very end I added a tiny amount of a darker green powder just to give it a little more depth. Once I was happy with the color mix I added some lacquer thinner to smooth it out and give it the right consistence for the airbrush. Vipers always have red engine details. I thought I would go a little farther down the road here. I painted the engine block with a Mopar Chili Pepper Red Pearl and the transmission in aluminum. The intake plenum is supposed to be aluminum too, but I when for a polished aluminum to give it a little pop (sorry, no picture of it here) actually, it is the same color as the disc brakes here. I painted the brake calibers with Tamiya clear red over the bright aluminum color. I will but a spacer in between the brake disc and the wheel hub to make the wheels stick out a little further since the fenders were extended with the flares. I freed up the front suspension pieces so that the wheels now turn left and right. I used the kit supplied tie rod and just added small brass idler pieces. I think it will look better with the wheel turned inside the flared fender. Next up I will build the exhaust headers and new exhaust pipes leading to the hole in the lower kick panel just in front of the rear wheel, and the roll cage. I have enough research pictures to get a good idea of how the roll cage looks. Since this is a personalized custom factory race car, not a straight factory car, I am thinking quite a bit on how I can modify the typical factory paint to give this a different look. Since they call the color Viper Snakeskin Green, I think it may need some scales and a frosted Viper logo in the rear window. I want some custom graphics to make this stand out. Dodge has a few really sharp looking Vipers being run by some private teams, I think I need to dress this one up a bit.

Don't worry Jim, the inspiration will hit you when you least expect it...you will figure it out! Skip, I will look into it. If I can do it, I will do it.

God bless you, you sure have a big project in front of you!!! I hope your bank account survives this build. Speaking from experience, I can tell you the costs just keep going up. I had a budget and within weeks I blew it pieces. In the end, it always get done, over cost or not. If it looks half as good as the model, it will be a winner for sure. Have fun with it!

Curt, that is going to be wild....I love the brute power idea of the Allison engine. I can't wait to see this as it nears completion. Are you going with the Electric Blue color or something more subtle? Regardless, it should be pretty neat.

I submerged the face of the chrome wheels in window cleaner to remove the chrome. Later the wheels will be painted….now many of the real ACRX’s that I have seen have black wheels, so naturally I will have white wheels just to be different, and to set off the exterior colors I will have chosen. My plan, as of right now is to do a customized dual stripe beginning at the very front of the nose and going up over the hood and top and then flaring out to the rear quarter panels. The stripes will be pearl white. I will spray the centerline top of the car white and then a coat of pearl white. Once dry, it will be masked off with some computer cut vinyl stripe masks before the top coat is applied. The rear panel will be carbon fiber as will the wing mounted on the trunk. The main color will be very similar to the Viper Snakeskin Green over a base coat of silver; it will be a mix of Jacquard Pearl pigments powders….Duo green yellow mixed with brilliant yellow. These powders are mixed with clear lacquer that is thinned out and sprayed through the airbrush. It is then toped with clear lacquer. The interior will be black (they are all black interiors on these cars) with a white roll cage and a red sear belt. I think this will be a rather stunning looking car when complete. After it is done, I want to do a partner for it with a Corvette ZR1….converting it into a mythical ZR1X with similar details only painted in that light pearl blue with pearl white stripes and a big carbon fiber wing on the back. Let the races begin.

I am just as deranged as many of you guys are. I am knee deep in various stages of 7 projects and the last thing I need is another project, but sure enough, that is just what I got myself into. The other day I was browsing the shelves of one of the hobby shops in my area and I stumbled onto the Revell Viper ACR (American Club Racer) kit. I really found the box top art to be rather “nasty and unattractive†and the price was a little steep at $23.00 bucks, but man that is sure a great car. Having run a Chrysler Dodge Jeep store from the beginning of the Viper phenomenon in the early 90’s, there has always been a special spot in my soul for the cars. I now represent a number of dealers who have Dodge franchises so I see the cars on a regular basis. Right now one of my dealers has an ACR in his showroom in that really great snakeskin green with white stripes and black wheels….very striking, to say the least. Now Dodge has produced a very limited run of 25 cars that are designated as ACRX (they say they may do an additional 25 if demand is there). These cars are true race cars that are not street legal. They actually do not have a ton of differences from the ACR so I thought with a little work; I could convert my ACR into a slightly customized version of the ACRX. The main difference between the ACR and the ACRX is that the ACRX has an additional 40 Horses due to a free flow exhaust and a new header, a factory installed roll cage, racing seat and fuel cell. It has a radio delete along with a/c and heater delete too. There are other small differences, like a non air bag Momo steering wheel, suspension tweaks and some electronic fuel management up grades. All of these changes are pretty easy to complete on a model. But in addition to the factory tweaks, I wanted to incorporate a few of my own. I want to put my “fingerprints†on the build. The first thing I did was open the two doors. It was actually a little more difficult to do on this kit than it is on most cars. First, the plastic on the sides of the body is rather thick……..thicker than most kits. Also because of the way the body in the kit is designed, once the doors were cut free, there is only a very thin strip of styrene (the A pillar) holding the body together. I had to attach the lower kick panel and the recessed quarter panels to the top part of the body to insure there would be enough strength to keep it all together. Once one side was finished and secured, I opened up the other side. Next all of the flanges on the bottom of the doors where the lower kick panel is attached needed to be removed. Then, because the door plastic is so thick, I had to grind down the leading inner edge of the doors so that when open, they have a realistic looking thickness. While I was at it with the Dremel tool, I also shaved the inside of the rear quarter panel where the door closes to have a realistic appearance. Next, I added the new flanges on the rear and bottom of the door openings so that the closed door will rest in place. Later I will add the hinges to the door front, and before anyone asks, yes, the door leading edge will open inward. As I have mentioned before, the same hinge will either open the door inward or outward, it just depends on which direction you mount them. Once the doors were opened, I thought that the car “racing looks†would benefit from a slightly flared wheel well. I did not want to go crazy with huge wheel flairs as the car doesn’t need them, but I thought a small flair would add a more aggressive menacing look to the stance of the car. I find the wheels and tires a little small looking for the car, but they appear to be very close to scale therefore I thought a small flair will help mask that. While I was adding the wheel flairs……which are very easy to do, I glued a piece of strip styrene to the inside of the wheel opening with Ten-X glue. I allowed the piece to stick out of the wheel well about a quarter of an inch and then I worked in some body putty onto the body above the outstanding styrene. Later I took the Dremel tool with a grinding drum on it and grinded down the flair to the point where I was happy. Later, I sanded the putty down smooth to form the flair from the body to the protruding wheel well. Next I opened up the exhaust outlets before the rear tires so that I can use a piece of tubing to make the opening more realistic looking. I also opened up the fog lights on the front fascia which will now become air intakes for front brake cooling ducting. The hood of the ACR and the ACRX has 6 large new louvers. These are filled on the kit, but I opened them up and filled them with aluminum mesh. They will be painted the same color as the hood. The engine does not require much work as the only difference between the ACR and the ACRX visually is the header, which I will have to create….should be a bit of a challenge but not too difficult. Next I needed to convert the standard Viper seat into the racing version of the seat. I had a seat from another Viper roadster…same seat, just molded in gray, not white. I added hip bolsters to the sides of the seat and filled in the inside area with putty. Next I fabricated the head and neck restraint unit that is attached to the head rest area of the seat. This was filled in with putty and will all be sanded smooth later. I have a photo etched 5 point seat belt that will be attached later. The seat will be covered with a textured look by being covered with embossing material and painted flat black. The radio face on the dash is being removed and filled with a planking plate. There is a small “black box†with a few warning lights mounted on the console, which will be replicated. The passenger seat is deleted. I will fabricate the roll bar from tube styrene to mimic the factory style roll cage.

All I can say is.....PERFECT!

John, not much more to add to the accolades on this build. It looks like you could just get in and go for a Sunday drive. Stunningly beautiful. It looks like the chauffeur spent an hour waxing it before taking her out.

Hey Ron, you have me confused! Maybe I am missing something here, or was not paying attention when I joined this forum, but I do not recall there being minimum finances or skill level to join in fun. I do not pick my friends or acquaintances based on any skills they have or don’t have. And I certainly don’t care about their finances available. This is a place where we can share our hobby with like minded individuals. We are here to share and learn. I doubt that there are any of us, experienced or not who don’t pick up a tip or technique from time to time. There is no reason to feel guilty or less accomplished here…..just enjoy yourself and don’t rain on anyone else parade and all will be well in this little corner of the world. Now, just go build something and don’t concern yourself with any limits, actual or perceived.

Hey Guys, thank you so much for the kind words...I really do appreciate them. Curt, I am looking forward to your rendition of the car...if it is half as sharp as Jeff's, it will be great. Again, thanks guys.

sorry, it got a little out of order..but it is all there in one way or another....sorry.

The opening headlights are a rather new item for me. I cut out the opening, and from another body I cut out the cover area. To these “covers” I attached triangular shaped arms that swing out behind the covers. I then fabricated stand units that the cover arms are mounted to. My plan is to attach a thin piece of brass wire rod between the two units with an arm in the center that will come down between the engine and the radiator. By moving this arm, if all goes as I plan (I Hope), the two light covers should open and close together. There is a planned large single headlight attached to the base unit which will be mounted behind the light covers. I kinda’ lifted the design of the light covers from the Cord. It just fit my eye so well, I had to incorporate the design into this car. As you can see I have very limited wheel well openings on the design. I think it goes so well with the Art Deco look. I just wanted to hint at there place on the fender. Next, using plastic strips I added four moldings to each fender. The original Y-Job has many very thin chrome molding on it’s fender. I wanted to simulate that component in the design without a direct copy. I lengthened the moldings and made them thicker, then I incorporated the taillights into the molding design by working them in between the top three moldings. I wrapped the lights around the rear quarter panel so as to provide rear lights to the side of the car, as the federal mandate would require. I plan on adding a wrap-around turn signal to the front under the headlight opening and slipping in between two of the front moldings.

After much deliberation with myself, I finally opted for the retractable hardtop. Originally, I made a soft top convertible frame from brass strips and rod. I actually worked very well and folded up right into the rear boot, but as is always the case with new ideas and projects I have come up across too many obstacles and I do not want to hold up this car any more than I already have. The difficulty I had with the convertible top is in the material. At first I used the liner silk material that you find inside a tie. I have plenty of old ties and actually have a few in the right color for this car, but that material does not have any “give “in it. To work properly it needs a little give so it will stretch a little as the top closes and folds down on itself. I even tried the upper section of old pantyhose (I know…sick), but that was too thick to be realistic looking. I think spandex may work, but not being a cycle’er I don’t have any and have decided to put the convertible top on hold for now. Later, I will make it work, one way or the other. I cut the hardtop in half and formed hinges out of brass stock. Next I formed a brass and aluminum hinge for the top so that it swings down, upside down, into the trunk. The front half of the top folds down on top of the rear and the whole thing fits, rather snugly into the boot. There will be an arm under the top which will force the front half of the top to swing out over the windshield as the top lifts up and out of the trunk. A number of years ago I build a custom Ford F150 Lightening that has a motorized top that folds down in to the bed with a cover that opens. That truck has 5 motors under it. I later built a customized 55 Chevy truck that has a retractable top and I limited that to only two motors. This will not be motorized as I do not want it mounted to anything. On the 58 Chevy I did with the remote control sunroof, I had the room to mount the one motor, control unit and battery on board, but this does not give the room for two motors and necessary battery power so it will be manual. The trunk top will be double hinged on the sides so that it will “slide†rearward and then up. When the top is in the up position, the rear trunk piece must slide beneath the top so it needs to have double hinge system so that it can move in multiple directions. I have not yet begun the interior. It will have seats carved out of foam and them vacuum-formed. The seats and the door sides will be covered in real leather. I have some very soft and thin leather that will be glued on. The upper door units and the dashboard will have real wood trim. I have some nice thin veneers for the job. The chassis is a slightly stretched out Firebird unit from the late eighties or early nineties (I think) it was a garage sale find . I am using the motor from that Revell kit but have made head covers like the ones on the Corvette motor. It looks pretty cool. Not that you see much of them, I made the front wheels pose-able, just because. One of the only things I did not have to think about very long was the color. This car will be Jet Gloss Black ( it may have a slight gold/copper metalflake dusting over the black….not sure yet) with a black and wood tone leather interior. As you can see from the grille and the engine block, the trim will be copper. Last year my brother did many of the 3-D graphics on a motorcycle. Let me explain. There is a guy down the street, North Jersey Customs who builds custom bikes. My brother does graphic design work on a number of his bikes. Last year he was entered in a three state contest…a biker build off, if you will. The event was in PA and it had a bike from NJ, NY and PA. The attendees voted for their favorite. My brothers guy won…very cool. His bike was all done in black with copper trim. As you can see, it looks great. Well my brother had left over copper leaf from the work he did on the bike and he gave it to me. I have been waiting to have the right car to use it on, and this is it. The grill, windshield, and side trim moldings will be copper, along with the engine block and a few other trim items. The wheel center spokes (only a very little is visible) will be copper and the rims are chrome. This puppy has a long way to go and I have many more hurtles to over come, but I have this finished, one way or another. Now, on a small business note…there are still a few guys who have not sent in their money for their bodies of this car. I don’t like being a pain in the rear, but if you have forgotten to forward your few bucks, I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks for getting al the way through this tomb. I don’t expect to update this any further until it is finished. Thanks for looking and for you guys who have this car, I expect to start seeing some work on them. Come on! The water is not too cold or shallow.

Then I cut out the hood area. I was not content to leave the hood plain so I cut small louvers out of tiny quarter-round plastic stock. I measured off the location on the hood where these louvers would go. As you can see, I made four rows on the hood. Once the louvers were glued on I began working very slowly from underneath with the sanding drum on my Dremel to carefully grind away the plastic under the louvers. Once I was down to less than the thickness of paper I switched to sandpaper. As you can see in the light, the louvers are all opened up. On the underside of the hood, from an excess body I had, I cut out a cross member support to reflect the supports that an actual car would have under the hood. I made a set of brass and aluminum hinges for the hood so it will tilt up from the front. Later I have a set of mini struts that will be mounted on either side to help hold the hood in the open position. I have mounted a magnet on the firewall, protruding out under the hood with a smaller magnet attached to the hood underside. Man, that magnet set up is really strong. Further up front, I cut out the headlight areas and the grille opening. The grille is made up of 22 horizontal bars held on the back with 3 crossbars. Once the horizontal bars were set, I used my Dremel to grind down the shape to fit into the opening and blended the contours slightly protrude out of the opening giving the front end more curve and flow. I was also looking incorporate a similar look that the Buick Blackhawk has.

It has been a while since I last posted anything on the forum. I have been very busy and just haven’t found much time. And on top of all of the activities, I just got into a reading mood and finished the first two books in the trilogy by Stieg Larsson and have begun the third. I don’t think that I can recommend these even though the critics raved about them….but that is not important now. If you think I am long winded and write a lot, I am nothing compared to this guy. As these books average 580 pages each….it’s like “War and Peaceâ€. Anyway, I was not planning on posting any “in progress†shots of the Dual Cowl Roadster I am working on until it was finished. I wanted to wait until it was done as it is going to incorporate many features, some a “first†for me and some that I have done before. This is going to be a build that brings many unique features together in one place. I think I will go back to the beginning with this car and bring the story up to date. If you will recall this car began as my update of the combination of the 1938 Buick Y-Job, the 2003 Buick Blackhawk (GM’s update of the Y-Job) and elements of the 1941 Chrysler Newport Dual Cowl Concept. As many of you know I really love the Art Deco School of design, especially how many auto designers of the era incorporated those design elements into the most elegant autos of the day. Art Deco was huge in Europe. The French, who I think really understood design concepts so very well, really made the most of it. Well, taking design elements from the three afore mentioned cars, I created a mold for the body out of sign foam. From that I vacuum-formed the body and a few tops. Next I cut open the interior area leaving the cowl between the two seating compartments. I cut open the four doors and made hinges out of brass wire and aluminum tubes. The inner “base†door panels were glued on and I used Bondo putty to form the door jams. The door hinges and jams were very difficult because the body has compound curves where the bottom sticks out further than the top. Tricky to get right but I think I have it working fine. Next I cut out the vacuum-formed windshield and mounted it along with lower side braces and a small molding where the front of the windshield will set on the front cowl.

Jeff...that is great!!! I can't believe that that is the car I designed.....I am so impressed. This going to be a killer build. I knew you guys could really take this car to another level. I have to tell you I am just sitting here smiling from ear to ear. I LOVE IT!

Wow, that is beautiful.....really sweet.....great color and flame combo. Workmanship and attention to detail like this will do the Art Deco Dual Cowl proud. I can't wait to see what you do to that one.

I love this.....great job.....Chevy should have done this. The balance is just right on the back bed and the length of the top....well done.

PO-TAT-O…or....PO-TOT-O….XKE…..or…..E-Type….. I don’t really care, All I know is that the Series I and Series II (not as much) is the most beautiful and sexy car ever designed that the average (slightly above average at the time) guy could buy and drive. Yeah….. Corvettes, Porsches, Mercedes and Ferrari’s were great…but E-Types in Europe and XKE’s in America are, in my humble opinion, the sleekest, smoothest, sharpest and sexiest and prettiest sports car ever…..the car just drips of lust and emotion. The early E-Type is perfection…….coupe (fixed head, for the proper British amongst us) and roadster….or drop top……matters not…pure perfection.

My friend owns an XKE roadster in this exact color…it looks spectacular in person!!!! This is the color I would do it in….but that is just me. This car was used on a photo shoot with Hall & Oats back in the late 1970’s when my buddy worked for Sony…he has a large signed copy of the photo on the wall of his office. He also owns an XK 150 in Dove Gray…equally spectacular…..I love the pale pastel colors on the Jags….very different and smooth looking to go with the smooth lines of the cars. Both of his cars look amazing!

I am LOVING it! This is exactly what I wanted to see...variations and customizations to the basic body. I really like the modification to the front wheel opening...very cool. Keep it up.

I used to live by the phrase....."I believe 1/2 of what I see and none of what I hear"....today I believe nothing unless I personally experienced it. Sorry, in the internet/computer/life-like software world we live in I no longer believe anything that I see. Fake! Funny, but fake! This concept has been done before.

That's what we're all talking about....Complete and total SWEETNESS!!!! As real looking as a model can get.