Impalow

awwwwwwwweeee.... hahaha Thanks buddy! Same to you. That did the trick! and i don't think its too much, looks pretty darn good to me.

I've purchased his seats, and I've seen a lot of his stuff in person. Its all been top notch! On top of that Jeremy is a great guy to deal with.

Holy Cow..that is great! Nice work! I love a wild lowrider interior, mirrors tufts and all!

These are going to be so much fun... This thing looks great in person too, nice clean fab work.. as usual.

outstanding work! the styling is dead on.. Great modern custom concept!

Some really cool work spaces here! Mines okay... needs more organization.. but i got an area for everything.

Here is a little mini/boring update on the pinto: Most important thing I got the chassis and body shot with urethane clear... it has a couple funky spots, but it looks like it should buff pretty flat and shiny. Like i hoped, the clear really brought out the sparkle in the metal flake and the pearl. I had quite a struggle with the opposite side of gold leaf, the micro towel I was using under the car kept grabbing the strips and sliding and moving them... I was very excited to get everything sealed up in clear, so nothing else moved. then i made my blower belt... i printed lines of gray and black on regular paper and then a large black square, shot the paper with matte finish krylon. Then used spraymount to glue the 2 pieces back to back. Cut strips and then blackened the edge with a sharpie. Once that was glued in place, i added some brass hardware to the pulleys. I will eventually add some more bolt heads around the upper pulley, when they aren't in danger of getting knocked off.

Outstanding info... very helpful. Thank you david! That explains some issues ive had just playing around with it.

Thanks guys! I never got really detailed into it... mainly because I'm still learning and not very confident with it yet. I can tell you what I did and what I used, not 100% sure its the "correct" way to do things tho. I used this "size" or glue: https://www.amazon.com/DUX-Quick-Oil-Based-Gilding-Size/dp/B004O7GSOW and this for the leaf itself: http://www.ebay.com/itm/L-A-Gold-Leaf-Variegated-Leaf-20-5-x-5-1-Booklet-/381804309790?hash=item58e54f6d1e:g:djsAAOSwepJXZE9j I cut about a 2" chunk off the bottom of a sheet of matte aluminum bare metal foil, and taped it down to my work bench. Used a wide flat brush, and applied a thin layer of the Dux Size, trying to keep the layer thickness even. If flows out pretty nice, so you cant see any brush strokes. Then I walked away for about an hour. Let it dry until you cant leave a distinct fingerprint in the corner of the sheet, this is a little funky to judge with the reflective surface of the BMF. I just went with an 1-1.5 hours in a 69degree room. Once its tacked of, you just lay the leaf on being careful to not get wrinkles in it, burnish down with a cotton ball. If the sheet of leaf breaks (and it will) just lay more on top and then burnish the overlap off with the cottonball. Once its completely covered, walk away and let it sit overnight before cutting strips or however you want to use it. Here is a photo of an early test piece i did on gold foil... (which was old BMF and didnt work very well, the new matte aluminum strips stuck much better)

holy moly... tim you are a madman... that pulley is epic. The entire engine is a work of art. Amazing work as usual!

I absolutely fell in love with this car when I saw it at sema 2 years ago... and the best part of it in my opinion wasn't shown much in that video. The underside:

Thanks Luke and Lloyd! I got one side done last night... I was curious to see how long it took, so i payed attention to the clock for once, and it was about 1.5 hours to do the one side. Which isnt all that bad. Good news is just one side to go, and then I can clear it, hopefully my next update on the body will be "Its cleared!" haha

I love the look and the idea...Awesome work so far James! Look forward to watching progress on this. Curious to see Andy chime in on this one, I know he picked up a couple of the grandsport kits to build a car inspired by the mongoose motorsports one as well.

Thank you guys! I'm excited to bury all that flake under some clear and make it sparkle! Thank you Martin! I'm addicted to these chromed out over the top show cars for some reason... maybe cause they are just fun to look at and build. The gold leaf strips actually are more durable than you would think, I cut them long and then use tweezers to get one end in place and straight. Then I burnish that end down really good, and they are strong enough to pull on a little while you lay the rest of the strip down to get it straight. I think the extra thickness of the gold leaf on top of the bmf helps a lot, i know plain old bmf isnt this tough and breaks pretty easily.

oh man... outstanding work and great ideas!! This is awesome! Scratchbuild all the things!!

Love this! And i'm envious of those straight airbrush lines... Can't wait to see this in person!

Outstanding job! I love these cars! need to get one of those kits.

Thank You John! I'm also excited to get this one all together and see how it all works. I did get the paint all done this weekend, took some time but the effect is what I intended... and that makes me happy. Shaded around all the panels with transparent blue: Peeled: Back mask all the panels with BMF (paint thickness leaves a nice edge to cut the bmf) : Light Blue sprayed!: Peeled again!: and now im working on the gold leaf outline... got all of the top surfaces done, next up will be the sides.

Thank you guys! Painting progress.. got it masked and the very sparkly testors icy blue base down on the panels last night. Wooot!

Holy Moly.. those are all gorgeous. I would have never guessed it was 1/32 scale, that makes even more impressive.

Wowza! I missed this one as well! Amazing work! The overall stance and look is dead on.... great job man!

That is a great story! Thank you for sharing! I've always loved the model on the package, now I know where it came from.

Thank you guys! I'm really quite proud of that little scoop, for being just 2 pieces it was quite a challenge. Got it tinted last night, then gave a coat of future to make it shiny and more transparent. and finally temporarily installed so you get the idea. its going be one of the last things attached to hopefully avoid buggering it up. I then ventured over to the lathe and made some pulleys... Masking tape should be in today so I can get back on the body and painting , I really would like to get the body and chassis cleared over thanksgiving weekend.

Thank you James and Stephen! I feel like I'm back and somewhat motivated on this bad boy. Body is in white primer and ready to paint, started laying out the panels and then I ran out of masking tape... doh. Oh well, I started working on the engine detail and the clear scoop. Chromed and detailed the carbs... they are still REALLY impressive. Gott'em installed, along with the fuel lines... added some brass bolts and fittings to bring the detail level up a bit. Then I moved onto the clear acrylic scoop... vacformed the top section over a shaped block of acrylic, then the bottom was made flat on the cutter. This little guy was a pain to get formed and assembled cleanly. Its not perfect, but I think it will be okay. I tinted it with tamiya clear blue, and then a coat of future (pics of that tonight)

Ya know, I thought about that as well.. I'm assuming this particular car just gets driven in and out of a trailer to car shows and would never actually see the strip. There isn't any rear suspension travel that is for sure.