Impalow

An upcoming show on Sept. 27th has a rat-rod theme class... Andy (exesivefire) and I have decided to task ourselves with building a rat rod in 3 weeks. So far its been a nice vacation from my chromed out showrod builds and also a great chance to put my new Silhouette Portrait CNC scrapbooking cutter to the test. Here is my progress approximately 1 week into it. I started with a Revell 26 T body I chopped (crookedly) when i was 15 and has been sitting in a box for about 20 years. Wheels and tires from the monogram duesenburg and fronts from the 32 chevy kit. Here is the rough mockup: So first thing I needed was a frame, so I drew one up and sent it to the cutter... The cutter scores .020 very well, so i stacked up three layers to make the thickness. Once the frame was cut and cleaned, I took it to the drill press to drill out all the speed holes... The cutter scored them so I knew exactly where to drill. Added the rear cross member from the 29' Ratrod pickup and tied the front together. Then programed and cut the center frame support... this is .020 with a .010 accent on top of it. The cutter will cut clean threw .010 Once that was in place I created the inner structure, transmission and suspension mounts. Last night I drew up and cut the rear links and suspension mounts... the rear end is from the tweedy pie and the spring is from the 29' pickup. Tonight's plan is front suspension and engine mounts.

Nice work as usual buddy... 16 more days.. yikes... who's idea was this again?

very cool... I love that old kit!

Thank you all! Your comments and compliments mean a lot! I'm very happy with how this turned out, and very surprised at the amount of attention it has received. Got the plate on last night. Okay... now on to the next build!

Thank you all for the comments! I'm sure ill have a new build thread soon, or revive an old one.. Yeah i know about the front tires... I tried, they are just so stinking small... and they are rubber.. its like sanding a rubber band.. It got to an "this is gonna have to do" point. No wheelie bars... I kind of enjoy the fact that it looks dangerous. Ive seen a few 1:1 scale cars like this, and its slightly unnerving...I feel this has the same feel. I purposely only did driver side seat belts, because honestly who would ride in it? haha

Thank you all! Your comments, and compliments mean a lot! I finished this thing up...Check out the post in under glass!

Here is my Gremlin street freak all finished except the license plate. (I'll do that tomorrow) Here is a quick run down of the build: Chassis -Scratchbuilt front frame section. -Smoothed chassis pan/gas tank removed -Scratchbuilt ladder bars -Rear springs from 1933 Willys gasser -Ford 9" rear end from the 1962 tbird kit -Front axle from 1933 Willys gasser -Scenes Unlimited Brake backer plates -Scenes Unlimited 5 slot mags -Competition Resin rear slicks -Competition Resin front wheels and tires -All chrome is Alclad, no kit chrome remains Engine -Blueprinter parts pack Hemi engine -Scratchbuilt intake manifolds -Scratchbuilt headers -Scratchbuilt valley pan -Competition Resin moon valve covers -AMT injector stacks -Scratchbuilt metering valve -MAD distributer -Detail Master Moon tank -All chrome is Alclad, no kit chrome remains Interior -Diamond pleats made from evergreen tile -Parts box seats -Scratchbuilt roll bar -Nail polish finish to simulate metal flake vinyl -Detail Master lime ignition wire piping Body -Scratchbuilt front and rear roll pans - Wet-n-wild lime nail polish - Purple nail polish and Alclad hot metal violet - Custom cut stencils - Brushed baremetal foil outline stripping - 3 coats of urethane clear coat - Theater lighting "filter" for window tint Work in progress link: http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/topic/102367-gremlin-street-freak-gasser-done-831/ I'm sure there's more.. It's been a long project and I'm glad to wrap it up. Now the photos!

Thanks guys! I got this used for 90.00 off eBay, new your looking around 150-200 depending on model and brand. I would say very minimal clean up.. trimed off any stray filament and lightly sanded with a sanding stick, then shot it with UPOL primer... sanded again... then another shot of primer. That was really it, this photo was taken about 15 minutes after printing finished. The surface has some ribbing, but a coat or 2 of primer covers it well. Its not perfect, but it will work for a block and head.

I actually picked this up on eBay used... 90.00 included a cover, extra blade and cutting mat... I'm excited to use it more, seems like it will be great for those repetitive parts, mirror image parts, and keeping things symmetrical... Thanks for the interest! The filament is surprisingly inexpensive.. 12.00 for a 250ft roll... to put that in perspective, one engine block uses about 20-25inches... I have been printing pretty much round the clock for a week, and I still have half a roll left. There are other options for even larger rolls at more of a discount, but currently I'm using the PLA material from M3D. Yes the silhouette is just bladed vinyl cutter, but made to cut thicker stuff.... I have yet to successfully cut all the way through styrene, even the .010... The other forums i was reading said it will cut clean threw .010 and .015... I'm going to work with the settings and change out the blade tonight. Hopefully I can cut out the flanges for the engine.

Thanks for the interest guys... added another piece of technology to the shop tonight.. A silhouette portrait cutter.. Technically made for scrap-booking, however our model railroading friends have been using them to cut styrene. I'm still getting the hang of it, but my first little pieces came out nice and are far better than i could achive by hand. I am able to draw parts in autocad or illustrator and then send it to cutter. I have tried .020 and .010 so far with some success... For my first try with this i made some chassis supports, the c5r has a plate chassis and the cuda will not, so i needed something to bridge those gaps. Here are the parts drawn in Illustrator Load up raw sheet material and cut Remove and clean up parts (these didn't cut all the way through, so it was more like a score and snap) Parts assembled.. this is two layers of .010 glued together and setting on the chassis.. so far I'm happy with this purchase.. lots of ideas on how to use this thing on this and other future projects.

So with my gremlin model almost under glass... I shifted my focus and attention over to the newer revell Hemi Cuda kit. My plan for this one is Pro-Touring with a Tuner twist: 3d Printed Neon SRT4 Turbo/Intercooled 2.4ltr 4cyl Engine Massive aftermarket turbo 6 speed Transmission Independent front and rear suspension Lots of Carbon Fiber Maybe brown with a camel interior? (still undecided here) Hopefully this is done for the Buckeye Classic show in march of next year, this kit was chosen for the "Ohio Challenge" this year. I have recently purchased a M3D Micro 3d printer, my goal was to use it as well as other bits of new technology to build this bad boy. The printer arrived about a week ago, and i have been playing with it non stop. First let me say, for the 349.00 this printer cost... its down right amazing... I went into this purchase knowing it was a filament based printer, and that my parts will need some clean up, and small detail parts may not even be possible. Well just a week into it, I am beyond impressed with its output.. and the photos show it. Now to be perfectly honest, I have printed probably over a dozen heads and blocks... a bunch of calibration stuff...It hasn't been easy... however I think I am finally getting the hang of this. First thing was to model the engine in the 3d software... I use FormZ for my day job, so I made this model in that software and exported it. Took about an hour Shiny new printer and kit.. Printer is very small, maximum print area is about 4.5" x 4.5" x4.5" Engine block printing! Each part takes about an hour to print at high resolution, so print, wait, inspect... adjust 3d model or printer settings then print again. My rough mock up parts... These arent the best yet... but you get the idea of size and scale. One of the cool things about the printer is the ability to do other things while it prints. Independent suspension from the C5R kit mates up nicely after some re-fabing on the rear frame section. Finally last night an acceptable (to me) Head and cam cover... Block is still in the works.

Ahhhhhh... okay. I know that "spin out" show was in the Kent area, just wondering if you went to that. Ill have to make my way up there, those cars all look new to me, it will be nice to seem some different rides.

Where was this Michael? Somewhere local?

Very cool!! Input Stephanie!

Bah- Dump- bump.... hahaha..... Thanks for the excellent review Tim, I need to get my hands on several of these. Amazing work on the engine as usual, your nice clean wash in the fins pops the detail nicely!

Love it! Pacers are sweet... Turbo straight 6 pacers are sweeter! Nice Job!

in the words of Joe Dirt.... Daaaaannnnngg..... That is gonna be sweet! Nice weathering James!

Thanks Bruce, John, James, Ray and Carl! Thank you Steve, the plan is to have it done for the next meeting.. We shall see if that happens, the purple window material may be a slight hold up. I finished up the BMF work on Friday and Saturday. Then managed to get it cleared yesterday! I edged the panels with BMF that I sanded in a circular pattern with 600 grit, this gives the illusion of silver leaf and also creates some contrast from the other BMF trim. That worked okay, other than the sanding made the foil brittle, application was a struggle. Some areas are not as clean as i would like, but it was a learning process... Next time I will have a better grasp on how to do this... and that is all that matters. Three coats of urethane clear really brought out the metallic and pearls. Going to let it sit for the week so its cured nice and hard, then give it a sand and buff.

Very nice!! Great photos also!

Thanks Joe and Carl! Ken I'm super excited to get this all together too. .. I somehow completely forgot about the driveshaft, so i built and painted one last night. I have always wanted to do a candy striped driveshaft, and this seemed like the perfect vehicle to do it. After that was done I wrapped up the final chassis assembly. (side note: Photo-etched bolt heads and washers are pretty amazing.) This bad boy is pretty much done except BMF, a few coats of clear and some windows.

Tim this is just jaw dropping cool.... That fire system is downright amazeballs... Inspiring work, I love watching the progress.

So cool Tom! Perfect color and stance as usual..... I have to get my hands on one of those kits!

This is going to be fun! You are going to have the entire fleet!

Welcome Tim! With a username like that i am going to assume we have crossed paths elsewhere on the web or in-person in the neon world.

Thanks you guys!!! Green paint on and masks peeled... Almost BMF time..