Spex84

It's fun to see all the love for the XJs But man, those are some of the cleanest-looking examples I've ever seen, guys! Mine is "unmolested" in that it's not modified. But with the winter driving (brine, yech) it's going downhill in an awful hurry. I feel like a monster for letting it happen, but...they did make a zillion of the things, after all! It only has 250k on it, so as long as I don't completely deferred-maintenance it to death, I hope to get some more years out of it yet!

I don't remember that conversation at all 😆😂 Looking at it again...it wouldn't fly at Shapeways, but I bet an independent model-printer could do it. I've seen some incredibly delicate stuff printed lately. I have a lot of other projects on the go, so I probably won't get to it soon, I'm afraid.

Haha, crazy! Glad to see this one back on the bench again. I'm digging the way the rear side scoops are blended in better now! The oval opening in the rear is cool too. Personally I would have put quad single buckets on the front (like Cushenbery's Marquis) but the variety is part of what makes these wild kustoms so fun Man...I'm going right to my bench to revive my own full-custom '40 project. It deserves to be finished.

Thanks for posting these! I'm too young to have been there, was never into vans, never had access to magazines that featured them (and am not inclined to go and buy vintage mags with vans in them) so it's actually really fun to scope these scans as a change of pace. Lots of over-the-top tacky stuff but it's fun too. I'm a fan of the chopped fat-tire F100 trucks.

Cool! I've often wondered if there's a performance upgrade for the Cherokee. They're generally treated as either winter beaters or weekend trail rigs, so not much motivation for engine swaps there. I see Cherokees around all the time, and daily drive one. Yeah, they're all beat. And two-doors? Forget it, haha!

"Do not chew" 😆

Cool! Ambitious project, trying to create all those compound curves to line up with the kit's surfaces.

Awesome! Seeing these boards instantly brings back a memory of smelling epoxy resin at a custom sailboard builder's shop in Hood River as a kid.

Cool art Ken!! I'm actually kind of impressed by the topology on that UFO...Groboto seems to handle Booleans well!

Cool stuff!! I love wandering through the woods looking for abandoned cars. They're getting harder to find in my area, unfortunately.

I didn't really have a burning desire for a 3D scanner until now, but between this thread and the insta post I just saw from BlackBox....hmmmm!

I'd like to know more about this 3D scanner. That sounds awesome.

I've uploaded the LaSalle to the Shapeways shop....it comes with one bellhousing for Olds, and two LaSalle boxes (because there's always another build that needs a transmission!).

Super cool so far. In-scale hinges are something I've never tried before, so it's interesting to see this build come together!

Any interest in LaSalle transmissions for the Olds Rocket? Or a Rocket in 1/16 scale? I wanted an engine to drop into the '27 Ford roadster that I've been working on....and had the valve covers already, so it seemed like a no-brainer to make an Olds dummy block. The project escalated into this: Olds V8 with Edmunds-style 2x4 intake, LaSalle transmission with Olds tailshaft and appropriate bellhousing, weedburner headers, and a siamesed mushroom-style air cleaner (kinda like the one in the AMT Mod Rod/Ala Kart kit). I'm currently setting up the file to test-print with my 3D printer at home, but I need to order more resin. Woohoo!

Hmm, that is interesting. I just assumed there was a Baja Bug on the market somewhere already! I'll have to keep that idea in mind for later, unless someone beats me to it in the meantime.

Wicked. It has a clean 1965-ish look. Not every T had cowl lamps and freakish upholstery! You make kitbashing look easy as pie 😎

Fireball Modelworks. Proprietor: Joseph.

Wow!! I love layouts like this so much. This made my day. It speaks to the car-lover, the modeler, and the designer in me. I spent my early years creating exploded-view drawings of all my various ideas and dreamed that maybe one day I could somehow turn it into a career. It didn't really happen...but the passion is still there Even just the tasty line weight on those sketches makes my heart ache. Incredibly cool stuff. Thanks Tim!

Pre-drilled distributors have been some of my best-sellers! And that's despite all the existing pre-wired options out there. It's tapering off now as people begin to buy more 3D printed parts off of FB and Ebay. I've eyed the crab distributors before....hadn't thought of doing seatbelt buckles though. I like the spark boot idea! They'd be very delicate and a little tricky. Very much worth considering. One idea I've been mulling over is a "project-saver" pack for hot rods with items that would have saved my stalled projects: axle risers and blocks for setting ride height and stance. Wheel chocks to hold kit tires in place for mockups. And problem-solvers for the engine bay: remote oil filter, remote thermostat housing, modular hose bends, distributors, water pumps for converting kit race engines for street use, generators/alternators with brackets and appropriate pulleys, steering offset boxes, etc etc. The kind of stuff that could prevent a kitbasher from having to rob 12 kits to build a single car! Every use case is so specific though...it might be best to focus on things that are truly universal.

In the course of my daily work I encounter that kind of thing a lot, leading me to occasionally create instruction sheets for people so they have something to refer back to. Of course, then the software updates and the UI changes or something and my instructions become obsolete. Lol! The simplest corner-cutting solution would be to take photos with a smart phone, and then email those images to a forum member who is more inclined to fiddle around with uploading/attaching/posting said images. Then you're off the hook! If you want to learn some new tricks, then go for it Just write it all down so you can refer back to it later; I'm "young" but I do this all the time.

A rose by any other name is still a rose! But seriously, I can say I have gone out of my way to buy unbuilt vintage examples of both the '57 Chevy and '50 Ford convertible just for the cool period-correct custom parts. Prices for such kits are getting ridiculous. I'd be very happy to see them return in a newly-issued kit!

I have a book called "A Century of Automotive Style" that includes some shots of the '59 Impala clay mockups in their bizarre glory. Not sure if those are the same photos that are now readily available on the internet. The designers really swung for the fences, haha! If there are more previously unpublished photos I'd be delighted to see 'em.

I love this truck! Great color combo, the stance and wheel/tire package nails the late 60s look. The orange-ness of the interior (as opposed to just red) is what really makes it, for me.

Yes. It's one of those "we didn't stop to think if we should have done it" situations, IMHO. Somewhat of a race to the bottom. It will save artists time when it comes to defeating the struggle of the blank canvas...but it will harm them overall if compensation is driven downward by management types who think "why should I pay you when your results are almost the same as this AI and the AI is 10000 times faster?" I do see an oddly freeing characteristic of this, though: when I was working as a digital artist I spent an inordinate amount of time trying to match styles and combine elements of different styles, in order to generate work that was essentially more "art-like content" as opposed to "real" art, that is, art that forms as an organic result of an artists' deep interrogation and articulation of the subject matter, self, and materials. If I could hit a button and just instantly solve the question "what does Batman look like in the style of a Hanna Barbera cartoon?" then I don't need to waste brainpower or labor on it. I can focus on art that is more personal and reflective of my individual relationship with the world, whatever that turns out to be. I hope AI-generated "art" becomes just another tool in the toolbox, once people get over their initial infatuation with the shiny and weird results.