Custom Mike

Mike you've got to post pics once you clean those parts up, I really want to see how good it works. And the Beauty Secrets liquid is what I normally use, but I ran out and had to buy the OrigiNails stuff. As far as the tinting, the McCormick Neon stuff works the best so far, the Purple is my personal favorite. Now hurry up and get that stuff cleaned up!

OK, here's where I fix the passenger side windows. I broke out some clear tape, my trusty Acrylic Filler, and got to it. I took my window templates for the driver's side, taped them up so the filler wouldn't stick to 'em, then put some tape on the inside of the body. Once they were in place, I laid some filler down on the top edges first, then the front of the window at the B-pillar. Here's the pics, I'll give it a few days to fully cure (So I don't pop the filled pieces off, there's barely anything to 'em!) then get it all tightened up.

Alright, we have a completed passenger side C-pillar now, so we're moving right along. I did spot a major flaw in this kit, the side windows don't match from side to side. All I did was re-arrange the pillars, I never modified the window openings in the rear. Check out the last two pics to see how far off Revell got the sizing of the side windows. My only modification was the top edge at the front of the windows behind the doors. Now I've got some more filling to do, I can't let this slide...

Thanks guys, I appreciate it. Well except for Hemi, he can bite me! Thanks to a friend of mine on another forum, I finally figured out a way to add my C-pillars to this baby, and make them hold up to polishing without popping off. Instead of gluing a strip of styrene into the window opening, I added a strip behind the opening. I found that if I sanded the pillar area of the interior panel down, I could hide the "bracing" strip easily, and glue the actual C-pillar to the bracing strip. While I was at it, I added some channels to the window opening so I can put the windows in flush from the outside. Then I made up some templates for my new side windows, and added a bit of putty to fix some tiny pinholes and correct the tops of my door seams. Here's the pics, hopefully I can get back to regular updates on this baby now!

Chuck, this baby looks awesome!

No problem Dan, I'm glad people are willing to try it. Now as far as Wally World, I'm not sure if this is the one or not, but there's a kit with the brand name of "Kiss" I seem to remember seeing there at one time. It's about a 4"x6" package in a clear blister pack. If you look around the area where the nail polishes and fake fingernails are, you'll stumble across it. It's a small amount, but it'll let you see if it's something you want to use or not. Good luck and let us know how it goes!

Mike, I haven't had the chance to try casting with this stuff yet, so let me know how it goes!

Randy, the food coloring is a very important part. As I'm sure you found out, this stuff is very hard to see without some kind of coloring added. And heed what Randy said, get yourself some ventilation or one heck of a respirator, this stuff is smelly!

It's pronounced "CRONK-EN-STEEN"! Virgil, you are a twisted man, and I love it! I can't wait to see this baby get finished!

Glad I could help, now let's see what you're up to! Kane, great to hear from you man, how's life Down Under? You nailed the one thing that's really bugging me, the shape of the tops of the doors. I wish I had done something different, but it is what it is at this point, and much like every one of my customs, there's one thing that I hate on all of them. One day I'll get it all to work out right, but until then, I keep trying. And you know I never know what I'm talking about either, why do you think Troll always translated for me? Thanks to everyone for the comments, I'll get some more progress pics up tomorrow, I had a very long day today, hopefully tomorrow is a nice, normal day!

Wait a minute Tito, what's going on in Virginia next month, something I should be thinking about attending maybe? Drop me a PM and let me know bro! Bradley, you're not the first to point that out, but I kind of like it once the headlights are in place. Just wait, it does get better looking, I promise! And the hood has a little more of an angle to it right now, so be patient, and thanks for the honesty!

And now the completed chassis. Oh, and I forgot to mention, these pics have the body installed on the chassis, and it looks great so far! The last pic shows what I was shooting for, the tires all nice and tucked into the body like they should be! This is where it's sat for the last year, from here on out will be the new progress, I've finally figured out a fix for my flimsy C-pillars I hope!

And now, the modifications to get the rims tucked in a bit more. I settled on the stock SRT rims, because I couldn't find a good set that was narrow enough to fit. So I had my rims, but didn't want to use the kit tires (Think Revell '06 Mustang or '09 Challenger tires), so I started digging through my spare tires. I found the set from Revell's '02 Camaro (35th Anniversary) kit fit after a bit of stretching, so they're now in place. They have a smaller sidewall, so it lowered the ride height a bit as a bonus! But onto the mods I did to tuck them in. I broke out the Dremel, and made a hole in the disc brake rotors that would allow the rim to seat on the suspension instead of the rotors. Not a massive gain, but enough to do the trick. I also had to trim the steel axle for the back wheels a bit, but it's all good now. Here's the modifications, next post is of the completed chassis!

OK, in this update I've got my engine assembled, chassis completed, and done some minor modifications to get the rims tucked into the wheel wells some more. Here's some pics of the engine and chassis, along with my "stock" rim attachment points prior to modification.

OK, here's where I beveled the edge of the first "raised" part I added, then added the "arm-rest" over the top of the first part. I used a razor saw to cut the line in the arm rest, then cut one of the speaker mounts from one of my many scrap 2006 Charger door panels. A little sanding to get it to the right size and shape to fit, then it was attached to the new door panel, and the new panel was glued into the original kit's door panel "surround". The last step was cutting the door opening into the panel, and it's ready for some primer and paint. This way of making the new door panel makes the whole assembly fit into the stock floor panel and dash perfectly, because perimeter of the "stock" door panel was never changed.

Thanks guys, this one has had it's problems along the way, but I'm nearing the home stretch on it, and figured it was time to drop it on you finally. After my nightmare with modifying the interior panels on my Concept Charger, I decided I would go in a completely different direction on this one. Instead of trying to glue the front and back door panels together and making it into a 2-door panel, I decided to try my hand at scratch-building them. I started by cutting the center out of the existing door panels, and placed some sheet styrene behind the new "open" panel so I knew how much room I had to work with. Then I drew up something that looks like a '57 Chevy door panel, but modernized. I grabbed more sheet styrene, and made my raised areas twice for each element. This gives the panel some dimension, and stiffened the whole thing up. Here's where inspiration hit, why not keep the perimeter of the stock door panel, and make the center unit from scratch? Hey, it might just work! The backing piece on top, and the pieces I came up with to give the door panel some depth. The pieces in the middle will be glued on top of each other, and the bottom pieces will be glued onto those to make the arm rest area.

Bart, to me, the best looking station wagons ever made were the '56 & '57 Nomads, and the Magnum. When all the talk of a GM/Chrysler merger was going on a few years back, I had this wonderful vision of a Magnum done as a Nomad. So here we sit, cross-pollinating brands and ticking off the masses. My work here is done!

Make friends with someone in the Alarm Industry (Just not with ADT, they don't deal with enough big commercial stuff), and you might get lucky. The detectors this stuff comes from were made by Detection Systems and/or Bosch, and the part numbers were DS250, DS250-T, or DS250-TH. I've been in this business for almost 20 years, and these were the only detectors with this stainless mesh in them.

Thanks Virgil. coming from you, that's some high praise! The mesh comes from Commercial Smoke Detectors, I'm an Alarm Service Tech, so I snag them whenever I can find 'em. Unfortunately, the Smoke Detectors these come from went the way of the Dinosaurs about 6-8 years ago, the new versions have a cheaper fiberglass mesh in them, so I'm almost out of it. But I do know of a 12 story condo in Wilmington, NC full of 'em, wanna make a road trip!?

John, you can find a small starter kit at Wal-Mart in the nail polish area, or go to a beauty supply store and they should be able to help you out.. As far as how to use it, I've got a Tutorial here showing how to do it step-by-step, check it out! Acrylic Filler Tutorial

Since I didn't want the twin "gunsights" that the '57 Chevy has, I had to find something to do with the hood, it's basically a big flat piece of nothing at this point. So inspiration struck as I pulled up next to a Chrysler Crossfire. I stole the hood strakes from it, and put them on this one. The Crossfire has 7 strakes, but I felt 5 was more reasonable for the Momad, my car, my ideas! The first pic in this update is of the grille opening with some stainless foil in place to see how it looks, the the rest are of the hood. The last shot is the cleaned-up and primed hood, all ready to go! More progress tomorrow night, enjoy the pics!

OK, here's where my buddy Sir Shaggy gets his props for suggesting a really good addition (By subtraction). He said I needed to add the little flared out lip that the '57's hood has. A little too late to flare it out, but I made it work with some careful sanding stick work. Here's the roughed-in work, more to follow!

And here's where I take care of the big gap between the hood and bumper. This is why I love my acrylic filler, it makes stuff like this easy. I applied some scotch tape to the lower edge of the hood, taped it to the body, and filled the gap from the bumper up to the hood. Let it set for about 15 minutes, remove the hood and bumper, and start sanding it into shape. After about an hour, I ended up with what we have in primer. But we're not done yet, Sir Shaggy (A good friend from another Forum) had to make a suggestion, we'll get to that in the next posting! I put some clear tape on the bottom edge of the hood (Acrylic Fingernail Filler won't stick to Clear tapes), then applied some Acrylic Filler to the bumper, filling the gap completely. Now on to the sanding! First shot after shaping and rough sanding. And viola, a beautiful gap between the newly shaped bumper and hood. Looks easy, doesn't it? I wish!

Now onto the front end, this started out one way, and went in a entirely different direction. I started out by removing the grille all the way down to the bottom edge of the front fascia. I had made a vertical bar grille, but decided it looked horrible, so I went with plan B. What is plan B? I don't know, but I want it to sound like I'm thinking this through and not just getting lucky. I glued the hood to the front fascia, added some acrylic filler, then cut the front fascia at the bumper line. This made the hood roll down like a '57 Chevy, which really pulls the whole thing together. Here's the pics, I'd rather get lucky some of the time than be good all of the time! Here's where the real fun begins, a complete re-styling of my initial idea. I boxed-out the grille opening, and filled the HUGE gap in the bumper with two strips of styrene. Then came the acrylic filler, in copious amounts. Lots and lots of sanding ensued, and the big opening in the new "lower" part of the hood got a liberal helping of filler too. Here's the beginnings of a front end that looks absolutely nothing like the Magnum, for sure! The front edge of the "new" hood filled with Acrylic Filler and roughed-in. I've still got a long way to go on this piece. Test-fitting of the hood and bumper together. I've got one heck of a gap to fill between these two pieces.

I came up with a stupidly simple way of duplicating my trim. I grabbed a 3x5 card, taped it to the rocker panel, and worked it into a pattern using my thumb to "dent" the card at the trim. Once the card was marked, I cut the top side off with some scissors, taped it to the passenger side, and laid out my lower trim piece. I did the same thing for the top side, taped it to the passenger side, and laid out the upper trim. Now I have matching trim, and it was way easier than I thought it would be! I'm sure you see the 'yellow' areas in the wheel wells, that's the Acrylic Fingernail Filler I use for my custom work. A real pain to sand, but once you've used it, nothing else compares! And now onto the back hatch. The '57 Nomad had 7 vertical trim pieces on it's tailgate, so I cut 6 equal-length pieces, and one really short piece to go in the middle above the handle. Tedious, but worth it once I got them in place. It is a near perfect match for the trim on the '57! The tiny pieces of half-round, it was real fun getting the six long pieces all the same size.