Custom Mike

Virgil, that engine looks great, and the rest is shabby too (But in a good way). I think the only reason I haven't tried a Rat Rod yet is because I've finally figured out the elusive smooth, shiny paint job (OOH, Shiny! Look, it sparkles!). It's taken me forever to get it right, so now I want everything glossy! The thought of intentionally making paint look bad seems so foreign to me right now that I'd probably go insane trying to not polish it out! OK, I'm gonna shut up now and allow more magic to happen! Keep the pictures coming Virgil!

I've said it before, in-freaking-credible work, that blue looks awesome, and it's even more amazing that you brushed it on. You need to find a way to get it apart and clear coat it!

Jason, try picking up some clear acetate while you're in Asheville this weekend, it'll be much easier to use than plexiglass. Great work on this one, what's up next?

OK, a little progress between bouts of Life and Work intruding on my building time. I cut the very bottom of the trunk off, glued it to the bottom of the trunk opening, and applied some filler. Sand, refill the low spots, sand some more, and presto, we have a bumper that is smooth all the way across. Now since I'm new here and most of you have never seen my builds, I'll let you in on a little secret. I get all the body work "roughed-in" first, then go back after all is said and done to smooth everything out prior to sealing it. So you'll see rough stuff everywhere, don't worry, it's just the way I work. Look at the avatar on the left, that looked like this at one time too, It will end up pretty when it's all said an done, I promise. After laying down a quick coat of primer, I stuck the tail lights and center piece in place to see how it all looks together. The receiver I made for the center section was scrapped, and another is being built, but I like the overall looks of this so far, let me know what you think.

This is awesome work, I can't wait to see it when it's all finished up. You've got me wanting to do a Rat Rod in the future!

Matt, I've got a friend on another Forum doing that right now, so I'll wait until he finishes his before I do one. His idea is really solid, and I don't want him to stop because I blew past him--he's new at the custom stuff, so I want to encourage him. So once he's done I'll take a crack at it. Right now my Concept Charger is taking up most of my time, along with a few painting projects for friends, but I plan on something being done to the new Camaro in the future.

Jose, give a custom a shot, the worst that can happen is you get stuck, and go back to building stock stuff. I know I had quite a few failures before I pulled one off, I'd hate to see some of them now! K.K., I've seen a resin version of that Vette, one day I'll actually buy it! Erik, hurry up an get that T/A painted, I want to see it!

Here's a pair I finished up about a year ago, the Camaro came first, then it was suggested that there needed to be a Firebird to go along with it. Both are Revell based, the Camaro is the 35th Anniversary (2002) with a '69 nose, hood and tail light panel added. I pulled the rear bumper in about a scale foot, tilted the tail light panel in slightly at the top, and then proceeded to sand my butt off. Paint is all Orly nail polish, the base coat is Platinum, the top coat is Hawaiian Punch, and it's all topped off with Dupli-Color clear. The stripe decals were custom made by Keith Marks, along with the license plate. All other decals came from the '69 kit, with the side marker lights coming from the '98 Firebird kit. The interior and chassis are the stock '02 units, with slight modifications to the front of the chassis and radiator so it would fit the new nose. Rims, tires and disc brakes are from Pegasus Hobbies. Now onto it's sister, the Firebird. This is the 1998 kit, with the '68 giving up it's nose, hood, and tail light panel. The spoiler came from AMT's old '69 Trans-Am kit, and it needed to be narrowed to fit the rear end of this one, then grooves were cut into the hatch to drop the spoiler and get the right angle on it. I opened up the fender vents and added stainless mesh behind them, and replace the kit grilles with the same mesh (Blacked out). Interior and chassis are like the Camaro, basically stock kit units with slight mods and flocking. Rims, tires and disc brakes are from Pegasus again, with the back tires replaced with larger units to try to add some rake. A chin spoiler from the '69 Camaro was added and extended around to the wheel wells, then the decals from the '68 kit were applied, along with a license plate from Keith Marks. Paint is House of Kolors Lime Time over Kandy Silver, with what was intended to be a ghost stripe down the center, but the Gold base didn't really work too well for that. Looking back on these, the nose of the Camaro ended up way too stubby, and the Firebird looks kind of "squared" off at certain angles, but I consider both of them to be pretty nice, and the lessons learned on these two are being put into practice on my Concept Charger. Enjoy the pictures, and let's see if anyone can tell me what the license plates mean!

Scott, just incredible work. This looks too good, if that's at all possible. The paint is perfect, the stance is dead on, and the BMF is way better than any I've ever done. I have two questions though, where did you get the "foam" around the air cleaner, and where did you get the "clips" holding the negative battery cable down?

Charles, where did you pick up that awesome intake? I just started on one of these, and I'm in love with that engine. The paint on this baby looks awesome, and I may be in the minority (Nothing new there) but I like the rake on it. Of course, I grew up in the 70's when every cool car looked like this! Great work!

That drawing is SICK! Why do they come up with these awesome drawings, then release some bloated piece of garbage? It really makes you wonder who's in charge, when something that slick is proposed, and we get some four door hog with a truck nose instead.

Erik, mine is partially based on a drawing by Doug Schramm at Creating The Lie Studios (Doug's Site), but the rest came out of my sick little mind. Here's the picture I used for reference, I didn't copy it completely, I just used it as a starting point. Doug does some incredible work, check his site for some cool drawings.

Since I'm on-call at work this week, my building has slowed considerably. I finally got an hour in for some building, and since I have my '67 Charger PE set, I decided it was time to work on the new tail light panel. I cut the "Charger" letters for the '67 tail light out, laid out some guide lines with masking tape, then measured (Yes, I measured, it shocked me too! ) the spacing from the center. Starting with the "R" in the center, I laid the remaining letters out 1/16" from each other, applied some Gloss Clear Acrylic, and carefully placed each letter. I plan on letting the Clear set up for the next day, and trying some U-POL Clear over the whole thing to make sure they don't fall off later. Here's the pictures, I'm quitting for the night, because if I don't, I'm sure I'll have to run on a call.

Erik, looks like you've got a good start on this one, I can't do 2 customs at the same time. I get too confused and screw them both up! What color are you planning on using for it? I'd say Black, but that's only because Trans Ams look best in Black!

You're just going to have to wait a few days, I'm in the process of painting a Monster Truck for dropped_yellow_ranger (Troy), but I should have some more for you to check out in a few days. I've been told patience is a virtue, but I don't believe it either!

As I'm sure some of you have noticed, the pictures are not in sequence, but it will all work out, I promise. The next step was adding a new lower section to the rear window, and making my tail lights stretch from side to side, like the '66-'67 Charger. I started by cutting the top section of the tail light loose and gluing them to the body. Then I cut the "vertical" section of the trunk loose, to make room for the center section. I'm in the process of building a receiver for the center, which I will attach to the trunk when it's done. To make the center section, I used a piece of a damaged tail light from my 1:1 1997 Grand Prix. No, I didn't hack up my car for it, I was rear-ended a few years back, and I kept the passenger side tail light because the damage was mainly cosmetic, now it's really screwed up! I kind of like the idea of a piece of a real car on this model, has anyone else ever done this? Nah, I'm probably the only nut who would try it! This is where I sit as of now, all updates from here on out are new work, so on with the last of the old pictures!

And now we continue with the front end and the hood. I reworked the lower area of the new front end, added a small incut area below the opening, then went to work on lengthening the hood to fit the new nose. Here's some more pictures.

Thanks to Mr Obsessive, I now know how to post pictures here! Now you're all in trouble! Peter, I can't stand the look of the new Charger, but I used to own a 1:1 1972 Charger, so I'm a little biased. And I always try to go a little further out on each custom I do, just to see where my limits are. This one kicked my butt for about four months, I couldn't figure what to do with the front end. But once I got past that hurdle, the work started moving quickly. On with some pics from the previous post, since I know how to do this stuff now!

Bill, thank you for finally answering a question I had, but had no idea where to post to get a reply. To try to clarify, If I just remove the "http" from the url the picture will post? Let's see if this works! SUCCESS! Bill, you're not only an incredible builder, but a genius as well! Thanks for letting us newbies in on posting the pictures, I owe you one!

Gregg, I've been to four IPMS shows, one that was 100% automotive, and it was poorly run and judging was even worse. I have two chapters nearby, both of which are mainly military guys, but both are honestly trying to attract more automotive guys. The Sumter SC chapter put on an excellent show last March, with an excellent automotive turnout, and the best judging I've ever experienced, they went above and beyond for us. The Fayetteville NC chapter is the group nearest to me, and I've told them I'll do all I can to bring more car guys in. There last contest was on the 22nd of last month, and they improved 1000% from last years debacle. So there are some chapters really trying, and I figure the best way to make sure we get some respect from them is to attend the shows, and let the Military guys know we're just as good (If not better, we make things that are shiny!) as they are. If we all let a bad experience or two keep us from attending, then our only option is to either quit attending their events or come up with our own alternative to IPMS. Anybody want to take that task on? And if you really want to tweak the Military guys, build something like this and take it to one of their contests, they would blow a gasket if this was on one of their tables!

Erik, I tried doing that from my Fotki page, and it didn't work, here's what I got at the top of the page; You are not allowed to use that image extension on this board. A valid format is: http://www.domain.com/picture.gif, an invalid format is: http://www.domain.com/picture.one.gif So I loaded 20 pictures to a gallery, not an easy feat when you're on dial-up. Here's what I get when I try to link to the picture there; Sorry, dynamic pages in the tags are not allowed So I'm stumped, can anyone here lend a hand? I've been on another forum for so long that I've gotten used to the way it's done there, and can't seem to get the hang of this one. Any help out there?

Continuing with the front end, I put the '69 bumper that I cut loose from the grille in place to use as a filler. Then I snagged the front bumper/fascia from the AMT S-10 Xtreme kit, cut it in half, and added it below the '69 nose. After hours of filling, rough sanding, more filling, and some cussing for good measure, I slid the '69 grille into place. From there I added a panel above the grille, then re-worked the lower area because it was way too vertical for my tastes. And now I realize I have no more room for attachments. So now I turn to my fellow members to tell me how much of a goober I am, how come I don't know how to upload pictures, blah, blah, blah. I never claimed to be Einstein ya know! Some help here would be greatly appreciated! Ok, just point at the old fart an laugh, c'mon, it's fun!

Well, thanks to Trans Am Erik, I have invaded your little safe haven, and if the site crashes now, blame him! He's encouraged me to post my version of a 2 door 2006 Charger, so here we go. My plan is to incorporate almost all versions of the Charger. from '66 to '06. I left out the '75 and the little front wheel drive dogs from the 80's, since they were mistakes that should be forgotten IMHO. I'll have a tail light panel like the '66-'67, the grille from a '69, the roof and door shapes from the '71, and the side windows from the '73-74. On top of that, I added about 6 scale inches to the quarter panels to balance it out some. Then we'll add a Viper engine, and scratch up some new interior panels. Sounds like a lot of work, anyone want to do it for me? I started mine with the Revell kit, the first big change was replacing the roof with one from AMT's 71 Charger. From there I cut the doors loose from the '71 to serve as templates for the new doors. Here's the first pics, this one's about 40% complete, it was started on another site, and I'll do it on both from here out. I'll give you the condensed version with a minimum of pictures until I get to the new stuff being done. Enjoy, and remember, this is all Erik's fault!

Looking good so far Erik, and I'm with Made, the hoods for the door scoops is a stroke of genius!