puddingwrestler

I did think about doing that, but I am a bit shy of major scribing work. Also, I kinda wanted it to look like they'd just welded the rear doors shut and then stuck the top on wihtout lengthening the stock doors.

You might be suprised to know it's actually available as a model (which is not much smaller than the real thing I might add!)

Interior now painted and installed. There's a bit of detail work to do on the dash still. Interior is black with black carpets and body colour trim at the tops of the doors. Should be able to start painting the body tommorow if all goes well.

Groovy! I thought about buying one of the real things, but found that the retro design shape compromised the comfort (I'm 6'3" and it was rather cramped), so I couldn't justify the asking price, especially sice most of my trips are around the two hour mark.

Funny you should mention that, my brother's mate used to own a Suzuki Capacino (itty bitty teeny tiny Suzuki roadster thingee from the 90s), and that's how he transported it from Melbourne to Sydeny when he moved!

I know what it is, and it's worrying that I know what it is...

Love it! We used to have somethign similar happen in Australia, although never on such a grand scale. Since the Ford and Holden utes were based on the Ford Falcon range and the Holden Kingswood range, you could easily exchange panels, interiors etc. between them. A lot of people customized thier utes by sticking on the Ford Fairlane and LTD fronts, or the Holden Statesman fronts. So you basically had the nose of the top of the line luxury car, but the back of the ute. Usually the back was left alone, but you've gone that step further which is great! I always love to see fins on a truck, they're just so unexpected I guess.

Wait a minute - if these people are known model show stuff thieves (as evinced by thier apparent theft of an air brush at San Diego last year), why have they not been barred from entering the very building in which a model show is happening?

not much happening on this one at present. I've finished filling extraneous panel lines on the body and fixed up the floor (I cut a bit too much off when I shortened it) and sanded off the rear wheel arches. THe rear wheels will be larger tan the arches and live outside in the open. I can't really do too much more until I get the engine.

Egad! Photos! I've lowered the suspension a bit, more at the front than the back so it's got a rake. The tail lights still need a bit of work, their not quite in the right spots. The head rests and the tonneau still need some more work to get everything nicely blended in. I've picked up the paint for this. It's Contessa Gold aut touch up spray from the local autObarn (Australian car stuff supply chain, and the only place in town which sells it, if not a very wide range... sigh.) It's a fairly dark metallic gold with a little flake. Dunno why I'm doing so much yellow lately, I just wanted a slightly unusual colour, and they didn't have much choice. Apart from Blue, Green and Red, it was really this or beige. Which always makes me think of obsolete computers.

Groovy! Those chassis pics will come in handy. Not that I am building a Thames, but I'm just looking for chassis pics in general to get a bit of an idea of how they are engineered.

Video'll do fine. I've seen that one already; makes me think about what'd happen if the Addams Family was shopping for a ride these days

Really crazy idea - BMW Z1 style doors. They retract downwards into the lower bodywork. Or there was that Ford concept car from the 70s which had doors which opened outwards, but had a second hinge in the middle, sort of like the arrangemnt used on corner cupboards - this meant the rear section of the door remained parallel to the body at all times, allowing a much larger entry/exit area while still requiring fairly limited amoounts of space either side of the car. Great for getting out in tight parking spots. Or, just go with Canvas and call it a beach buggy

The only thing I do not build is stock. I cusgtomize everything I build violently. My main areas are SF, Cars, Wargames Terrain and heavily modified fictional aviation subjects. I've done the odd ship, made an abortive attempt at large scale figures and tried very hard to build a few planes with no alterations... but then I end up painting them whatever look right to me, not what the history books and rivet counters say is right... Anyway, there's a fairly sizable slection on my website, although it is by no means up to date, and lots of wargames stuff on my blog. If an 'other models' section starts up, I'd be happy to shovel my stuff into it. (And I do mean shovel, there's a lot of silly stuff I could show off!)

FInally got a name for the Gloria Custom - Raiju. Spent a lot of time plugging things into google's Enlgish to Japanese trasnlate-o-tron and getting no where, so I went and nosed around Wikipedia for legendary creatures. Raiju is the Japanese Thunder Beast, which seems completely appropraite since this build's inspired by the Thunderbird.

Here's a pic of the Wasabi interior down up in simple traditional tuck and roll. I intend to leave the dash stock. The carpets will be lime green to match the exterior, and the upholstery will most likely be white. There are a few details to sort out, but this is basically how it'll look.

I've started work on this one, but not very much yet as I'm still busy on the Wild Wasabi interior. So far all I've done is modify the grille slighlty by giving it a full height divider bar in the middle, somewhat like Pontiacs'. I've also started to fill in the oval tail light indents and built a prototype of the custom tail lights I intend to use. Got the idea from some scratch built Corvair tail lights in an old copy of Scale Auto. Basically, rings cut from three thicknesses of aluminium tube, slotted into each other, with some putty to fill the hole down the center. I need to make four, and I'm thinking about drilling holes through the body to slot them into. They are a bit time consuming, but the prototype looks pretty good. Anyway, pics when there is anything much to show.

I wish - just imagine how big that'd make the laptop in the background!

I'm very fond of working on model car interiors and producing customizations, but I've been finding it a tad difficult to find decent reference pics of customizaed interiors. So far, I've tended to use pics of stock interiors from sales brouchures (From the Old Car Manual Project) for ideas, but I'd like to see custom stuff. Does anyone know of any good websites for custom interior ideas? Any era, any level of customization, I'm not that fussy. Just looking for inspiration really. Any help will be much apreciated.

Been fiddling around with the body a bit more, and I've started work on the interior. Since I shortened the body, I'm removing the front bucket seats and just using the rear bench. Which I'm reworking to tuck and roll. I've also shortened the interior side panels and started to tuck and roll those. I think the bench has a more traditional hotrod look, which is what I am aiming for. And the school holidays have just kicked in, so there'll be more time to play with this in the coming fortnight. Huzzah!

I always like to see a square steering wheel. Especially when the interior is leopard print as well! Very cool! Is the leopard print a decal? If so, where from? I've been wanting to try something similar for a while when I find just the right interior.

The real car has a rather fancy grill (which unfortunately looks rather silly, it's got sort of nostrils in it...) and a few side trim strips and emblems. It was originally designed as a taxi, and Japanese cars of that era are fairly plain at the best of times. I preferred to remove these for a cleaner look - I like my customs uncluttered. Toyota's online musseum has a decent pic of the stock version. There's also an early version with a simpler grill, but not in kit form.

I've got the body stuck together and puttied nicely, although it still needs some of the moldings removed and the windows reshaped. Unfortunately, the Ford Flathead V8 I want to use doesn't appear to be in my stash. I think it might be at my parents' house (I left some stuff behind when I moved out a few years ago, and the Quad tractor box was one of the things I left).

I'm slowly accumulating them from an eBay seller in HongKong. Which explains why I often end up with the police or taxi versions since that's what he is listing at the time. Seeing as I can't find the engine for the Wild Wasabi, this'll be moving a bit quicker. Having had a good all round look at the body, I must say it reminds me of the Corvair (mostly it's that chrome molding all the way around the top of the body)

The stock engine is a tiny little inline four, you'd need to make a ton of space in there. Remember, they are smaller than they look. Oh, and only about 300 were sold in the US, of which only about 5 survive to this day. Dunno how many are left in Japan, but they were much more popular there.