Psychographic

I used to look at junkyard lots, but haven't seen any that float my boat lately. As for parts, I'll look if there's something I need, and am willing to only pay about a 1/4 of what I could get a whole kit for. Anything more and I might as well buy a complete kit and have parts for other projects.

I sanded and buffed the body this morning. As I had the door gaps pretty tight, I went easy on the clear. I should have given it one more wet coat as I went through the black on the edges of the door jambs. I'm going to try to touch it up with a black Sharpie. I think that will give me the thinnest coverage and hopefully the least noticeable. The troublesome front wheels are done. Now it's on to finish painting the interior.

Polished 2 clear centers, lost one clear center, made new clear center. Two steps forward, one back seems to be the theme of this build. I'd like to try to finish this for a show on Saturday, but I doubt it will happen. The redo on the front wheels looks much better. Now to stretch the tires over those hoops without damaging them.

I found the missing wheel half, and it's a good thing because I decided I didn't like how the Alclad came out the first time. The one wheel half I saved fell apart while sanding the inside edge, so into the rotation goes the found one. I made new outer hubs and stripped the inner ones, all are in the booth with a coat of black. I'm going to polish up the clear centers a bit before they go together this time too. I've also started assembling the linkages on the front suspension. Pics will come later.

Nice job on the tubs. What are your plans for the frame and suspension?

This is insanely cool looking!

Thanks Ray, I needed to hear that. So I woke up this morning and decided this thing is NOT going to beat me. I searched all over and could not find the missing half, I did find and was able to dissect the wheel with the screwed up PE center. I've got front wheels, although I still have to glue them together somehow.

I am officially at the end of my patience with this build! After being excited at having new front wheels to finish it off, now one half of one of the rims has gone missing. I have one of those coffee mug warmers that I use to keep the fluids warm to speed the stripping of chrome and the clear base. I put a couple of stir sticks across it to raise the cup enough to get the temps just right. First round is with Purple Power to strip the chrome, the second is with 91% alcohol to strip the lacquer. Four rim halves went in and after about 15 minutes I give them a scrub and put them back in for another 15. Somehow one rim half got lost in the shuffle. I either want to put this in a box so it's out of sight, or stomp it into a million pieces so I don't have to deal with it anymore!

I mocked up a quick clear wheel, it looks better than stock. What do you guys think? The plastic piece sitting on the ground is a buck for what will hopefully be a back window with a recess for a license plate.

Why not buy it in a bottle? It seems a waste of money to pay spray can prices just to run it though an airbrush.

I like it. I also have a suggestion for you about burnishing your mask. In areas such as your door handle where you didn't get a seal between the mask and body, cut a slice on the mask, burnish it down with a toothpic. This will leave you a gap, cover that with some masking tape, or if it's a complex design cut another mask, then from that cut the section you need to fill the gap. BTW, there is no such thing as a "Girly" color!

New wheels have arrived!!! I have to say, I'd better learn how to do a decent job of assembling PE spokes as I just cant stand to look at the stock ones anymore. Even though I did between a fair, but closer to poor job on my first attempt on the PE spokes, they still look WAY better than stock. I ordered the first set from Tom's Modelwork's and they were shipped out super fast, unfortunately they aren't very good at returning emails. I've been waiting a week for a reply. The pic that shows the PE spokes show 8 cross laced pieces, but you get 4 radial and 4 cross laced. I'm trying to find out if the sheet with all cross laced is available. So for ordering and shipping they get a 5 star review, for communication, minus 5. My plan right now is to mock up a clear center for the wheel and see how that looks.

The problem is inconsistency. I had a build where I was converting a Fireball 500 kit into an El Camino. It got moved, then months later there was either another Camino or such based build and you said in your opinion it was more car than truck and left it in the car section. Why is it that drag cars which have their own category are always in the On the Workbench forum and the Under Glass forums but yet they never get moved? I do agree that whatever categories anyone could come up with will leave somebody unhappy, so why bother adding or changing anything. If you've been a member for any length of time, you know where to find things, and if you are new here, you will learn where to find things. This board is owned and paid for by one person and it's up to him as to how he wants to run it. BTW Bernard, this is a nice build and look forward to seeing it finished.

For the life of me, I can't understand the people who buy from PJ Toys. I recently was looking for a set of zoomies for a current build, PJ showed up in my search and wanted as much for them as a complete kit. Why not just buy a whole kit and have all those extra parts for other builds?

If you are going to try boiling water, make sure ALL the solvents have outgassed. You'd be amazed at what flashing with high temps under water can do with trapped solvents.

Are there enough contact places to cement the body in place on the frame and interior tub? If it's only 1mm, the frame should hold it into position unless the frame doesn't have much rigidity to it.

Well get crackin' Ray, we want to see what ideas you've got.

Is this it? http://www.thepartsbox.com/store/index.php?page=categories&group=20

This looks better.

Once I knew the interior floor fit, I started doing the carpet. I put down two coats of embossing powder. I tried a mix of black acrylic, tacky glue, and water which didn't get great coverage. I used a hair dryer to speed the drying and did a second coat, this time using Micromark flat clear and got great coverage. I decided to put some parts in place to see how everything looked. From this angle everything looks good. But from this angle, the dash looks way out of place. So out came a quill and some 1 Shot and now I have this. And the VW emblem has been found!

Looking great so far TJ. I look forward to seeing this come together.

No, I think it would be easier for you to click on the link and scroll down.

If you're a fan of old racing movies, you might want to call in sick from work on the 14th. http://www.tcm.com/schedule/monthly.html?ecid=subnavmonthschedule

Joe, is Boeing sponsoring this ride?

I just got home and checked on the body. The doors fit by just placing them in place, whether they clear everything using the hinges is another story. I'm going to have to polish the paint which I was hoping to skip, but you can see the graphics in the thickness of the paint. This clear shrinks a decent amount after a few days, so I'll wait a bit before I buff it. A generous member on here is sending me some wheels so I'm actually going to finish something. I might switch the idea of PE wires to clear centers on the rims, I know I can pull that off without any problems. Now that I've said that, I'll probably find a way to screw those up too! Once I know the floorboard fits (the fit was tight even before the clear), I can flock the carpet area and start assembling the interior.