Tom Daniel’s Unreal Roller

[OldNYJim]

Wasn’t really sure where to post this - but I guess it’s about as ‘other’ as they get, so here we are…

Was really glad that Atlantic reissued this one - it’s been on my ‘want’ list for a LONG time.

I love the new box art, and I’m sure I’ll end up building a green one, but I really wanted to built a replica of the original box art from ‘71:

Something I like about Tom Daniel kits is that you get straight to the getting…first step, paint the body and start making it look like the thing on the box ?:

So, first job will be clean up all the purple parts ready for paint:

The firewall and dash is ok by 50-year-old standards, but I figured I could improve on those moulded-in gauges and switches a little:

I spun up some aluminum trim rings on my lathe (which was tricky - the material is a little too fragile for my Taig really…) and then drilled out those switches ready for replacements…I might make some nice polished aluminum ones actually rather than these wire ones that I have in there right now…

Having a blast messing with this thing - it’s so different to what I’ve been building lately, it’s fun to work on something big and beefy and industrial.

More soon!

[Dave Van]

One of my FAV showrods......be watching

[OldNYJim]

Thanks Dave!  It’s one of mine too!

Today’s adventures…replacing the kit steering shaft with a machined aluminum one:

Machining a Moon-style tank and cap to replace the kit piece (largely because it was easier than trying to fix the visible seam where the two pieces meet on the plastic version:

And I looked through my stash for a nice metallic purple to use and found a can of Ford Ultraviolet pearl purple…

 

…so after I’d spent a couple of hours cleaning up all the parts and getting them into primer I shot all the stuff that needs to be purple - pretty color!

And that’s all so far today - tacking the graphics on the side will be the next paint project, but in the meantime I can start on the engine…more soon!

[slusher]

Sharp color!

[Mr mopar]

Looking good so far ,nice dash work , I'm thinking of painting the wheels the road surface part  ,just to much chrome !

Edited October 10, 2021 by Mr mopar

[Nosferatu]

This is looking awesome! I like the dash details and that color pops!

[gotnitro?]

Very cool build , a classmate had one built when we were hanging out . Never thought I'd see another one 

Fantastic color 

[bobthehobbyguy]

Great color. 

[OldNYJim]

Thanks everyone!

Because basically everything attaches to the body on a lot of these TD kits, I really needed to get the body finished and in clear, so that was this week’s project.

Used a scan of the original decals that Bob @TooOld kindly provided to redraw them in illustrator:

 

 

Then cut masks out of Oramask on my plotter, and masked for paint:

 

Shot silver first, then gradually worked through the process, shooting red orange and yellow over top.  Decided not to follow the same pattern as the original design, just because I liked my way better ?

All done and ready for touch-ups:

 

Because doing all those layers adds those visible paint edges that you can see I used a high-build acrylic clear to help bury those graphics - the acrylic doesn’t polish up as nicely as enamels or lacquers for me, but you can shoot multiple coats quickly and if you get them plenty wet without it pooling you can get decent results:

 

Excited to get this part done so I can actually stick something to something else ?. More soon!

Edited March 3, 2022 by CabDriver

[TooOld]

I like your way better too , well done !

I bought a roll of Oramask a while back and have cut a few things by hand just to experiment and it works really good , it may be time to buy a cutting machine , what kind do you use ?  And will it cut true circles ?

[Farmboy]

Nice start on your Roller.  Just started mine.    I'll be interested to see where you go with the rest of the kit.

[Zippi]

That is looking pretty kewl.  Nice corlors.  

[Chappy]

I like it!  I may do the groover . . .