Chopped 3-Window Hemi Deuce

[CabDriver]

And, it’s the weekend, so another fun day at the bench making seemingly slow progress…

Got the engine assembled so I could see if my stock non-recessed firewall actually had any hope of working.  Shockingly, no…turns out a Hemi is kinda big.  Who knew!

Just sneaks in there with the kit firewall (which I know it should, but I had moved the mounts back a scale inch or so, so I had to check…)

Meanwhile, had my printer running - wanted to try a different front tire (and print better versions of the front wheels):

Same height, slightly narrower…fronts and rears all cleaned up:

Next project today was stripping the frame back down so I can get it cleaned up for paint…also made a new set of aluminum floorboards and started getting them for nice ready for installation after paint on the frame is done:

This aluminum is really thin, but it settles down nicely with some glue and you don’t have to baby it too much whilst you’re working with it…seems to polish up nicely too, although I won’t polish these particular pieces until after I’m done installing it…

Here’s about where it sat before I stripped it down…still got some scratchbuilding to do and some stuff to figure out but it’s close enough I can start doing some paint…exciting!

(Note: that oversized grill support bar won’t be on the final build, just the grill kept laying back and irritating me…)

More soon, soon as I’ve done more!

[Zippi]

Nice progress over the weekend Jim.  I'm liking the wheels & tires.  

[bluestringer]

Looking good. Nice work.

[bobss396]

I use .020" brass wire on most of my radiator supports. I have also used stainless steel wire, tougher to bend. I use Detail Master fittings at the fire wall. The wire I just bend into a "V" shape at the radiator.

[CabDriver]

Thanks fellas!

It’s Monday (and 5” of snow is predicted here tonight) and to top it all off, tonight’s project was a bunch of sanding and priming.  Not the most exciting part of the process…

Something I’ve been using a lot lately for filling tiny pinhole imperfections (especially the tiny pits left by removing the supports in 3D printed parts) is this Vallejo plastic putty.  Works GREAT - you can water it down and brush it on, or smear it on like ‘regular’ putty.  Good for tiny little fixes, and dries almost instantly…with no shrinkage:

I brushed a little on a couple of the tires to fit some little flaws, and used it ‘straight’ to fill a flaw and some pinholes in the others…definitely good for little jobs that don’t warrant Bondo:

Did a couple of projects on the printer today too, had it running whilst I was sanding and priming…printed up a couple of Holley Dominators to improve upon the kit carbs:

And I started messing with the door cards - I’d like to figure out something un-upholstered seeing as I’m imagining a pretty sparse interior, but I’d like to use the kit pieces as a basis so I don’t have to scratchbuild new ones…removed and drilled out the door handles and window cranks and printed some replacements (a LOT of them, actually), and I’ve got an experiment to try tomorrow for my door card idea…more on that in the next couple of days:

JusT a small update, but trying to make some progress every day…more soon, soon as I’ve done more!

[Straightliner59]

I really like what you're doing, here. Another very cool project from your bench! The panhard bar looks great! That tooling aluminum is fun stuff. You can bead-roll it, and all kinds of interesting things! I used it for the inner door panels and the wheel tubs in my Super Gas Vega. I originally used it to build bodies for two dragsters. I don't recommend it, for that! Both of those were since redone with step flashing. Anyway, sorry to interrupt.?

[Rocking Rodney Rat]

Looking good, Jim.

I guess it's too late now, but in regards to the stock firewall. I have trimmed out the edge of the cowl so that the firewall can be recessed into the body an RCH or two. This is a resin firewall from Replicas and Miniatures of Maryland, a bit thinner than the firewall you were trying to use. This did allow me to use the Hemi from the kit. 

-------------------------

Another area, on one '32 build, I modified the frame for fitting in a QC by notching the gas tank for clearance.

In this case using a Model A spring and crossmember.....

Just a couple of tricks...carry on! -RRR 

 

[bobss396]

I used some obscure resin firewall on my last '32 coupe build. It was rolled and pleated, I painted it white. I now pretty much make my own if I have to recess it a bit.

[ColonelKrypton]

12 hours ago, CabDriver said:

It’s Monday (and 5” of snow is predicted here tonight)

Tuesday now and we are expecting that same storm here in Eastern Ontario (Canada). Almost noon and already a few flurries but the worst is expected this evening and overnight with the snow changing to rain and likely freezing rain. Yuuuccckkkk! ( double yuuuccckkkk! ) Bright side is that there will be some time to spend at the workbench, downside is that it will be a real mess to cleanup.

I really like your build and those window cranks are great.  

cheers, Graham 

 

[Paul Payne]

Amazing stuff-haven't gotten into 3D printing yet but it is definitely in the future! Especially love the window cranks and door handles and the carbs are great!

[Rattlecan Dan]

Definitely whole lotta Hot Roddin' goin on here. It's already got the look and feel. Keep on keepin on.

[CabDriver]

Thanks fellas!

15 hours ago, Rocking Rodney Rat said:

Just a couple of tricks...carry on! -RRR 

Appreciate the tricks!  I always enjoy your build threads, and appreciate the pointers!  Always something to learn!  I moved the engine back a scale inch or so on this one which looked more ‘right’ to me, but then I needed the clearance for the firewall and my flat one didn’t work…but I like how you handled that problem on the gold car there…storing that away for the next one!  

I did have to notch the gas tank a touch for the Quickchange, but mine didn’t need too much, luckily…

 

Meanwhile, back in snowy Indiana…still priming and prepping a bunch of stuff for paint, but primer’s boring so I spent some time designing some new door cards that look more like what I imagined:

I’m going for a bare-aluminum racecar-y look, but I added a little detail with some bead rolled edges to the panels and a recurring cross pattern that mirrors the stamping on the underside of the frame.

Sent parts to the printer, and 90 minutes later…

Printed two sets, because there’s a lot less pressure working with a part when you have an identical extra one just in case…

All cleaned up and test fitted:

Needs a tiny tweak to fit perfect but I’m pretty pleased.  My intention is to try embossing aluminum over top, but I ran out of time tonight…that’ll be an experiment for tomorrow…if that doesn’t work I’ll try BMFing them, or painting them…

In other news, Revell goofed on the spacing on the kit headers, but I didn’t want to use them anyway…found these in the parts box that have the right spacing (I think?) and look a little more like what I had in mind…AMT parts maybe?  More on those soon as I figure out what I want the exhaust to look like, also considering just scratchbuilding something…

Thats all for tonight, folks, more tomorrow assuming I don’t get stuck in a pile of snow…thanks for looking!

[slusher]

Fantastic work Jim!

[Slotto]

Digging this!

[bobthehobbyguy]

Impressive work. Coming along nicely.

[CabDriver]

Thanks fellas!

I had to work late tonight, so didn’t get as much done as I wanted this evening, but got a little done anyway…

Following on from my door card experiment that I mentioned yesterday, I wanted to try the embossing aluminum over top the pieces I made to see how it would look:

Meh, kinda ok - but I like the crispness of the printed parts, so I’ll prep those for paint and get an aluminum look that way.  BMF would probably work ok too, although I haven’t figured out a good way to get around the roughness that the glue imparts when you use it on a large flat area.  I’m sure there IS a solution, but paint will work for what I’m trying to achieve here I think…

Speaking of paint, so here’s what I’ve been looking forward to…I’m going for a bare metal look on this one - the frame and the running gear and so on will appear ‘finished’ but I’m going for a bare metal body and grill shell to give me a chance to work on my realistic metal painting skills.  Totally finished looking car, but no paint.

Coincidentally, I was collecting a bunch of bare-metal reference material this last couple of weeks and then today stumbled upon almost exactly what I had in my head, in 1:1:

Complete coincidence, and I don’t think I had ever seen this car before but it’s pretty close to the look I’m gonna for…might incorporate a couple of elements from it into my build now that I’ve seen it and got some other ideas.  

If you ever go to an IPMS show, especially one with a lot of aircraft models, you’ll see some masterful use of all kinds of paints to achieve a whole array of impressive metal finishes, and I’m going to be trying some of those techniques on this build.

This car will represent a steel body, probably original ‘Henry’ material but maybe with some subtle repairs and some evidence of the roof chop having been done.  Some of the metal will be lighter and newer looking than other parts, so I’m starting off with a light base.  But first, a dark base:

My favorite Createx black sealer - lays down super thin, super opaque and ready for the next color in 10 minutes or so. I need the dark base in this case for my ‘real’ base color - I went with Vallejo chrome, which is bad as a chrome, but is a really light tone, has no visible flake to it (to the naked eye anyway) and will hopefully be a good starting point for what I’ll be doing the rest of the week:

And…that’s all I achieved today ??. I’m SUPER excited to get some more done on what the aircraft guys call a ‘natural metal finish’, so more soon!  Thanks for looking

[Straightliner59]

What about cutting panels for the recessed areas, and bare metal on the ribs? I might give that a shot, just to see what it would look like.

[Steve H]

Great stuff as always Jim. Your “problem” solving is always insightful. I really enjoy watching how you smart guys with printers can magically create the needed/modified parts required for a build. Awesome!

[Kenmojr]

Fantastic work, love these traditional styled hot rods, just like the real ones featured in HAMB.

[Chuckyg1]

This is looking great. Lots of cool fabrication.

[CabDriver]

Thanks for the kind words fellas!

21 hours ago, Straightliner59 said:

What about cutting panels for the recessed areas, and bare metal on the ribs? I might give that a shot, just to see what it would look like.

Ohh, that’s an interesting idea, yeah!!  Will experiment with that at the weekend…thank you!!  Good thinking!

Today’s project, making a start on the baremetal effects on the body.  It’s going to take a few sessions to get this where I want it, and like most of these weathering-type activities it’ll take a bunch of lightly-applied layers to get an effect that doesn’t look heavy handed and unrealistic.

I already shot the body in Vallejo ‘chrome’, which I really am using as a base more than anything - it’s too light for a steel color but it has good reflectivity and it’ll hopefully keep a degree of that as I build layers on top of it to get the effect I’m looking for.

Tonight’s project will be getting an old, but clean(ish) steel look, but I also imagined that this body would have had patch panels added at some point - maybe a fix on one of the doors, a whole new lower edge on another, maybe a repro trunklid or one from another car - and I’d like to make the welds from the chopped top visible, a little too.

So, laid down a little low tack tape so I can mess with a few little sections of the body some more later and not have any of the ‘aging’ process applied to them yet:

And then I did a little light layering in the corners of the body and the recesses with some Vallejo steel colors:

I’m just applying really light passes with each of these, just in a few spots to add some natural looking gradients and changes in color.

Next up, I used some Alclad and Mr Color steel colors, and airbrushed a few more spots, again for some more color variation, and then used a technique I learned on here by Chris Drysdale of kinda ‘smooshing’ some dried lacquer into the surface with a worn out old brush to create some more variation:

I’ve still got plenty more to do on these layers, so if this kind of process is boring to you might be time to change channel - but this stuff is really fun to do!  It’s so easy to go too far, a light tough is required almost every step of the way, and knowing when to stop before you go too far…going to pace myself…

Quick shot with the masking removed - tomorrow’s project will be figuring out how to paint some realistic ‘welds’ and then weather those ‘newer’ metal pieces 

Thanks for looking - more soon, soon as I’ve done more!

[Straightliner59]

This is such a cool project, Jim! I haven't dived into trying this with any seriousness, but Dave Abell was a local guy, here in the Denver area. He built this bulldozer in 1989, or so--this photo is the only one I have of it. He did all the hard-facing on the blade assembly (you can see the welds on the arm) dabbing Floquil paint with a tiny brush. I can't imagine how long that must have taken! Obviously, Floquil paint is no longer made, and I am not sure of an equivalent there is, now. It was lacquer, which I think would be important, because of the rate at which it dries. The finish on this thing was unbelievably realistic. I think he may have rubbed some metal powders into it, as well. Unfortunately, he's been gone for a number of years, so there's no way to pick his brain about it. Since you're doing a natural metal finish, I thought you might find some interest in it.

Edited January 12 by Straightliner59

[Bullybeef]

On 1/8/2024 at 8:54 PM, CabDriver said:

(Snip)

Something I’ve been using a lot lately for filling tiny pinhole imperfections (especially the tiny pits left by removing the supports in 3D printed parts) is this Vallejo plastic putty.  Works GREAT - you can water it down and brush it on, or smear it on like ‘regular’ putty.  Good for tiny little fixes, and dries almost instantly…with no shrinkage:

I brushed a little on a couple of the tires to fit some little flaws, and used it ‘straight’ to fill a flaw and some pinholes in the others…definitely good for little jobs that don’t warrant Bondo:

(/snip)

Now there’s a tip I’ll take to the bench, I’ve struggled a bit with too thick putty! 

[Paul Payne]

Jim, I have had really good luck using artist's pastels for weathering.

[CabDriver]

20 hours ago, Straightliner59 said:

This is such a cool project, Jim! I haven't dived into trying this with any seriousness, but Dave Abell was a local guy, here in the Denver area. He built this bulldozer in 1989, or so--this photo is the only one I have of it. He did all the hard-facing on the blade assembly (you can see the welds on the arm) dabbing Floquil paint with a tiny brush. I can't imagine how long that must have taken! Obviously, Floquil paint is no longer made, and I am not sure of an equivalent there is, now. It was lacquer, which I think would be important, because of the rate at which it dries. The finish on this thing was unbelievably realistic. I think he may have rubbed some metal powders into it, as well. Unfortunately, he's been gone for a number of years, so there's no way to pick his brain about it. Since you're doing a natural metal finish, I thought you might find some interest in it.

That’s a great looking build!  Thank you for sharing!!  I did a quick search this evening to find more pics of that dozer but came up short…I’ll do some more digging.  Beautiful work on display there!

8 hours ago, Bullybeef said:

Now there’s a tip I’ll take to the bench, I’ve struggled a bit with too thick putty! 

It’s not super expensive either - I use it a lot for last-minute fixes on primer coats, and you can do some fun stuff with it like creating weld beads and so on too.  Definitely useful!

3 hours ago, Paul Payne said:

Jim, I have had really good luck using artist's pastels for weathering.

Funny you should mention that Paul…as you posted about pastels I was at the bench using some ?

Next step tonight was adding some light aging to those ‘clean’ panels and patches.  I figure the old original ‘Henry’ steel would have a lot of depth to it, subtle spots of dark and light and a lot of character, but the newer pieces would likely have some light superficial brown tones, like surface rust where they had lightly flashed from some humidity and exposure to the elements.

First up, masked a couple of super-thin ‘weld’ lines where some new steel would’ve needed to be added to the roof during the process of chopping it:

Nothing too fancy there, just wanted to demonstrate that the steel had been through a heat cycle and darkened up.  Then, tape removed, I did some very light airbrushing of a tan and then dark gray color to further simulate discolored metal, and blended some similar color pastels lightly over top to make it look less ‘airbrushed’:

I’m not going for heavy weathering or big obvious rat-rod looking lumpy welds - just something nicely done and smoothed down, but not quite ready for paint yet - if it ever were to GET paint.

I used the same trick, but different colors on the new panels - much lighter brighter browns but subtly applied to give them a little character too…I’m pretty pleased with how it’s coming together…

Nice thing is with pastels - if there’s too much rust (like where the firewall meets the body on that last pic above) you can just buff it out, like REAL rust.  Downside too is that you can remove it really easily, so I’m sure I’ll be doing some touch-ups further down the line.

Just a little progress to report, because this stuff seems to take me hours, but it’s rewarding!  Still more to come on the body, but I really need to start working on painting some of the other bits this weekend too.

Thanks for looking - more soon, soon as I’ve done more!