CustomDiecastReplicas.com's Bodyshop Blog

11/4 Crap its hard to keep up !

Dr Diecast — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 08:40:26 GMT

OK...... so this is a quickie post since I just havn't had time too. I lost my computer for 2 days last week and just havn't been able to get caught up.

I wanted to post a couple pictures for those who have not seen these.

One is a mid engine creation for the Mustang lover, Filtercalvo. The other is a Willys I have had around for a while that is finally 95% done and will leave here in the next or so.

Enjoy..... and check back I have more "in progress" stuff I will be posting.

1940 Willys...

Numerous body mods..... including removing all body trim, cutting the fenders and seaming the hood to them for a one piece tilt front end. Removing the door hinges and creating suicide doors. I changed the taillights and created a recessed license plate. The chassis was from a Mustang Gasser that was modded to work with this body then the interior was redone in black per the customer request along with the Candy Apple Red paintwork.

1970 Mustang...

This is a "what if" project that while looking like it will be great will not see an end. The mock was done for my customer but I knew it was not exactly what he wanted. Being too cool to pass up I had to shoot some pictures. This has hours upon hours of mod work already just to get a late model Ford GT40 chassis even remotely close to fitting this body. I am not going to go into detail as too what I did since the car has already been torn apart for body mods but wanted to post some pictures non the less.

OK....more too come but for now, I'M OUT !

Yes....... THREE days this week, whoo hoo !

Dr Diecast — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 07:52:16 GMT

Well this is day 3 of the last 5 that I will be blogging, LOL, must be some kind of record, hehe.

Ok, the reason I love this business is how I can turn a "it can't be done" into a "I did it" moment.

Wednesday I FINALLY received the stock 55 Chevy I had been waiting weeks for from me deal friend and diecast dealer (weekends at a flea market) back in Chicago. He is like my surrogate father and I love the man dearly but ...... when he has a car in inventory that I need and want him to ship it to me it takes FOREVER sometimes. He is 85 and doesn't drive so he is at the mercy of his wife but between that and their very busy retired life I almost have to nag him daily until he ships what I need.

I needed this stock 55 Chevy Belair (along with a 2004 Nissian 350Z) for an intense project (not that I don't have many of those already) that needed to be finished by Xmas.

The customer has a 55 Chevy 2 door post. These are plain jane cars and in diecast we have the Belair... and the American Graffiti movie car 55 Chevy post sedan. That movie car has a tilt one piece front end, a half interior with no back seat and radiused rear wheel wells. Not close to stock by any means.

So..... I need to make it look like a stock 2 door post. The real car is really not that wild. Two ton paint, 2 tone painted interior and some Shelby Mustang wheels with spinners. So the hard part would be making the body. While I looked at pictures of the real car and the 2 diecast cars I felt this would not be a problem to do, HA !

I get the stock car and start sizing up everything only to realize I bit off more than I can chew. The stock 55 is 1/8th of and inch wider. The 2 door post is 1/18 of an inch longer and I need to use that chassis since I need to use that interior bucket. I need the front end off the stock car and the inner fender wells but the rest of the AG car.

After looking it over and lining everything up I shook my head, called a couple friends and told them I was finally beat and would have to refund the customer their deposit money as I wouldn't be able to make the car.

Then I was reminded by my friends that I have said that before and given a little time I would figure it out. Well....... it only took 3 hours of giving it time (man I wish all projects could get figured out that fast) and buzz buzz, chop chop, cut cut, glue glue and we have a stock body 55 Chevy 2 door post with stock working hood and stock wheel well openings. I will post pictures Monday (hopefully) of the body in primer.

My point is even if it takes a year or more I can pretty much do anything. Cocky huh ? No just positive.... if there is a way I will figure it out, maybe not right away but I will figure it out. Patience in this business is something that even I from time to time have no respect for so I guess I can understand how customers who have no idea what goes into this can feel that way too.

I got a comment yesterday from the owner of the Black 34 I had done. While I didn't forward the comment for posting I will comment on it. This is my blog and my choice as to what I want posted here and while I did not read the whole comment as negative the last line is what really bothered me.

First off I do not believe I had any issues with these people on the build expect with the time frame again. Apparently to them its best I do not participate with the Good-Guys program because I need to be able to turn projects out faster to turn a profit and maybe being on a National level is not good for me.

While they comment about my being more of an artist and art takes time they also said they would have rather had the money they did pay for gas to go cruising.

Here is where my problem lies. First off.... It has nothing to do with turning projects out faster its more if my not leaving money on the table for things I should be charging for no matter what. I should have been paid at least $200.00 more for the hood work and wheels. I should have charged $300 for the paint and used $200 of the certificate towards the paint. The fact that they felt they were not really offered a "prize" because they had to pay to use the certificate is not my problem. Good-Guys knew from day one what I did and that projects could take a year or more to complete, that the customer, unless handing me a car and saying please repaint this, would have additional monies they would have to pay. So...to get back the beginning of this paragraph....the time it took I have no problem with given what it takes to do these cars. The money ($300 at least) I left on the table is what I have a problem with.

Well...... that and the fact that you got a replica (albeit not exact but still nice as you said) of your car for what ??? $250 ? $275 $300.00 ? I would look it up but don't really care since it wasn't enough. $300.00 for a replica of a car you will NEVER be able to buy anything close too in the retail market. $300.00 for a replica of a car im sure took a couple years to build at way more then the price of a used Ford Taurus. $300.00 for the year or however long it took me to build it. $300.00 that you would have rather spent on gas to go cruising. WOW........ thank you. Thank you for your business and your appreciation of the hours I spent trying to figure out how to make the car as close to yours as possible let alone the wheels. Thank you for understanding that this isn't the real car world and that you can't call the local parts store to get the exact air cleaner, seats, rims or whatever it is you added to make your car, YOUR CAR and not like anyone else's. Thank you..... and when you sell your real car at some point in years to come remember the diecast version will still be there for you to look at. Remember what it cost...... and what it took to create it, thank you.

On another note..... something not many will appreciate, but here is a shot of the back end of a 68 Dodge Super Bee .... this is close (70-90%) to being done. I had to fab up the rear panel and ridge line on the decklid to look like the one year only 68 Super Bee body. This is close too paint and hopefully will be shot soon with a few other cars.

OK, well that's it for now...... I'm out !

Two Days In A Row, WOW

Dr Diecast — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 08:12:18 GMT

Ok, your not seeing things, yes this is 2 days in a row, LOL.

I wanted to first thank those who have commented about yesterdays post. I appreciate the fact that you guys still check in to see what little things I'm playing with.

Karl,I love the fact that you took diecast version of the 59 with you and people enjoyed it. Pete, looks like you have the modding bug and won't need my closet for your cars anymore, LOL. To the rest of you, thanks for the kind words even if it is just WOW, lol.

Today I am posting pictures of the flamed 34..... this car has been a nightmare since day 2, LOL. Its the car that caused me to, basically pull out of the Good Guys Rod & Custom Associations, Choice Product Sponsor program.

See this is the deal, I provide them with certificates worth at least $200.00 for a complete paint job to give away at there 18 events and then they promote me and my services in there monthly magazine and on there website. The trade off is it will cost me at least $3600.00 in paint work in a year but.... national exposure to 250,000 people on a monthly basis will generate... hmmm..... the sales guy said 10K a year in business...... to date it has generated 0..... Zip, Zilch, Nadda, Nuttin, ZERO. It has cost me probably a $1000.00 more than I have taken in.

Let me explain for a second.... in the year I have been part of this... I have had people select my prize 6 times..... I have actually done 3 projects and had 3 I could not do at all as they don't make the diecast starter car. Of the 3 I did, I write the contract for the project.... they pay the deposit and the certificate and balance is owed when completed. Here is where I loose. Each project was way more involved then they looked (partly my fault) but the cerificate was good for paintwork... well this car you see I should have charged about $350-400.00 for the paint work on and while not getting that I also had to make the hood and custom fit an engine that I didn't get to charge for. This car cost this customer $265.00. Thats it....... it should have been about $700.00 with all that went into it. Mind you to some who read this you might not see why it would cost that but im telling you after creating this car it should have been. Kinda like how the 59 El Camino should have been about 200.00+ more than I charged.

The Black 34 I pictured here in the past with the custom 3 spoke wheels was another car that I lost some $300.00 on. My point is that these old Hot Rods are hard to price until I have them in front of me and I have been bit in the ass too many times to loose money and thats all these seem to do.

OK..... whats my point..... well yesterday I get notification from the BBB that this owner of this car now wants his money back. He thinks taking a year to do this car is way to long , that I told him it would be done in 2-3 months (HAHAHAHAHAHA.... yeeeeeah it takes thats long JUST for a repaint let alone all the other things, guess he needs hearing aids) that I gave him one BS excuse after another and repeatedly told him a completion time (hell I never know a completion time) and failed to meet it. So now he doesn't want the diecast replica he ordered and just wants his money back, LOL.

At this point I replied to the BBB and pointed out what parts of the signed contract he sent them a copy of they needed to review, stating 1, I cannot estimate a completion time due to, CUSTOM PAINT, CREATING BODY PARTS NOT MADE, FINDING PARTS, well you get the idea. Then I pointed you the next part where it states, if you decide not to have the project completed you LOOSE YOUR DEPOSIT. Apparently with the hearing problem he also has a seeing problem, LOL.

Anyway, here is the finished car.....the car I told the BBB I was shipping no later then Oct 31st but probably Oct 27th. Heck I might ship it sooner. So, at this point I told them (BBB once the car leaves me the contract is fulfilled and that ends this. I also said that ONLY if the car shows up damaged and I can collect from the shipper will I refund him ANY monies.

So....as you saw yesterday I have a house full of projects.....but now you see again, some of the other things I have to deal with daily that keep me from getting them all done...... ahhhh..... life as a sole owner, LOL.

OK...... I'm out !

Wow , this thing still work ?

Dr Diecast — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 09:13:14 GMT

Well I guess I'm back again....... really never went anywhere but there are some cobwebs here based on the fact its been like a month since I posted anything.

I had planned on posting at least each week but alas as we see it has not happened. I am going to do one big post to try to get those who still follow this caught up. Maybe not with detailed shots of things but more an idea of what all I am working on. Some shots will be of newer projects while other ones of older projects. I will also post a couple cars I have finished lately.

This is really for my regulars and some of the current crabby apples that just don't understand the time frame for any of this. You will see here one car, a Lamborghini, that I actually spent an entire week on between sanding, polishing, assembly, and then tweaking the little things that just were not right or were just a lot harder than ever expected which included actualyl re clearcoating part of the body.

A week...... that's at least 5 days in my work.... a week is sometimes 7 for me but this car kicked my ass. Since a normal diecast car has anywhere between 6-9 parts to repaint I was put in the hole right away as this car had some 19 seperate parts to be painted. Some molded in clear with just an edge or small area painted body color, some molded in black plastic with part painted body color. Either way each piece had to be masked first then the paint process could start. This on top of the customer wanting his wheels re shot in graphite on a set of wheels I could not for the life of me get the rotors off of. But hey its done and that's a good thing. You will see it below.

Now, on to the projects. I will post a shot of the bin that the car or parts are in and a little info on what it will be. Again, some of these were shot weeks ago others more recent. For those who don't understand the timetable around here this should make it clear.... A LOT of projects.... and one time consuming problem puts A LOT of projects on hold.... not something I like but reality. Hey if I could do these like Maaco I would, LOL, but would have been out of business long ago.

If your computer is on dial up this will kill it, LOL.

Custom 32 roadster as seen in picture

34 Coupe that has been here WAY TOO long. I had been waiting on wheels for this that finally showed up Friday and hopefully this will be gone by the end of the week.

59 Impala, one of the cars that has been neglected because of other projects that have pushed me back time wise. I know what needs to be done, just have to find the time to get too.... soon , very soon.

63 Galaxie, straight axle with a blown 427 now. This has been put on hold by the customer as he is changing the intake and until its done and he knows what and how it will sit in the car I really can't do the engine swap.

2 of the 3 AAR Cuda's. This picture was shot before the 3rd body was created. More to come on these as they are rolling long, or should I say roll bar ing along, LOL. They look crappy here but will be great once done.

63 Roadster...... created by cutting a 67 roadster and a 63 Stingray and fusing the bodies in the right place. This car is actually done and the pictures are towards the bottom.

66 GT 350 Mustang convertible. This car is actually painted but not shown. This has the dashboard swap that I'm not sure how I'm going to do but will figure it out.

67 Dart GT, which has been here WAY WAY too long. I have been making the grille and decklid trim and reworking the taillights then its done. About a day or two and this would be out of here...... and its one of the next ones on the list.

68 Camaro raced in the 60's and 70's. This car is done and pictured towards the bottom. I had 5 plus hours into re creating the door logo and sponsor decals since the 60's picture was washed out and blurry.

68 Dodge Super Bee. This actually is in primer as again the picture was taken long ago. It also gets a stock hood not the custom made 6 pack one you see.

70 Cuda loaded with all the options.... this one is painted but thats it.

73 Challenger that has been probably 3-4 years in the making. I had finally figured out how to make the taillights as seen in the picture though its not a good shot of what they really look like. This was the last piece of the 72-74 Challenger puzzle. With this completed I can resin cast the parts and be able to duplicate this for the couple customers I have waiting on these year cars. Im really excited about this as NOBODY has done nor attempted to do this car yet. This is a perfect example of the possibilities are endless comes into play.

76 Trans Am which is another one of those, never done before, projects.

This will be a 55 Chevy Belair 2 door post once completed. This body is a 2 door post that will get cut up and fused with a regular 55 Belair ..... if all goes well, LOL.

This 94 Mustang is minor in the big picture but has a full interior rework with a wheel swap and some other minor details added.

This 2008 Mustang is a Barrett-Jackson custom that while reworking a stock Black Mustang they released the actual car in diecast. My customer then ordered 4 more of the diecast version (2 fastbacks, 2 convertibles) so I could make the minor changes needed to give 5 complete BJ cars for him to display at his 2 homes in the US. The production versions will be getting some badging changed and real hood pins added.

This 07 Roush Mustang was highlighted here about a year ago. There was that long search for wheels close to his which proved fruitless since the ones I used, that he approved, he then whined and complained about after receiving the car so it came back for a couple things. The wheels first and foremost but I also needed to change the rear quarter windows out too. Almost ready to leave here for the LAST time.

96 ??? Saleen with custom interior and spoiler.....not seen here but in the works. Also some nice engine detail was added.

68 Shelby GT 500 convertible that has been featured here. At the time this was taken I was in the process of redoing the decklid lip spoiler which is now done. This car is in line for the next batch that gets painted.

Roush Blackjack for Doug my Mustang nut.... this was shot way back before I added the stripes and other body detail. It only needs the engine detail done and its off the the Filter self for future shipping.

This "Eleanor" style 96 Mustang was started a couple years ago then the owner was deployed to Iraq and is now back so we are moving forward with the finished project. I should have shown more of the body as its mostly completed.

El Toro....... need I say more, LOL.

This Escort has been painted and clearcoated and is waiting on interior paint work and assembly. Though it could be finished rather quickly this customers other project is still in progress.

This is the above customers OTHER car, a 1999 ? Mustang convertible which is painted and awaiting clear coat at this time.

63 Ford Falcon panel wagon..... cool project... involved project and one thats in the very early stages.

67 Corvette SCCA racer that was started a while back I am waiting for more pictures of to be able to create the deck spoiler and get it under color.

77 Pontiac Formula...... basically a repaint, re stripe, tire and wheel swap but with T-Tops added as seen by the marks on the underside of the roof.

My own personal project, a working door GMP Buick Gran National. While I can't wait to get back to work on this it has sat now for months now..... I did wipe the dust off it for its current picture as it was filthy. As much as I want to complete this very involved project I just don't have time right now.

Shhhhhh.... this is a top secret project for a diecast company. No really it is something I am trying to develop with them for future release.

This will be the Indy engined Mustang raced back in the 60's at the Bonneville Saltflats. The body has been modded and is in primer at this time.

This is an odd project.... they do not make the C series late 90's Benz so the customer begged me to use a 190 baby Benz and make it look close. This car is in color and while I did make minor mods it still looks like a 190, LOL. Hey, its what he wanted so thats what I did.

This Sam Posey car has actually had the black painted on the roof and hood and is awaying my applying decals and clear coating.

This 1970 Challenger Promo 1-6 convertible was painted and I believe featured here. Upon assembling the body so I could add the stripes and clear coat, the passenger side door would not work properly and torn the paint off both the fender and door upon opening. At this point I had to first, fix the problem which in the end included swapping the entire door out for another Challenger door. Now ask yourself, why the door that came on the car would not work when re mounted.... well I asked the same question and the answer is, THESE ARE NOT MADE TO BE TAKEN APART, LOL, since there is no other apparent reason for it.
Anyway.... the new door was added and the car was sanded, primered and has been repainted.

This car was shown here before but since this picture was taken the hood was changed out. Back in the old days I used to build up the scoop on the hood with JB Weld stick or Bondo but now I make them from styrene plastic sheet. Not liking this hood I have since created a better one.

This 67 Camaro was raced back in the day and supposedly was a ranked NHRA car on the east coast.

This birds nest rumble seat 57 T-Bird. Picture shot while the decklid was on the bench being worked on.

40 Willys with Candy Apple Red paintwork. As you can see its been cleared and partially polished out. This car needs to leave....now that the paint is finally done I can get it finished and shipped.

This 71 Charger will be a tan, tan color combo not seen in diecast.

The 38 WOODIE....... LOL, I type in caps because it will be when done. This is the newly covered in leather interior. Yep, real leather seats that still need to be dyed but that's too come.

These are miscellaneous projects for Mr Mustang. Some are completed, some are still waiting on paperwork so they can be started but you get the idea.

Now for a couple completed projects.

Couple of Pete's T-Birds, Elvis Pink and Coral Sand.

71 Challey.... while I didn't paint this car I did add the stripes, badging, hood pins (adjusted for height after this was shot), tires and wheel and clearcoated.

40 Ford ...... just a 40 Ford. The wheels had to be chrome foiled which turned out about as good as they could but they are better than chrome paint as that didn't work out at all. He is happy and thats all that counts.

63 Corvette created from a 67.

69 Coronet R/T with a bulge hood custom made.

Black Acid 1968 Camaro raced in the 60's.

67 Camaro big block like the stock diecast version just done by me.

The car that kicked my ass for a week.

Now I will attempt to list the projects in house NOT seen here.

Mustang Mid Engine for Mr Mustang
Jaguar XKE, dash swap from right to left
Dragster, body repaint..... done and shipping in the next day or so
69 Chevelle, repaint (done) and stripes
08 BMW 335, repaint and wheels
71 GTX, convert to a Satellite Sebring
63 Nova SS, repaint, interior repaint and wheel swap
06 Mustang GT, create new hood, repaint and wheel swap
99 Lotus Esprit road racer.... major project with all new body panels
04 Nissian 350 Z, Lambo door conversion, repaint, interior work and decals
79 Pontiac Red Bird Formula style Firebird, many body mods and paintwork
07 ZO6, repaint and wheel swap
96 Mustang Cobra, custom front and real bumpers, rocker trim, paint and more
32 Ford, custom bodywork, paint and wheels
57 T-Bird, unrestored
57 T-Bird, custom modded by me
57 T-Bird, 60's custom per pictures supplied. (these 3 are all for the Birdman Pete)
65 Mustang GT, repaint, stripes, interior repaint
70 Chevelle, interior repaint
70 Cuda, sunroof and vinyl top added
85 Mustang, repaint
93 Mustang, repaint
06 Corvette, repaint Atomic Orange

Whew........ I think thats about it. Looks like a lot doesn't it ? It is and now if you can think about what happens when I get bogged down with a problem with any car it just sets everything further back. If I could trust anyone to help me I would hire them but I cannot and so this is my world of toy cars and I have to deal with it, LOL.

I didn't count these..... I don't want too..... I think its around 60 not including the closet of stuff for Mr Mustang or the projects I'm waiting on deposits for. All I know is there are many on this list that will be leaving soon or will be done and gone by Christmas which is a good thing.

OK...... now you can see why I haven't been updating like normal. I will again say I will try to but who knows, this is actually my busy time, LOL.

OK....... I have haven't said in a while..... IM OUT !

9/29 Yep....... im back again.

Dr Diecast — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 08:23:16 GMT

I know I know I know....... been awhile agian, but while that is the case it must mean in not slacking, LOL.

Anyway...... below are some shots of the some cars I clear coated over the weekend. I posted a group picture of these on another board but here they get their own time.

First up is the 34 Ford coupe. This is the flame job nightmare I have talked about a few times which has a very unhappy owner. Hey we are now closer then ever to being done so thats good though I do think no matter what he will not be happy.

Next up we have a couple more for Pete's Birds Nest.

This customer new that they make a Marlboro Maroon Corvette in diecast but wanted one painted better and thats what he is getting.

Just your little Sunburst Red Ford Escort.

A Lambo...... yeah I do Lambos. This will look great when finished.

This 40 Ford was interesting. The customer wanted this as a test car for restoring the real one. Contracted me to paint it half Silver half another color but in the 9 months it took him to decide he just decided to paint the whole car Silver. I had already painted half of it so I had to stripe it and start from scratch and here it is.

This Chally wasnt as much a repaint as it was a clear coat job. I added the hood pins, stripes and emblems then clear coated the whole car.

The Willys you see is a project that was cancelled years ago by a customer then ordered to be finished by another customer. This car also had me pulling my hair out as the paintwork (Candy Red) isnt something I normally shoot so it tool a couple times , the end result should look awesome though.

So...........I did attempt to post this yesterday but Go Daddy wouldn't allow me to upload the pictures. Well it worked today..... so here you guys go.

OK....... I'm out !

I'M BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK !!!!!!!!

Dr Diecast — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 08:32:46 GMT

Well....... I know its been over a week, probably closer to 2 weeks since I have posted anything. I have said before I just haven't had, nor wanted, to spend the time posting the little BS crap I have to deal with on a daily basis sometimes but here is a load of stuff that has been getting worked on. Basically paint work that was prepped last week and painted over the last few days.

Actually there are 10 cars that got painted though a couple are not shown. On top of this was the 4 car Nascar project which took an entire week to complete. To those who have projects in house let me explain how the Nascar thing works.

These are filler projects that I have always regarded as extra money. Projects that are, for the most part, so simple I can do them in a couple hours over a weekend. This was not the case with this 4 car set as I thought I could use a wrap method like the way the real cars are done. That wasn't the case here and between shifting gears on the application process to having to order more decal paper and these being a completely different kind of Nascar body the project took a week of my time. I did still make sufficient money for that time spent so I won't complain about loosing money but what I thought would take 2-3 days did take 6 in the end. This car was actually raced earlier this year in the Nextel Cup series.

So here we have a couple things.... first is the 4 car Nascar set (above). Then a little (only took 6 hours) 2 car Nascar blank set. These are a special deal I have with a customer in which I actually strip all the decals off the car (normally same ones every time) spray can the car White, do the detail paint and decal work (headlights, taillights, grill, hood pins, spoiler, rocker trim) and spray can clear them. They then apply their own decals to attract different sponsors for there Nationwide series car. I always do 2 at a time and they just want something in plain White every time so this is relatively easy.

Next we have a Lambo...... yeah, Lambo... which they make in most every color but Red.... this is actually Anniversary Red which I could not get the paint code from Dupont for. The customer actually sent me a sample and I matched it from there. This is an Auto Art car..... many parts..... many plastic parts... some parts that are cast in clear then sections are painted the color needed, so I have much liquid mask on this car. It is though finally painted as its been her over a year. Yes, over a year.... just for paint...... though it was a combination of things it is what it is. At least its finally painted.... now I can attach the couple decals, clearcoat it and its done.

Now we have an Escort...... yeah...... but its a Euro version by Sunstar. What a pain though.... very involved parts wise for a Sunstar and probably the hardest one I have yet to take apart. This is Sunburst Red.... looks Orange in the pictures but its the sun..... in person it does look a Redder.

One car I was kinda happy to get to do is this 70 Challenger R/T convertible 1-6 promo car Chrysler built back then. The car is pretty cool as its got things not on the production Challengers from 70. The color is Ralley Red... something you rarely see on a Chally since most are Hemi Orange. Add to that his car has a lower rocker trim piece in chrome and a luggage rack.... plus a couple other things I'm not remembering. Anyway....... once done it should look sweet.

Next we have this 69 Coronet R/T which if you have followed the blog showed the hood buildup.. literally, LOL. This car is Mother Mopars Med Blue which looks beautiful in the sun..... though this was an early morning shot as you can tell by the shadows coming off the bodies. This car will have a White vinyl top, stripe and interior I believe. Anyway.... its getting closer.

Here we have a stock old boring 67 Corvette....... which for some reason I shot the passenger side of.... LMAO. If you follow my blog long enough you know I normally shoot the drivers side... but in this case it must of been how I took it out of the box I carry these in for picture taking. Interesting thing about this car is they make this car in diecast..... just like his. Though it was a 1998 release and upon searching for a month or so on Ebay their were none to be found so the customer said just make me one and here we are. Mine I think will be much much nicer then the off the shelf one but for the $300.00 or so he is paying it should be.

Lastly..... picture wise that is...... we have a couple T-Birds.... yes 57's, LOL. First is the custom color "Elvis" Pink one and then another color that has not been made in diecast, Coral Sand. This Coral Sand was interesting as Dupont has formulas for it, one lighter then the other. I mixed the lighter color then did some cross checking with pictures on the internet and tweaked it since there is no way of knowing EXACTLY which color is perfect. I think it looks great and again the angle of the sun tends to wash it out a little...... guess thats the problem with using natural sunlight.

Ok...... so there are the pictures and stories.... the other cars painted were a 68 Camaro and a 40 Ford. Nothing unique, just Silver but there was no room in the box so they didn't get shot. I also had to re shoot the Yellow on the front of the 34 Ford where is flows into the Orange. While spending hours upon hours trying to detail the outline of the flames in Blue I kept going back and rubbing the excess off and discolored the Yellow on the front of the hood.... so the grill (also Yellow) didn't match the hood and the hood then didn't match the fenders (also have Yellow on them). I did a quickie mask and trim and re shot some Yellow across the whole front of the car. Hopefully its good enough as I wont know until I remove all the masking tape. This car has been a royal pain since the owner is an idiot who has actually threatened action against me if I don't get this car done in 2 weeks. That, for my readers was 3 weeks ago, LOL. I will not go into the long post about this...and his ignorance at what I do and what it takes to do this but lets just say that the car will be done soon then the shoe will be on the other foot since he still owes me money upon completion. Sad too...... this is going to be one sweet car though his attitude has soured my enjoyment in building it.

Couple other tidbits....I have had to deal with some virus problems on my computer.... I did however find a huge problem that I got corrected so now I have restored about 50% of my hard drive space but I am still battling a few little problems. Business and this economy have me worried as I have stated, since this is a want and not a need business, when the phone doesn't ring I start to panic and since were are in Xmas order mode right now and the phone isn't ringing im starting to panic. Remember..... yes I have projects in house and plenty (on the surface) but this business was built on the in and out theory. New projects (and deposits) in and old projects (and final payments) out to build a balance. Lately its been out, out, out though I have secured 3 new projects in the last 3-4 weeks though its just nowhere near how it needs to be.

At least the weather is cooling off here so hopefully I won't have anymore $400.00 electric bills, LOL. That my friends is with it set at 79 degrees though 79 inside when its 109 outside is cool, LOL.

OK..... as I haven't said in about 2 weeks...... I'M OUT !

Tuesday.... 9/2

Dr Diecast — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 08:08:09 GMT

Yes its blog day........ aren't ya all happy about that. Some im sure miss my daily ramblings but as I have said I just don't have the time lately.

Here are some shots I promised last week and a couple new ones too.

This shows the method of what I do.........

This shows the end result. I never realized how crappy things look sometimes when I am creating parts... this was pointed out on another board and then it did all make sense to me. See, what I see in my head while getting to the finished product is something im not sure most see, which then makes my pre finished work look like crap, LOL. Well rest assured I do have a method for my madness.

Here is another example..... though more refined then the above Mustang hood it still looks rough.

Again... the finished product shows where the mess I started with ends up.

Now you have all seen this body already......... but not mounted to a chassis and thats the point of this picture. The chassis is not designed to fit this car with this front and rear bumper on it so....... about an hour later, much cutting and trimming and we have a nicely mounted chassis giving you a better look into the ride height of the car when finished.

This, as I had commented about, is going to be the first GT350 convertible in diecast. As I stated I re fit a different manufacturers hood onto this car and actually reworked the hinges so it looks like they were mounted at the diecast factory. The side day scoops are too fat (as I said to someone, much like a woman who just ate a box of donuts these look like saddlebags, lol) so they will be removed and trimmed to fit and look nicer (liposuction for cars, LOL).

Simple shot of the engine with the hood open. No biggy right ??? Yeah.... well tell that to the 2 hours I spent getting this Cobra motor to fit right, keep that air cleaner and still have the hood close correctly and........ the actually cutting and shaving of the hood so I could mount the diecast factory hood hinges so they work.

Again........ people have no clue about the time it takes to do things in this business. Each thing that has to be modified..... well cut or trimmed, has to be done in such a way that you make little cuts or trims and test fit...... you can't just cut or trim a chunk or then you are spending extra time fixing the messed up cut/trim so it looks correct. If you look at the Cobra at the top of the page.... I miss cut around the taillights leaving a larger then should be gap..... now I can either fill that in (extra time) or just cut a another bumper off another car (extra time) but either way if I would have laid it out better (im thinking) and left more around the outer edge I could have done smaller cuts/trimming and saved myself some time but...... that (cutting/trimming) takes time too. Time which adds up in the long run.

This is the layout for cutting the body panels to create this altered wheelbase car. Another example of what goes into modding cars is the time to just get the layout done. I probably had an hour into this. Since im not an engineer and work under the old school premise of eyeballing everything I spent much time mulling the pictures and magazine articles sent showing the car to get my personal site lines down as to where I needed to cut the body in order to move the panels so they could be mounted correctly and make the job somewhat easier.

Another one of those cars not made. Having done this conversion (68 Mustang hardtop deck lid and filler panel mounted on a fastback mustang) on the Eleanor diecast I thought it would be a slam dunk on the Lane 68 GT500 fastback but the bodies are just different enough that its a little more involved than thought. (of course it is..... im just guessing boys... so if someone knows where I can find a MODDERS BOOK OF MODDING, please let me know so I can save myself A LOT of time. The thing I don't like about this is the flat part of the spoiler. The hardtop version isn't as flat as the fastback version so.... I will probably cut the fastback spoiler off and then cut the hardtop deck lid and mount the good one on there. I think the end result will be much nicer.

Here is the GTO...the one I re shot clear on since I didn't like how it looked. This car also had custom made A/C and a steering wheel from the junk bin that looks A LOT like the factory steering wheel in the base GTO's.

Crappy picture........ but you get the idea. I also sourced an air cleaner out of the parts bin which seems to look right at home for a base GTO.

Another shot from a different angle.

I had to wash out the color so you could see the steering wheel. Pretty boring huh ?

FROG BREAK !!!!!!!! Hehehe..... seriously though, it amazes me that I never see a frog until we get a truly heavy downpour of rain. Saturday night sometime after midnight it started raining..... and it must have rained for hours since I now have Lake Casa Grande in my back yard. Mind you its not a yard like most peoples, this home is on an acre and its not landscaped so its basically sand and tumbleweeds but they way they graded the lot there is a low lying area toward the back of the lot and when we get dumped on (first time this year) water settles there. Mind you if we hit 100's this week it will be dried up and gone by weeks end.

Anyway........ back to the story. So I NEVER see a frog here until it rains then they come out of the woodwork so to speak. This one found its way to my patio and I shot a pic of it Sunday morning. Cute from huh ?? Fat little sucker too. Based on my love life I was thinking........ hmmmm... should I kiss the frog ?? Will my "true love" appear ??? My luck I would kiss the frog and a guy would appear..... and John don't play on that side of the fence so I passed, LOL.

Speaking of my love life........ or non existent one that is, I did get to feel some mighty nice 27 year old female BOOTY Friday night. My interest (yes were getting away from toy cars for a few) runs deep for them cute little butts on females, not boobs, not legs, not big ole booties but the kind that look like..... oh.... Cameron Diaz or Demi Moore's from Charlie's Angels. Come on guys you know you watched it, LOL.

Anyway... while sampling the fine beverages at the local multi use (bowling alley and bar) establishment Friday night, there was the usual group of intoxicated shannigans going on. At one point a female from my little (very little) circle of friends decides to start flashing her friends (shes married, above average in size, funnier then shit but a drunk , LOL, with big TaTa's) . So when she flashes me, I tell her to put them away they do NOTHING for me, LOL...... then precede to say, butt (pun intended) if ya had a cute little butt I would look. With that , a female, and another part of the group of spirit testing ingesters (I don't think thats a word) jumps up and says, I have a cute little butt ! Yeah...... well she was 110% right about that. All 5'5, 110#'s of her was correct. She has probably the second nicest butt (in my eyes) in all of Casa Grande. Sidebar: Pretty sad isn't it that I rank the towns womens butts, LOL.

OK...... so I tell yeah , yeah ya do.... then she precedes to come over and turns around to I can see it better and says, are ya sure.....! Im like Lord help me.... I sooooooo want to touch it, LMAO. (no were not heading to pornville so relax)

Anyway I tell her to get away or I will get in trouble since her boyfriend was part of the group too. She then tells me and my friend Steve that they really arent BF/GF even though they live together and that its ok and I can feel her butt. Alright.... heres the deal.... shes 27..... weighs a buck ten and has, in my eyes, a smoking hot little bod.... so , you think im an IDIOT ? Well im not..... and I proceeded to feel that fine fine fine little butt.... ahhhhhhh...... ok , im done now, LOL.

Well after about a minute of my repeating how fine her butt was the conversion and my sexual contact for the evening was over. Steve (who knows EVERYONE in town) then tells me..... yanno, she lives with that guy but wants out..... you have that big house with rooms available to rent... you could probably convince her to move in with you. Yeah !!!!!!!!! like I need that !!!!!! shes a hot 27 year old.... im a old fart 51 year old..... not gonna happen, but hey it wa s great thought while it lasted.

Below are some simple tire and wheel swaps done for one my friends and customers. This will end my very long, very person blog post for today and possibly the week cause yanno its not Monday its Tuesday and even though I worked yesterday (told ya I have no life) I didnt get done all of what I wanted to finish so.. im already behind for the week.

OK...... I'm out !

8/25 UPDATE

Dr Diecast — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 07:40:58 GMT

So as you can see im at a "post once a week" mode lately. Nothing more then just time thats all. My plan as its been was to post updates with pictures. Like I have said I prefer not to take pictures as I go but to wait but to shoot them all at the same time. Well wouldn't ya know it sunny AZ has been a cloudy rainy state the last couple of days. This of course means no pictures since I only take them outside in natural sunlight. It rained last night and is 100% overcast this morning so I hope it clears out later and I can get some pictures shot.

Couple things...... one was the White GTO I, believe I posted pictures of, just didn't have the reflective shine to it it should so I took that apart and re clear coated it. Of course with that comes more sanding and polishing on top of putting it together again. While this is normal its just time consuming. I clear coated it over the weekend and spent all of yesterday, and I mean all, polishing and assembling the car.

Here is another example of the little things people have no clue about that make everything take a little longer.

In some cases I cannot strip a cars paint...... sometimes there are parts that are attached made from plastic and the stripper will damage them so the next option is to hand sand the whole car with 220 to break done most of the paint, then followed with some 400 to smooth it then shooting some high build primer. This is basically done 75% of the time. So once the paint is applied along with the clear there is probably more paint on the car then originally done at the factory (diecast) but not so much that the body parts will not work. But in the case of this GTO it was done..... then I had to resand it with some 800 to break down most of the clear on the car then re clear it though not shooting too much clear. Its a feel thing...... it's the only way I can put it. Too much clear and it will look thick and the doors, hood and trunk will not close right, not enough and as soon as I run some 2000 grit over it the paper will blow right through the new clear.

Anyway..... that got done and the car looks a ton better so all is good right ? Just pop it back together right.......... but noooooooo. Lets go back 100 other times I have typed this, these cars are NOT made to be taken apart and put back together in the first place and this one is getting it done for the 3rd time. Remember after the initial paintwork is done its dry assembled..... then it was final assembled and now its being re assembled again due to the clear issue. All this taking apart and putting together effects anything additional that might have been done from stock. This means the interior with the converted to an automatic shifter and pedals that get bumped while taking it apart that come off and have to be reglued each time, the vinyl top that gets bumped or rubbed a little while the car is flipped over on a towel for dis assembly and then in this case last but not least the under hood AC setup that was made custom for this car.

These GTO's have inner fender wells that look more realistic and are an assembly nightmare. These imped the chassis fitting back onto the body and take some bending and flexing in order to accomplish the task. Here in lays the problem. The AC was built to clear everything but was not built to be on the car when it was assembled. That of course meant the AC compressor broke off the engine while assembling it, the freon hoses that were designed to fit the car also came loose and had to be put back on. While it seems simple its not..... the placement is not conducive to assembly while the car is together.... mind you it wouldn't be a problem if the car didn't have a hood but thats not the case. So now its onto the tweezers and toothpicks (for the glue) to get it right. Well yahoo it was finally together...... but wait...... the hood wont close all the way... so its back apart again (4th time) to figure out why the hood wont close. The problem is the heater core box that was created for this car... the lower edge sits in line with the right hood hinge so when it closes the hinge will not sit down far enough so the hood lays flat. Mind you the solution was simple..... trim a little off the heater core but... somewhere between the first and third assembly something had to shift since was never a problem before. Anyway.... the whole 6 screws, wiggling and flexing and added to redoing the AC for the 4th time and it is finally together and done.

See even for me to type this it took probably close to 45 minutes. But the actual work took hours, 3 hours longer then I had expected. So when I get a call about someone unhappy that there car has taken a year to do I can only shake my head and repeat that if they think its so easy they need to work a day in my shoes. There is a reason I don't put a completion date on my contracts and this just makes it apparent why.

Ok...... well it looks like we will get some clearing here and see the sun so I will attempt to shoot some pictures today and give you guys more updates tomorrow.

Im out !

Update pictures 8/19

Dr Diecast — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 07:29:27 GMT

I had promised some pictures last week but never got a chance to take them so here they are.

On top of what I had been working on you see I got the 70 Chevelle convertibles finished and boxed. While these look nice both the dealer and myself forgot that for what his retail price point will be these do not match the fthe quality of the factory diecast 70 Chevelle convertibles from Exact Detail. That being said I believe he and I both wasted time and money on these.

Beside the fact that they are not a cut and mod the window section diecast with what I charge and what he paid for the starter cars he has as much in these as you can buy an Exact Detail 70 for. Oh well.... we both live and learn I guess.

As promised here are a couple other pictures. One of the 68 Coronet hood in mock up stage and the 2000 Mustang hood that although looks like a mess is exactly where I need it to be. Once that outer white trim is sanded and some spot putty is applied it will look just like the stock factory hood.

Its funny how in this diecast modding world guys get kudos for slapping monster tires under a car, adding a blown engine with a whole in the hood and others thing they have "mad skills". I look back at some of the "stock" mods I have done that just make me think about what creativity actually is. Mind you creating something that is already made/stock is more about duplicating then creating from the mind but still someone has to figure out how to make it happen and that takes creativity.

Be it the first 70 Challenger bulge hood for a HWY 61 car, the first REAL 6 pack hood for a 69 Road Runner ,the first 64 Corvette roadster, the first 74 Corvette or even the 94 Cobra R the fact that these cars or parts are not made does take some tick of talent. I guess thats my little rant..... how the mundane, boring and stock goes unnoticed by most.

OK.... well this also goes for wheels. I have created at least a half dozen wheels not made in the industry for customers and while I don't resell them or make a big deal, some guy across the water makes some on a lathe that look like a lot of whats already out there but gets big kudos. Oh wheel (lol)....... such is life right.

Here is the mock up of the soon to be Foose wheel..... well as close as I can without having his cronies suing me like Carrol Shelby tried, LOL.

OK...... lastly we have a couple shots of the Blackjack completed for a customer. Doug ..... if your reading .... this is pretty close to what your version will look like. I will however make a strut bar for the underhood as his car didn't have one.

OK....... Im out !

Some updates 8/13

Dr Diecast — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 07:42:47 GMT

I was recently ranked on about not blogging everyday. While I appreciate the interest the blog does take more time then I have sometimes and while I used to use it as a way to vent, and would spend 60-90 minutes on it, lately I just don't have time to type all the little things that I do on a daily basis.

So let me update some stuff. First off, I rarely work all weekend anymore...... sit back and think for a second about what I do for a living. I take apart little cars that are really not made to be taken apart... rework, create, glue, paint, sand, polish, trial fit, assemble, bla bla bla all these things repeatedly on little cars (and trucks). There is no manual.... there are no guidelines...... this is all hand work with the mental ability it takes to do it. Its not a job for everyone.... its not a job many could do for a day let alone a week, year or 10 years.... yeah, I started modding cars in 98 that were resold on Ebay. I have since my late wife died in 2001 worked pretty much ... 80% of my weekends... on these cars... to keep busy... to get stuff done.. and at some point it just becomes tiring. Most who read this do know me more then as just the diecast modder I am. Well for those who don't know me I will put it another way.... I need a life..... I need one that doesn't include diecast cars and spending my weekends working on them. Please remember most of you work a 40 hour week and have time for other things..... while I don't have other things (kids, wife, girlfriend, hobbies per say) I still need time for whatever I want to do outside of this business.

As the economy has changed so has my business..... needless to say this is a want and not a need type business and with that being said the phone rarely rings now for new projects. Even the emails have slowed, though I have had 10 emails for possible projects in the last 2 weeks yet only 1 was written and that was after the project was changed 3 times to get the pricing from $450 to $350 and its now at $150.00. While I appreciated all the business I get the lack of new business is such that it effects my overall work pattern.

See there has to be a balance between the new and old ..... new incoming cars and older longer harder projects so that things flow well and I don't get burnt out. Sadly with no new (new includes the time on the phone talking with people and then searching for the starter product) projects I am left as a worker bee in the my shop realizing every day that even though I love this, the time it takes to create these little replicas does not generate enough revenue to sustain a long downturn in the economy. Hmmm, so I have that to worry about.

I will post some of the little tedious, time consuming, money loosing things I have been working on. While you will look at the list and say " how the hell can that take so long" I will answer by saying , work a day in my shoes.

Is this a rant post....... not really, its more of a reality post. I have a shop full of work... probably still in the 50+ project area and thats without all the future Mustang projects from Doug but.... there are no simple projects outside of 2-3, mostly repaints for Pete.

So when I look at the big picture I figure unless I have something thats more in your face and involved its not worth the time to blog and thats why I don't do it every day. Whats funny is until last October I did even have a blog and I would just tell me customers to call or email me for an update. I added this as a way for them to get a little in site and view of the things that go on. While its appreciated by most and does keep them in the know I just don't know anymore if it's worth it.

So.... over the last few days these are some of the things I have been working on.

Had to search out sun visors off parts cars to find one that could be molded and mounted on the 70 Chevelle convertibles im created for a diecast dealer. This project has been here for 6 weeks..... should have been done in 2 days over a weekend but of course... its a problem child. I have lost who knows how much money on this but thats another story.

Once I found a sun visor that worked I had to make a silicone mold for it, the mold it. Looked fine but having to do 12 is time consuming (on top of cleaning the mixing cup, injector and molds afterwards) so I made another mold.... poured 2 at a time and while good, not perfect for mounting so I had to hand sand all 12.... sounds like a drop in the bucket ? Its not.... its just more time doing some hand work. These have now been shot in satin black for mounting.

Once I had the 6 convertible boots poured in resin I had to clean them and then shoot the texture on them and shoot them in a satin black for mounting.

The cars themselves needed some fine grinding.... this is where I smooth the cut lines on the tops of the fenders and finish reworking the windshield frame cut line.
With this done I can cut the one piece window insert and then mark off where they need to be cut around the window frame and re trim the windshield to fit correctly. Oh yeah..... this isn't a simple cut but one that has to be made to not remove the mounting area for the rear view mirror. This will all make sense when I post pictures.

While pouring the resin for the visors there is always more resin mixed than needed so instead of wasting it I also poured 5 carbs, a tach, 2 A/C compressors and 6 Anson slotted wheels. Whats this mean ? Means I had to also removed each of these from their molds and clean them (mold) for the next excess pour.

I created a new convertible boot for the 99-04 Mustang body style so I can make a mold for that. The boot originally came off a mid 90's Mustang and while close does not fit correctly so... its cut, trim, size.... then section, glue, fill, sand, trial fit, trim, sand, refit.... then off to primer. Now this will get a mold box made for the silicone so I can replicate it as needed.

Having had to redo the 3 spoke wheel I think its close enough to make a mold for so I got that little mold box set up. Heck making the mold box for a product is time consuming as you have to figure out how to mount the item in the box so when the silicone has set you can remove the piece and then pour them as needed and have them come out correct.

I spent a lot of time on the Foose wheel for the Roush Mustang. After cutting the spokes at the outer edge so they would sit back further I also realized that the lugs do not line up with the spokes but are offset of them.... so I had to cut each spoke off the center hub (remember how big this is) then trim them to fit the new area I needed to glue them too. While this is a major PITA that I am getting NO compensation for it had to be done and took hours to do. I probably have at least 15-20 hours in these wheels..... and the master still isn't done. Remember the cutting and such is just one part.... the laying out what has to be done is another.

I got the 69 Coronet hood just about ready for primer. This is a mini bulge hood that came as the stock R/T hood which you rarely see since most opt for the ram air version. I thought I only needed 1 hood like this but was contacted last week by one customer who informed me that her husband had decided to switch back to the stock hood from the six pack one so now I need two. I guess I will resin cast this one now, but........ what this means is the custom 68 Coronet, 6 pack hood I have a couple hours invested in is now going to take space in my junk parts bin. Oh well right ? its only time and money.

I also got the 2000 Mustang hood about ready for primer......... again, cutting, sanding, filling, sanding.... just to get to this point. Mind you I love the creating of parts not made..... but as with most of my modding its a guessing game as to what I charge and when busy with new incoming projects and such I loose track of my time on these things but when the business isn't flying along I do come to realize I loose money on a lot of my guesswork.

I also had my hands on prepping another Cuda body for the owner of the Dan Gurney AAR. He decided he wanted a 3rd car and since I was in the roll bar stage I decided to get another body built as quickly as possible so they can all get roll barred, LOL, at the same time.

Add to this some more bench time on the Woodie..... breaking down the Atomic Orange 07 Corvette, breaking down and prepping 2 Nascar bodies and there ya have it. Simple huh??? Couple hours of work huh ???? HA !

I will post some pictures later today or tomorrow.... I just don't have time.... im over an hour into this now and its just words.

OK....... Im out !

8/6..... and the Birds Nest

Dr Diecast — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 07:15:13 GMT

Tuesday was one of those days filled with working on many little things...... well that was the morning part actually. The afternoon was spent creating a birds nest, rumble seat, for a 57 T Bird. This project..... one of the many for Pete...... involved created a flip open panel within the trunk skin with a same style seat pattern attached to it. Reworking the bottom of the seat to fit within the trunk area correctly and then making it all work just like the way they did back then.

Im not sure if this was an actual 1957 option or not. Seems to me that this might have been created a little later for the specific purpose of housing beauty queens for parades, LOL. However you want to look at it the end result is its a (real world) fiberglass panel that fits flush on the deck with the seat attached so it works like the old rumble seats.

First off I had to lay out where to make the cut on the decklid. While engineers use micrometers and such I use what god gave me.... my eyes. Plus between looking at the pictures and the diecast cars part I have to take into consideration the way the part is made and how the trunk hinges are attached since this isn't a real car.

While this might seem simple its a lot more involved then you think. Once I have the cut lines laid out and its cut then I have to layout and cut the sheet styrene to fit. Mind you this is a rough cut as seen in the picture here. Once I have the basic piece cut I will then square off (and round off too) all the edges and corners on both the decklid and the deck panel. I used a sheet plastic that is just about the thickness of the decklid. This way when its opened it will look like it was cut from the decklid to start with.

With this done I then have to size up the seats, the trunk floor and where the working hinges are going for the flip open panel. Since we are going to work with the same seat pattern and the seat itself is 5/8 of an inch wider than the opening so I of course had to lay out and cut the seat back. This involves, for me, eyeing up what should look right. See the middle of the seats have a pattern so just cutting a section out of that will not work as then the middle of the whole seat (flat area) will look much wider than it should compared to the rolled or ribbed area of the inserts.

So I made a couple cuts..... when I was done I tack glued the pieces together and test fit them. Only problem was the seat fit but gave me no room for the working hinges as needed to make the installation look correct so I had to go back and rework the seat some more. I personally want to redo this seat as I need to remove more from the (flat) middle and less from the rolled pattern area. So I have to review what I have here in projects yet to be done and see if I can snag a seat from one of them for cutting.

OK..... so the seat back is actually attached to the thin piece of metal plate (in real life) that is hinged (based on photos ) and has the seat bottom attached to it also. This is what kinda makes it all fold properly. Once I had the seat back cut up I laid out the thin piece and cut that.... attached the seat back to it and glued that too the panel. As you see with the seat up this folds into the trunk area and as the panel comes down to close there is a lip that runs around the inside of the decklid opening that it rests on. This of course will be added once I get to that stage.

So this is the early mock up...... about 4-5 hours already but hey... its what he wanted. I believe I can get away with just painting the decklid once finished but.... the sheet styrene while flexible alone is NOT flexible with the seat back attached to it. This means I will be laying some bondo on the panel to make sure the trunk contours flow the proper way so when closed it will look like a stock decklid with a seam running around the middle of it.

Ok..... im out ! Oh yeah , sorry for the dark pictures it was cloudy in AZ, LOL.

Mondays short and sweet post

Dr Diecast — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 07:58:42 GMT

So today I will only be covering a couple of the cars I cut up to modify last week. Basically the 95 Cobra R for Doug.

This car started as an Auto Art Saleen. Add some body parts from a Jouef Boss Mustang and we have a 95 Cobra. This involved (as I have stated already) cutting up the Boss body for a few items of need.

First off the front end. The Boss body is molded as one unit while the AA has removable front and rear bumpers and the AA taillights are separate units also.
Cutting the front bumper was rather simple though I did make my first cut a little low and will need to do some filler work. This once cut and sized up did not fit the AA body as the bumper was to narrow but about 1/4 inch. The thing is its not wide enough at the wheel well openings so instead of slicing this I just stretched/pulled/bent the outer edges of the front bumper so it lineup correctly and it did.

Next up was the hood. Both of these diecast cars have molded in hood hinges. Of course neither line up correctly and the AA hood system is a little out of the ordinary for the diecast world so I assessed the pieces and then made a decision to fit the AA hinges on the modified Boss hood. First this was cutting the hood (at the hinges) off the Boss body. See 90% of all diecast cars have removable hoods and doors but there are some cars (Jouef is one) that mold them in so they cannot be removed without breaking the metal press points that hold it in place to work correctly.

Now..... this Boss hood is also slightly narrower than the AA hood and I was originally thinking I might just cut the scoop out and section onto the AA hood but due to where the AA hinges are located I decided to fit the Boss hood to the AA hinges. Once removed I ground down where the Boss hinges were..... then took the AA hood and actually cut the hinge bases out of the hood complete. See upon inspection I could see with the height of the Boss hood and the flatness of the AA hood I would need that full area on the AA hood so once attached the Boss hood would work like normal. Wow..... lots of, probably confusing, words here but the end result is that the once everything was cut and I notched the Boss hood a hair for clearance the Boss hood worked like it was made from the factory on the AA car. I still have to widen the Boss hood a little to fill the seam gaps but this is the best way for me to do this and make it look factory.

On to the rear bumper/taillights. Again like the front the rear bumper is molded in.... along with the taillight housings. So....this took a bit more thought when it came to cutting. Once I laid out the cut lines in marker I set about removing it as one piece from the body. Once done it was off to the grinding wheel to trim, shave and trim some more. When I was finally to a point I felt the bumper would fit on the car I had to lay out the splice cuts. See this is again way narrower than the AA body as you can see in the pictures. Of course I need to save the molded in Mustang words so I couldn't just slice it down the middle. Once this was done I then realized I needed to so even more grinding to trim around the taillight openings so the would fit in the little bucket area on the AA body. Once done and temp glued in place you can see the results. I do have to do some filling to line up the gaps correctly where the bumper meets the body and of course the gaps on the face of the bumper where its spliced.

I did chat with Mr Mustang over the weekend and he suggests I make a mold for both the front, rear and hood so these can be attached to other projects down the line....... WHAT !!!!!!! other projects !!!!!!!....... I thought we had them all covered, LMAO..... just joking..... LOL.

Note the line mark on the rocker..... this will need a recess cut so it looks like the Cobra rocker trim... I just haven't gotten to that part yet.

Now I moved onto the Falcon..... and while I will not go into deep detail you can get an idea of whats involved. I will have to section the roof but the width is pretty much correct and the tail gate is pretty close to the rear car too, once cut and trimmed. These Falcon sedan delivery cars all had framed windows on the doors so I will have to construct that from scratch but I have already on a couple other cars so it should me no problem, LOL.

Ok...... thats it ....... Im out !

Friday stuff

Dr Diecast — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 07:56:28 GMT

Well its Friday and a cloudy one to boot. Couple things from yesterday though. One is I spent some 3 hours trying to figure out whats up with my computer. Over the last couple months I have been running on a almost full hard drive and no matter what I delete or move to an external hard drive its still full. Apparently there is something within the system that is sucking the space up. Since I am running at over 39Gig of a 40Gig hard drive there is never enough space to run a defrag nor most of the virus programs available online. Geek Squad at Best Buy wants at least $199.00 to inspect and clean it and $299.00 if they install new virus software. My virus protection was a free be from Comcast cable when I lived in OR. Here I use Qwest DSL and I don't think the protection is working the same since I didn't have a problem till I moved here. Oh well......... guess I will figure something out ...... since I have too at some point. I wont be paying $300 though to fix this, I will toss it first and buy a new one.

So a couple years ago I contracted to do a pro street style 70 Camaro from a guy. Not to radical..... tubbed, cage, built motor.... typical stuff. This project has had various delays.... partly his fault, partly mine but he finally sent me more pictures which arrived yesterday so I was working on that. This involves a chassis swap from another car, cut, trim and fitted to this body.... along with reworking it so the interior bucket will fit and can be finished ok. I had an engine for this car lined up but since the advent of GMP's completely detailed race engines I have decided to shelve the one I had and just use the GMP version. Sadly though I cannot use the great looking GMP Drag Stars on this car as their rims are too small for the tires he wants on the diecast. This leaves me with the Ertl version of a Drag Star which is ok I guess.

One thing I found funny was the paint job and price. He was a Chromalusion Red Fire.. a paint I quoted at $200, LMAO. I must have written this contract after spraying cars back then as there was/is NO WAY I can do that paint job for that price. I will have to re evaluate this and come up with something that works for him and me. He knows he will be paying more then the original $400.00 contract price so it should be ok.

Here is a shot of the car on the bench......not sure how much you can see but its slammed to the ground for the most part.

I did finish pouring the convertible boots for the Chevelles..... I thought I had that done but upon inspection realized I needed to re do 2 of them as they were not quite good enough to put on a car.

Today I am in cutting mode..... so.... its off to cut bodies, hoods, roofs, trunks and whatever else I have lined up for cutting. I need to get to it too...... its gonna be another 110+ degree day here today so I need to cut now to avoid the heat later. See the cutting and grinding is done in a designated area in the garage since it makes so much dust and dirt. That garage gets the scorching afternoon sun so its just no a place you want to be working in the late afternoon.

OK.... Im out !

7/31... did I meet the shipping number ?

Dr Diecast — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 07:48:45 GMT

Actually.... Im not sure. While looking at the calendar I just realized that it is the end of the month and I had a goal. I think..... I hit the original 25 number but I definitely missed the 35 number. Its just hard to push cars out the door in this business and as I will comment on here you can understand why.

First off.... I did get the Red 69 Camaro and White 70 GTO dry assembled as you see by the pictures here. The GTO became a PITA when I had to add A/C. Not only was there none for this car available but I had to make a couple parts from scratch then do the whole trail and error method to see if the hood would then close once fitted. I spend no less then 2 1/2 hours Tuesday afternoon cutting, sanding, gluing and trial fitting the parts needed to make it look correct. This finally done the car looks great IMHO and the customer upon seeing the pictures thought it was a picture of his real car sitting in the driveway. Thats always cool to hear in this business. Though.... he didn't have a ram air car so I have to change out the air cleaner and on a funny note, I told him in the email I sent the pictures in that HIS plates will be on the car when shipped. He left a message about the car and at the end said..... oh yeah... you made the wrong license plates, thats not my plate, LOL. Ugh... people, LOL.

The Camaro was a little easier except the owner (not who im doing the car for) has a 502 in it I believe and the car looks stock including the 396 badging on the fender. So fitting the much nicer GMP after market engine in the car was a little project in its self. Now however I also need to fit a chrome air cleaner and the underhood tolerance is such this I think this is going to be another trial and error method since the top of the carb had to be trimmed a hair to get the hood to close even at this point, guess we will see. I also kept calling this car Bolero Red and its so not.... LOL..... its Garnet Red. I believe Bolero was a 67-68 only color if I remember right but hey... its painted the right color and thats all that matters. I could call it Candy Apple Blue..... as long as it matches, LOL.

So you guys know the vinyl tops are shot in a satin finish though they look shiny. These will be dulled somewhat so its not as shiny. I changed my satin color as its normally not this glossy looking. I guess this is what the dragster customer meant by gloss Black that was not as glossy, LOL.

Among other things I was working on are the 67 Dart that I finally got the rear bumper done on. I also made new taillight lenses and think I have the deck lid trim piece laid out on the computer for printing so that will finish up the back end. I also spent sometime hammering out the fender trim. For those who never followed this basically the 67 Darts have an upper body line stainless steel trim piece that ran from the front of the front fender to the rear of the car. Well I had done the one side to see if it would work and was doing the other yesterday. This requires my hammering flat a standard paper clip..... yep paper clip...... then getting it as straight as possible to glue to the body and making any bends where they need to be made. I will try to find a picture of this so you can see how it looks finished.... at least on one side, LOL. I was also working on the grill and headlight area but that still needs some work. I have to use a picture of a 67 dart grill for duplication and getting a nice clean eye level view picture of one has been a tough job.

I also worked on the 59 Impala some as I had to do some filler work where the rear window meets the deck lid. I say deck lid as it really does come close to meeting there. Its not like most cars where you have a filler panel between the rear window and the deck lid.... the 59 has just the smallest filler between the two areas. This also means I have to cut the deck lid seam in the appropriate place now too.

Along with these couple of projects I also poured more convertible boots for 6,70 Chevelle convertibles im doing for another diecast dealer. So....... what seems like not so much was really a lot of little things again.

OK..... Im out !

7/28..... The long weeks journey

Dr Diecast — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 06:44:07 GMT

So a week ago I posted some stuff on here and thought I would be back to posting daily but have been busy with little boring things to the point that I just didn't get back to it. I did however have a few people email me asked to post even the little crap I have to do so they can get a feel for that too. Well.... here we go.... this is in no certain order but this, and im sure more that I forgot, is what I have been working on in the last week.

First off I had to do some box reworking to get Pete's Red T-Bird to fit in the styrofoam sleeve so the modified car could ship back to him without breaking. This encompassed the trimming of the styrofoam in little bits and pieces then trial fitting the car for secure fit. Stupid little shit but time consuming and had to be done.

OK.... now to the rest of the stuff...

Strip and prep a 70 Challenger body for paint. This included stripping the chassis of everything for the repaint then overspray. I also had to fill the deck lid holes and since this is going to be a convertible I had to cut the roof and finish sand those areas.

I continued to do the rework on the 3 spoke wheel, this time with correct clay and thats just about ready to be mold cast again.

I decided to create a Foose type wheel that my one customer has on his Roush Mustang. This is the car I was searching for wheels for earlier this year and thought I got something close but after a month he bitched about them and sent the car back. Since there is nothing remotely close I decided that I would make something really close then have them for other peoples projects (Doug you will be forced to buy these for something, LMAO). Well this is a wheel I should charge about $200.00 to create and I probably already have 5-6 hours invested with another 5-6 to go. Since I cant go back and charge him Im chalking it up to learning, LOL. I will post more about the wheel in the future with pictures of what it started as and where its at now.

I had two more Roush Blackjacks to do for customers.... both got broken down and one is about done. The Blackjack includes a solid color interior instead of 2 tone as the stock Roush are. Then I add some gear shift handle detail, dash detail, underhood detail. Which..... I see that different Blackjacks have different underhood detail. Then I have to do some outer body badging and satin Black hood and deck lid stripes. One is almost completed the other has a few things left. They will both be finished this week.

On top of the Foose wheels I also had to do some other minor work on the same guys Roush. I replaced the rear roof vents with clear plastic styrene cut to fit then sprayed black on the inside to reflect dark window tint. Well he didn't like that either so I had to cut more pieces and now have to re tint them. I also was asked to create a little map decal for the in dash DVD type player I made for him. Ugh.... and to think he saw pictures of this car and approved it and now im dumping 10-20 hours in to it for nuttin..... oh well, such is life.

Next up is the 66 Shelby GT 350 convertible I'm doing. Not done in diecast as of yet this is a combination of a Precision 100, 64 1/2 Mustang and a 66 Shelby Collectibles Mustang. So..... I break down both cars... have to use the Shelby hood on the 64, along with the engine, trans, rear end, grill and some of the interior parts. Well... so I thought. See the 66 dash is 5/8 of an inch wider then the 64 body...... yet the Shelby hood is a 1/16th of an inch narrower. UGH !!!! I hate this parts swapping sometimes. Oh wait it gets better as you read on down below LOL. So the engine is nice and since its a 4spd and thats what I need that should cross over ok. The grill I can do by reworking the 64 body and I have already removed the Shelby side scoops and glued them to the 64. I did however forget that the 64 Mustangs are as hard to take apart as the 57 T-Birds. But hey....... thats ok.

I have to create a 95 Cobra R..... yeah.... they don't make this one either. This starts with a 94 Saleen.... then I have to cut up and add the front and rear bumpers off a 94 Joueff (piece of shit diecast car) along with..... cutting the taillight housings out of the metal body and re fitting them to the Auto Art Saleen body, simple ? HA !!!!! I also have to either section the center of the Joueff hood or rework that hood all together to use the AA hood hinges. Can't do a hood swap and not have a working hood. Well.... the Joueff body is all marked as to where the cuts need to be done but..... the front and rear bumpers are wider then the AA body so I will probably have to slice them down the middle to remove enough metal so they will fit correctly. Guess we will see when I get to that point.

Next up.... the 67 Mustang Bonneville Salt Flat racer. This car was built using a Ford Indy car engine and was a FIA speed record holder. This starts with a Johnny Lightning (owned by RC2/Ertl at the time) and once broken down I realize that the whole chassis and inner fender wells are chrome plated. This is because the JL line of small scale cars are like this so they carried that thought over to the 1/18 scale ones and it was a stupid ass idea, LMAO. Well..... I started removing everything from the body for some mods including filling the wiper arm holes, the door handle holes and cutting the hood for hood pins. Chassis wise I of course had to strip the whole thing since we are not using a chrome chassis. I will have to talk with Doug further about how he wants this chassis done.

I took a AA Saleen Mustang apart thats getting a lot of little work done to it. First off is the deck spoiler. The car we are duplicating has a stepped deck spoiler. This is what they put on the 94 Saleen SR model. Along with this he (Doug) wants some engine detail done. Something I don't normally do but have in this case. This included painted the coil box.... finding a distributor (I used to have them made from spun aluminum), drilling and mounting that... the drilling out the engine block on both sides to mount the plug wires which are run in the correct firing order. There will also be some minor under hood decal work and then its off to the interior. This car gets a roll bar, no rear seat and custom racing seats painted Yellow along with the dash mounting gage cluster, oh yeah and that deck spoiler I have yet to find or create, LOL.

With this latest batch of cars from Doug I also got the parts car convertible I needed the boot off of in order to create a master for the numerous late model (99-04) Mustangs he plans on doing. I thought I had created a mold of this boot but for the life of me cannot find it. The boot, while close to correct needs various small modifications to work universally on the Mustang body. This is now done and its waiting for mold process.

I did get the inner Grey painted on the dragster body as I might have mentioned but then while reattaching the bodies mounting tabs I found out I had missed something in the long list of items the owner wanted done. See based on the pricing I thought I was JUST painting the body. Come to find out he wanted both the front and rear wings painted. Front to match the color of the body and rear a glossy, but not too glossy, LOL, Black. The rear one is done but I have to shoot the front one so that can leave. Everything else is done... ugh. Oh well... I will paint it with the next batch.

One of the projects I really wanted to do was a station wagon type conversion. Doug decided he wanted the Shelby 63 Falcon Panel Wagon done and while I haven't even written a contract for it I started breaking everything down and getting it ready for cutting. This involves the roof section of a 55 Chevy panel... that's mounted to the windshield frame of the Falcon will make it close but.... after some measuring I will be making some cuts in the top and the rear door. This will however be do able, LOL. The Falcon.... while a cheap car in diecast standards is a very well done car with only the air cleaner out of scale IMHO. The cheapo car even has all photoetched emblems, Im impressed. Anyway.. this was fun and time consuming from taking the Falcon apart to just sizing everything up. Another first coming to a customer near you.... ok , well maybe not..... how about a customer on this planet, LOL.

I did also take apart another 57 T Bird. This one is getting painted Coral Sand and will be shot with the Pink one for Pete. Ugh...... more T-Birds, LMAO.

OK ..... still with me ??? By the way, this is a very condensed version of the time spent on this little pieces of diecast art.

Here are a couple other cars I got to work on. I striped down, primed and painted 3 cars. The 70 GTO in White, 69 Chevelle in Black and a 69 Camaro in Bolero Red. Once these were dry I laid out and shot the vinyl tops on 2 of them as you see in the picture. I was going to work at getting all the decals and stripes done but decided I had done enough in the last week and decided to chill. I will however get those things done today along with the stripes on the 71 Challenger I have and hopefully get them clear coated today. Here is a shot of the 3 bodies in color. Man I love my vinyl tops..... they fricken rock ! Too bad you can't see them better in this picture though.

For the record... with shipping some 10 cars over the last week I had 10 emtly bins in the shop and I hate that so I switched to breakdown mode to keep the shop looking full. For those with projects in house already it's back to your stuff this week.

Ok , Im out !

7/22 Bye Bye Birdie

Dr Diecast — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 07:56:58 GMT

Well..... its finally time to let the birds fly back too Canada, LOL.

As you see these are all ready to go....and im ready for them to leave, LOL.

Below is the 71 Monte Carlo that was part of the multiple Chevelle projects I did. As I stated its been cloudy here so I had to shoot this inside...... the results are as you see..... boring, LOL.

OK, thats it............ I'm Out !

7/21 OK...... im back !!

Dr Diecast — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 07:32:51 GMT

Well....... its been a few days since I posted anything and as I have said its due to my being very busy. Not with intense in depth projects but the little things that take so much time.

First off.... as some know the website was a down for a couple days. I decided to move my domain host to my website host and its a 5 day turn around in which the domain name had expired with the original host..... long story short it was down for about 2 days but shes all back to normal now.

Over the last few days I have worked on finishing the t-birds for shipping. As I stated when you looked at the pictures of the 5 there was a lot more detail work to do. In some cases 2-3 hours per car. See while the disassembly, prep and paintwork takes time the assembly is the most time consuming. I have told the birds owner that I will in the future be charging more to paint these. They are just so so time consuming over your standard issue high end piece.

I also found time to do the finish detail work on the Black 34 with the triple strip and used some modeling putty to smooth and fill the little imperfections in the wheel.... remember its the 3 spoke I made from scratch (almost). Well I got the wheel ready and mounted in the mold box and poured the silicone and 4 hours later...... found out that the modeling clay is not compatible with the silicone mold compound. The mold is no good and the wheel needs to be re detailed as the clay never dried and where it was on the wheel never dried in the mold.. so that was a waste of time. Hey, I learned right ? Guess thats all that counts.

I also got the inside of the dragster body painted with a shiny Grey like primer finish so all I need to do is some light detail work and that can leave.

I did get those cars boxed and shipped....... so I thought. I do not do a daily pickup anymore with UPS since they charge you $17.00 a week if you don't ship anything and if you don't ship enough product to meet there minimum. So I called them to come pick up the boxes and set them on the covered porch area where I always keep them for pickup. Well I apparently put them out AFTER they stopped by... so since they were not there (apparently I wasn't home either since they normally ring the door bell) the boxes sat there. Since I never use my front door and you can't see it from the path on the street I travel I didn't find out they were still sitting there until Thursday I think...... maybe even Friday when the postal carrier stopped by to drop off an express mail package. Ugh..... now im sure they will charge me the $6.00 I think it is for a scheduled pickup even though they didn't get picked up.

OK......... thats about it...... im sure there is more I just cant remember. Oh yeah... pictures of the finished birds tomorrow. We had a weird stretch of cloudy days here over the last 3 in sunny AZ, lol, so I couldn't shoot pictures the way I wanted.

So........ Im out !

Finally some info 7/15

Dr Diecast — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 07:14:27 GMT

Ok ok ok ok ......... I know I have been lax on updating the blog daily but honestly I have been busy and with my want, need and desire to get as many projects completed by the end of the month that I have to prioritize and the blog is not really on that list.

I spent Friday and Sunday polishing out the last of the Birds.... I spent yesterday assembling a couple birds and here is s shot of Pete's Flock O Birds, LOL. By the way I hate putting these together...... ugh!

Note a couple things....... the easiest to see is the non hubcap wheels. See all the wheels, along with the spares, along with the trunk hinge covers and fuel filler tube cover have to be painted yet..... I was out of thinner so that still will get dealt with today. Anyway...... here is a shot of the cars...... Pete....... they are almost in shipping form, lol.

Now along with these I was also trying to get the Black 34 with the multi color side stripes assembled except for the wheels. This car started life as a 34 with a blower sticking out of the hood...... if you remember I made the hood flat..... so now this motor doesn't work. Taken the blower off and replacing it wont work since the valve covers are wrong too. So whats a guy to do ? Well I head to the parts bin...... but.... since I didn't charge him for any engine work I will not be going over the top on this.

3 hours later, LOL, ....... he has a make shift small block with a air cleaner, valve covers and alternator that resembles his under the hood. Along with just that, I had to fab up the headers, basically cut, trim, heat and fit some to fit this motor in this car... then re aligien the exhaust to fit it.

Oh yeah, speaking of motors........ Friday I assembled the 71 Monte Carlo for the 67 Chevelle projects owner and the engine that comes in that car is a piece of shit. Red block...... crappy flat valve covers..... cheap ass sticker on the black plastic air cleaner and last but not least..... blue...... yes blue spark plug wires that are the thickness of heater hoses. This along with them being about 3/4 of an inch too long make it so toy like. So as a nice gesture I ripped that POS out and replaced it with a nicely detailed Exact Detail big block. Took a little finagling to get it to fit right but what an improvement. I also didn't get paid for this but........ I have done 3 other cars for this customer.... am shipping his 3, Chevelles and 1 Monte Carlo today and he has 3, 69 Camaros ready to come to me for something.... I still dont know what but was told they are coming as soon as these 4 cars get back. So....thats 7 projects and 3 more coming.... I think giving him a free engine is a nice gesture.

OK....... well im done rambling and need to get back to it.

I'm out !

Sunny..... oops Cloudy AZ 7/11

Dr Diecast — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 07:47:02 GMT

Well....... its this just a peachy day, LOL. I do get a kick out of where I live..... Im kinda like in a pocket or something as it seems the majority of the bad monsoon rainstorms hit all around me but not where I live specifically. When I lived in IL I was in a place like that...... snow would always hit the surrounding areas leaving 6-8-10 inches, I would get 1-3..... tornado's would hit surrounding towns just miles from me and I would only get rain. Kinda the same thing here...... mind you we do get rain and the torrential downpours but just not like the rest of the area. Last night for example..... they broke in to all the TV shows to announce how bad it was.... OMG its time to build an ark !!!!!! I swear.... they are as whacked here about rain as Eugene OR was about an inch of snow. Anyway..... rain north, south, west and east.. if you looked at the weather channel it was everywhere but here, LOL. I love AZ sometimes..... although today is very cloudy.... and will remain that way. So..... no pictures of a couple (3) more cars I got completed yesterday. I will hope for some sun early tomorrow and shoot them then.

By Monday I should have some 15 cars ready to ship or that have been shipped..... Im at 11 right now and plan on having at least 4 more ready over the weekend. Thats 15....... a couple ahead of my 25 mark but still a little short of my 35 that I upped it too. The next 3 weeks will be fun to say the least.....but hey, this is what I do right ?

I want to make comment again on the blog stuff...... It seems that viewing both the blog daily at the top of the page and the viewing of pictures is a server problem on the viewers side. It was brought to my attention by another blogger that he had problems at work but he could view everything fine at home. So.. if you have access to 2 computers try viewing it one the other one too.

Ok ...... Im out !

7/10 Thursday pictures

Dr Diecast — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 07:56:17 GMT

Well....... first thing I want to address is the matter of what seems to be a viewing problem on this here little blog. Apparently when you guys open it it shows a blank page until you scroll down. Whats funny is I get to view the page first before it goes live and it always looks fine. I will have to call Go Daddy and see what they say. Until then please just scroll down for viewing it thats what your getting.

OK here are a couple pictures that should have been up yesterday. I have been involved in cars and don't really have a lot of extra time. As in I worked till 6:30 last night and still don't feel I got a lot done.

One thing I had been working on that I had not mentioned was the hood and deck lid of the 70 GTO im doing. I had to fill in the holes left from the hood tach and the deck spoiler. More that just filling the holes.... of course there is trimming and sanding and smoothing so it look factory stock smooth. Got that done at least.

Here are a couple shots of the Grey T Bird, the Inca Gold is not pictured as a lot of the trim parts still needing to be attached, the Eleanor (again) and the 67 Chevelle that I made into a smooth roof car of. Remember these only come as vinyl top cars with the vinyl molded in texture on a plastic roof. I still have some touch up on the window trim but you get the idea.

Ok.... Im out !