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Post by lo51merc on Jan 18, 2020 18:08:10 GMT -5
Ya know, it seems to have more styling balance, if that makes sense, with that big extension of the fenders. I really do love the shapes of the rear of the car, and hope that some of those design cues show up on the front end. I am very curious to see how you blend the fenders into the body. The key here is the word "blend" I sure do hope to see this one come to fruition. Very enjoyable so far.
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Post by spex84 on Jan 18, 2020 21:21:42 GMT -5
I love the extended fenders in that retouched image. But I knew I would, even before you did it
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Post by chepp on Jan 18, 2020 23:31:07 GMT -5
Ya know, it seems to have more styling balance, if that makes sense, with that big extension of the fenders. I really do love the shapes of the rear of the car, and hope that some of those design cues show up on the front end. I am very curious to see how you blend the fenders into the body. The key here is the word "blend" I sure do hope to see this one come to fruition. Very enjoyable so far.
Thanks. Revising the front of the hood/grille to be more pointed is something to consider. I'll be curious, too, to see what will happen with the inboard sides of the fenders. My idea is not to do too much in order to suggest '20s style separate fenders -- they will be a darker color than the body.
Posted by spex84 I love the extended fenders in that retouched image. But I knew I would, even before you did it.
Thanks. Your suggestions have been a great help.
Everyone, keep those comments and suggestions coming. I don't mind whether they are positive or negative.
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Post by chepp on Feb 2, 2020 18:02:37 GMT -5
The frame was cut and stretched about 3/4". It's stronger than I expected it to be. Plastic and putty will be added to square up the round metal pieces so the spliced areas will have the same shape as the stock frame rails.
The front fenders were fitted to the frame. The front locator holes fit on the stock frame pins. At the rear, two steel wires per fender were jammed into holes drilled in plastic then bent to put the fenders in the right positions. Many, many hours were needed to get it right. It included cutting/regluing the outer fenders to the inner ones several times to make them look right. I angled them slightly so the front of the fenders would be a little lower than the rear giving them a bit of rake.
Next will be adding sheet plastic and filler to make the area around the wires rigid and looking like an engine compartment. Then the inner fenders will be cleaned up and extensions added to the rear of the front fenders.
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Post by randfink on Feb 2, 2020 18:15:56 GMT -5
Lovin' it!
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Post by spex84 on Feb 2, 2020 19:35:03 GMT -5
Yikes. Glad you're still chopping away at it! All these mods will pay off
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Post by chepp on Apr 2, 2020 21:50:17 GMT -5
It's been about 11 months (later edit: actually it's only been two months, it just seemed longer) since I set this project aside. Here's what I've been doing on it for the past four days. The engine compartment side panels from the earlier version (held above) were replaced with new ones. Here's the new and improved car with the 3/4" stretch to the hood and wheelbase. The four same-size stock car racing tires were replaced with a set of big-and-little Goodyear Sports Car Specials from a Revell '37 Ford rod kit. Extensions to front fenders are yet to be added.
The process of getting the parts to fit together will be proceeding. Once everything lines up I'm planning to make most of the hood/side panels/grille/bumper hinge forward like a Jaguar XK-E.
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Post by spex84 on Apr 3, 2020 12:30:11 GMT -5
When this is done, it's going to look so much like mid-late 60s concept art. Love it. The stretched wheelbase puts the roof height and track width back into a pleasing balance!
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Post by chepp on Apr 12, 2020 22:38:40 GMT -5
This post is kinda long -- but many of us are home with fewer things to do so maybe it will be entertaining to read it all.
The steel wires connecting the front fenders (see my Feb. 2 post) were surrounded with a 3-sided styrene box that was filled with JB KwikWeld. The JB was also applied to the inner fenders to fill holes and further bond the outer fenders to them.
The rear quarters of an extra body were cut and matching areas were hacked off from the front fenders to form an extension. One of two tungsten weights is visible hidden in the body filler. The frame is kind of springy so I'm adding weight to the body wherever I can so the finished model will sit solidly.
The left front fender and body never quite fit correctly. After much time spent unsuccessfully trying to fix the interference areas of parts I discovered part of the problem. The tab on the left inner fender was about 1/32" too far to the rear -- when the hole in the tab was fitted to the pin on the top of the frame it distorted things just enough to be "off." Earlier I had unknowingly corrected for that when I built up the grille and extended hood. Now those parts were "off." No problem, I'll just gently heat up the hood and twist it a little. That didn't work so I applied a little more heat from a hot air blower. Boing! The hood was distorted beyond repair. That was almost enough for me to permanently set this project aside. However, I cut out the warped stuff and made a new hood with the last of my leftover parts and kept going. Somebody once said that it doesn't matter how many times you fall down as long as you get up afterward.
Now it's on to improving the styling of the leading and inner areas of the rear fenders. I'm planning to remove the rocker panel (on the rear fenders, not the body) but am kinda stumped on what to do with rest of it. What do you think?
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Post by chepp on Jun 8, 2020 21:21:08 GMT -5
After a lot of shimming, shaving, filling and sanding I shot a thin coat of flat gray on it to see what I've got. From this angle it looks good but I'm not liking the shapes seen from most other angles. I'm thinking that it may have been a clever idea but it just didn't turn out so good.
Added 6/9/2020:
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Post by mack2856 on Jun 9, 2020 20:12:08 GMT -5
Don't give up, you gotta think like Billy Mitchell, put some ginger bread on it and a great set of wheels and tires, then put a pretty girl next to it. Ok forget about the girl, but this is to neat to stop now.
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Post by jeff on Jun 9, 2020 21:54:34 GMT -5
Agreed, at least see it through. Years ago I had a build I felt like this about, I’m glad I pushed through because I ended up learning quite a bit in the process.
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Post by skip on Jun 10, 2020 7:47:59 GMT -5
I can just imagine George Barris getting a glimpse of some studio design drawings in '66 and saying "well shoot, I can build that right now!!" George "BareAss" couldn't build that in a 1000 years with a 10,000 monkeys helping him ,, unless of corse someone else had already built it so he could paint his name on it and claim he built it. But, yea. neat concept. The Alexander Bros. or one of the better custom shops could pull it off. Sorry to be dredging old news up from the beginning of the thread, but I saw this and had to comment: I'm glad to see I'm not the only one here who has that opinion of George Barris, though some of the "Customs" that came out of the Barris' Shop early on had good design. Most of the stuff done for TV work already had designs before they came to Barris to create, Batmobile, Munsters Coach, Dragula, to name a few, though George did try to take credit for much of the design work on them. Many hold George Barris up on a high pedestal, "How dare anyone besmirch the "Hallowed Name of Barris Kustoms", no matter how tasteless the product the Barris Shop churned out! As time went on the search of "Trendy" Kustom design began pushing George off the focus of aesthetic improvements of the original designs. Then came the purely Kustom Kreations of the 60's and 70's, Show Cars and Show Rods, most of which were neither showy or drivable cars after George worked his "Magic" on them. (The Barris Shop wasn't alone in that period of automotive butchery, they were at the forefront of that "Trendiness" of the decade of weirdness!) I'm in full agreement on the "A" Brothers shop, (think "Deora" from a Dodge pickup and a few others). There's my two cents (plus) on the subject...
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Post by spex84 on Jun 10, 2020 17:22:51 GMT -5
Charley, you get points for trying something this crazy! I do wonder if what it really needed in the first place was a top-chop. I think a bunch of the lengthening operations were perhaps compensating for the high roof. There are a lot of shapes going on in the rear fenders where they meet the trunk; I bet that area could be simplified somewhat. I dunno---I wouldn't give up on it yet!! skip, I am well aware of Barris' reputation and practices. No pedestal here!
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Post by Duane on Jun 10, 2020 21:18:08 GMT -5
as you probably know; Sam Barris did the custom work, while George was the mouth !
lookin good Charley !
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