Thread: Does this qualify as a Hot Rod?

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keep up the great work!

With no new parts coming my way in the next month (keeping a cash cushion for our son's up coming wedding) I've decided to get going on fitment and clean up on some interior parts.
Started with the seats. The reclining release mechanisms rub on the reinforcement used to strengthen the unibody after the top was chopped. Simple fix. I swapped the seats from side to side, putting the release handles next to the tunnel, where there's plenty of room.

Todays job was refurbishing the door glass. A little steel wool, some elbow grease and a coat of paint for the metal pieces, brings back the original shine. I'll start in on the tracks tomorrow.

This is what happens when I have too much free time.

strip4.jpgstrip3.jpgstrip1.jpgstrip2.jpg

That's a way kewl way to look at paint ideas---how the heck do you do it???

I second that Dave. I usually don't like yellow, but that second yellow one looks great!

Originally Posted by Dave Severson

That's a way kewl way to look at paint ideas---how the heck do you do it???

Each of the cars was created from the same image. By using an image manipulation program ( Photoshop, Photo Studio or in my case the freeware program Gimp), a base image is created from a simple digital photo. This is the original image I took with my digital camera.

PICT0002.JPG

The base image is created by deleting all the areas I don't want (garage and old wheels) and adding pics of wheels I saved from sellers websites.

baseimage.jpg

After saving the base image, stripes,
stripe.jpg
2 tone areas
2tone.jpg
or the whole painted area
paint.jpg
can be cut out and then pasted back over the base image in separate layers to create an image sandwich. The color, brightness, contrast, opacity and other aspects of each layer can then be adjusted separately.

The checkered background represents transparent areas and the filmstrip is created by selecting multiple completed images with the built in "Filmstrip" feature.

I likez the 3rd row first pic......COOOOOOOOL IDEA

I like the first row yellow and white scheme. For kicks it would be great to see that with red instead of yellow, and maybe another with British racing green instead of yellow, but keeping the white accents the same. Has the 60's race car look to it! P.S. thanks for posting the process. I used to be able to do similar stuff with a windows program on my old computer, but haven't found the right freeware or windows program that I can navigate to do it now!

Originally Posted by stovens

...For kicks it would be great to see that with red instead of yellow, and maybe another with British racing green instead of yellow, but keeping the white accents...

Something like this maybe?

paint37 copy.jpgpaint87 copy.jpg

Originally Posted by stovens

...haven't found the right freeware or windows program that I can navigate to do it now!

Gimp is completely free. I've been using it for several months now, and it's got lots of great features.

Here's some more schemes I've been playing with.

paint83 copy.jpgpaint85 copy.jpgpaint86 copy.jpg

Wow after seeing those I like the green and white. In the new ones above with the yellow white combo, I think it too would look great with the green. P.S. thanks for taking the time to humor me. I think doing this computer rendering firsts helps make the final choice so much better.

Trying to envision paint from all angles.

Sample:

red with graphic.jpg

Adapted these from a vinyl graphics website catering to the tuner crowd. Now my head is spinning with all sorts of possibilities.

12images.jpg


Couldn't help myself. Had to run through all the angles on these two.

Untitled.jpg

Ultimately the paint color and scheme are your call, but I think on a classy sportscar like this one a simple paint job with maybe the stripe down the middle and around the grille would set it off. It would be like if you took a nice Vette and dolled it up with some of the graphics you posted, it would look garrish, IMO. Less is more, sometimes.

There was a Viper running around here years ago where the guy paid big money to have it painted like a snake! Wish I had a picture to show, but let's just say the paint scheme "detracted" from an otherwise cool car. Some of those graphics would look good on a tuner car, but your sportscar is way too classy for that.

Don

Fuel tank arrived yesterday. I can finally stop playing with paint and start playing with wrenches again.

Started the fuel tank installation by adapting my Z fuel sending unit to my new '56 Chevy fuel tank. I chose to keep the five bolt mounting set up of the tank in case I later decide to switch to aftermarket gauges.

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The first step was to adjust the travel of the float. In the old Z tank, the float travels almost 11 inches in it's arc from empty to full. The new tank is only eight inches tall. I cut the float arm and adjusted the length until the float's arc was about 7 1/2 inches. I wrapped the float arm with a little wire to hold it together.

PA010147.JPG


I then hooked up test wires and checked the gauge readout. A little fine tuning, accomplished by bending the float arm, and it works perfectly. I then spot welded the two pieces of float arm and ground it smooth.

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I then drilled the five holes into the sending unit rim.

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The raised center portion of the unit won't allow the mounting bolts to lay flat, so I made a spacer out of a large washer.

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