A midnight pumpkin is born *56K warning*

[Shodog]

I have wanted to make a hot rod Midnight Pumpkin for a long time now. After seeing Fabrizio’s nice example, it prompted me to start on mine. Over the weekend I went to the Flea Market and picked up this car for $8.00

I used the cut out on the car to make a template for the Midnight Pumpkin.

I test fit the motor before cut it. Dad always said measure twice cut once or was it measure once cut two to three times oh well, any way here is how the template looked

I traced around the template with a pencil.

I used my Dremel with the cutting wheel to rough out the cut.

I then Clean up the hole with a small sanding drum.

I needed something to mount the motor. I was digging around in my trash for a scrap piece of Lexan when I came across a package for some Duracell AA batteries. The piece worked perfectly.

I trimmed it up to fit nicely under the hood.

I then test fit the motor in the hole to make sure it fits right.

Tamiya bodies come out of the mold pretty well but there are still a few imperfections. I use Bondo body filler to fill them in. This stuff worked killer but be careful as too much can mess up the plastic.

Here I am filling the imperfections. I should have been a hand model.

To trim excess plastic, I use Tamiya’s killer side cutters. They are flat on one side so they leave a nice flush cut.

You can see how nice the cutters trimmed the excess plastic from the sunroof area. At this point I am waiting for the Bondo to dry.

All the mold lines are sanded. The imperfections are smoothed over and this body is ready for primer. Since the weather isn’t so warm, I want to wait on painting it until it warms up.

Stay tuned as this project progresses

[Stefan(2)]

nice one!

should be a "how to" guide ! (modding a hard body)

Stefan

[yannick]

can't wait to see the result

[c_a_r_t_e_r]

I like the Sunset Pearl paint on the original hot-rod car... inspiration for the colour scheme?! Actually I've just seen an episode of Pimp my Ride where a Cadillac was painted Sunset Pearl... looks sweet!

Tim.

[mymonsterbeetleisbroken]

didnt take to long on my 56 k connection []

very nice work!! [8D]

is the shell going to make a lowride pumpkin of is it going back on the monster chassis?

cant wait to see the finished job

[Headcase]

It's looking to be a beauty, Sho.

Gives us newbie numbnuts some idea how these modded trucks are done!

Can't wait to see the finished product!

[Martin71RS(2)]

Why Jim, why??? do you set the standard so high.....[^]

can't wait to see it finished...it is not just the crafmanship but the good ideas too!![8D]

[Shodog]

Thanks guys for the compliments. If all goes well, this Truck should turn out really slick.

quote:Originally posted by Stefan

nice one!

should be a "how to" guide ! (modding a hard body)

Stefan

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If Chris wanted to make this into a how to, I can provide him with a write up and some pictures.

quote:Originally posted by c_a_r_t_e_r

I like the Sunset Pearl paint on the original hot-rod car... inspiration for the colour scheme?! Actually I've just seen an episode of Pimp my Ride where a Cadillac was painted Sunset Pearl... looks sweet!

Tim.

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I am thinking about getting some of the Tamiya translucent paints and using them over silver and gold bases. I will first try this out on my trusty Monster beetle shell to make sure it works and I get the desired effect.

quote:Originally posted by mymonsterbeetleisbroken

didnt take to long on my 56 k connection []

very nice work!! [8D]

is the shell going to make a lowride pumpkin of is it going back on the monster chassis?

cant wait to see the finished job

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I have thought about a low ride version. I has tried to create one in the past for my Lunchbox but the problem I found is that the lower gear case mounts for the hornet are too short which changes the wheelbase. The stock MP LB mounts are not the right shape to make a low ride conversion. To do it right, new mounts would need to be made.

quote:Originally posted by Martin71RS

Why Jim, why??? do you set the standard so high.....[^]

can't wait to see it finished...it is not just the crafmanship but the good ideas too!![8D]

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While this will look cool. Most of my work is humbled by some of the fantastic creations by some of the guys over on RCMT.net

[Behemoth]

Thats gonna look the dogs!

[vintageracer]

anyone know where you can get a 1/10th scale blower like that ,, willy really wants one in the ww2[][][][]

[Floyd]

Parma makes a perfect 1/10 hemi with a blower . I just bought one last week that Im either going to use on my "Cuda'neer" , or posiboly on my little home built mud bogger project . Here is a link to the motor kit ---> http://www.parmapse.com/rcitem.asp?n=10412

[Gixer Jay]

Very nice Jim!! [^][^]

All you need now is a big " NOS " bottle in the truck bed of that Pumpkin!![8D]

Next installation..[]

[Shodog]

quote:Originally posted by Behemoth

Thats gonna look the dogs!

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I try to put a little Shodog style in all my projects

quote:Originally posted by vintageracer

anyone know where you can get a 1/10th scale blower like that ,, willy really wants one in the ww2[][][][]

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Like I said earlier, I bought this at the flea market for $8. They look like copies of the Muscle Machines brand of car. I remember seeing muscle machines at Target and Walmart

quote:Originally posted by Floyd

Parma makes a perfect 1/10 hemi with a blower . I just bought one last week that Im either going to use on my "Cuda'neer" , or posiboly on my little home built mud bogger project . Here is a link to the motor kit ---> http://www.parmapse.com/rcitem.asp?n=10412

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I agree that Hemi motor is sweet. I have seen the kit in person and it looks a bit bigger than what I needed for this project. However that motor would look sweet on my Parma ’29 Ford roadster.

quote:Originally posted by Gixer Jay

Very nice Jim!! [^][^]

All you need now is a big " NOS " bottle in the truck bed of that Pumpkin!![8D]

Next installation..[]

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I have had wild thoughts of creating an interior for this body by using an extra one I have from my Parma ’29 Ford roadster. I would use parts from a Wild Willy driver tree including the NOS bottle to help spice it up. The key would be figuring out the needed clear window.

[Shodog]

Tonight I started putting the front grill piece and tail gate on the truck. I bolted the front on and realized how much I hate the looks of the bolts sticking out.

So I got out my plastic welding glue and went to town.

This picture shows where I glued the seams of the grill and lower front fender. This will allow me to fill the piece and make it smooth.

I used bolts to keep pieces together while I glued the tail gate on. This picture shows the tailgate after it has been glued and the bolts are removed.

Since I needed to fill the holes, I made pegs from pieces of scrap plastic. I had to shave down the plastic to fit the holes. It wasn’t until the last two I found that the plastic on the wild willy driver tree fits perfectly in the 3mm holes.

Here is a shot of the peg I made.

I cut them flush with my Tamiya side cutters and filled the holes with Bondo. The Bondo will shrink so I will sand these and then re apply some more Bondo.

Here is a shot of the rear of the body.

[CoolHands]

Trying to join RCMT is a right pain-in-the-*** [!] I can't see ANY reason why forums these days take this antiquated view of [preventing] people join [!][!][!]

[CoolHands]

This has got to be a wind-up. After all the rigeramole of applying (a long-winded process) I've been denied with the following (very informative - not!) message:

Your application to http://p083.ezboard.com/brcmtnet44998 has been

DENIED

Lovely.

[Shodog]

thats a bummer. I think they got real tough on who gets in because of a rash of scammers. It's possible that someone with the same domain as you got banned and they put a lock on all e-mails from that domain.

[jozza]

That's looking really nice, I agree about the bolts; they look a bit naff, but I wouldn't have had the patience to do that on mine. Looks like a really good quality job you are doing there.

[Jeckler]

So, since we live in the same city, when I'm done screwing up my Brat, ya wanna take a shot at it? Pumpkin looks good by the way. What color, if it hasn't already been asked or said.

[mr_pushrod]

Some great attention to detail on this, another top quality job!

[Toykid]

Looking VERY sweet Shodog! Looking forward to the end result. Those that are looking for the same motor parts, yes it is a Muscle machine car. Go to Muscle Machines.com to find a local stockist. Those of you in Europe should be able to find these in any hobbie shop that specialises in die-cast cars. Also a ton on Ebay.

James.

[Shodog]

After doing some chores this morning I was able to do a bit more work to this Midnight Pumpkin body.

So far I have sprayed about 4 coats of primer on the body. As you can see the primer is very thin and doesn’t gum up the details.

I have been trying out some ideas for the paint. I wanted to replicate the orange on the toy model. Once again my monster beetle has volunteered to be guinea pig for these paint explorations. I sprayed it Tamiya silver leaf then took some Tamiya clear orange and sprayed it through my airbrush.

It looks nice but it will take a lot of work to make sure it’s sprayed on evenly. I wish it came in an aerosol which makes spraying large areas easier.

[addict again]

Hey sho, looks great so far!! I know that you do all of your own work but i was going to see if you would be interested in having me spray the truck for you. I am a professional auto painter, have been for 10 yrs or so. Anyways, you seemed concerned over getting an even coat over it. With the automotive paints i can get it nice and even,although im not sure if you are into the deep gloss clear. I could put a low gloss clear also that would protect it with out being too shiny. Anyways, I would also just do some kind of trade or something. Let me know!! One more thing that orange looks pretty similar to the color I sprayed my crew cab clod a while back. I do have some of it in the shop still!! Sorry to write such a long post!

[mr_pushrod]

If you could replicate that colour on the truck it would look real nice.

[packrat]

Top shelf job!! How did you get those corners rounded on the hood cutout--boy you should find a way to get to mock blower pulley to turn Mad Max style **LOL**