[WIP] Recycled Joystick: Base Paint is Complete.

(Previous WIP post to this project can be found here)

Too many hours spent body-making and sanding. Too many.


The bottom panel is done. The wall filler used previously did not work out. It held its shape, but it separated from the wood too easily. Any experience filler users would've known that. This time I used Bondo Putty by 3M. Stuff works great. Haven't had as much trouble as Poly-Filla, but it too struggled with small chips here and there. The Grazing & Spot Putty by 3M was recommended but I didn't bring enough money to Canadian Tire.

After the second afternoon, I finally decided to stop because I could've been reworking the edges until I literally had no putty left. I have a perfectionist in me that does nothing but eat up five extra work hours than expected on any project, and with other things I need and want to do, I could not afford any more time spent on crafting perfectly smooth edges. Fortunately the dark gray paint can hide most of the surface changes from an untrained eye.

Next step is to masking off the surface for the white stripe, just like the orange stick:

Now comes the next dilemma: One red button or two?

It was never mentioned, but the colour arrangement between the white and red buttons came solely from Nismo, a car tuning company:

 

That said, having two red buttons sports a consistent look, whereas a single red button puts a great deal of emphasis on the button alone, but almost feels overpowered by the white buttons. I think 2 buttons may having the longer lasting appeal, though a single gives off one hell of a rebellious statement. The buttons by the way are Sanwa Denshi OBSF-30. I took a long bus-ride along with biking in the rain to arrive at the store I've been told that sells these. I would've liked OBSN-30 parts because those are screw-on chambers rather than snap-on. The latter is quick and less of a hassle, but more troublesome if the panel it's being installed in isn't thin like sheet metal. Prior to painting, the buttons can stay put in the 1/8" thick MDF. It's just that if someone wanted to they could simply pry it out, but who would do that when the controller's on my lap?


To sidetrack a bit, in between waiting time for paint to dry, I tried out a spray bottle of Turtle Wax I found in the garage. Needless to say, it leaves one immaculate shine compared to the two other polishing paste and compound I bought two weeks ago:

 From left to right: Turtle Wax Polishing Compound (and scratch remover), Meguiar's Ultimate Polish, Turtle Wax Protectant.

I sampled this on the side of plastic tire wedges.

Left: Turtle Wax Compound. Right: Turtle Wax Spray.

Left: Meguiar's Polish. Right: Turtle Wax Spray.

Here's a short video to help you visualize the amount of gloss on the spray.

The Turtle Wax spray definitely gives the surface a clean shine. I can see myself using this for photos. Will certainly apply some onto the case before presentation photos. I'm sure I'm not using the compound and polish correctly, or maybe I'm expecting something it's not capable of doing. Will need to do research.


More progress/content to come soon, 4 or 5 layers of clear coat later that is.

[WIP] New Batch of Customs on Queue. Status Update on Others.

Normally, I wouldn't consider putting a mainline back into my collection list even if it was only a wheelswap. Today, I just might. With the parcel that arrived today, I finally got several recolours I've wanted for quite some time, except their wheels or tampos aren't doing it any good.

By definition, once it's modified, it's a custom; when it's a custom, it doesn't go into the collection. Yet, I do want to find some way to count it as part of the collection. I'll figure out something eventually, but for now, here are some of the latest cars added to the queue.

Wheelswap + detailing. Wheelswap + detailing.

Wheelswap + Tampos removed.

To be added to the Illustrious Series + height adjustment.

Wheelswap.

Wheelswap. Might add to Illustrious Series.

Wheelswap. Wheelswap.

Wheelswap.

  Remove sirens and add to Rally Series.

  Wheelswap + wheelbase adjustments.

  Paintjob. Possibly add a front diffuser.

  Add to Rally Series.

  Possibly to be added into Illustrious Series.

  Wheelswap. I have two of these so I have a second set of wheels I can put on a red California.

  Undecided project, but likely will change everything.

As for previous projects: The Hunter Camaro still has not made any progress. The Blings Surfin School Bus has not either, nor has the gangster black G500. A wheelswap honestly doesn't take even an hour yet, I dish one out every 2 weeks it seems. I certainly need to make some sort of schedule to follow if I want to maximize my productivity.

[WIP] Recycling: Joystick Case

Instead of building a new one from scratch, since I don't have access to fresh materials and power tools, I'm reusing an old case; Orange Stick (which you can find photos of here. Because it's smaller, lighter, sturdier than the Acrylic, it's more portable. With the refreshed interest in joystick usage, this may be the first controller I'll carry to local gatherings in the near future. A name for this would be neat, but that needs time to be developed. Here's progress photos:

Rebuilt the edge so the top panel is flush with the sides.

Filler used to fill in the openings. Edges are curved.

Renewed bottom panel with 3/16" masonite.

Recessed opening to serve as a handle.

Easy to grab; easy to transport.

No additional parts needed makes transporting seamless.

It's absolutely intuitive.

Poly Filla's the product of choice along with a scraper.

Filler won't seal the bottom panel, but create a sort of bezel.

Next steps would to be to finish with the bezel, install the 4 feet, close up the opening to prevent the chance of interfering with the wiring (that's soon to come), prime, paint, and install all parts.

[WIP] Almost Complete! Annihilator Street Rod

(previous Annihilator post found here)

So glad it's almost over. The few days spent trying to fix up the exterior all thanks to the ink that vapourized from the decal was not a pleasant experience to say the least. I wish I had more time to fix this up but I really need to get over the loss of a smooth paintjob and move onto other projects at this point.

I just finished readjusting the height at which the engine sits at. Without much consideration, the engine was found to be positioned unrealistically higher than an engine should, so the interior piece that suspends the engine had been shaven down to accommodate for this. Some Sharpie marker colouring took place, as well as installing the notable dual blue fluid tube which I accomplished by a single piece of 22AWG wire folded in half and bent into shape.

The wheels are currently in the way of the engine sitting firmly on the interior sectional piece hence the positional tilt seen in the last photo. This can be fixed in no time.

After that it's a matter of sparkling up the surface.

[WIP] Proj. Controller Cosmetics: Controller Arrived.

(Buttons and thumbsticks found here)

Oh my plans have almost been ruined. The colour of the controller was not really a teal but in fact a turquoise. A murky shade too; one that gives off that "cheap knockoff" look. The project can still go on. It just means that now I really need to work out a sharp-looking graphic that will cover up the ugliness of this colour (this particular shade anyway). You know that saying where "this looks much nicer in person"? Well this is the opposite. For me anyway, unsure about you.

 Sadly, even with an Auto Color Balance done on photoshop, my own photo produces a teal - the exact colour I wanted. I illustrate what it really looks like in the edited version below it.

You bet that says "DOUBLESHOCK". Can't expect anything more for a $15 remote.

I haven't disassembled my OEM controller just yet, because I want to finish the graphics before I proceed with gutting the good controller. While the circuit board on this generic controller works, it also has a small bit of lag and the the silicon buttons underneath the plastic plungers we press are way stiffer than the OEM so right off the bat I'm going to have an awful controller, but I'm a little uneasy about giving that crummy board to the OEM black controller. I have a pretty badass colour scheme for it, except it would suck if its performance couldn't match its looks. And I certainly don't want to buy an OEM controller just so I can fit it on that because that would be pointless. Maybe I'll look around for a use OEM controller.

Getting back on topic, this is what I have planned for the "teal" controller. Again, I show what I envisioned it to be, and what the sad truth is.

If only the thumbsticks were a little more orange. Just a little. Lemon-yellow isn't sitting too well for me, even if the shell was teal.

Also learned there may some handy work to be done. Hopefully there won't be much as I'd rather spend more time embellishing the surface finish.

Will post again in the near future.

[WIP] Proj. Controller Cosmetics: Buttons Arrived.

Stuff from China arrived, stuff from the UK arrived.

First order of business: Now I know that it takes roughly 2 weeks to get stuff from UK (possibly all of Europe too basing this assumption solely on geographic location).

Next order of business: The teal controller shell I'm expecting from DealExtreme is taking quite some time! I sure hope I didn't step into the says-in-stock-but-really-isn't trap the site is notorious for.


Onto the post itself:

I found myself blindly ordering stuff due to my impatience and clearly wasn't thinking straight. The seller from China had listed all sorts of the same products with different pictures, prices and descriptions it threw me off. One set of white parts had a start/select silicon piece, whereas there was another listing that described the parts to be "pure white" which from the sound of it described a less murkier shade of white than the previous listing, except it didn't have the start/select buttons. Ended up getting both. Other than that, I only wanted yellow thumbsticks, except it cost but a fraction more for a whole set (again without start/select buttons) so I got that instead in case I wanted to alter the mix of white and yellow buttons in the future.

Those rainbow gel pads you see were an incentive - which wasn't tempting in the slightest - for one of the listings on the white buttons. It's a silicon cover for your thumbsticks. Feels cute, though tacky. Will hand this off to someone if they want it.

[WIP] Decals are printed and I'm impressed!

(Previous Annihilator post: here)

I run a late '90s colour Canon Bubblejet Inkjet printer... Well I also have a Samsung ML-2010 Laser Printer but that's black&white only (ML is short for Mono Laser), but that's not acceptable for printing a blue dragon with pink sakura flower petals that's to be stuck onto the Annihilator. That said, the quality of the inkjet outputs fairly low resolution. In a previous custom I had made, what was supposed to be the first car in the Illustrious Series didn't turn out the way as planned. Without getting into why that is, I had created a yellow stripe decal to run down the body of a BMW 2002. The stripe decal had 3 stripes, 2 thin, one thick, like this:

The problem is that the printer could make a line only so thin. The thinner stripes ended up being larger and the gap between each stripe was virtually gone as a result. With that in mind, I was worried the super fine details of the dragon decal would blend together into a blob. Before the print gets revealed, have a look at the graphic itself.

 That's quite intricate. It was traced (from the photos I took) on Illustrator. I didn't consider cutting down on the number of scales on the body since it was going to be shrunk to an awfully small size in the end. After seeing it printed, I'm actually glad I didn't.

Without wasting decal paper or colour ink, I tested the scale with an outline of the overall shapes. They fit. Now I test the colours on the colour printer. The blue on the dragon is a bit too dark and the background colour is way too bright. It's going to be printed on white decal paper since clear decal sheets get you an overlay and nothing 100% opaque so matching the car's body colour is required. Adjustments were made and I ran it through the decal paper this time.

The background colour turned out pretty close! Lucky guess perhaps? The lighter shade of blue pops out much better this time and the details, while they aren't super crisp, were retained pretty well for such a low-resolution printer. I'm hoping the graphics will be completed by the end of tomorrow. All that's left to do then is to work on the engine itself.

 I realize I haven't blogged about the paintjob itself. It was a small step and didn't feel like it was needed, but now that there's a clear indication the body has been painted, these are required now:

What's next after tampos? Find out here.

[WIP] Getting Back on Track: Annihilator Street Rod

(Previous Annihilator post: Swapping in Engine)

With the Lamley Contest completed and with the long weekend giving me some free time to squeeze in, I got back to work on the Annihilator. Several things were done so let's go through it one at a time.

Sectioning the lower rear end 

If you recall from last time, the body has a boxier end, but The Annihilator doesn't. See below image.

 I ultimately decided it need to be done so I went at it with the cutting disk (which has shrunk dramatically now!)

With that removed corner, that means the the chassis plate is now visible and no longer flush with the body. Something had to be done.

 That rear section of the base has not been cut through entirely letting me bend that section up to match the slope of the edge. It's secure with hot glue and filled up the gap with putty.

With that the exhaust tips on the rear bumper of the Charger now have no proper connection to any of the piping indicated on the chassis plate so I cut out pieces of 1/16" brass tubing - the exact same material used to readjust axle lengths -

 and creating the impression of tubing there.

 That's what it looks like being flush with the body.

 Pretty cool!

All lined up. Just about.

Painting the Wheels

Should've, would've, could've did this a long time ago. Sand off all the chrome,scribbled in the spokes with a black marker (not a Sharpie's this time!). Silver's done with the good o' silver marker again.

Fitting Shutter Windows

The most forgotten piece has been dealt with. There was one positioning I made while messing around I liked but I forgot about it after I dabbed in the glue. Since the Annihilator has the shutters painted, I figured I may as well just fasten the window in and paint that all at once.

Some unforseen changes were made, but I believe I'm just about ready to start painting at this point since I can't think of any other body fabricating I need to do at this point.


Paint makes its way in later on, and so do the decals!