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Trying to make the most of a little down time between holidays here, so I have torn into a couple projects. The first being a repaint of a Scalextric "white" Cougar. :D

Here is the car / livery that I am using as a guide. Not a vintage T/A series car - but a "newer" non-sponsored build:
http://oi39.tinypic.com/14m88le.jpg

Now on to the project...
It took some work, but the body is disassembled (the wipers will remain off as this is going to be a "race" version and since I am going with a silver base, I left the side mirror in position for paint). Along with the work on the body, the chassis has also received mods to help in the handling department. :) It has been narrowed roughly .080", the pockets for the screw heads have been enlarged using a 13/64" drill bit to allow room for the screw heads to "float" in the pockets, the shoulders of the pockets that the body post sit on have been removed, again to allow for float. Finally, the paint was stripped off of both valences using Quick 'N Kleen citrus cleaner and a little elbow grease - http://www.quicknkleen.com/ - works well and smells nice at the same time.

With opening up the screw pockets, etc, I ended with roughly .050" of available body movement without having to cut off the valences and attach them to the body. Not sure this route was any less work than cutting and reattaching, but I wanted to see if I could get there without having to do the slicing/gluing. :D

The driver has been swapped over to a "race" car driver that I robbed from a new Falcon XB that is part of another project I started this weekend - so that worked out quite well!

Next up is paint (hopefully early this week) - but here are a couple progress shots of her in pieces for those that are interested...

Old driver set up - new driver set up:


Body stripped of everything but the side mirror - waiting for it's silver paint (Dupli-color BFM0383 Silver Met.) :


So far, so good! :D

Will watch your project closely, as the white Cougar kits got my attention, but I am a rookie on what it takes to actually prep and paint the car.

Am sure I will have questions as you detail the build.

The silver color looks great, and just realized I do not have silver custom car in the Boyz fleet!!

Dundee Denny

Looking forward to this one. Man that Silver Cougar looks very tough - good choice.
The driver swap worked out well, good timing, having the Interceptor on the go too :)

How does the citrus cleaner go on painted surfaces, because I've really got to find an alternative to dropping cars into a tub of brake fluid. Cant be good for me.

Waiting to see this one unfold as well!

Sorry for the delay in pictures - had surprise company yesterday afternoon - so didn't get a chance to get them uploaded...

But as you can see... the "surprise" I referenced above is, that I tore into a second "white" kit and now have two colors in the works! :P

The second car is being painted in Dupli-color BGM0533 Bahama Blue Met. I'm not sure which way I am going to go with that car yet - whether it will be street car, fantasy livery or? (I applied the wrong color first to try to mimic the #48 car here - http://www.russoandsteele.com/collector ... e-Car/3477 )

But that being said - here are the goods!



I put the factory livery car in the background for comparison...



With the accessory pieces for each laid out...



The parts nested back together on the silver car...



The parts nested back together on the blue car...



Still a lot of work to be done, decals to be made, etc - but I am happy with the results so far!
:banana-dance:

Looking good man!!! :handgestures-thumbup:

Thanks!
I'm pretty happy myself with how they are progressing!

Going racing at the commercial track this afternoon/evening (going to start wringing out the factory red Cougar) - so won't be making any more progress on them today most likely - but hope to be looking at having the decals on the silver car by the weekend to allow for clearing and reassembly next week. (still looking for the right font for the numbers).
:)

Thanks for posting your projects. The Cougar has always been my favorite muscle car and this encourages me to create some of the Trans Am liveries not yet available.

There have been several great posts lately on building resin kits, tuning the Trans Am RTR's, etc. Could one of the folks reading this thread do one on creating decals? I bought decal paper in the fall and have a color inkjet printer, but haven't tried making any yet. I'm also curious about how to find fonts that match those used on actual cars.

Could we create an archive of decal sheets made by HRW members to share or access for donations?

Slothead

An inkjet printer will make decals, as long as the car you put them on are white. Even using white background decal paper does not always work, and using that makes trimming decals very tedious. Unless you are willing to search for, or know someone with a high end ALPS or other print system that prints white, your decals will not be the greatest and limited to white models only.

Looking good Todd. those are turning out great!

one of my favorite cars, thanks for sharing your build, just may have to try one of those white kits!!!

Dundee Denny

Todd - that is really coming together well! Love the blue especially!

Nice work, they both look great!

Thank you for all the positive comments guys! I am really happy with how they are coming together as well. :)

On another positive note, I had a chance to wring out the red Bud Moore/Dan Gurney car on the local commercial track last night (wood track with magna-braid) and the thin magnet, combined with it's position in the chassis definitely make for a difference in handling verses my other T/A cars. Not that that is a bad thing - it's just different. I think with a little tuning with lead, and a bit of tweaking in my driving style, it will be a very fun driver!
:banana-dance:

I was very happy to see that, as it helped to validate the chassis mods I made (to get the slight body float) to the two cars above.
Now it is back to decal design/development so I can get the silver one back underway!
:auto-layrubber:

WhooHoo!!!! :banana-dance:
After much searching, and coming up empty, the good members of http://www.Fonts101.com provided some much needed direction and I now have the correct font! (for those that are interested - it is called 2 RaceWay DNA - how cool is that!)

I had to do some trial and error to get the aspect ratio correct (settled on a scale of 55%) - and while not perfect, the samples I did on regular paper look pretty darn close when sitting on the side of the painted shell. :)

The decals have been printed, cleared and currently are drying. I ran three double sets of the numbers as my black wasn't giving 100% coverage on all of the numbers (I think it may be time for a new cartridge).
Now I am chomping at the bit for the clear to dry so I can see how they look on the car! :dance:

Here is a nice broad side shot of the car that I am trying to replicate the look of - and a shot of the decals I printed on clear inkjet decal paper:



And for reference - the car...