Gone in 60 Days, at the rate this is going...

I wasn't going to post this project until I had a little more to show, but fabricating these parts is going slower than anticipated. Hopefully I can get it done by the end of the month. Anyway, here's Eleanor...what I have of her so far, that is....

Stretched chassis: lexan above, styrene below



starting the hood



nose of the car, factory grilles removed, etc



the first fit



body fitted to chassis



Still lots of detail work to go, as you can see. And once the body is done, I want to do a motor upgrade, suspension, metal bearings, and metal lugs.

lookin killer so far! are you gonig to do the fiberglass fog lights in the front end as well?

Thanks. Are you talking about the lights up by the headlights, on each side of the grille? They'll be there, but won't be functional. I don't plan on doing lights with this car.

yup thats what i was talking about!, why no lights?

[texan_idiot25]

Excellent work so far

yup thats what i was talking about!, why no lights?

Just my preference, I guess.

Excellent work so far

Thanks

[kendallcschm]

this is gonna be sick!!

[TripleXmodder(akaXXX)]

Very hot. I like the body work, good idea. Make it your own.

[nw~hummer]

sick, i loved that movie lol.. cant wait to see it finished

No new pics yet, but I thought I'd post an update.

I bought some white putty (stuff smells like spray paint and cures like bondo body filler), and I filled in the seams around the vents and body scoops. Also, I made the side pieces for the bumper, glued them on, and then filled those seams.

Still plenty left to do with the nose: finish smoothing seams, build the fog lights (upper set and lower set), make the billet grilles. Then final assembly with paint, etc.

Body is nearly ready for paint. Still need to fabricate some side pipes and fender flares.

[TAKEO]

This looks like a good project!
how did you make the rear mount?

[nw~hummer]

sweet. take your time, make it perfect, Elenore deserves no less than perfect LOL

Rear mount...well...actually...I have yet to figure that one out, lol. I can't use the stock xmods clip because of the trunk area being so far behind the end of the chassis. I'm not sure if it will work yet, but I was going to try making a new, longer-reaching clip out of lexan. It would be mounted to the underside of the car's trunk lid, and fit into the existing clip receptacle on the chassis. Hopefully.

Definitely taking my time on this one; I really want it to turn out right. I definitely have a few challenges ahead of me, and believe it or not, finding the right decals is one of those challenges. The kit was for a GT350 (I need ones for a GT500), and the stripes are white (I need black). Does anyone know a good website where I could order the decals I need?

UPDATE: NEW PICS!

[TripleXmodder(akaXXX)]

Oh god, I love it. Looks like it's coming along. I love this one as much as your Camaro if not more. Keep that putty smooth. Make a chassis to hide that AAA battery holder, PLEASE. That would make it even better if that's possible. Can't wait for the finished product.

Haha, thanks XXX. I'm hoping that the side pipes will conceal most of the battery cover, but I plan on painting it flat black just in case. The Camaro I'm building is going to need it, too--especially since the stock ride height I went with exposes the entire thing.

I'm not real impressed with this putty, so I may try some lacquer-based fill on the remaining imperfections. The one plus about the putty, though, is that it etches into the plastic for a better bond.

[bondo]

the best thing ive found for smoothing out the creases after the rough fill is B ondo spot glaze.

it sands REAL well and is pretty easy to work with.

the cars looking pretty good though, keep it up

[XMDrifter]

hmmm. black stripe decal?
can't you just mask and spray?
btw, before you get to that point, i'd like to say, the stripes are actually a dark grey, not a black.

but your project is looking smexy so far.
think you could raise the suspension a bit and drop the body a bit so it conceals the battery tray more effectively?
and in doing that, you'd also get handling more like the actual elanor. evos have unrealistically short suspension travel.

[nw~hummer]

lookin good

Thanks guys. The thought of masking and spraying the stripes had come to mind, but there's almost always a problem when I do that. I'd rather do decals and then clear coat the car.

Dark gray, you say? Well that's going to be fun. Perhaps I should get one of those do-it-yourself inkjet decal kits.

As for the bondo spot glaze, that's the lacquer-based filler I was talking about; but I'm scared to use it on a car that will be subjected to the vibrations and shocks of being driven. It is very easy to work with...but it tends to crack and shrink with age--even once it's been topcoated. I used that stuff when I restored my 84 Camaro (real car, not xmod, lol), and it shrank wicked bad in just 36 hours. I had the car looking like the body had never seen a ding, rust crater, or any kind of flaw in its life---and 36 hours later, when the car was primed and left out in the sun for a day, all of the spot fill shrank. It looked like I had primed over all of the flaws without ever trying to fill them at all. I ended up re-doing the whole car using the more expensive polyester fill, which is great---but I wouldn't dare try it on plastic.

Raising the suspension might be an option, but how do you go about doing that?

[TAKEO]

i have to say the puttywork looks f***** Good