Janine has a drive

Here is a self taken pic of Janine having a drive. We drove down to Cambridge to Oliver's birthday and Janine drove from Auckland to Huntly. I think she kinda enjoyed it.

New Door Cards

Here is a before and after shot of the new door cards I made as a temporary meausre until we can afford to get the car upholstered properly. I added arm rests and recessed the door hand into the door.

At the bottom right of the after photo you can see the alloy suicide door locks. These are locks that you engage so that if you happen to bump the handle the door won't fly open. It doesn't take much speed to catch and rip a suicide door right off its hinges so these are just an added precaution. Eventually I will hook them up to electric solenoids and and alarm system and they will become the door locks as well. The alarm also has a hijack function which locks all the doors automatically when you drive off, so you won't have to remember to engage these locks before driving off, the alarm will do it for you.

First Rod Run

This was our first Rod Run. It is a Rodders Breakfast that is held once at Silverdale. We usually hook up with a few friends for brunch and then every so often they will have an organised run to a workshop or an open day at a commercial premises. A nice way to start the day.

The Orange Dodeg truck belongs to our friends Roger and Ange, the Pale Blue 32 Coupe belongs to friends Freda and Bob and in the last photo you can see Pete & Toni's Tail Dragger.

Finally Road Legal

The first photo is the cert plate. This means the car has been certified by a qualified Vehicle Certifier. It outlines all the details about types of components used. This means is ever I want to change engine, wheel size, change to fuel injection etc I would need to get the change certified again.

The second and third pic are just the standard warrant and registration. I get 1 year warrants for the first 6 years cause this is considered a new car.

More Graphics

I've added a few more graphics now. Because I won't be able to afford to have the car painted properly for a while yet, I came up with the idea of playing on the fact that it was a bit rough and have tried to make it look like and old stock car found in California somewhere (hence Thunderhill Raceway, Willows, California).

I have deliberately tried to make the sign writing aged and faded. I think it has kinda worked. It certainly turns heads getting along the road.

New Grille

For a while now I have been mulling over what to do about a grille for the Coupe. I was quoted $6000 NZ to bring a grille surround and insert in from the USA. Now there's no doubt about it they are nice grilles, but I just can't afford that sort of dosh.

I had thought about a mesh grille and had even been looking at second hand grilles, but ended up biting the bullet and having a go at making my own. Here is the end result. It cost $80 to buy the aluminium rod and the beauty is the rods are held in place with silicone, so if a rod gets damaged I can cut away the silicone, remove the damaged rod and slip in a new one. Priceless!

Well kiss my ass its Fibreglass

Yes that's right the Coupe is Fibreglass. Now as far as the hot rodding fraternity are concerned there are some purists who don't believe that a Fibreglass car is a hot rod. They believe they have to be all original steel. Well those people can kiss my ass!

As far as the general public is concerned they just can't believe the car is fibreglass and are often quite surprised. "Well kiss my ass, is it really fibreglass?

So as you can see Betty Boop says it all.

The stages to doing this piece of work are;

1. Trace original drawing in
2. You then have an outline to work from
3. Cut out the section you intend working on (one colour at a time)
4. Paint that area and add tonings
5. Once that section is complete, mask it and cut out another section to work on.
6. Repeat the steps until it is done
7. Voila!