I’m friggen stoked
Posted on May 28, 2008
Filed Under General |
Been working on a 1960 El Camino at work that we have been hoping to get into a particular contest that PPG and Hot Wheels are puting on. PPG has a new line of paint based on Hot Wheels car colors, and are looking for a car to showcase some of those colors.
The car was one of a few dozen picked solely on the artist’s rendering of what the car would look like when finished. Of those few dozen cars, they pick 12 of them based on pictures sent in early this month. Those 12 cars will be going to the Goodguy’s Nationals in Ohio, where they will narrow the field down- I’ve heard different numbers, but 1-3 of the 12 will be picked to carry on. Those cars will then go to SEMA in the fall, and ultimately, one will be the winner, and Hot Wheels will make a limited production run of little cars that look like the winning one.
Anyway, we really wanted to do well in this contest, but we figured our chances were slim. Well, we found out today that the El Camino was chosen as one of the final 12 cars. WOOOO HOOOO!!!!!! It has to be finished up and ready to go to Ohio the first week of July. I highly doubt it will make it to the final round at SEMA, but the Goodguy’s Nationals is one of the top 3 shows in the country every year (behind SEMA and the Detroit Autorama), so just going to that show alone will be HUGE for puting our shop on the map.
This car has seen MAJOR body modification. We stretched the roof, shortened the interior of the bed and made the truck an extended cab. The whole front grille/headlight area has been reworked, along with the hood. We reworked the bed sides to have a faux vent/jet engine intake look that carrys on into the tailights made to mimic a jet exhaust. That meant completely removing the stock tails and fabbing new metal to take some old Ford tailights. Of course, reworking the tails meant that the tailgate needed to be redone too. Everything else had to be smoothed out and cleaned up too.
There is still a TON of work to do. We started the metal work at the end of february, and moved on to the filler work about the end of March….
We had to have pictures submitted the first of May, so the car had to be painted and put together by the end of April. There was no way to have the bodywork done perfect by the picture deadline, so we got it as good as we could, painted it and threw it together to get pics. Luckily, we knew the flaws and such wouldn’t show up in the pictures….
In those pics there was no interior other than the seats and steering column we set in there to make it look like it had something. Nothing under the hood or in the bed had been painted yet. There’s no engine, wires or lines in it yet.
The body has since come off the frame and we painted the frame. The motor and such will start going on the frame this week while we get the bodywork finished out perfect so we can start repainting it.
It’s gonna be a rough few weeks, but it will be done, and it will be perfect- It has to be.
There’s already talk about staring a second shift so we can work on it 24 hours a day and weekends too.
I’m gonna take my camera to work and get some current pics. I’ll try and keep this updated but I may not have much free time for a while.
I’m assuming Mark posted this? A field where the author’s name is listed under the title would be great.
Anyway, the car looks insane. Incredible job. I think you’ve got a better shot than you think you do
Best of luck!
Yeah, this is Mark.
Sorry I haven’t updated much. Been VERY busy with this car.
It didn’t make it to the upholsterer on monday. It’s still at the shop getting wrapped up. The painter really screwed the pooch on this thing and got us backed into a corner. My part with the body was done, so I’ve spent a few days in the machine shop milling some trim pieces for the car. Things have pretty much been unraveling at the shop. I expect some heads to roll and serious changes around there after this project. Luckily, I have nothing to worry about.
Anyway, here’s a link to all 12 cars in the contest. I know we have at least half of em beat. A few are probably close competition, but I think the 1970 El Camino Custom Roadster is gonna win the whole thing….
http://corporateportal.ppg.com/NA/Refinish/PPGRefinish/8-0-News/8-4-Gallery/PaintYourRide2008.htm
I’ll update in the next couple days with more pics of the progress over the past couple weeks and the final pics too.
Thanks for looking
Well, we didn’t win, but we looked good. Most of the other cars had the same paint issues we were having and many had it worse. Our car was actually one of the nicest, least flawwed cars there suprisingly.
The car that won was the 56 Chevy Wagon with the blue and silver flame job. Some guys from work went to the show and said the car that won deserved it. They couldn’t find a single flaw in it and the owner had spent close to $300,000 in the restoration.
At least we looked good. I was afraid we’d look like idiots. However, now that I know how close we were to being the best, I am a little bummed.
I have a few pics, but the site won’t let me leave links to them?