Saturday, October 27, 2012

Putty In The Buff

Though it is unclear at this time how many puns I can get out of the "buff" primer I am using, I'm hoping for at least one more.

Yesterday was pretty productive, if not a long day. I did my first pass of putty over the primer, isolating places that were most critically in need of help. This included holes, deep scratches, and a bit of sculpting in missing details.

Here's some work I was doing on the back fin.

This is one of the more severely troubled spots, as the lip around that intake is a big mess. Lots of clean up and sculpting to do here.

Here's a bit of a broader shot.

The next step of course is sanding all that putty down. Oh joy.

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

MattMobile Gets Buff!!!

With all of the body work I've done recently, including the stuff that went into the filming of two recent episodes of Rise of The MattMobile, I decided it was time to get a better look at my handiwork.

A friend of mine who restored a VW Bus a while back gave me some great advice on painting. Basically, you lay down a coat of heavy build primer that is colored Buff, then lay down black over that. This way, as you're sanding, you know when you've sanded too far, or it becomes visibly apparent where you need to build up more. It's basically a really handy way to reveal all of the areas of your car that you need to pay more attention to.

Which makes a ton of sense. As it stood, my car was a mixture of various shades of black, tan and green. This made it really hard to tell if I had smoothed out the rough spots.

Here are some pics of the first pass of Buff paint I did to the car. My main focus was on the side, obviously, and the seam that ran down it.

Overall, I'm SUPER happy with how clean things are. Still plenty of work to go, but I can see now that I've really made quite a difference in the body. The seams are cleaned up pretty well, the gas cap is completely smoothed out... overall really great.

From this picture you can really see how the paint exposes areas that need work. I knew going in that this part was a rough spot, but I find it really interesting how the paint reveals the areas that need work.

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

MattMobile Vents and Body Work

Yes, it has indeed been a while since my last blog post, but please forgive me as I've been very busy. Not only did I complete a few weeks of really hard work on a feature film, but I also JUST finished work on a really exciting upcoming web series from Wayside Creations (the folks who brought you Fallout: Nuka-Break) where I shot all of the behind the scenes footage, but also built a key piece of proppery for the show. I'm very excited to have been a part of the production, and cannot wait to start showing pics of my work.

Until then, let's focus on the car.

My most recent acquisition is vents for the front of the cockpit. I got these from my friend and fellow builder Brian who no longer needs them. Brian used these as templates to cut the vents into his shell, which is what my plan is also.

The body work continues. Here you can see where I've sanded smooth some dents I filled on the drivers side step/intake.

It's still a little murky here, but I've been doing some work smoothing out the seam on the drivers side fin.

When wet sanding, little details stick out more prominently. Here I've circled some small scratches and dings with a silver sharpie so they will be easy to locate later.

Lastly, I've fired up this little compressor to use for late night painting. Turns out my heavy duty compressor kicks off A LOT of noise. In order to keep the hostile neighbor placated, I'll be using this little guy. It cranks out plenty of air pressure, and sounds like a purring cat.

That's all I've got for now, but hopefully more soon.