General Lee - Hemi Orange Shuttle

[slaveofconvention]

This is something I managed to get done about a year ago in between the half dozen moves I've made in the recent past - just thought I'd put up some pics.

I don't have any in-progress pics, unfortunately, just a before (from someone else's site) and the finished work. If nothing else, at least it'll show you guys that I DO finish things, honest :whistler:

The victim - Shuttle SN85G4 v3 (which had become a little scratched and dented from a few years of being carried around)

http://www.slaveofconvention.com/imagestore/Moddin/shuttle/original.jpg

And the after....

http://www.slaveofconvention.com/imagestore/Moddin/shuttle/001.jpg
http://www.slaveofconvention.com/imagestore/Moddin/shuttle/002.jpg
http://www.slaveofconvention.com/imagestore/Moddin/shuttle/003.jpg
http://www.slaveofconvention.com/imagestore/Moddin/shuttle/005.jpg

I'm not entirely sure about calling the only "mod" a mod - but I replaced the internal 80mm whine-machine that passes for a "silent" fan with a Akasa Amber 120mm fan via an 80-120mm adapter. It looks like it blocks the ports but everything is still accessible, just :)

The colour is Hemi Orange - which is the original colour used on the General Lee, for those Dukes fans out there!

[slaveofconvention]

Grrr ok - you got me thinking now TGS lol - so, I'm considering the following - a southern flag for the "roof" with General Lee either side of it, and a 01 on each side. Because I don't want the 01 to be massive and out of scale with the flag, I'm thinking of making it about 1 1/2 inches high, and putting it down in the corner near the rear of the case - still leaving a decent expanse of the clear orange - it's a really nice paint job and I don't want to cover it all up with stickers - the only thing I'm not sure on is the wording on the top...

Should I go with the original "General Lee" or should I maybe go with "General PC" just for a bit of a laugh.....

[slaveofconvention]

Well, to be honest - that was about the 5th or 6th time I painted it - and even then I had to take it to the bodyshop where I was working at the time for the finishing touches...

On a separate note - turns out that the wife happens to know some people back in the US who do all of the decals and lettering/vinyls/stickers for the local dirt racing/late model crowd, so with a bit of luck I'll be able to get the decals custom-made to exact specifications instead of settling for what I can find retail *fingers crossed*

Plan is for an 10"x6" Confederate flag for the top of the case, with General Lee either side of it (the purist in me beat out the joker who was considering General PC), and a pair of "01" decals approx. 2" high which will go in the back bottom corner of the sides, leaving plenty of that nice shiny orange on display....

The General was never (or very rarely) a hemi - the original car, along with "most" of the 300+ cars which have been generals were 383's so not going to add anything else hemi-related to it....

[slaveofconvention]

I'm getting the stickers custom made so they fit exactly the way I want them to - the flags I found online were either too small or too large - I want 10x6 and they seem to jump from 3x5 to 12x8 online grrr - my wife spoke to her friend on the phone today and I sent over a couple hi-res images of what I want along with dimensions - now it's just the waiting game....

As for the dixie horn - I'm now thinking about skinning windows with a Dukes theme - see what you started TGS - then it'll be a bootskin, startup and shutdown screens - if I'm going with it, might as well be thorough hehe

This isn't taking time away from K-9 - waiting till the end of the week for money to buy the sheet metal :D

[slaveofconvention]

While I'm waiting for these custom stickers, I decided to revisit another area of modding I kinda drifted away from years ago - Windows Customisation...

Here's a video of the Shuttle starting up with a modified windows boot screen, courtesy of Stardocks Bootskin XP.

<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/gKmXtYRwBH4&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/gKmXtYRwBH4&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>
Video captured using Fuji Finepix S5600 - only the second time since I got it I've actually used it for video :lick:

Definitely going to move forward and do a logon screen with Logonstudio, but I'm 50/50 on attempting a full Windowblinds skin - it's possible, even probable - I do have 3 12 hour shifts at work every week when I'm sitting with nothing to do.....

[slaveofconvention]

The decals are being made by someone who specialises in auto-decals, mainly for racing teams, but I'll have the significant other ask them about 2k clear - if it's a problem, I have aerosol and 1k clear available too....

[slaveofconvention]

Look what the nice mailman brought me this morning, courtesy of Stacy & Chris Rhodes of Edge Racing Engines (http://www.edgeracingengines.com/) in Windber, PA. Yup, I had them sent from all the way across the pond *grin* - having a redneck race-nut with connections for a wife has it's advantages...

http://www.slaveofconvention.com/imagestore/Moddin/shuttle/006.jpg

Course I'm off to work in a few hours and have a shedload of stuff to do, so they won't be going on tonight - this is NOT something I'm going to rush... but it'll be done in a day or so, then I need to look into the lacquering....

[slaveofconvention]

I decided, as TGS had (unintentionally?) goaded me into doing more work on this case, I'd do a couple of finishing touches that I really should have done first time around.... The inside of the case outer skin....

http://www.slaveofconvention.com/imagestore/Moddin/shuttle/007.jpg

... never got any attention other than overspray, so, mask it up...

http://www.slaveofconvention.com/imagestore/Moddin/shuttle/008.jpg

... with masking tape over the detail parts - edges, vents etc ...

http://www.slaveofconvention.com/imagestore/Moddin/shuttle/009.jpg

... then masking paper over the rest of it ...

http://www.slaveofconvention.com/imagestore/Moddin/shuttle/010.jpg

... then find a quick way to defeat the great british summer - it's raining again ...

http://www.slaveofconvention.com/imagestore/Moddin/shuttle/011.jpg

... after the first heavy coat - I didn't actually realise there was any orange showing through till I took the photo so...

http://www.slaveofconvention.com/imagestore/Moddin/shuttle/012.jpg

... after a couple more coats ...

http://www.slaveofconvention.com/imagestore/Moddin/shuttle/013.jpg

... and that'll do for now - when it's dry, I'll clean the outside of the case, then get to the decals ...

[slaveofconvention]

So the masking wasn't 100% effective - mainly around the airflow holes....

http://www.slaveofconvention.com/imagestore/Moddin/shuttle/014.jpg

Fortunately, because the black was so fresh and barely cured, and the orange and clear are very well established and utterly cured, a few minutes with a paper towel and some thinners and ...

http://www.slaveofconvention.com/imagestore/Moddin/shuttle/015.jpg

Lesson for today - lol - if you're painting and masking like this, get the masking off as soon as possible (obviously after it's dry) because the sooner you catch things like this, the better your chances of fixing them....

[slaveofconvention]

I got the stickers applied and the PC put back together....

http://www.slaveofconvention.com/imagestore/Moddin/shuttle/016.jpg

http://www.slaveofconvention.com/imagestore/Moddin/shuttle/017.jpg

http://www.slaveofconvention.com/imagestore/Moddin/shuttle/018.jpg

http://www.slaveofconvention.com/imagestore/Moddin/shuttle/019.jpg


I have to admit, I like the way it looks, but I'm too much of a perfectionist so at some stage in the future, I'm going to re-do it...

Problems with this (in my opinion)

1. There are a few little bumps/bubbles in the top sticker - MY fault for not cleaning it properly and/or applying it carefully enough.
2. The top sticker is too large - MY fault - I gave the fabricator the exact dimensions.
3. General Lee & 01 are the wrong way around on one side - MY fault for not being careful enough
4. There is no white border around the 01's and there should be - Stacy got everything else exact to my specifications, so I'm assuming I didn't specify the border.
5. Top sticker is about 2mm off centre - I applied it, so again MY fault.
6. Top sticker should have a white border around it - 100% certain I didn't put that on the order so, shock!!! My fault again lol....

I have nothing but thanks and praise for the stickers - anything wrong is my own issue.

As a result I'm going to re-do this at some point in the future - it's "Good enough" but it isn't perfect - so this is now complete - I'm not going to clearcoat it as the stickers will probably end up being removed when I get around to re-doing it.

Thanks all for your comments and suggestions, especially to TheGreatSatan for his suggestion about making it more than just an orange case.

Slaveofconvention (Colin, in case you were wondering)


Link to original thread. (http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/forum/showthread.php?t=19531)