De-Ricing the F&F Supra

I have always loved the sport-top Supra, but I hate how ricey the F&F Supra is (how ever I do love the green eclipse:screwy:, my next build).

So here is where I am at so far on day 1.

Das hood:

Those hood vents where super tacky, I like the nice smooth OEM hood. So I used some putty to fill the holes, sanded, and then shot it with some thick automotive primer. I can still see a faint trace of the vents so I need to sand over it again. (Any tips are welcome).

Teh bumper.

The bumper was not too bad, but still too busy for my taste, so I proceeded to fill and removed the side vents. I will finish them off and see how it looks. I May choose the open up the two vents that are on either side of the main center one (kind of like the OEM one).

El Picturas

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b206/mojo_stevo/P1210018.jpg
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b206/mojo_stevo/P1210023.jpg
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b206/mojo_stevo/P1220024.jpg
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b206/mojo_stevo/P1220026.jpg
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b206/mojo_stevo/P1220028.jpg


These are the addition parts that I am considering taking out of the bumper.

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b206/mojo_stevo/P1220003copy.jpg

To get rid of the ghosting from the putty work, you are well on your way. You've got the first part taken care of. now you need to sand that primer LIGHTLY so you don't remove the sunken in area, then spray more primer and repeat, and repeat. It took me 4 coats of primer to relieve my J30/leopard of it's putty and mold marks. Don't keep spraying the whole part, just the areas that need the work.

Thanks 'rsx' for the tips. I'll try to isolate the spray. I'm getting an airbrush on thursday, i'm sick of rattlecans.

Well I think I am learning my lesson with AMT kits. The fit and finish is awful.
I have two more WIP's that are AMT, and then I am going to try to stay away from them.

Here are the fitment issue that I have discovered thus far (these are the only parts that I have taken off the tree so far).

Hood-to-frame-to-bumper:
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b206/mojo_stevo/hoodgap.jpg

Bumper right, to fender:
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b206/mojo_stevo/bumpergap.jpg

Bumper left, to fender:
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b206/mojo_stevo/bumpergap2.jpg




I also picked up some a/m rims for it. I took advantage of the 2 piece aspect of the wheels and ground down the rear lip of the spoke portion to make them sit back farther, creating a better lip. I also pulled the tire out a tad to add a beefier look, so it's not so "rubber band" like.

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b206/mojo_stevo/rimsapart.jpg
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b206/mojo_stevo/Rimssanded.jpg

This is the stance that I hope to get (gonna take some work).
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b206/mojo_stevo/fit.jpg

I'm not sure if I'm going to leave the rims gold or not.
If I paint the car grey-metalic then I will leave them gold.
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b206/mojo_stevo/Supra_14.jpg

I'm strongly concidering painting the car flat red. If so, I might paint them silver or gunmetal.
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b206/mojo_stevo/mishimotoshoot1.jpg

Mishimoto widebody Impreza.^

More on the front bumper.

Well last night I decided to cut and fill a bit on the bumper. The left side (car's left) is the modded side. The right side, obviously, is still stock. I still have a wee bit more sanding to do to blend it all in. But this is more or less how I want both sides to look.

This is a constructive environment so please give me your honest opinion, again all critiques and tips are welcome in my threads!

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b206/mojo_stevo/goop.jpg
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b206/mojo_stevo/FB.jpg

Thats coming out nice.

Does that kit come with nitrous bottles, someone told me they did?

Thats coming out nice.

Does that kit come with nitrous bottles, someone told me they did?

Yea 2x, I'm going to put those in the F&F eclipse. I actually want to built that one to movie spec, but the kit is kinda half a$sed (just makes more of a challenge :smokin: ).

Thank you for the compliment btw.

I'm building this kit right now too, and the fit of the body pieces is definitely a pain. I found the fit of the area around the hood/front bumper/headlights the worst I've found. I've been working on this area for hours now and it's still not right.

I would really suggest taking the clear headlights off the tree though, and trying them in their spot (around the hood/bumper). Maybe yours will fit better than mine, but there were gaps all over around them....

Looking good though...

Murray

You are doing a fantastic job on this. I like how the front bumper is turning out. The wheels look SO much better now with the deeper dish, though the still look a bit huge in my opinion.

Please don't discount ALL AMT kits, as they do have quite a few VERY good kits. Part of what I like so much about AMT kits is that once you get to building AMT kits into show winning models, there is nothing in the modeling hobby you can't handle. lol

So I finished sanding the hood smooth after filling the Bomex hood vents, and cut a piece of cf decal for the hood. I decided to use Micro Sol decal softener (first time). It looked very wrinkly when I first applied it. I guess that's how it's supposed to look at first. It's been about two hours and it still has some wrinkle to it, and some weird dots on the corner of the hood.

How long does it take for it too dry? Will it completely smooth out or do I need to apply another coat?

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b206/mojo_stevo/hood.jpg
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b206/mojo_stevo/Targa4.jpg
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b206/mojo_stevo/Targa2.jpg

Well the decal appears to be smoothing out, I have just been adding more of the softener to it ever few hours. I also got a bottle of Micro Set, what a waste of money that was... all it is is distilled vinegar, or at least thats what it smells like, it also seems so take the sheen off the decal.

CF hood~!
how was your experience with that?
i've always wanted to try it
but i'm worryed about how would the sheet of decal conform to the "complex" shape of hood....
do u just cut out a big piece and put it on (with those decal solution or whatever)??

CF hood~!
how was your experience with that?
i've always wanted to try it
but i'm worryed about how would the sheet of decal conform to the "complex" shape of hood....
do u just cut out a big piece and put it on (with those decal solution or whatever)??


Pretty much, I just laid the hood on the back of the decal (paper side) and traced it with a pencil (which naturally gave it about 2mm of over hang for error). I cut it out with a sharp exact-o knife, prepped the hood with Micro Sol (Micro Set, the other stuff, is just vinegar works kinda crappy) soaked the decal in water then slid it on to the prepped hood.

It wrinkled then laid out flat once it dried. For the remaining few wrinkles, I just applied more Micro Sol to those specific spot until they pretty much went away.

I'm not leaving the hood bare CF though. I coated it with a layer of clear red, I'll post pics tomorrow.

I do plan on doing the rest car flat red like the below pictured STi. BTW does anybody know how to get the red to come out like this? (below picture)
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b206/mojo_stevo/MishimotoSTI03.jpg

I would say paint it gloss red, wet sand it with 6000 grit to get rid of the orange peel, then spray it with a high quality flat clear.

I would say paint it gloss red, wet sand it with 6000 grit to get rid of the orange peel, then spray it with a high quality flat clear.

Hmmm, I'll have to try that. What Flat Clear would you recommend?

6000 grit? Was that a 600 grit typo? I've never seen 6000 grit only 1500. I'm not trying to me a smart-ass, I'm brand new to painting.

6000 grit is found in most polishing kits for models. The problem you run into with using 1500 is that you will most likely be left with swirl marks. If you have a local paint supply store, see if they have some finer grit paper. You might be able to get away with stepping from 1500 to 2000.

Well I finally finished the bumper
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b206/mojo_stevo/bumperdone.jpg
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b206/mojo_stevo/P2040012.jpg
and found a way to get it to fit without having to use putty to fill those awful gaps.


I decided to slice off the little mounting nubs for the bumper and sand the red Sharpied part back a few millimeters.
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b206/mojo_stevo/trimr.jpg

The left side fit fine
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b206/mojo_stevo/bump2.jpg

However, the right still needed a bit of putty though.
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b206/mojo_stevo/bumpsmoove.jpg

Fit very well with some TLC
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b206/mojo_stevo/bumpfit.jpg

I also did my wing chop.
I usually prefer cars to be wingless, but the trunk lid on the stock Supra is kinda sorry.

So I decided to butcher the park bench that AMT included in the kit.
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b206/mojo_stevo/wing1.jpg
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b206/mojo_stevo/wing2.jpg

...and formed it on the the rear decklid area.
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b206/mojo_stevo/tail.jpg
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b206/mojo_stevo/tail2.jpg

As you have noticed, Micro Sol is much stronger than Micro Set. The reason is that you're supposed to use Set on the model 'under' the decal. Basically put it helps the decal stick better.
Micro set is good as a 'glue' for decals but it's also a good softener for very thin and/or old decals where Sol would be too strong.

I basically use this method:
http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=145001
90% of the time when CF decalling. I do use one different technique though, I use a hairdryer to speed up the drying process. Apply Sol, wait a minute or two then hit it with a couple minutes of hot air from the hair dryer set on low. ( I use a 750W hair dryer) You should see instant reaction when you blow the hot air on the decal, it shrinks to shape. Takes me around 1-4 go's with this method to get the decal into more complex shapes.

I must emphasize: DO NOT TOUCH THE DECAL UNTIL IT'S DRIED AFTER YOU HAVE APPLIED THE SOL!!!! Only takes 2 or 3 minutes if you are using a hair dryer.
Just have faith...:tongue:
One last thing, if there is a high distance (anything more than 2mm) like a bump or what ever, cut the decal into separate pieces so that it won't be overstretched. If it's overstretched it most likely will rip. It will distort the pattern/picture of the decal even if it doesn't rip.

HTH,
Steve

Thank you for the tip! I really appreciate that.

I finished the body and laid on all of my coats. I'll let it cure semi gloss it, then polish the heck out of it.
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b206/mojo_stevo/bodyflat.jpg

Here it is with my clear red glossed CF hood. The reason that I am going to semi gloss the car (instead of leaving it flat) is so that it doesn't clash too much with the hoods clear coat.
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b206/mojo_stevo/hoodnpaint.jpg
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b206/mojo_stevo/hoodr.jpg

using something other than straight clear or smoke clear has been mentioned before but I think is the first time I've seen the result of such a thing. I have to say, that looks quite good.

It'd be good to see that outside in better light to get a better feel for the overall appearance of the bonnet.

This is looking awesome!! :thumbsup:

But i'm not a fan of the wheels tho... If you can find some smaller ones just to take some pictures,I think it'll look better... :uhoh:

This is looking awesome!! :thumbsup:

But i'm not a fan of the wheels tho... If you can find some smaller ones just to take some pictures,I think it'll look better... :uhoh:

Yea after taking a second look at them on the car they are too big. That's okay I'll save them for something else like a Riviera or something.

I ordered some Gram Lights but they were defective, so I have to send them back :sadwavey:
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b206/mojo_stevo/P2110008.jpg

I'd like to find some BBS's but they are sold out on ever site that I can think of.

YUSSSS!!!

I finally got the outcome that I was looking for as far a the matt finish paint job goes. Never in my little building career have I worked this hard to get a paint job right.

The photos in the above post are just plain ol' flat red. I polished it later there after, but it ended up looking very brick red, pretty ugly. So I hit it with a coat of gloss red, and then sanded it down, and polished it. Looked pretty aweful.
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b206/mojo_stevo/aweful.jpg

So I hit it with some regular flat gloss (as suggested by rsxse240) but it's wasn't quite the way I wanted it:
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b206/mojo_stevo/Notyet.jpg

So I decided to mix a little bit of clear red into my flat clear mixture and viola!
It came out perfect (My camera is not picking up red very well, I need to check the settings):
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b206/mojo_stevo/Gotcha1.jpg
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b206/mojo_stevo/Gotcha2.jpg

I decided to CF the hatch as well.

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b206/mojo_stevo/Pre-tint.jpg

And then I tinted it do make it darker and to ad a thicker gloss to it. (Same as I did for the roof panel)

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b206/mojo_stevo/tintin.jpg

I think I will leave the roof bar red instead of painting it black to match the panel and hatch.

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b206/mojo_stevo/Post-tint.jpg
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b206/mojo_stevo/Post-tint1.jpg

i like what u did with the cf decals thank you for the idea

i like what u did with the cf decals thank you for the idea

Sharing ideas; that's what forums are for man. Thanks for the compliment btw.