A while back I decided to try to turn my hobby into an actual business, and today is the day it hit the masses on FB! If you're interested, please like and share! https://www.facebook.com/groups/1491293511165567/
And I found some mirror caps for him to put into his 2016 table stock for the Dragon. I think he is up to 175 members on his FB page. Good luck with the endeavor. But remember to enjoy the journey. Don
With an hour left before midnight, the count is currently 214! I was expecting maybe 100 and thought that might be a stretch! Don, Thank you for those mirror caps! It's stuff like those that I am looking for to pre paint and sell at the Dragon... The small trim stuff like that is easy to transport and sells quickly. I have a few ideas for them already, and need to start spraying the Dragon parts ASAP if I want to have a good stock that can last a week on vendor row. Sure it will take a little out of my pocket to get them all done, and at the same time I am running the risk of going overboard and making something that won't sell for a while, but I'm really not worried about it. I haven't heard many bad remarks about what I come up with on my own, and with a regular 600+ MINIs attending, there is bound to be one of them that fits the style of the design. With that being said, if anybody has any good condition old parts laying around they don't want or need I will take them off your hands if the price is right! Not looking for any specific year or model either, anything is welcome! Even if it is just one mirror cap, I could use it as a display only piece... But I am also looking for interior trim, dash panels, scuttle lights and trim, headlight housings, taillight housings, hood scoops... Pretty much if it can be taken off without disassembling the entire car, let me know what you have! 214 People on the first day of the FB page going live, says there is a lot of interest in my style of painting! I might have even sold a tank and tin paint job on a Harley to somebody at Fort Campbell that I served with, but haven't talked to in 10 years! Which is good, because bikes are easy to do, and they are always looking for custom work... One of my reasons for wanting to start the actual shop in Robbinsville.
Shoot me a PM with your shipping address. I some how ended up with a set of Headlight Rings off an R56 that have been painted but cracking all over. You'll have to strip them but, a freebie to you for the freebie fender trim you sent me a couple years ago when I was working on my vented fender project!!! I'll look around and see if I acquired anything else over the years you could use..
I'm glad your getting a lot of interests! You do good work. But Motorcycles are not easy for some of us. As I sit at the breakfast table knowing I must go out and try one more time to get my front finder right.............I just want to cry! I just can't get the shap right!:mad2:
This has been a great weekend for getting the shop off the ground! I have got a few great leads, and some actual reserved slots going! Also want to thank everyone who has offered to donate parts! It is a good start on stuff to have available at the Dragon! The project I am most excited about right now is a motorcycle helmet going to my gunner from Iraq in 2003! Well technically it will be going to his dad, but that is beside the point... Going with a Vietnam era K-pot helmet design, and will be getting started on it sometime during the holiday season! I also found some time to prep some old steel, and get the podium for the rust sculpture lamp welded up! Things got a little freaky for a bit in the garage getting the coating off of the spring, but I escaped with only minor injuries...
That's not a paper cut, that's a zombie bite. Watch your back, Michonne was last seen in the Denver area....
Ha ha spent a little while yesterday looking for this! Thought it was a PM that got wiped... I'll take them!
Two more hours of design time down... Just for this! Done from scratch... You can guess who it's for, awaiting approval from the man first before sending it to Kristan for conversion to a vector file, then vinyl cutting! A lot of people don't realize that shooting paint the way I do has a lot more that goes into it than pick a color and spray... A lot of the stuff is drawn either by hand, or in MS Paint! I try not to take other peoples images, unless its a specific request, and even then I search the interwebs for a few hours deciding on just the right one. Lots of emails/PM's/text messages are exchanged before sending the files off to be cut into vinyl! Then the same for the color scheme... Goldsmithy's tank for example: I knew the color of his car, and that he likes gold... After that, I had to get creative! Early on, before his tank even showed up on my doorstep, we were exchanging ideas, and I brought up the green runs... He liked the idea, but what would be a good green? There are THOUSANDS of green paint codes! He gave me freedom with the project (which I really appreciate) so me, being me, I wanted BRIGHT, kinda oozish green like something along the lines of a comic book... Dodge had just the shade I was looking for as a base, after that, it was getting it mixed with clear enough to be semi-transparent (so the gold flake could pop through) and toning it with a lime green candy, to give a high metallic effect. After that I was stumped again, did he want more black for a more subdued appearance, or more Chili Red to make it a total accent piece? So more time spent online communicating... The patterns, and layering of the base coats makes the biggest difference, you have to know exactly the look you are going for, before you even mix the paint! Then you better know what you're doing with the spray gun or its going to play Honey Badger, and do what it wants! There are a lot of factors there: air pressure, paint flow rate, paint thickness, and the fan pattern of the spray, as well as getting the distance right to get the right splatter, and no unwanted spray... On his tank, after the sweet gold underbase was done, and cured, I didn't want to skew the lettering or the pepper with patina splatter, so I had to find something to keep the splatter off of the face of the tank, but get it on the sides where the craziness was going to happen... After that a somewhat thick splatter of Chili red, followed by a couple coats of Chili Red over everything, then a couple quick coats of Jet Black, then more Chili Red... Then after that was dry, its on to the takedown... You're just leveling out the splatter bumps through all the layers, and taking off just enough to give it that look! There is little to no room for error, and one slip in the wrong spot, or too much pressure on the sandpaper, and its start back over, because you really cant do anything to touch it up! It's the little things that matter, you need to practice constantly! For me, I practice my droplet techniques and adjustments at work, on their stuff and on their dime! I actually shot some fuse box doors yesterday, that I nailed the texture better than I have in a long time! (The pictures are hard to see, but look at that pattern! If this was one of my pieces, that would be going to one happy owner! )
Clear coated a set of R56 headlights this morning... Back to fab-ing up what is possibly going to be the craziest desk lamp EVER! Hopefully Chris will let me take it to the Dragon as a display piece!
Today I got a random box of awesomeness from N2MINI! The headlight rings can be painted and sold, the arch trim makes good color test panels, stickers can always get stuck to something, the random aluminum pieces can be used in ground up projects like the lamp, and the wooden MINI lettering can be used as a multitude of different things, but what the hell am I supposed to do with an old heater vent? Well scrap metal is scrap metal! So even if I cant use it, its worth a couple cents in the next truckload that goes to the recycler! Thank you for the donation, one persons junk, just might be somebody else's dream!
On another note, an update on my first rust sculpture... Yesterday I cut the tube the light will be mounted in, and it fits perfectly! It goes here... This will be the only light source of the lamp... It gets a blue LED light inside the tube, that will be reflected out of the angled cutout, and a mirror mounted in the top cup. It should provide the ambient light that he is after for his dark recording studio... Not to mention blue LED lights have about the same effect on neon colors as a black light... He is also giving me the go ahead on the more expensive parts options I am feeding him, so nothing is really being held back on this build! Its going to be getting the hardest, most detailed, and flat out most badass paint job I have ever attempted to spray too! It will definitely be worth his wait time when he pulls the cover off! Today's approved part of the day... The "electrical box" to mount the power switch in. The switch itself was originally going to be a battery shut off like the one I have mounted in the cowl of my R53, but he has requested a simpler push button style if at all possible... So the search begins! (If you have any leads let me know. ) The reason for wanting a push button? He has severe nerve damage, is confined to a wheelchair, and at times it is hard for him to move his hands and fingers. I can understand his request for the change, and will do my best to accommodate his idea. Also, this piece WILL be on display at the Dragon in May! With a giant NFS tag!
Something like this: LongAcre Flip-up Start / Ignition switch panel - SafeRacer I think would be awesome as a switch.