Another Mopar Off My Bucket List - Barracuda Fastback

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Abodybomber said:
There's something about a personal touch ,that wraps don't have (to me,anyway) . The human concept of art, seems too generic without a personal passionate touch. Just my thoughts...
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Ya Abodybomber. - I totally agree. I wish I had the equipment to print and make my own wraps. I think it must be possible to do work on vinyl that re-creates a more classic style. I think that the layout is the most critical aspect. Most of the new stuff is extremely busy looking and difficult to read on a moving vehicle. It's like a collage of pictures are being used for backgrounds.

Back in the day there were plenty of wild paint schemes but there was a tendency to work lettering into or around them so that they were more attractive and easier to read.
 
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Last night as I was working I noticed the strong stench of rodent urine. It's been pretty quiet in the garage. Other than the sounds from the computer and myself I haven't heard any rustling. I was fairly certain that Gophzilla had either gone into hibernation or decided to move to a warmer climate. Now I'm not so sure....

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Most of the folks on FABO are not racers but I know there's a few. - And I'm sure that some of the racers are on tight budgets. If you decide to try your hand at lettering your car you have several choices.

Laying things out so that they are attractive and easy to read is important if you want a professional appearance. Do some doodling on paper and experiment with varying sizes for your graphics.

The easiest is to take it to someone else that makes a living out of sign painting or a vinyl shop that can custom cut what you want. Years ago it was fairly inexpensive but a lot of shops charge big bucks today. It's not unusual to hear people paying $500 to $1000 for artwork.

One other option is to search online for pre-made vinyl pieces that you can use. Your choices are more limited and if you want a lot you will probably still spend a few hundred bucks.

If you've got artistic skills you can use paint. One Shot enamel is usually the paint of choice by most professional sign painters. - It can get expensive if you need several colors and have to purchase a can of each.

If you've decided to attempt the work yourself but feel you lack artistic skills don't despair. It's still possible to turn out work that doesn't totally suck.

I use my computer to help make templates for lettering that I make. I don't have any fancy programs. You'll need a connection to the internet and be familiar with doing Google searches. There are a ton of images that you can find online with Google. When you find an image you want to mimic, - save a copy of it on your computer.

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Once you've saved an image you can open up the image with the paint program that came with your computer. You can stretch the dimensions to whatever size you want. I use a cheap flat screen TV for my monitor in my garage. It is a 40" but I got it for a couple hundred bucks a few years ago when it was on sale at Walmart. The large screen allows me to easily manipulate images up to 36" wide and 20" tall.

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Once you've captured an image and modified it to be the size/shape you need, then it's time to grab some tracing paper and masking tape. Put the tracing paper over your image and tape it to your monitor so that it won't move around. I flipped my image around with the paint program because I plan on making a template that will be transferred to a roll of vinyl.

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The next step is to trace the image with a pencil. Make sure you don't press too hard so that you don't damage your screen. After removing the tracing paper you have your template. Place it over the area that you want the image to be so that you can see if you're satisfied with the way it looks. You may decide to modify it until you're happy with the results.
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The next step is to transfer your template onto the next surface. If you're going to paint the image on your car you may be best off covering that area with masking tape. Then tape sheets of carbon paper over that tape. After that you will need to position your template and use a pen or pencil to transfer the design. You can then use a razor blade to cut out the areas that you want to paint.

I transferred a reverse image onto the back of adhesive vinyl instead and cut it out with a pair of scissors and a utility knife.

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Often you will want to pinstripe around vinyl to give it a finished look. I will not be applying this metalflake vinyl decal that I made yet. I will try to lay out some stripes and Duster caricatures first. Once I get to the point that I like 'the look' I'll fully commit to applying things.

As I stated earlier there are a lot of pre-made decals available from vendors. I decided to order a pair of the Duster caricature decals from someone on eBay. My plan is to put them on the sides of the helmet. Each decal is supposed to measure 6"wide by 4&1/4 tall.
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I'd like to use lace in the stripes. While I'm waiting for the decals to arrive I'll try laying out a tape design for those stripes.



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Thanks needsaresto.

One thing that I should have mentioned is that it's possible to make templates that are larger than your screen. All you have to do is make them in sections and piece them together. When I made the CROP DUSTER logo for the sides of my Duster I made the template out of 3 sections.

There are other means that you can use as well. I've got an overhead projector that I've used in the past when I painted billboards. The neat thing about using a projector is that you can aim your designs right onto the surface you want to paint. By moving the projector closer and farther away you can change the size. You'll still need to create a template first on clear overlays. Those can be made in a similar fashion as I described earlier.

A third method is to use an opaque projector. They are capable of enlarging and projecting small images directly from any picture you have. The original images usually have to be pretty small though.

A few of the difficulties that you will encounter with projectors are that the projected images are hard to see unless you're in a darkened environment, you have to be careful not to move either the projector or your 'canvas' once you start, and the greater you expand an image - the more 'fuzzy' the image will appear.
 
This reminds me of something my mother in law did for her husband when he was still here,god bless him. He was really into creating and painting lawn and garden ornaments,but many of the patterns were expensive. So she got some basic small patterns off the internet and books. Enlarged them by hand by carefull measurement and some large graph paper. It worked out very well.I couldn't tell when she was done,that she had repopped them by hand.
 
needsaresto said:
This reminds me of something my mother in law did for her husband when he was still here,god bless him. He was really into creating and painting lawn and garden ornaments,but many of the patterns were expensive. So she got some basic small patterns off the internet and books. Enlarged them by hand by carefull measurement and some large graph paper. It worked out very well.I couldn't tell when she was done,that she had repopped them by hand.
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There are folks with a lot of real artistic skill who can create things freehand. When I was younger I had more of an aptitude for art. But for me it was a matter of 'use it or lose it'. When I tried to get back into artsy stuff I found that I had lost what little talent I might have once had. My eyesight had gotten worse and my hands weren't as steady either.

Rather than practice, practice, practice, I turned to mathematics and other means to produce the end results I wanted. It's more time consuming for me than it is for those with REAL talent, but I get self satisfaction from doing my own work.
 
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I don't know how many of you have ever tried putting stripes over the convex shape of a helmet. It's a b*tch. I managed to mask it but have yet to fit the lace over the exposed surfaces.

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I didn't want to continue the stripes any lower. I'd measured out the approximate size of the coming Duster decals and needed to leave space for them. The Roadrunner has become a temporary (I hope) table.


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For the past 2 months I hadn't been able to reach the guy that I normally go to for parts. He's got a stockpile of about 400 Mopar parts cars so he's the local 'go-to' guy around here. Today I finally got him on the phone. He's been working away from home and won't be able to get me those window top stop brackets for another few weeks. I do have a few other buddies with parts cars so I will have to see if I can get them from someone else sooner.
 
As hard as it was to mask this bowling ball shape, trying to cover it with lace was even more difficult. There are probably some forms of lace that stretch more than the stuff I was using. If I ever attempt to do a lace pattern again I'll test the fabric first.

It didn't want to conform to the shape of the helmet. That meant that I had to cut wedged slices out of it in order to come close to covering without wrinkles. The stripe design that I chose allowed me to hide the slices quite a bit.

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In an attempt to keep this low buck I used a can of aerosol gold paint. It makes me uneasy spraying something such as this helmet. It started out with a perfect glossy black finish and I hope I don't end up with something terribly botched.

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So far, so good. No major disasters yet. I managed to get a fairly even coating of the gold over the lace. - No major smudges or any other snafus.

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Time to break out the airbrush. I fogged some oil rubbed bronze over all the edges hoping that it will give a 3D effect after I apply pinstriping.

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I'll be pulling the rest of the masking off after I give it a few more minutes to dry.




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The rest of the masking tape came off without any trouble. I find it interesting to see these projects evolve. Sometimes the finish product is exactly what you'd envisioned. More often the schemes in your head are vague and you're not sure what you'll have when you're done.

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If my hands were steadier I'd pinstripe with paint. The tape is easy but I never like the results as much.

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I think the helmet still looks dull and lacks the 'pop' that I want to see when it's done. The lettering and Duster caricature should help a lot.

I haven't made the CROP lettering yet. Once I've got it cut from the gold reflective vinyl I'll apply the logo to the visor. It'll probably take another week before those Duster caricature decals arrive.


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:-DVery COOL! Heres some help for that tricky masking tape job. Whenever you need to go around a corner or a curve,use 3M's fineline tape. It's available in various widths, like 3/8 and 1/4 inch. This allows for the shape you desire,and just fill in the gaps with fat tape.

Old bodyshop guys secret. ;)
 
needsaresto said:
:-DVery COOL! Heres some help for that tricky masking tape job. Whenever you need to go around a corner or a curve,use 3M's fineline tape. It's available in various widths, like 3/8 and 1/4 inch. This allows for the shape you desire,and just fill in the gaps with fat tape.
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needsaresto said:

Old bodyshop guys secret. ;)
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Yup. I had a few rolls of fineline tape here but I didn't find them in this cluttered shop until I went to grab some of the decals out of the toolbox.:banghead:
 
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I checked the updated tracking on those Duster decals that I ordered. It looks like they'll show up today or tomorrow. Originally they were estimated to be here next Wednesday. I'm surprised because they're being sent through USPS from Georgia and the postal service is usually pretty slow.
 
WHOO HOO! The mail man dropped off the latest issue of Mopar Collector Guide and the Duster decals today.

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I may have made the biggest snafu when I ordered those decals. They were the exact size that I wanted but they were intended for use on windows. I'd forgotten but the clear vinyl that's used for windows does not stretch as much as other vinyl.

When I tried to install them they wrinkled badly and I wasn't able to get them to conform to the rounded surface of the helmet. I used soapy water so that I could slide them around and fought trying to get them to lay flat. I even soaked them in hot water for awhile. Eventually I gave up and cut several slits into them.

I think they finish the helmet off nicely but I'm wondering if I should replace them already.

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I'm up early today. There's a swap meet about 25 miles away and one of my friends said he'd pick me up on his way. I don't expect to find anything. It's a racers swap meet but mainly circle track guys are there. - Not to mention that they're mainly Chebby boys. There's always that off chance that someone could bring Mopar parts though.
 
The swap meet was a bust. (at least it was for non-Chevy folk) I wasn't surprised. 99.9% of racing around here is dirt track and the vast majority of the cars that run are Chevys. - I'm not complaining. It's what I expected. Why should I expect to find Mopar parts there? It's like hoping to pick up a hooker at church. It could happen -but unlikely.

I did score some small tools from one of the tool vendors that frequent these swap meets. - I never like to leave empty handed. - And the owner of Thunder Valley Dragways (in Marion, S.D.) was giving out race schedules/posters so I have something for my billfold and wall. I wouldn't mind taking one of the cars up there this year.
 
Helmet looks great John! Should coordinate well with the Duster. Now lets get going on one for the Barracuda!
 
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I pulled the light switch off of our '68 Charger cluster and tried plugged it into the Roadrunner. Even though I'm going to tear into the dash wiring on the Roadrunner I thought I'd perform a quick test to see if the problem was with the original switch.

The 2 switches are different but similar enough. The Charger switch has the additional arm on it that actuates the vacuum for the hideaway headlights.

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The switch swap made no difference. I knew it was a long shot but I thought I'd check before I tore things apart.




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