Or... "Make Do With What You've Got."
So... Over the past weeks I had a hairbrained scheme to turn my red '97 Grand Am into a wanna-be Batmobile.
Yes. I'm crazy.
The plan would start with purchasing a "Vader" bodykit similar to this:
[img]http://www.mimousafiles.com/prods/ED-110950_b.jpg[/img]
Step two would be to have the car repainted black, and then adding red trim lines.
The rest would be adding do-dads that would make the car recognizable as the Batmobile (such as hubcaps with red Batsymbols like the '66 TV car). Interior would be last.
Well.........
A little problem called "money" got in the way.
Bodykits run about $800 US (not including the cost of shipping and installation). The hood would have to be purchased separately ($300). Shipping prices were in the $400 range for each item.
Paint was another story- anywhere from $1000 to $2000 dollars.
So... that killed that idea.
But, I would not be beaten yet! I threw around the idea of repainting the car myself. I even went as far as buying some black car paint and sandpaper. I'm mean, how hard could it be? I've painted dozens of models- this is just bigger.
My wife talked me out of it before I could do any damage.
So on to the next plan! I would keep the factory paint job and simply add things myself on a budget.
Ultimate the end result would be a budget version of a WS6 Firebird.
[img]http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y282/ssgtburton/Pimp%20My%20Ride/WS6Firebird.jpg[/img]
And today I brought my car one step closer!
I bought a set of fiberglass hood scoops to simulate the ram-air hood. Painting them was a choir- clean, sand with 600 grit paper, two coats of primer, three coats of colour, and finally three coats of clear coat (I'm kicking myself for not taking pictures of the process).
Positioning them on the hood was a tedious process. I'm usually pretty good at eyeballing something to see if it is symmetrical, so I didn't bother taping the centerline of the hood. After several little nudges, I was satisfied with the placement, and taped off the outline.
Then it was just removing the protective backing from the 3M tape and squeezing them back onto the hood!
So what was once this...
[img]http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y282/ssgtburton/Pimp%20My%20Ride/PMR001.jpg[/img]
Drumroll please!
Now looks like this!
[img]http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y282/ssgtburton/Pimp%20My%20Ride/PMR002.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y282/ssgtburton/Pimp%20My%20Ride/PMR003.jpg[/img]
Very please with how the colour matched the factory colour perfectly. I was concerned that the 3M tape would not be strong enough and that they could blow off... Well they are on there like cement! They are not going anywhere!
Next on the list is new hubcaps, redone interior, and perhaps a more "Bat-like" spoiler.
Kevin
[img]http://groups.msn.com/_Secure/0TgDnAloXyJBkYBZV7s*Kj9!1Bc8b0FJ!WEmX8BpHJk8yRyABH697OsLy1Bm1knQrHcDDdHqDnRAmyoDB6vy6w!ASmCM57J8W6cyCxY8Y84TWwwCw7UVNAA/Burton%20004.JPG[/img]
[img]http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y282/ssgtburton/ssgtburton_banner301.jpg[/img]
"I know I'm human. And if you were all these things, then you'd just attack me right now, so some of you are still human. This thing doesn't want to show itself, it wants to hide inside an imitation. If it takes us over, then it has no more enemies, nobody left to kill it. And then it's won."
at: 5/18/07 12:04 pm
