P-40 Cruiser - NEW faux gun barrel concept

[Gdcast]

...and one resin smelly boat
Even the fish are mad at you I bet!
Great tank, my congrats!

[MatthewRobertHenry]

Nice job on the tank. Living on a boat would be fun but very challenging with new baby. You must have a wonderful wife.

Thanks. Yep, my wife is awesome! We love adventure and we love our life so bringing the baby into that hasn't been as hard as you might imagine. It's actually a really great community where you hang out on your decks and walk to your car and get to know everyone. For the most part "everyone" consists of retirees or empty nesters so Ryder has like 100 adopted grandparents who help make our life a lot easier

[MatthewRobertHenry]

Alright. After a long drive from Tucson to San Diego in our 2 door convertible with all the stuff the trip and baby generated PLUS the bike and all 3 of us we are back on the boat! I had a really awesome week with family. Both our parents got to spend a ton of time with their first grandson and Ryder got to meet his Great Grandparents (also their first great grandchild). It was super fun but I also managed to squeeze in lots of progress on the bike while I had access to things I don't normally (you know, space, tools, a garage, etc )
I have pics and will diary this below but for a bird's eye view, here's where things stand:
[*]I sanded the heck out of the rims, painted the spokes white and the rims red. They look sort of circus like at the moment but I know that's just when they are by themselves, they'll fit the bike great and the whitewall tires will really calm things down.

[*]I got the tank primed and basecoated and I think it is going to look so cool once it has the shark mouth and such on it (can't wait for that )

[*]After learning from some of the other builds that frames can be stripped a lot easier and more effectively with the help of a whirewheel I stripped about 60% of the bike down to bare aluminum. After seeing the bare aluminum I just totally fell in love with it so I changed the plan to clear-coat the bare aluminum frame rather than paint it white. Not only will this look super rad but I think it seems more fighterplane-ish

[*]I also messed around with props and got something that should work. It's functioning and painted but not on the frame yet since I am not done stripping and clearcoating it. It definitely looks way cool

[*]With the change in tank color I laid the pieces out and decide how I wanted them painted then updated the original drawing. You can see it below. I think it will look better in real life than the drawing. The white paper gives a false impression of tons of white when in reality the bike will be mostly silver with red black and white accents. I think that unlike the drawing, the white tank, chainguard and front fork will really pop


I have already painted the sprocket, chainguard, fork, prop, and the base white of the tank. I probably have an hour or two left to strip the frame, lots of time to mask and paint the tank, and plenty of time to clearcoat but I feel like I've come a long way. I go back to work next Wed so I'm really hoping to get this completed before then and submit it before my leave is up. I'm optomistic at this point

[MatthewRobertHenry]

Lots of progress today. Thought I would show the continued process on the tank.
After that second coat of Resin I sanded the heck out of it to get it super flat. I found out AFTER that you can use a spray bottle to mist the resin with Acetone and it will self level - Next time that should save me some work. Anyway, nothing wrong with some elbow grease: Here they are primed:

Then two coats of Gloss White as the tank base-coat:

At this point I bubble wrapped it, drove it to San Diego. Then today I masked it while I watched the Baby. Christy came home took over Ryder-duty and I got it painted. The whole process took about 4 hours but one side of the tank is now done!
Step 1: freehand pencil out the mouth and eye per my original drawing
Step 2: Mask the white and red parts of the tank. I use Automotive pinstripe tape for the detail because you can curve it as you lay it down. I learned this from doing intricate flame paint jobs but it worked equally well for this. I had 3 random colors of pinstripe tape - white, red, and silver - The white is hard to see in the picture but you can probably get the idea:

Step 3: Use blue painter tape to mask the big parts:

Step 4: Spray the masked tank with the Gloss black

Step 5: Peel off the tape. An exacto knife is handy for grabbing corners of the pinstripe tape to get started then you just have to carefully pull the tape at a low angle, close to the surface of the tank in the direction you are pulling the tape. This helps you keep a nice masked edge rather than a raggedy one:

Step 6: The sprayed black turned out pretty good, just needs the red and a little touch up. Unfortunately it pulled off a small section of the white base but I can touch that up too.

Step 7: Filled in the Red and touched up the black. I don't have any white touch up but it looks pretty sweet IMO. Now it will just need clear and I'm halfway (remember the tank has two sides)

[Pinche]

Very cool build. Is the frame going to be the same color as the rest of the plane? What other parts are going on as far as sprocket, maybe fenders or bars?

[MatthewRobertHenry]

Now that one side of the tank is painted and the majority of the parts are painted I layed it all out to see what it looks like and I am unbelievably STOKED! The hand drawing really did it no justice, it is really coming together. Don't forget to look close to see the prop .

I'm so happy I went with the brushed aluminum on the frame, it really looks cool with the tank on there. This mock up is not complete because it doesn't have the black accents the finished bike will have: ie chainring, pedals, whitewall tires w black tread, handlegrips, headset, and seat. Let me know what you think!

[FOUND OBJECTS]

I agree that the hand drawing did it no justice...
This is HOT! It's gonna be cool

[MatthewRobertHenry]

...and one resin smelly boat
Even the fish are mad at you I bet!
Great tank, my congrats!

Actually no fish were angered in the making of this tank I did the resin coat while visiting my parents in AZ (a long way from the ocean). You're right about the smell though, I learned real quick to do all fiberglass work OUTSIDE!

Hey I tried to find Foose's P-32 but I'm not sure what I'm looking for. Is that a build off bike? Post a link so I can check it out if you get a chance. Thanks!

[FOUND OBJECTS]

...and one resin smelly boat
Even the fish are mad at you I bet!
Great tank, my congrats!

Actually no fish were angered in the making of this tank I did the resin coat while visiting my parents in AZ (a long way from the ocean). You're right about the smell though, I learned real quick to do all fiberglass work OUTSIDE!

Hey I tried to find Foose's P-32 but I'm not sure what I'm looking for. Is that a build off bike? Post a link so I can check it out if you get a chance. Thanks!

Probably this car here:
http://image.streetrodderweb.com/f/9080 ... or_web.jpg
Chip Foose is a car builder (Foose)
Has a line of rims and what not...

[MatthewRobertHenry]

Very cool build. Is the frame going to be the same color as the rest of the plane? What other parts are going on as far as sprocket, maybe fenders or bars?

Thanks! I decided I love the look of the whirewheeled aluminum so I'm gonna finish stripping it and clearcoat it as is. As far as extras there won't be many - just what's pictured plus the original components. This is the mock up with all the painted components. One thing I do plan on tracking down are some of those bullet hole decals. I think sprinkling a few of those around will be pretty cool.

[MatthewRobertHenry]

I agree that the hand drawing did it no justice...
This is HOT! It's gonna be cool

THANKS!!! Glad you like it. I can't wait to get it together and take it for a spin. I'm especially stoked to see the prop in action.

[hewey]

Looking awesome! I too am a fan of the bare aluminium look, and it suites your bike and the theme down to a T, and man the red rims pop so well against it too!

[Gdcast]

I found about the resin smell the hard way too! it´s awful when it mixes with food smell...
Here is another link to Fooses´ P-32
http://www.autoblog.com/2006/10/31/sema ... 2-hot-rod/

Some think he made a mistake building this car, I personally would love to own it.

[MatthewRobertHenry]

I found about the resin smell the hard way too! it´s awful when it mixes with food smell...
Here is another link to Fooses´ P-32
http://www.autoblog.com/2006/10/31/sema ... 2-hot-rod/

Some think he made a mistake building this car, I personally would love to own it.

Thanks, I'm with you on that car it is way sweet and it's hard to imagine any of Foose's rides being a mistake. I would gladly have any of his mistakes .

[MatthewRobertHenry]

So I tripped over my electrical toolbag today and accidentally broke a grill lighter I had in there for heatschrinking electrical connectors (all marine electrical has to be watertight if you want to avoid diagnosing endless connectivity problems). I was about to throw it away when I got inspired . The steel tube looks like it would be just about the right size for a sweet little machine gun barrel on the P-40 bike. Where do you think I should put it, maybe the chain guard Maybe I'll take some aluminum sheeting and drill a grid of holes in it then wrap it around the barrel like heat shielding on a machine gun. I definitely think this needs to find it's way onto the bike