The Renaissance Man
__CERTIFIED DIVER__ (Open Water & Open Dumpster)
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In it's simplest terms, Abner was assembled around a tank that didn't exist three months ago.
The TRM Speedline series of fiberglass parts lacked the third Shelby tank from the 1930s (affectionately known as a No-Nose tank among collectors). While the Airflow tanks and Arrow (aka snub-nose) tanks are more popular among collectors, the No-Nose tank is considered the rarest of the three. For the past several years I have wanted to add the No-Nose to our Speedline series and made the decision to make that happen for 2023. The timing of this years build off lined up perfectly to build Abner as a demo for the new product and provided the extra pressure to finish it more quickly! A large portion of Abner's build journal is focused on the process of producing the molds and ultimately the first tank from the molds to be completed.
Here are some of the process pictures highlighting the work on creating the molds and the first tanks
Making the molds.
Completed molds, ready to make parts.
The TRM Speedline series of fiberglass parts lacked the third Shelby tank from the 1930s (affectionately known as a No-Nose tank among collectors). While the Airflow tanks and Arrow (aka snub-nose) tanks are more popular among collectors, the No-Nose tank is considered the rarest of the three. For the past several years I have wanted to add the No-Nose to our Speedline series and made the decision to make that happen for 2023. The timing of this years build off lined up perfectly to build Abner as a demo for the new product and provided the extra pressure to finish it more quickly! A large portion of Abner's build journal is focused on the process of producing the molds and ultimately the first tank from the molds to be completed.
Here are some of the process pictures highlighting the work on creating the molds and the first tanks
Making the molds.
Completed molds, ready to make parts.
Internal brackets and spring clips made.
The final chapter in Abner's story was bringing the freshly minted tank, one of our TRM Speedline Chainguards and the original Shelby frame & fenders together in a unified way to create this 1936 Shelby restomod!
The colors where matched in Nason single stage acrylic enamel paint.
Some blue paint was also applied to parts of the fenders and then everything was made to look aged to match the rest of the old paint finishes.
From the start there were many smaller less glamourous tasks performed on Abner that kept me busy in between trips to the fiberglass shop. Here are just a few.
Thanks to everyone for following along and offering ideas and support, the build journal can be found HERE.
This was the basic starting point.
The colors where matched in Nason single stage acrylic enamel paint.
Some blue paint was also applied to parts of the fenders and then everything was made to look aged to match the rest of the old paint finishes.
From the start there were many smaller less glamourous tasks performed on Abner that kept me busy in between trips to the fiberglass shop. Here are just a few.
Thanks to everyone for following along and offering ideas and support, the build journal can be found HERE.
This was the basic starting point.
