I haven't completely stopped working on the car but I have been certainly out of the groove. Ward says the compressor I thought was ready to blow sounds okay to him and I've got the green light to continue using it. One of the things I have been working on from time to time is a bespoke pistol grip shifter:







Its turned out to be a bit more difficult to make a shifter custom fitted to my hand than I thought it would be. I started out trying to stuff shortstrand fiberglass into a condom thinking I'd hold it in a pistol grip shifter shape and voila, almost done custom pistol grip shifter. It turned out to be a lot more difficult than I thought to get a bunch of fiberglass fill in a condom and then quickly tie a knot on the end without breaking the condom. On my third try I ended up with this:





The next try I got the prototype I am now working on. It felt too skinny in the hand for my taste so I started adding bits of fresh short strand fiberglass and then wrapping the prototype in saharan wrap and holding it until hard. Sand the ripples out of it and repeat. Eventually I got a prototype that was pretty fat in my hand (my husband said the same thing for him). So, I just started sanding the areas that pressed most firmly against my hand and worked my way around the prototype sanding bit by bit until I felt smooth even pressure in my hand all the way around. I made special note of where my finger joints were and sanded them to fit while making sure not to leave ridges that appeared like where a finger joint was placed but were in fact a ripple from a skin fold on my fingers.

Its a pretty good fit now, its just the little finger where the prototype is a little fat yet and I have to sand it a bit smaller there. Eventually I'll create a mold from this and cast a fiberglass pistol grip "casting" around a custom made steel stick shift I'll also have to design and build.

 

It am finding just how much time and effort these little custom touches take, as I am working on my interior now. . That doesn’t even begin to account for the time all the BIG custom touches take! Keep it us, Priya - you’re in good company.

 

Excellent job so far Priya! My boys would be proud of you.... they`ve been making their own Star Wars cos-play helmets, weapons, and acessories for years in much the same way, by shaping bondo, foam, and plaster. When you get the rough shape done, and start sanding the final scratches out with a fine grit... THEN you`ll be amazed at what you`ve created! I`d like to see more of this as it progresses!

 

Thanks guys. Then next steps are to add a little more meat where my forefinger is unsupported and sand down the palm side a bit more to better fit my hand and make it easier to get out of a mold.

 

I'd totally buy this car if I had the money and space and it was for sale:

 

I wonder if theres one really big engine under that hood or 2 normal ones...

 

While I appreciate the work involved I have to ask why? Now if it had an Allison aircraft engine under the hood, why would be answered.

 

I think likely there's some sort of single mundane engine under the hood, this appears to me to have been all about the custom style of the body.


When I looked at the car it seemed likely to me the door/rear of the car is from a 4 door 59 Cadillac, which people like me find a pretty big disappointment in the appearance department compared to a 2 door 59. I strongly suspect someone had a 4 door 59 Cadillac, and like me, wished it were a 2 door and decided to make the 4 door a 2 door. The end result is highly appealing to me, anway, so that's my story on this car and I'm sticking to it

 

I don't think that car exists. At least it's reflection in the window behind it doesn't seem to.

 

It was actually built back in the early 60’s for the owners wife. It’s a rear engine Cadi and the front hood opens to an extremely large trunk designed to hold her cosmetics.

 

It occurred to me as well the day after I posted it that it might be photoshopped but to me the picture looked genuine.

Thanks for filling in those details Please tell us any more if you know it.

I'm surprised to hear the car was built in the early '60s, that would (presumably) still been a pretty valuable car at the time. I thought for sure someone built it in 80s or later from a not valuable four door.

 

That looks a lot like the old Mopar Plum Crazy purple. I had a Fiero in that color way back when.

 

Sorry I was actually being a smart a$$

 

Gotchya

 

It looks darker in the picture than it does in person. Its actually quite a bit lighter shade than the early Mopar Plum Crazy purple. I had a Plum Crazy purple test panel sprayed when I was looking for a colour to paint the Eagle in my avatar. The colour I ended up going with on the Eagle is also a little lighter purple (as well as metallic) compared to Plum Crazy. The purple in that test panel I have been considering for my Corvette is lighter than the one on the Eagle yet and is sort of a silvery purple.

You don't have any pictures of your purple Fiero, do you?

 

Take the panel to a paint shop with a camera, they can get you the formulas for the paint.

I knew my 71 was not factory as it was painted in 76. It is 1974 Porsha Red. The camera gave 3 listings, 2 were metallic and I eliminated them so the third was the color.

 

Here you go for a real " sports car " it's dated but funny

 

Thanks, I may do that. When I saw this light silvery purple on a couple of old cars on TV, I thought "OMG, that's the colour for my 79!" But I took the light silvery purple test panel and set a piece of chrome in front of it and did the same with the hot pink and blue paint test panels and thought more contrast with the chrome looked better. For me, its like I think silver on a rubber bumper car is perhaps the best factory colour and looks awesome, whereas silver on a chrome bumper car and the chrome doesn't particularly stand out (at least in pictures, I've not seen a silver chrome bumper car in person). So, before I found the silvery/light purple paint test panel I was convinced that was the colour I was going to paint the 79. Since I found it and compared chrome to the paint test panels I'm much less sure I want to paint the car that colour.

 

My husband is a huge Red Green fan, he'll love this

 

Some time back a couple of you asked for a picture of me with the car, so here it is:





That's my victory picture, I finally got that passenger bumper to where I wanted it! On most of the mounting surfaces you can't slide a piece of paper between the fiberglass body and the bumper or the bumper bracket (at the end there I settled for a bit less than perfection on a couple of the bumper and bracket mounting surfaces on the body. So, about a year from the time I decided I just wanted to add a mm of thickness to the passenger side rear corner bumper mounting surface. I want to go into some detail describing what kind of journey I went on so will be posting a large number of pictures and descriptions which I'm aiming at the first time fiberglass autobody person. My sweety wanted his garage for the winter, so I've got the Eagle back on the road and the Corvette put away for the winter