10th of a GTM

[sk7500]

Photo shopped pictures of your dream GTM is cool. But not as cool as touching it or looking at it on the coffee table during commercials.

This is for when I try to figure out body mods or paint schemes on # 71

The red one has been modified to match our #269

My goal is to one day have the most GTMs under one roof. Unfortunatly that means they can only be about 14" long.

[David Hodgkins]

Wow!

You gotta sell those.

[Kalstar]

I want one!!!

[timmy318]

I wish that they had that for the 818. Those would sell like crazy!!!!

[sk7500]

I want one!!!

You got one as soon as I build another mold. The first one didn't turn out so great.
Steve

[The Stig]

You got one as soon as I build another mold. The first one didn't turn out so great.
Steve

I'll get in that line also!

[carbon fiber]

i'm in if you sell 'em.

[Fraser D]

i'm in if you sell 'em.

Add me to the list of purchasers as well please

[flotowngtm]

O yea my 6yr old son would have a freaking fit!!! I will take one also, maby 2.
All he does is play with cars. First day he found a Ford GT in his collection "daddy daddy I found your car" LOL Love em!

[sk7500]

My original mold was a solid Silicone mold and it weighed about 20 lbs and was too stiff to get the part out clean and there were some chemical incompatibilities. So I have a new strategy that I hope produces a better result. Basically what I'm doing here is covering the model with 1/2 inch of modeling clay and tomorrow I will create a hard cast of this side. Then I'll pull off the center divider and make the second half of the hard mold. Then ????
Stay tuned.

[The Stig]

Apparently there is no end to your talents... That is way too cool!

Mike

[sk7500]

Apparently there is no end to your talents... That is way too cool!

Mike

Thanks Mike. Like I have said before. It has less to do with talent and more to do with not knowing when to quit. I cant wait to see one of these babies in your color blue. If you let me paint one for you I will probably paint one for me to help with my Blue envy.

[The Stig]

Thanks Mike. Like I have said before. It has less to do with talent and more to do with not knowing when to quit. I cant wait to see one of these babies in your color blue. If you let me paint one for you I will probably paint one for me to help with my Blue envy.

You got it Buddy. I'd love to have one.

[LCD Gauges]

Add me to this list as well.

The trouble is, I might spend more time on the model than the real thing.

[sk7500]

Weekends are too short. I was able to fabricate the two mold halves that will support the silicone mold. I hope to be able to cast that tomorrow. then I have to make a foam core mold to cast a foam core or these cars will weigh 10 lbs and be way expensive.

[sk7500]

I was able to get the Silicone poured bubble free. Now I just have to come up with some kind of filler and I can pour the first part. I hope tonight.

[mentatbashar]

Hi,

Great work! I would be interested in a copy as well!

Are the wheels attached in some way so that they spin or are they just glued on?

[sk7500]

Hi,

Great work! I would be interested in a copy as well!

Are the wheels attached in some way so that they spin or are they just glued on?

Thanks for the encouragement. I don't have a finished one done yet, but the plan is for the wheels to spin. The chrome wheels in the pictures are 1/10 scale RC car wheels, so the tires are actually rubber. Unfortunately they are scaled 20 in x 9 front and back. But they still look cool.

[Edgeman]

I would like one too, if you plan to market them.

[GordonFreeman]

Neat-o!

I do vacuum forming for RC car bodies. We machine our molds from billet aluminum (overkill). Couple questions:

1. Why do you make a shell around the pattern to pour the silicone mold? Have you tried "brush on" silicone with thickener? I guess the advantage would be that you have your "support" form done already. Downside, you use more silicone?

2. Is Dave doing licensing? I'd love to do a GTM 1/10 RC car body. I know he has CAD files of it, hint hint.

[sk7500]

First usable part out of the mold. Since blue is my favorite color I'm going to try and make this one look just like the Stigs car. Stay tuned

[sk7500]

GF

I injected the silicone because I have access to that equipment and it was the easiest for me. As for licensing you would have to talk to FFR for that.

[fireman]

Licensing shouldn't be an issue since your body is symmetrical. Count me in for a couple if you turn out extras as well.

[The Stig]

Hi Steve,

I was able to send you some pictures of the car by PM. Let me know if they work for you. I expect to have the car out in the open next weekend, and I'll take more pictures then. Let me know if you need them.

Mike

First usable part out of the mold. Since blue is my favorite color I'm going to try and make this one look just like the Stigs car. Stay tuned

[sk7500]

Hi Steve,

I was able to send you some pictures of the car by PM. Let me know if they work for you. I expect to have the car out in the open next weekend, and I'll take more pictures then. Let me know if you need them.

Mike

Mike,

Got your pictures and I'll be able to use some of them. I wanted to try and use actual pictures to create window masks, but thats turning into more of a challenge than I'm willing to take on right now and something I can send it later when I have more time.
What I need to know is do you want me to paint before I send it or do you have someone local who can do it with your actual car paint? If you want me to do it PM me the paint code.

I have be a little vacation planned with the wife so I'll be out for a week.

[The Stig]

Steve, if you can spray it with a midnight blue (pearl) please go ahead. That would be great!

Thank you !

Mike

[VD2021]

First usable part out of the mold. Since blue is my favorite color I'm going to try and make this one look just like the Stigs car. Stay tuned

These are just too cool, Steve.

Neat-o!

I do vacuum forming for RC car bodies. We machine our molds from billet aluminum (overkill). Couple questions:

1. Why do you make a shell around the pattern to pour the silicone mold? Have you tried "brush on" silicone with thickener? I guess the advantage would be that you have your "support" form done already. Downside, you use more silicone?

2. Is Dave doing licensing? I'd love to do a GTM 1/10 RC car body. I know he has CAD files of it, hint hint.

Gordon,

If you ever do a GTM RC body, I want one or two or three (plan to drive it so I'll need one or two for that purpose).

[The Stig]

Steve sent me a PM to show me the error of my ways... Instead of spraying the 1/10 body with midnight blue pearl, he's going to have some Lexus Indigo Ink (Pearl) mixed, to make it as close to a replica of my car as he can.

So GTM 0081/10 will be a dupe of my GTM. I can't wait to see it when he's done.

I don't know if spoilers, splitters, and rocker extensions are in the plans, but who cares? I am amazed at how accurate these models are. Beautiful work.

Thanks Steve.

Mike

[sk7500]

Mike,
Check your E-Mail and post if you think it's cool.

Steve

[The Stig]

Mike,
Check your E-Mail and post if you think it's cool.

Steve

Are you kidding? These things are WAY cool!









Mike

[sk7500]

Thanks Mike.
Your car turned out awesome and thank you for letting me see the color in person. Very classy pick.
Steve

[Edgeman]

Mike, great looking replica of your car. Steve, that's awesome what you are doing!!!!

[The Stig]

This is so cool. I got home from having lunch with my wife, and found a box outside the garage.

All I can say is Thank You! I always thought that building your own car, and having it turn out pretty close to what you had hoped, was one of the coolest things that a car guy could want.

But having a scale replica of your car made for you, pushes it to a new level of coolness!

Steve, I can't thank you enough. Wow!

Here are a few pictures that I took when I unpacked it. I plan to take a few of it next my GTM; hopefully this weekend.

[sk7500]

Mike,
I'm so glad you like it and that it made it all the way across the nation in one piece. Can't wait to see it next to the real thing. It sure looked cool sitting on my coffee table. I really wanted to keep it. :-)
Thanks for letting me know you received it.

[crash]

These cars are really cool. I bet you could sell just about as many of these as there are real GTMs in this world...maybe more for people that want to visualize BEFORE they actually build. Market would still be relatively small, but I bet you could sell a couple hundred of these...if they were for sale.

[kabacj]

Wow Steve that's awesome.

Mike you are a lucky guy to have two beautiful GTMs

Maybe you will sell me a kit Steve? I'm fine with some assembly required.

John

[VD2021]

Mike and Steve,

WOW! ............................

[David]

Wow Steve, just wow... Your work is crazy impressive!

If you ever decide to sell these, It would be a privilege to own one to remember our black beauty.

David

[sk7500]

Hey guy,
I want to start out by saying how much I really really appreciate all the positive response. I also want everyone to know that interest has not fallen on deaf ears. I've been working on this project non stop for about 2 months, invested more than a couple bucks and it has netted me two cars good enough that I wouldn't be too embarassed to send to my GTM brothers. I have about 10 flawed cars that are just not acceptable to send out. Unfortunately most of those have more than a few hours invested just to find it was a waste of time to try and save them.

My normal work strategy of find all the ways that don't work first, seems to be in no danger of changing anytime soon. Fortunately my resolve of never give up until it yields to my will is also not changing. As long as there is someone else who wants one.

There are all kinds of GTM people. There are sadistic people like me who the harder it is the better they like it because the reward is in the pursuit of perfection. For those people I want to offer just a raw casting. It will require you working down some seams, probably some pin hole filling, priming, sanding, more priming etc. sound familiar? For those people I want it as cheap as possible.

The next option I wanted to offer was for the people who really don't want to do any more bodywork but want to have a car ready to paint so they can try out different color combinations. This is the part that's giving me trouble because unless I can get the castings to come out of the mold with minimum clean up this option could could get expensive.

The third option is for the people who just want to have a GTM replica of their car or one of their favorites to use as inspiration or an awesome trophy for a job well done. Of course this requires the expense of the first two options with the addition to the paint, materials and a painter. It all adds up pretty fast.

Option 4.I can get pretty good results if I just bite the bullet and cast the body and insert a filler that nets a body with a 1/2 wall thickness.image.jpg this would be perfect for someone like Fraser D who has substantial body mods to replicate. The downside to this is expense of the material and the fact that they weigh about 5lbs. Expensive to ship and could cause damage our harm if they were to fall off a table. The ones I rotomold weight less than a lb but the wall thickness does not allow for any body modifications.

Option 5. I could have these vacuum formed like RC cars but some of the detail will be lost and there would be nowhere to mount the wheels unless you had a RC frame with the right wheel spacing.

So after writing this its apparent that I could use some direction. What option would you guys most like and what do you think the price point should be for ea.

Thanks again guys

[LCD Gauges]

I'd want one ready for the trophy shelf, and that can make me breakfast in the morning

The real thing is a good indication of how much work, and time is required, and I personally
would never have the ambition to paint a model (especially with my car sitting at 50% complete)


Having said that, I think you should post up some ballpark costs to help us choose.

P.S. This is so damn cool of you!