Red 5's C3 Facelift

[Red 5]

Wow, have I ever been busy.

The big news, I suppose, is that the raw aluminum R2 dome I've had since 1999 is finally getting finished. So far, I've measured, measured (ha), cut, filed, sanded, polished, polished, polished, POLISHED, and masked off. Tomorrow, I powder coat. ;D

Powder coating sounds like tons o' fun - it involves shooting an electric cloud of dust (polyseter dust, in my case) at something metal which completes the electrical circuit and bonds metal to dust in the process. Fun! I'll let everybody know how that turns out...

Also, if I end up having time (and good enough weather), I've been visually experimenting with large-scale kit-bashing, and I'm ready to put it into action. The idea is not quite like anything I've seen yet, so it should be fun to see. Unfortunatly, I might go right down to the wire on this, so there may be no pictures until C3 opens. Maybe it'll just be a surprise.

[Red 5]

Today's update: Pictures!

This was yesterday:
www.katiehorn.com/StarWars/XwingCar/R2/Buffing_0405.jpg

...and this is today.
www.katiehorn.com/StarWars/XwingCar/R2/PowderCoated0406.jpg

Powder coating is indeed every bit as entertaining as it sounds. In the picture above, the whole thing has been done in blue and clear; No more bare metal at all. The matte finish clear coat is AWESOME. Still looks like bare aluminum, but you can't leave an obvious fingerprint with a normal finger. I highly reccomend the process to anybody who wants to keep shiny metal looking nice where people can touch it.

Maybe more pictures tomorrow, after the detail parts go on. Yay!

[mirax80]

That is too cool! Sadly my trunk is not long enough (because of the spoiler) to put a full sized R2 dome on it. But I am looking into a mini one.

Right now, that's a future undertaking sadly.

[xwing25]

right now my truck is sporting a dome from the pepsi mini cooler on it with a full size planned for the future, this on is smaller and may fit for your needs

[Red 5]

WooHoo! I can relax a bit now.

www.katiehorn.com/StarWars/XWingCar/R2/Done1_0411.jpg

And just so you can see the intensity of the LEDs (got washed out in the flash a bit):
www.katiehorn.com/StarWars/XWingCar/R2/HelpMe1_0411.jpg

[Halcyonate]

Any new photos since C3? I loved what you did with the roof, but didn't take any pictures of my own...

Also, I'm thinking of pulling my carpet. Have you had any issues/downsides since doing so? Comfort/heat? Road noise?

[Red 5]

halcyonate said:

Any new photos since C3? I loved what you did with the roof, but didn't take any pictures of my own...

Thanks! And, unfortunatly... no new pictures really yet. I do have a few informal shots, though. I think my problem is I keep waiting to take the pictures until I achieve some state of doneness which I know will never come. Ah well, I've got some temps I can post until I decide to get serious. If I can find the links...

halcyonate said:

Also, I'm thinking of pulling my carpet. Have you had any issues/downsides since doing so? Comfort/heat? Road noise?

Oh my, yes. Pulling the carpet made the car louder, but as it was pretty loud to begin with I didn't notice that so much as I thought I would.

It was pulling the headliner that made it much louder than I expected, and turned the thing into a rolling oven.

However, if I had it to do over, I'd do it again. However^2, I've admittedly got a strange set of priorities, and I'm not sure I'd reccomend it to anybody else, unless your carpet is probably a lost cause anyway.

[Red 5]

Yay, Pictures! The linked ones are probably big.

[ti3853]

I love the picture of Devil's Tower. We should all take pics of where we've been in our vehicles. Notice I didn't say cars.

[Red 5]

Ooo, that would be fun to have a "Road Squadron Throughout the Galaxy" section somewhere on the site, just to let people visually know we're pretty much everywhere by now.

[TK-0384]

dude, i love the bits on the roof!!

Very nice.