Its finally in etch prime! Woohoo

[damienengland]

So its been a while since i updated this, but things have been slow. A little update tonight, i have started looking at paint colours and also, the boot lid now hinges properly. I had a real bitch figuring out how to do it and ended up having to replicate a bonnet hinge concept to get it to work. A couple of pics-

[Big Rob]

Yeah... That's pretty impressive mate.
And the metalflake is great, but tough to get right and REALLY tough to touch-up if damaged. Personally I like the lighter greens like Barbados, but all of the ones there look good.
Picking a colour is the hardest thing to do.....

[higherground]

Fantastic job , you must be getting excited , love the boot !!! Can't wait to see the next instalment

[damienengland]

Yeah... That's pretty impressive mate.
And the metalflake is great, but tough to get right and REALLY tough to touch-up if damaged. Personally I like the lighter greens like Barbados, but all of the ones there look good.
Picking a colour is the hardest thing to do.....

Thanks Big Rob, yes the metal flake has stunned everyone i have shown it to and to be honest it slaps you in the face when you look at it. Its not yet decided, but the metal flake is locked in as one of my top three colours. I told everyone that i would lock in three 'greens' and pick one of them. The next plan is to work up an altered Atomic Green to see if it also gets a guernsey.

Fantastic job , you must be getting excited , love the boot !!! Can't wait to see the next instalment

Thanks higherground, but I can honestly say that the boot has nearly broken me, thank god its basically finished. It started out as a simple concept (sounded good in my head) and escalated into an all consuming idea. If i could have my time again, i would do it totally different. Many lessons learnt along the way, but i guess that's what life is about.

[Robbo]

It's very hard working on a concept such as the boot, but how you have nailed it is inspiring, brilliant work. The up side is you only have to do it once. Deciding on a colour should be good, they all look nice.

[Vombil]

looks like its green, green or green. barbados or lettuce alone like Rob said would get my vote too

Barbados looks awesome with blackouts and is not overwhelming (like white or red etc) given the large volume of surface area on a van

[we wreck xx7s only]

With regards to the professional at work, his name is Dennis and he is a career panel beater, now i his 60's. He travels around in his truck, fully tooled up to do custom or difficult repairs and worked at Holden from the mid 60's to the mid 70's. He was telling me a story about being asked to cut a corner mounted tail light into the HQ sedan body, so the Holden engineers could look at it as a design option. This became the HJ sedan tail light, which i reckon is a cool story.

Cheers

ole dennis ($20bux a tap)Robertson..very good tradesman, his alloy work was mighty fine in the pro street "alloy interior days" of the 80's etc. I'm tippin your car is at roadster panels??

[Vombil]

$20 a tap ay... he won't get a jersey in my shed with a wrap like that ;)

[damienengland]

looks like its green, green or green. barbados or lettuce alone like Rob said would get my vote too

Barbados looks awesome with blackouts and is not overwhelming (like white or red etc) given the large volume of surface area on a van

Yes, green is the choice, its now just a matter of which one. My most favourite panel van, was Jamaican Lime and i have always remembered it fondly, but as this unit isn't a Sandman, I'm tempted to go a bit radical on the paint. The missus reckons the metal fleck sample I got, looks like priscilla queen of the desert!

ole dennis ($20bux a tap)Robertson..very good tradesman, his alloy work was mighty fine in the pro street "alloy interior days" of the 80's etc. I'm tippin your car is at roadster panels??

Yep correct on all fronts, that's good detective work XX7. Panel shop suggested Dennis for the custom bit when i told them how i wanted all the profiles and ribs to look factory. I wish i had known him when he scored the rep of $20 bux a tap....it would have been way cheaper Just kidding, his work is excellent and i can't complain about his hourly rate. In hindsight, to stay cost effective I would do more of the design and prep work before i got Dennis in.

[Innuendo]

So its been a while since i updated this, but things have been slow. A little update tonight, i have started looking at paint colours and also, the boot lid now hinges properly. I had a real bitch figuring out how to do it and ended up having to replicate a bonnet hinge concept to get it to work. A couple of pics-

Hinges are looking good if not a little invasive. Always a compromise.

Colour is something that is personal for sure and generally I'm a fan of greens. But you need to be careful what you use. Modern colours rarely look right on older cars. Also be mindful of what front end panels you are using. I can't remember what nose you are using but if it's WB Stato for instance a lot of greens won't sit right (in my eyes anyway). Good luck with your choice and well done on the progress.