Workshop Tour

As of late January, 2014, here's what my workshop looks like:

I set up a welding station by the main door so that some work could be done on the shell supports for the MattMobile.

This table is the exclusive domain of Bo The Welder, my friend and cohort who has been invaluable on many of my projects.

A 2 ton engine hoist, just in case. I actually used this recently to lift the mill onto my workbench.

I build this workbench a few months, and it has since been taken over by my girlfriend, who also happens to be a super talented fabricator and costumer.

You can tell it belongs to a girl because the molds are pink.

Nothing ties a room together like a TARDIS replica.

A pretty good master shot of the workshop, from the back wall looking forward. You can see the Dexter kill room that was the brainchild of my friend Ewan. We set this up to use as a spray booth for his TARDIS build. Works like a frickin' charm.

These are most of my small hand tools and stuff that I use to build smaller things.

This is kind of my wall of supplies. In the boxes are materials, tools, paint... stuff that is used in the creation of all kinds of stuff. A bunch of the boxes on the right hand side are filled with R2 parts and paints.

This is my primary work bench. This is where most of the action takes place, when I'm not working on the car.

The current state of Ewan's TARDIS build.

Another workstation near the front door where I keep my drill press, belt sander, vacuum pump, and some misc supplies.

My lathe is still there too. I need to figure out where that will go.

Lastly, one of the things I love most about the shop... a bathroom!!

New Rise of The MattMobile Episode - Party Time!

I do not think this video needs any introduction:

MattMobile Body Work

There has been a lot of work going on with the shell lately, but because it's not very visually exciting, I haven't been posting many update pics. It's kind of just the same stuff over and over again. But, since a bit of time has gone by, I figured I may as well show where things are now.

This is that main dip/bulge problem spot on the passenger side door area. I've really made a ton of progress, though it's probably hard to tell. I think the next step with this part, as with most of the other stuff, is to hit it with a coat of primer to see where we stand. As it is, there are so many different colors and textures that it's kind of hard to really see where the problems lie.

More work on the drivers side front fender. This part is really coming together, and some wet sanding has made it very smooth. Still some final detail work to do, but the dip on this side has really been smoothed out to my satisfaction.

Here I'm cleaning up one of the seams in the body, which also turns out to be a bulge/dip issue. I may end up relocating that wheel well about a quarter inch forward, as it seems to be a bit wonky.

More progress on the gas cap area. I'm at a point now where I'm doing beauty passes with the putty, meaning I'm just filling in little cracks and pock marks. I think the overall topology of this area has come together nicely.

I've started working on the shallow dip on the front passenger side fender. This is my first layer of putty, and you can see there are some issues with it. But for a first pass, it accomplished a lot.

I don't know how things like this end up in the casting, but here they are. It's like a spider crack or something. There's all kinds of these deep little cracks in the gel coat all over the place. I don't really think sanding them down would be the right answer, as that would mean removal of maybe a 1/16th of an inch of surface. So I've taken to puttying them in, and then sanding out the putty.

Lastly, here's the drivers side intake vent. The area above it had some weird valleys in it, very chunky looking. I've made my first pass with the putty in this area, and it really helped to level things out. That's it for now. I'm very anxious to start building out the cockpit, but I'm still waiting to get my metal order finalized to make that happen. With San Deigo Comic Con looming on the horizon, I fear that not a lot of work will get accomplished over the next week or so.

Small Tail Lights Have Arrived

After a brief wait, these tail lights arrived the other day, and they are great. I got them for about 100 bucks cheaper each than you can find on ebay, which strikes me as a real deal. They do not include any mounting brackets or electronics, but this was expected. Nice to finally have these on hand, as it will allow me to do some body work on the back part of the car.

New MattMobile Episode Is Up!!! #6!

Here's the latest episode.