Build Exploration......Part 1
I am the kind of person who likes to do a fair bit of planning up front when I begin something new. When I start organizing for a trip or vacation, I look up maps, I check out where to eat, who to visit, and what there is to see and do in the area.
It is the same when I start out on a design project. I like to create a road map that points me in what is hopefully the most appropriate direction. In this case, it is much easier to explore ideas with pencils and paint, then it is to do it with thousands of dollars of parts and equipment.
There are certain elements of the Punky Manor Tribute Torino that I am pretty set on including in the project. A Big Block Ford engine (390, 427, 428, 429, 460 cubic inch), 180 degree headers (a.k.a. crossover headers), exhaust pipes out the passenger door, a 4-speed transmission, and a Frankland quick change rearend would be nice as well.
But there are certain things that I wanted to explore in more detail. One of them is what the paint job on this race car would look like. I only have a few pictures of Punky's Torino to use as a reference. He didn't really have much for sponsors on his car for the 1974 season, so it made me think of the car he ran the previous year.
For the 1973 racing season Punky built a car for what was then called the Hobby Stock class. He picked a 1963 1/2 Galaxie Fastback or Sports Hardtop. The Fastback roofline was added mid-year to improve looks and make the cars more competitive on the Nascar tracks.
Punky also picked a 1963 model year Ford because in order to enter the end of the year Late Model Feature races, you needed to have a car no more than 10 years old. He won his first trophy that year at the local Mall's Race Car Show for "The Best Looking Car". So I started to think about adding elements from the 1963 Galaxie to the Torino Tribute Car's paint job.
Below are the two cars I am referencing, 1963 Galaxie top, 1973 Torino bottom.
First thing I wanted to figure out was how I was going to do the number. I am guessing that the 57 number was probably hand sketched right on the Torino and then painted in?
I have about 2500 fonts on my computer and I have a few books with vintage hand lettering samples in them, but I could not find anything similar to the style of those specific numbers.
I use a design program from Adobe called Illustrator to create what is called vector art for this type of work. Vector art is basically an outline which can be scaled to most any size and it will retain the line quality. A bitmap image is made up of small dots that look like a jumbled mess when they are enlarged too much.
I located a font that was somewhat similar to the one on the car and made a few modifications to get it looking close. I then created the red outline and made the drop shadow fall in both directions, so the numbers look like they are facing forward on both sides of the car.
There is a sign makers rule that you should not use the color red directly next to the color black. There should always be a space or outline between them to prevent the two colors blending together,especially at night.
In this case, I tried the space between the colors but it seems to look too different from what was originally on the car. I think I am pretty set on the number style that I have put together below.
The only other elements that I can see on the photo of Punky's Torino was the cubic inch on the hood and the flag decal on the fender. The engine size 427 c.i. is painted on the hood but those engines are hard to find, so I will figure out what to paint there once I find the engine I am going to use.
I did a search on the internet and was able to locate and purchase a set of the flag decals that look very close to the one on the front fender of the original Torino.
For the 1973 racing season Punky built a car for what was then called the Hobby Stock class. He picked a 1963 1/2 Galaxie Fastback or Sports Hardtop. The Fastback roofline was added mid-year to improve looks and make the cars more competitive on the Nascar tracks.
Punky also picked a 1963 model year Ford because in order to enter the end of the year Late Model Feature races, you needed to have a car no more than 10 years old. He won his first trophy that year at the local Mall's Race Car Show for "The Best Looking Car". So I started to think about adding elements from the 1963 Galaxie to the Torino Tribute Car's paint job.
Below are the two cars I am referencing, 1963 Galaxie top, 1973 Torino bottom.
First thing I wanted to figure out was how I was going to do the number. I am guessing that the 57 number was probably hand sketched right on the Torino and then painted in?
I have about 2500 fonts on my computer and I have a few books with vintage hand lettering samples in them, but I could not find anything similar to the style of those specific numbers.
I use a design program from Adobe called Illustrator to create what is called vector art for this type of work. Vector art is basically an outline which can be scaled to most any size and it will retain the line quality. A bitmap image is made up of small dots that look like a jumbled mess when they are enlarged too much.
I located a font that was somewhat similar to the one on the car and made a few modifications to get it looking close. I then created the red outline and made the drop shadow fall in both directions, so the numbers look like they are facing forward on both sides of the car.
There is a sign makers rule that you should not use the color red directly next to the color black. There should always be a space or outline between them to prevent the two colors blending together,especially at night.
In this case, I tried the space between the colors but it seems to look too different from what was originally on the car. I think I am pretty set on the number style that I have put together below.
The only other elements that I can see on the photo of Punky's Torino was the cubic inch on the hood and the flag decal on the fender. The engine size 427 c.i. is painted on the hood but those engines are hard to find, so I will figure out what to paint there once I find the engine I am going to use.
I did a search on the internet and was able to locate and purchase a set of the flag decals that look very close to the one on the front fender of the original Torino.
Once I had the elements of Punky's original Torino paint job figured out, I started to wonder what it would look like to add the contingency decals and the Schlitz Logo from the 1963 Galaxie's paint job. So I decided it might be a good idea to do some sketches of the car to explore the overall look.
Next up I will cover how I go about doing concept sketches or renderings...take care
No comments:
Post a Comment