You’ll have seen in the post below that I said I was going to ask grafitti artists to paint some cars. Well, D*Face has only just gone and agreed. Honestly, I can’t contain my excitement about the whole thing.
I mean I found his site via the Wooster Collective and I didn’t recognise the name. The moment I got there I knew I’d seen his work before. Whether it was in Bristol or London, who knows, but that cheery little face was familiar. So all excited I pinged him a mail. Now, he’s agreed to help
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Senor D*Face’s famous flying head
And not only did he agree to help, D*Face replied with a lovely email and loads of good questions. Signing off with :
“Sorry to reply with loads of questions, but I think what your doing is amazing, I’d like to add to the whole event. I’ll happily take care of the artist side and organise things for that. It’ll be my pleasure.”
Argh! It’s enough to break my heart when folks are that kind out of the blue. My lip starts to quiver whenever Roger Federer cries after he wins Wimbledon – imagine what random charity does to me. D*Face, I’d like to say thanks three thousand times and that still wouldn’t be enough. I loved your mail, we’ll do you proud
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Me when I read the mail
So now we’ve got a load of grafitti artists willing to make the cars look out of this world beautiful. The man even said he could organise 30 painters.
“But we don’t yet have 30 cars” I hear you say.
And to that I reply: “Not yet we don’t”.
It will be the coolest paint job in the world
ps. coming soon : a post that tells everyone where we are with the parties (one in London one in Barcelona), attendance and more travel details. Keep the faith folks.
How cool! I posted a comment at Make, a very cool site where people talk about crazy shit you can put together - like how to make a rocket from matches, the end of a sparkler and tinfoil. As well as lawn mower shopping trolley mod : The Shopper Chopper.
There I asked for help on how to, amongst other things, create papier mache labia for the Grrrrowlers, the Robertson and Ballantine car (full thread here). And answers came there some. One from Mr. Jalopy himself, the writer of the legendary Hooptyrides blog, which is full of amazing shit about hot rodding cars. This was his advice:
‘I think waterproof papiar maiche is a dichotomy. Consider instead shaping foam and coating with goo. go to plastics suppliers and ask them about the correct goo to use. high density foam is ‘carvable’ and that is what most movie effects are made of.
As far as metal, consider pop rivets. I think issue 4 of Make had my piece on cheap and easy sheet metal fabrication. Also, self tapping screws are quite effective and fast if not as elegant looking. Go to a store that sells air conditioning and heating ducting and you will be rewarded with all manner of tubes and ducts to rivet together. Plus they will sell pop rivets in great supply.
And, of course, check the many art car sites. They will have good advice as to keeping these geegaws from flying off the car.’
Next stop art car sites and air conditioning shops. By the way, check out his site because your ipod case will never be this cool (or this cool), you’ll never drive a 1960s Mercedes, or own a Chevelle station wagon with a faux wood finish.
Mr. J, thanks for your help and for this line on your blog : “That fits clearly into my favorite category of problems – the Department of Somebody Else’s Problem.”.
Can we borrow your cars for a few days? We’ll be careful
We need this man to come. His car is awesome:
“He wanted something unique for his 2000 VW Beetle. So he mounted a $270,000, 26,000-rpm, 1,350-horsepower, Navy-surplus helicopter jet turbine in the trunk…when he needs a boost, he just switches on an afterburner (which shoots an 8-foot-long flame out the back).”
Don’t let the fact that he is a Stanford Phd and car computer designer who spent four years making this thing safe to drive, put you off.
You too can build a ridiculous turbo-charged car.
Ideally you’ll be a photogenic group of friends in a tough spot. Maybe one of you has drive to quickly to get a girl? Maybe one of you is a girl that has to drive quickly to get the respect you deserve (whilst dressing up as a man and falling in love with your arrogant rival)?
Find a crap car, a mad engineer, liberally apply a montage and music. Hey presto, something like this bad boy, I’m sure.
