Happy Monday color fanatics! We’re headed back into the woods with part three of our Fairy Tale auto project: Rover to Woody. Our last episode left us in a bit of a held breath moment as the Preval team toiled away on sanding, prepping and priming the once golden rover for the start of its fresh breath of life. The paint had come off and now it was the time for the gloss to go on.
As each pass went across the Rover, the team cheered. The wet gloss showed the mark of excellent craftsmanship. Black streams of glorious color made the car (and the team) brim over with shine. The trademarked Preval stripe in red would be next. The whole truck was drenched in clear. It had a “deep mile” look. It was.. not quite ready to go to the woods just yet.
While many companies might have taken the easy route with a digital print or an airbrushed wood grain, we laughed at even the thought of giving it anything less than amazing. The Preval team would pull out all the stops, making this Rover truly one for a fairy tale trip into the woods.
The “wood” for the woody would be Thom’s next mission. To accomplish it, Thom would brew a spooky cauldron of magic with his use of a two-part epoxy resin and thickened milled fiber to pull this off. These would then be applied to the sides, cowl, and tailgate. He would even give the interior some love.
Each part of the epoxy process is unique. When the carving is done, and the resin is dried, the hand-sculpted panels are officially a permanent fixture on the vehicle. The grain itself was carved into the epoxy with different sculpting tools and knives- each would give their own doses of magic to layers of depth to truly convey the grain and knots of natural wood.
Each element of the woody would then also need its own special paint touches. Thom used a combination of our Preval products to add layer and depth to the mold. The Preval Sprayers and the vFan Airbursh Systems were used in conjunction with an extra special player not yet available for sale to… until November 4th at the upcoming SEMA conference. With these tools, Thom was.. nearly lighter than air as he harnessed the power of the newest player, the vFan Gravity airbrush spray system.
Now that the casing of our chariot is ready, we’re heading inside for the finishing touches. We look forward to showing off more of our work in the next edition of our Fairy Tale exposition into the woods later this week. Until then, we highly encourage you to follow us all around the web. We tend to have quite a few adventures all over the social spectrum. Come play and come show us how you play with our products. We’re listening and waiting to high five… perhaps at SEMA where we will be in booth #11139 showing off the finished woody and the awesome out of this world products both new and old, in the line that helped make it all possible.
Bonus round: Stay tuned for an extra special DIY as we tell you a bit more about how you too can be insane and transform your own vehicle into a woody!