Thanks, George (@chinesegeorge), Spiros (@fiveten), and John (@johnb). Nothing too difficult, so far. The worst problem is figuring out how to take stuff apart. Most parts are held on with screws or simply pop on and off. But a few parts, like the seats, are actually melted on. There are two tabs for each seat which extend through the floor. Instead of gluing them on, it looks like the tabs were melted with something like a soldering iron. So, to get the rear seat off, I had to grind the melted portion of the tab away with a rotary tool.

I am glad to hear that someone else is still having problems with photos. The first two uploaded immediately, then the rest refused to load for an hour. I tried renaming them, using another computer, changing the file type, etc. After an hour of trying, they suddenly all went in perfectly. Interestingly, they went in with the same name and file type as when I started.

More later. Thanks for stopping by everyone. Cheers.

@gblair I’m late to the party…sorry…add my handle so I dont miss anything please 🙂

That is really neat George! Great work so far, really ambitious

Spiros (@fiveten)
John (@johnb)
Carl (@clipper)
George (@chinesegeorge)
Cricket (@bikequeen)

Well...today was supposed to be a grand finish to the SUV, but thanks to some self-inflicted (and some not self-inflicted) wounds, the SUV is still sitting on the launch pad.

The first problem started when I started work on the painted strip on the side. I had cut it into pieces so I could still open the door. The last thing I did yesterday was to apply the strip on the back quarter panel. I left it a little long so that I could wrap it around the body work using some SolvaSet. The first thing I needed to do was open the door so I could massage the end of the strip into place. The end of the strip was laying across the end of the door, and I expected it to slip neatly off the door when I opened it. If I had thought about it, I could have predicted that the decal had probably dried to the door, and I should have carefully pried the end of the rear strip off the door. So, when I opened the door, the end that was stuck to the door pulled the rear strip completely off the SUV. I tried a few ideas to re-apply the decal, now completely dry, to the vehicle. None of that worked. I decided to cut sufficient strip from the decal for the opposite side so that I could fix the problem. This was done without any further problems.

As I was fixing the previous problem, I had the brilliant idea to use the other set of decals on the other side of the SUV. I figured I compare the decals from the 2 different sources and see how they worked. I cut the excess clear film from the side stripe and applied it to the right side of the vehicle. When I applied the decal, I noticed that this second set of decals is printed on white decal, where the first set was printed on clear decal. This made it even more important to cut the extra decal sheet away from the decal. As it turns out, the white of the decal sheet was not the same white as the paint on the car. It is always interesting that there are so many different colors of "white", and how it is very obvious when they don't match. Everything was great until I applied the SolvaSet to the decal. The decal goes over several irregular areas on the vehicle, so a decal solvent is necessary. I decided to use Solvaset in the same way I had on the previous decal on the left side. In a matter of seconds, the decal shriveled into something that ressembled a red raisin. Hmmm...too strong, I guess. Luckily this second set of decals came with two full sets of decals, so I was able to use a brand new second stripe for the right side. This time, I applied MicroSol, which is not as aggressive as SolvaSet. Again, within a matter of seconds, the decals shriveled up into a raisin-like mass that was even more of a mess that the first one.

Well, back to the drawing board. I used the remainder of the decal from set one to apply a limited stripe on the right side. I still need figure out what I will do with the missing rear portion of the stripe on the right side. For now, I figure I will finish the car as it is and then figure what I will do on the right side. That's it, talk to you all soon.

8 attached images. Click to enlarge.

Yeah. ouch. Not going to order another set, @gblair?

I can feel your frustration, George @gblair

Spiros (@fiveten)

John (@johnb)

Carl (@clipper)

George (@chinesegeorge)

Cricket (@bikequeen)

Eric (@eb801)

Hi, everyone. I woke up early, so I applied some Future to the "good" side of my SUV. Everything looks pretty good on the left side. The right side has the stripe and logo only on the front quarter panel and front door. I think I will complete the car with the decals that are on now, do the final photos, and final article. Then I can order one set of the darker color decals and finish the right side when they come in. The decals cost less than $10, including shipping. That way I can clear the SUV off the work bench and move on to the next model, an F-16.

@gblair Sounds like a plan George :). And Carl @clipper EMS vehicles dont have to dodge traffic….traffic moves outs the way for them 🙂 not least they do here 🙂

Hi George (@chinesegeorge), Carl (@clipper), and Cricket (@bikequeen): Thanks for stopping by and commiserating over my star-crossed decals. My F-16 is sitting at the end of my workbench looking all sad and lonely, even though I go and hug the box occasionally. I figure I can "finish" the SUV and start on the F-16 while I am waiting for the replacement decals to show up. I still want to do a brush truck for the Public Service Group, but it will probably come after the F-16. I am trying to figure out how to print some parts for the conversion. Creating my own design for parts and then printing them is still like a little-understood dark art.