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Jul
27
Ever since I saw the first streamliner from the era between the wars, I was in love with the great shapes and details. Coachbilders created stunning works of art back then and the owners took pride in owning these rigs. This International Harvester D-300 has been converted into a tow truck with a custom-built streamline aluminum body by a shop in Sleepy Eye, Minnesota. Apparently the shop was called Ebenhoh Custom Truck Body, according to The Old Motor. Apart from lowering the truck and adding larger diameter wheels with lower profile tires, I didn’t change anything on Tugboat Annie. But if you let your imagination run wild, you might think about a hot rod motor under the cab.
R&R Vacuumcraft made a 1/25 scale resin kit, which unfortunately is out of production. If I can find one somewhere, I will build a scale model of the lowered truck.
Jul
21
It’s been a long time since I last modified a truck with photoshop. Having a Moebius 1/25 scale model kit of the International Lonestar truck, I wondered how it might look without the tall sleeper cab before starting to build the kit. Starting up the graphics software and modifying the roof was easy enough… but once again my mind accelerated on it’s own and not too long after, the 2009 Harley-Davidson Special Edition was lowered, had bigger diameter wheels with low profile tires and many small improvements were done. Imagine a color-matched flatbed trailer behind it. Would be an awesome rig to haul freight with and display it at truck shows, wouldn’t it?
Mar
17
After almost 15 years without a Honda I wanted to try it again and bought a CL3 Accord with the 2.3 VTEC quite cheap from an elderly gentlemen in the Black Forest. So, after many RWD-only winters I drove FWD again. And let me tell you… I was so glad we had only one week of snow in the 2016/17 winter! Front wheel drive is just horrible and takes all the fun out of driving in wintery conditions. Therefore I sold the Accord as soon as the the first flowers blossomed and went back to rear wheel drive cars for good. Never again am I going to buy a winter car that powers the wrong axle.
And even though I didn’t do anything to the real car, apart from replacing the fake wood interior trim pieces with fake carbon from a Type-R model, I went creative with Adobe Photoshop and let my mind wander. What if the Accord had rear or all wheel drive? It could sure enough be a nice ride for any winter, don’t you think?
Modifications could include Rays TE37 wheels (or cheap knock-offs because they would get damaged by the salt anyway), auxiliary driving lights, mudflaps and a roof rack. The reality looked rather bland in comparison, as you can see in the picture below. I didn’t even bother to buy the Streusalz Edition stickers.
The Honda was very reliable and never let me down. And to be honest… I absolutely loved the rear wing with the integrated Gurney flap.
Feb
14
A quick sketch on a napkin during lunch break last week inspired me to transform a full-size Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser into a station wagon surfers would have loved back in the late Sixties. Thanks to deleting the rear doors, the trunk space now reaches all the way forward to the B-pillar, which gives you plenty of room for the gear and a large sleeping area. The side glass has been replaced with metal, allowing for insulation and storage compartments on the inside walls. To ensure the period-correct look and feel I added fake wood to the sides, which is sourrounded by chrome trim. This also helps to stretch the lines of the vehicle. Imagine to lie in there with your favorite beach babe after a long day of surfing, pulling the curtains shut and gazing at the stars through the vista roof.
Check out the original image for comparison.
Feb
05
After the recent modification of a Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham I went looking for more GM B-platform cars that could be modified. I found a picture of a Buick Roadmaster Estate Wagon and immediately started to modify it. What I came up with is essentially similar to a Chevrolet Nomad: a two-door wagon. Because it looked rather odd with windows, I decided to take the conversion even further by modifying it into a panel van, lowering the car and giving it a wider track. Thanks to the body-on-frame design this shouldn’t be too hard to create in reality.
You don’t like it? Please feel free to enjoy the original picture.
Jan
10
Ever since driving an early Porsche 928 at the age of 21 I loved these futuristic but timeless grand tourers. The only thing that always bothered me design-wise was the shape of the fenders. On the later models they are wider, but still have a weird shape that make the car look strange when lowered. No worries though, as this can easily be improved with photoshop. While at it, I realized that this wouldn’t work on the real car and I had to find a solution. Overfenders have been popular to fix wheel fitment issues for decades and are now more popular than ever before. Instead of taking an exaggerated approach like Kato-san from LB Works, I designed a more subtle set of overfenders that tie into the original design of the 928 and cover the concave Forgiato wheels. To clean up the flanks, the door handles have been integrated into the side trim of the car. The air vents are integrated into the original bodywork and help to keep the brakes cool.
Originalists might cringe and prefer to look at the original picture.
Jan
07
Inspired by lead sleds and other vintage customs, I decided to apply a tried and tested recipe to a vehicle nobody ever customized: the 1954 Panhard Dyna Z. A top chop is a classic modification to alter the roofline and overall appearance of a car. It also reduces drag and therefore makes the car faster. Aerodynamic enhancements are especially important if adding more horsepower isn’t really an option. Mind you, this is a rather small vehicle and fitting an engine larger than the original 851cc engine would be a massive challenge. Not too many of the ~ 140.000 built are left and I doubt that many enthusiasts would enjoy seeing one of the few leftover Z cars “butchered” just for aesthetic purposes. However, nobody can object to modifying a couple of pixels. If you don’t like it, you might enjoy looking at the original picture instead.
Jan
01
Happy New Year! The first photoshop chop in 2018 is an old project from years ago that I finally got around to finish now. I found the original picture of the SAAB 96 and immediately thought this vehicle #needsmorelow. Lowering it and enlarging the wheels made it look better, but the little something that makes it special was still missing. In order to keep it period-correct, I used the natural lines and added some graphics. These days you would probably utilize vinyl stickers, but back then it would have been painted. All in all a fun little project to prove that every vehicle has potential to look better.
Dec
22
This photoshop chop took way longer to finish than all the other pictures I created this year. It all started with looking at a Peugeot 504 brochure from the 1970’s in January. Having always loved the Pininfarina-penned styling of the coupé and convertible, I wondered why there are no tastefully modified cars out there. These vehicles are not even too expensive to buy, despite having a history of motorsport ventures in rallye and racing. As always, the “what if (I had the money)” question followed immediately and all kinds of crazy modification ideas popped up in my mind. However, modifying this elegant coupé without messing up the lines completely posed a challenge. In the end I went with a retro-inspired theme the Japanese call works style. Imagine an engine with substantially more power, modern suspension and brakes. This necessitates larger wheels and a set of overfenders to cover them. I tried to keep them subtle and close to the original design of the fenders. Finding a period-correct design for the wheels also was a challenge. Campagnolos work well with the larger diameter and the conversion to the rather large Peugeot PCD. A good friend of mine suggested to add a ventilation flap on the roof, similar to the classic Jaguar E-Type race cars, and I happily adopted this brilliant idea. The hash marks on the fenders are Peugeot Talbot Sport colors from the early 1980’s, keeping with the idea that a conversion like this might have been built when this was just an affordable used car.
Fine art prints will be available early in 2018. Make sure to pre-order soon, as this will be a limited edition of only 73 numbered and signed pieces. The prints are without watermarks.
Click here to see the original picture.
Dec
20
Finding a photograph of a late 90’s Cadillac Fleewood Brougham towing an Airstream travel trailer got me thinking. What if the people owning a rig like this had a need for more trunk space, but still wanted to tow the trailer with a B-body based car? They would have had the choice of downgrading to a Buick Roadmaster oder Chevrolet Caprice – or converting their Cadillac into a wagon. This shouldn’t be too hard to do, right? However, instead of just using the rear glass from either one of the standard GM wagons, I went for a panel van look. As the Fleetwood Brougham already has a vinyl roof, it is a no-brainer to use this material for the wagon conversion. Not having windows also allows to add useful storage cabinets on both sides of the trunk. And because I have a reputation of never leaving the suspension height and stance as it came from the factory, the Cadillac was lowered and fitted with larger diameter wheels, shod with lower profile tires. To round it off and achieve a consistent design, the Airstream was also lowered and given a similar wheel treatment.
Dec
04
This was another one of those 15 minute challenges: create a camper van or RV that would be fun to drift, if equipped with an engine that makes suitable torque and horsepower. I started looking for a base picture to begin the photoshop chop. The Roadtrek 210 Popular, based on the rear wheel drive V8 Chevrolet Express Van, has a very nice and sporty looking body kit that accomodates a set of overfenders nicely. With a set of Watanabe-style wheels that are converted to an 8-lug pattern and a healthy drop in ride height this beast might take you to the race track, provide all kinds of drifting fun during the day and living quarters for the night. You would have to secure all your cutlery and other items very securely for the drift sessions, though. 😉
PS: It could also be a nice and capable tow-rig for a drift car.
Nov
12
When the Opel Signum first came out I thought it was a horrible design with odd proportions. Not much has changed over the years – I still think the proportions are not great on the Insignia. But nonetheless, my motto is that you can turn every boring car into something more interesting. Et voilà – let me present the two-door Opel Insignia Panel Van with a Steinmetz bodykit and a Thule box on the roof rack. Gold colored Rays TE37 wheels look good on most cars and prove the point that often the wheels make the car look good in the first place. It was fun creating this with Adobe Photoshop. Now, who dares to do this in real life?
Nov
12
This is another one of those lunch break quickies. Found an old picture of a Renault R21 Turbo, as driven by the French Gendarmerie Nationale. Larger diameter OEM+ wheels, lowering and a few details here and there. Done.
Sep
13
“Engineers like to solve problems. If there are no problems handily available, they will create their own problems.” Scott Adams
Nobody would have even the faintest doubt that the FIAT engineers created a lot of problems when they came up with the FIAT 130 and 130 Coupé, because these vehicles shared virtually no parts with other FIAT models from that period. Even the Aurelio Lampredi designed V6 engine is not identical with the machine used in the Dino. But nonetheless – the 130 Coupé is a beautiful automobile – and definitely more elegant than the somewhat baroque sedan model. The guys at the Pininfarina design studios must have had the same thought and created a four-door model based on the design of the coupé. Quite a stunning vehicle with almost perfect proportions – but as I never liked the tall and narrow wheels of the Seventies I updated the looks with more modern wheels and tires. Larger diameter, lower profile and a substantial drop in ride height all of a sudden make the vehicle look more contemporary timeless.
See the original image here for comparison.
Sep
09
Who didn’t love “spot the differences” pictures as a kid?
A friend of mine recently bought a Pontiac Bonneville SSE and one of the line-drawings in the manual left us guessing which car it actually depicted. It definitely wasn’t a Bonneville, that’s for sure. But, as always, our collective car brains eventually figured out what it was: an A-body Chevrolet Celebrity. While searching our brains google I found this old ad for the aforementioned vehicle and send it to my friends. We had a good laugh, mostly because of the mentioning of advanced technology. 🙂
Anyway… being the photoshop artist I am, there was no way I could leave the picture alone. Keeping with my motto that every vehicle has at least some sort of potential to look less boring I went to work. Ten minutes later it was finished: lowered, wheels enlarged and changed from convex to concave surface, sideskirts modified and a front airdam added. Looks less forgetable now, doesn’t it?
Time and again it is basically just a matter of subtle changes like lowering the car and adding a nice(er) set of wheels to make it look better…
Original picture for reference:
Jul
30
“A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of.” Ogden Nash
It really makes me wonder what the photographer of the original picture had in mind, when he placed a rather large dog in the rear seat of the Volvo 262C? Is it possible that he wanted to illustrate that dogs are good companions and like to travel in Volvos? Good idea, but judging by the dogs’ rather sad face he might have actually prefered to ride in a 265 station wagon.
The original picture was on my hard drive for more than a decade. The first try on modifying this vehicle is just as old – and was horrible. So I saved it and forgot about it. A chance encounter with a 262C on the Autobahn last week reminded me of the old file and I openened it in Photoshop again… only to delete it minutes later. After a quick search for the same picture with better size and resolution, I started to modify it again. This time around I changed a vital part that I didn’t think about ten years ago: the rear fender. The Volvo 200-series cars have a rear fender cutout that prohibits lowering the car without looking odd, because the upper part of the wheel disappears behind the sheetmetal. Once that was fixed I selected a set of wheels with period correct design, lowered the car, modified the front spoiler and added the black stripes.
It took ten years to finally finish this one, but now I’m happy with the result. If you have any suggestions what could be done differently or better, please let me know in the comments. Thank you in advance.
May
28
Aston Martin Lagonda Panel Van Conversion
Aston Martin / Panel Van Conversion / Photoshop Chops / Shooting Brake / Shooting Break Posted by Sebastian Motsch
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4 comments
Five years ago I created a photoshop chop image of an Aston Martin Lagonda Limousine Dragster. Ever since then I wondered what an accompagnying shop truck could look like. Today, while watching the 24h race of the Nürburgring, I finally did it. From the front to the B-pillar it is 100% original, but everything further back has been modified. In order to prevent the vehicle to look tail-heavy, I decided to add a window just aft of the B-pillar. This makes the vehicle look more elegant and concentrates more optical weight in the center of the car. And to make an already long car look even longer, I lowered it. Larger diameter wheels with less sidewall give it a more modern look and the pinstripe is the icing on the cake. Now – who wouldn’t love to haul parts for the shop with this rig?
May
27
The designers of the Subaru SVX (aka Alcyone) went all out to create something very futuristic in the 1990’s. My favorite color combination on this UFO car is white and black, because it gives the vehicle an elegant look. But stock cars are not really my thing – I love to modify them to better suit my taste. Especially with delicate designs I try to keep the modifications rather subtle, because I don’t want to mess up the original lines and ruin it in the process. That’s why I only lowered it over a set of Pontiac Firebird Trans-Am wheels that resemble the classic BBS E50. The front and rear skirts have been modified to give them more volume and to line them up with the sideskirts. Please let me know in the comments if you would drive it like that or what you would do differently. Thanks in advance. 🙂
Apr
30
Out of pure curiousity I wanted to know what a Mercedes-Benz C107 450 SLC would look like as a shooting break. However, midway throught the project I decided to create a panel van of the MAMPE Lufthansa Cocktail liveried racecar instead of the civilian shooting break. 😉
Apr
25
Found this picture of a nice Maserati Shamal today and decided to have some fun and create a quick photoshop chop, Stance|Works style. Not much done here: lowered, USDM sidemarkers, tinted window frame and the same front lip and concave multi-piece OEM+ wheels I used on the Maserati Biturbo Spyder. Like it or not – it does put a smile on my face. 🙂
Edit: somebody asked me how the front of this Maserati Shamal would look like. Turns out to be a rather mean and evil looking Maserati Shamal.
Apr
23
The Mitsubishi Sapporo Coupé is one of those vehicles with great lines and design details. All in all a nice car, but it somehow lacks something. However, this can be fixed easily: a healthy dose of lowering, larger diameter “OEM+” wheels and a few details here and there. The two-tone paint is more pronounced now, the taillights are all red and the front grille darker. The front airdam is the icing on the cake.
This photoshop chop only took half an hour, give or take. I just love to enhance original design so the changes are hardly visible to those not familiar with the original car. 😉
Dec
21
Many years ago I saved a picture of an Alfa Romeo Alfasud Giardinetta on my computer. I fiddled around with it now and then but never liked the outcome. But when I created the BMW 2002 Turbo panel wagon a couple of weeks ago I remembered the Giardinetta. After opening the picture and covering the windows it was only a matter of a few hours until the Furgone conversion was finished. I hope you enjoy and like my take on the Alfasud with lowered suspension, multi-piece wheels, low profile tires and blacked out chrome parts.
Dec
17
While recently discussing shooting breaks and the design of the Volvo 480 Turbo with a friend of mine, we agreed that the proportions of the vehicle are rather odd. In my opinion, the proportions are off because the front overhang is way too long. Or is the rear overhang just too short? Whatever the case may be – the latter is a lot easier to fix. I wanted to stick to my motto that it must be possible to create something not only in photoshop but in reality as well. This is what we came up with: the Volvo 480 Turbo Wagon. I purposely kept it looking stock, apart from a set of BBS LM wheels, lowering and a front airdam. Looking at the picture I wonder why Volvo didn’t think of that and built it? They are the wagon company after all, aren’t they?
Now only one question remains: who dares to build this beautiful and elegant two-door wagon?
Dec
05
Avid followers of my blogs VirtualModels and Drive-by Snapshots may already be aware that I have a sweet spot for classic French cars. Spending many a school holiday en vacences in France certainly is one of the possible reasons, yes. This and my preference of straight lines and low waistlines are perfectly combined in the Peugeot “05” generation. The greenhouse of the Peugeot 505 is more elegant than that of a Ford Granada Mk2 and at the same time almost as delicate as a Jaguar XJ‘s. This however becomes obvious only after the 505 is lowered, which also changes the overall appearence and makes the car look longer than it actually is. As with many cars from that era, there is no need to alter the body to get a great look. Just a few minor adjustments here and there… et voilá! C’est ça. Très bien.
PS: I do know that the classic Wolfrace wheels are a better fit on the early chrome bumper models, but I choose them anyway to offset the blacked-out trim pieces. Doesn’t hurt the stance either, does it? 😉
Dec
03
Looking at it from far away or just seeing a tiny little preview picture many people might think “BMW E30” initially. Though very similar in overall size, shape and packaging – this is neither designed nor made in Bavaria, but on the other side of the Alps where the weather usually is a lot nicer during winter. For the first time ever I applied my photoshop skills to a Maserati. Why? Because it looks like a cross-country 4WD edition with the original ride height which messes up the proportions of the car entirely. Check out the original picture here. So what has been done to achieve this look? Not much, actually – keeping to my design ethos of keeping it realistic so it could be done with a real car and possibly even get TÜV-approval in Germany. Substantial lowering (possibly air-ride?), re-shaped front and rear bumpers to match the lines of the original sideskirt, USDM sidemarkers, black stripes to break up the area between the wheel arches. I also converted the original wheels into more concave multi-piece items.
Now – who spotted the chopped windshield frame / A-pillars? 😉