Mantis question

[visualpoet]

I'm working on something for the hood of uzume, since it's so screwed up and I don't feel the flat black look, nor am I ready to have it painted correctly (and may not after I finish what I'm working on).

First day I brought her home


two years ago: The best the hood ever looked (there's Black Magic Tire shine rubbed into the entire hood, buffed off by hand, then two coats of wax; one carnauba paste and one liquid, to get it to look like this.) ignore the fogs. they're in a box in storage somewhere


Three days ago


Yes, those 5 dots are from my fingertips being a little oily. The hood was originally rosewood, painted cappucino, but never cleared, and then I think someone waxed it and left it in the sun. The rosewood shows through from the bajillion times I've washed, polished, waxed, etc. trying to get it to look decent. It looks best wet, and no matter how much product I rub into it, it leaves marks and overlaps and always seems to want more. I swear, it could absorb vaseline and still look like ass.

Anyway, one of my buddies (ninjaranger84, I think. Thanks Andruw!) put the idea of doing the hood in graffiti in my head, and that turned into something else, that eventually came to the idea of doing some old school Japanese style art on the hood. Part of the design I'm working on has a praying mantis in it, and I've seen several references to the mantis, but I don't know the fascination.

Basically, the artwork's going on the hood, but I don't want to seem like I'm stepping on anyone's inner club or anything (like pretending to be part of a car club or team when I didn't). I got 33 responses when I searched for "mantis" but none of them were any help. So:

What's up with the mantis?

[deevergote]

That tire shine probably contributed greatly to the deterioration of the clear coat. Unless it was a water-based variant. The petroleum in most of those tire shine products will damage paint (and rubber... go figure... )


Anyway, the mantis came to be a few years back when someone photographed one on their car. It was adopted as sort of a mascot. There's nothing really official behind it.


The original thread:
http://www.cb7tuner.com/vbb/showthread.php?t=56877

[scudweiser]

you should include a hand turkey in the motif, just for fun.

[djcaz_aom]

I remember that thread!!!!

[TypeG]

k-mart started a mantis movement that day. it was in so many people's sig. LOL.

what do you think about a bare metal hood maintained with penetrating oil? later.

[Julianachos]

You'll be the third or fourth person on here with a unique hood.

[visualpoet]

That tire shine probably contributed greatly to the deterioration of the clear coat. Unless it was a water-based variant. The petroleum in most of those tire shine products will damage paint (and rubber... go figure... )


Anyway, the mantis came to be a few years back when someone photographed one on their car. It was adopted as sort of a mascot. There's nothing really official behind it.


The original thread:
http://www.cb7tuner.com/vbb/showthread.php?t=56877

Nah, the clear was never there, you can see how grey the paint was when I first got her. My buddy that sold her to me said someone had waxed or polished it and left it in the sun. I think he did it but didn't want to admit it. I only used the tire shine on it a couple of times, and it became too much hassle trying to keep it all evenly applied. The paint just soaks up anything like wax or oil, and if it's already there, it soaks up some more, so it's always uneven and blotchy. I don't even use the tire shineon my tires usually, I just happened to try it the day I took that pic and accidetally got some on the hood so I thought "Hey, can't look worse than it normally does."

you should include a hand turkey in the motif, just for fun.

Oddly, I do have a couple of faint handprints on the hood from my little girl sitting on it. I had thought about taking it out in the country and bending the wife over it, then laying a couple of clear coats over the whole thing, but changed my mind.

k-mart started a mantis movement that day. it was in so many people's sig. LOL.

what do you think about a bare metal hood maintained with penetrating oil? later.

I think it could look sweet, but be a pain to maintain, why not just clear coat it?

You'll be the third or fourth person on here with a unique hood.

Glad to hear things are looking better, brother!

I've been trying to decide what to do with it. My little brother wanted to do it in digital camo for me, (he bought an airbrush and has Duracoated a couple of his guns it looks nice, but it's not me). As of right now, this is the third or fourth design, and I think it's close to being the one I go with. It might not be exactly like this, but probably pretty close.

The Kanji on the passenger side is a translation of a Haiku I wrote: "The flavors of spring/Sweeten the air that I breathe/Tire smoke and fuel" (it's probably not correctly patterned in Japanese, but how many people will know?) and on the right it's "Ame-no-Uzume-no-mikoto"; the name of the Japanese goddess of laughter, joy, erotica and a few other things, which is how the coupe became named uzume for short.




Thanks everyone for the replies and information, and for the responses to the hood I know will be coming.

[Racer_XXX]

That's pretty sweet lookin

[ninjaranger84]

WOO HOO I GOT A SHOUT OUT!!!! LMAO FIRST TIME EVER ON HERE. IM HAPPY. LOL. But Serious Jon Bro Im gladmy ideas gave you a lil inspiration. im still trying to mix up the paint for LeXy so i could move on to the body work and possibly the metal desgins that are going to be welded to the hood and pianted over. but thats kind of a in theory thought for right now. until then.... its graffiti airbrush until further notice. lol I Love The Hood Design Tho.. Its Absolutly Awesome. Keep me posted dude.

[turboAccordHSF]

HHHEEEYYY JON! i have a bad ass idea......draw a engine bay with a turbo H22 on the hood....so when u finelly open the hood people are going to trip the fuck out.........

i say have some nice artisic shit like ur sons names in japanese...or something different!

[visualpoet]

Or this one:

[deevergote]

The rising sun looks cool, but I think it's a bit overdone.


I like the first one a lot. It's subtle, but up close it will stand out nicely.

I think you should keep the hood faded as it is. It actually kinda makes a sweet backdrop for that design!

[visualpoet]

The rising sun looks cool, but I think it's a bit overdone.


I like the first one a lot. It's subtle, but up close it will stand out nicely.

I think you should keep the hood faded as it is. It actually kinda makes a sweet backdrop for that design!

Thank you sir! That's what I was thinking when I started it, that I could use the hood's crappy condition to become part of the artwork. It reminds me of some old stained parchment. I do dig the first one, but it's so much more involved than the rising sun. Although, I can work on it by hand in stages, and the rising sun is getting to be pretty common, and the colors are a little flashier than I'd normally go with for uzume. Well, outside the engine bay. lol

[visualpoet]

Progress, and a couple of good omen pics.

Got this done today, three hours in the sun, which would have been less had I started it at the bottom and worked backwards instead of at the top and then running out of space and starting over.


Roughly translated it's
"The flavors of spring
Sweeten the air that I breathe,
Tire smoke and fuel"



Then after that, had to take our 60" TV to the shop, where I discovered this guy:



and then helped him back outside the TV shop:




I think that's a good omen for the hood.

[deevergote]

Nice!

What color paint are you using?