26th-Jul-22, 09:49 AM
A Power Slot Hummer 'Station Wagon' as bought from 'The Market Place' on this forum back in April 2021.
An oddity I'd fancied for some time - but not at the new or 'collector' prices I'd been seeing elsewhere, this was a real bargain. Not the version I'd have chosen myself but needs must - and at the price, something I wasn't afraid to cut up, as I could see a potential Crew Cab conversion coming up.
Surely Power Slot would maximise use of the interior moulding for their other versions?
It wasn't long before the station wagon roof, rear windows and back doors had been carefully prised off as one unit, to reveal the hoped for pick-up bed detail. It was nerve wracking but worth it, as already the proportions were beginning to look better. Fortunately the rear glass was a separate moulding from that for the cab portion.
All the detail parts were bagged up for later re-use: mirrors, wipers, turn signals, front and rear lights, driver and navigator and the one piece grill and hood panel. The back doors and side windows were then removed using a razor saw, leaving a long flat roof panel ready to cut to suit the crew cab area.
The plan was for the rear doors to become the back wall of the crew cab, giving good rear vision for the rally crew, unlike Power Slot's own rear wall, which research showed to be a solid, windowless panel. Despite appearances the Hummer roof/body does have a slight taper front to rear, as a test fit showed that rear door unit to be a little taller and wider than the shorter crew cab's rear. A little notching got it to drop into place, the height being a bridge to cross later.
'Later' turned out to be mid-June 2022! With a deadline for the '2022 Extreme Slotting' proxy event no longer on the horizon but rapidly approaching, work started again in earnest. All the parts were gathered together and the thinking cap went on. The back panel was cut to suit so it could become the new back wall, with the bottom edge resting on the interior platform, dividing the pick-up bed from the crew's cab. The lower part was nearly binned but on second thoughts went into the Hummer 'bits bag' just in case.
Time to cut the roof to length, then deal with the rear window. The central bar didn't look right, nor did the door shut lines - but the latter made ideal score lines, allowing me to open up a new rear window that matched the height of the glazed 'quarterlights'.
That big rear window just didn't look right though. It needed a bottom glazing bar to match those sidelights. Not having thrown anything away, a 'station wagon' side window provided a piece of plastic just the right length, although it took quite a bit of work to remove that chunky internal brace bar.
The original plan had been to do a complete repaint along the lines of Power Slot's own much more colourful Crew Cab or full Rally Station Wagon versions but I simply ran out of time. As I'd been careful how I cut - and re-purposed 'waste' material from the conversion to complete the transformation there was no need for paint at this point. The only non-original part of the body conversion was the glazing for that big rear window. The lower portion of the rear doors became the tailgate, with the stump of the vertical rear window bar removed by filing it down level with the base of the former windows. I could have left the bed without a tailgate a la Power Slot's version - but this was MY version of a Crew Cab.
The rear view mirrors are the rubber originals and are VERY secure. The plastic wipers were very loose originally. A drop of GS Hypo keeps them in place now. In fact the entire re-assembly (apart from the tailgate) was done using GS Hypo so I could, in theory, dismantle and paint it when it comes back from its tour of duty in the 2022 Extreme Slotting Proxy Rally Raid, where I expect it to finish last
There was no time for track testing or set-up.
The one concession to performance was to replace the 'plastic?' no-grip tyres and multi-piece plastic wheels with Mitoos items - which added 60% to the budget build cost!
(Power Slot's own wheels were of multi-piece construction but had also broken up into further smaller pieces that I'd diligently rebuilt when I first bought the car )
I'm pleased with how it looks and doubt whether I'll bother painting it, although it could get some detail paint added at some stage. We'll see.
An oddity I'd fancied for some time - but not at the new or 'collector' prices I'd been seeing elsewhere, this was a real bargain. Not the version I'd have chosen myself but needs must - and at the price, something I wasn't afraid to cut up, as I could see a potential Crew Cab conversion coming up.
Surely Power Slot would maximise use of the interior moulding for their other versions?It wasn't long before the station wagon roof, rear windows and back doors had been carefully prised off as one unit, to reveal the hoped for pick-up bed detail. It was nerve wracking but worth it, as already the proportions were beginning to look better. Fortunately the rear glass was a separate moulding from that for the cab portion.
All the detail parts were bagged up for later re-use: mirrors, wipers, turn signals, front and rear lights, driver and navigator and the one piece grill and hood panel. The back doors and side windows were then removed using a razor saw, leaving a long flat roof panel ready to cut to suit the crew cab area.
The plan was for the rear doors to become the back wall of the crew cab, giving good rear vision for the rally crew, unlike Power Slot's own rear wall, which research showed to be a solid, windowless panel. Despite appearances the Hummer roof/body does have a slight taper front to rear, as a test fit showed that rear door unit to be a little taller and wider than the shorter crew cab's rear. A little notching got it to drop into place, the height being a bridge to cross later.
'Later' turned out to be mid-June 2022! With a deadline for the '2022 Extreme Slotting' proxy event no longer on the horizon but rapidly approaching, work started again in earnest. All the parts were gathered together and the thinking cap went on. The back panel was cut to suit so it could become the new back wall, with the bottom edge resting on the interior platform, dividing the pick-up bed from the crew's cab. The lower part was nearly binned but on second thoughts went into the Hummer 'bits bag' just in case.
Time to cut the roof to length, then deal with the rear window. The central bar didn't look right, nor did the door shut lines - but the latter made ideal score lines, allowing me to open up a new rear window that matched the height of the glazed 'quarterlights'.
That big rear window just didn't look right though. It needed a bottom glazing bar to match those sidelights. Not having thrown anything away, a 'station wagon' side window provided a piece of plastic just the right length, although it took quite a bit of work to remove that chunky internal brace bar.
The original plan had been to do a complete repaint along the lines of Power Slot's own much more colourful Crew Cab or full Rally Station Wagon versions but I simply ran out of time. As I'd been careful how I cut - and re-purposed 'waste' material from the conversion to complete the transformation there was no need for paint at this point. The only non-original part of the body conversion was the glazing for that big rear window. The lower portion of the rear doors became the tailgate, with the stump of the vertical rear window bar removed by filing it down level with the base of the former windows. I could have left the bed without a tailgate a la Power Slot's version - but this was MY version of a Crew Cab.
The rear view mirrors are the rubber originals and are VERY secure. The plastic wipers were very loose originally. A drop of GS Hypo keeps them in place now. In fact the entire re-assembly (apart from the tailgate) was done using GS Hypo so I could, in theory, dismantle and paint it when it comes back from its tour of duty in the 2022 Extreme Slotting Proxy Rally Raid, where I expect it to finish last
There was no time for track testing or set-up.
The one concession to performance was to replace the 'plastic?' no-grip tyres and multi-piece plastic wheels with Mitoos items - which added 60% to the budget build cost!
(Power Slot's own wheels were of multi-piece construction but had also broken up into further smaller pieces that I'd diligently rebuilt when I first bought the car
)I'm pleased with how it looks and doubt whether I'll bother painting it, although it could get some detail paint added at some stage. We'll see.
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