Dang Ben, that's one sharp rear end!

Oh man, I just said that to a guy.

P.S. Stay tuned for a new contest centered around Ben's project, it'll kick off once voting for the July Featured HHR concludes, and there will be a prize!

 

Thanks bowtieboy68!
LOL Mike...I'm glad you like my rear end.... on my car.

 

Still have a lot of cleaning up to do, but here is my new round fuel filler door with the body line running through it. Was kind of a PITA, but the hard part is behind me.

 

Finding out that I had an undetected leak under my dishwasher has caused a delay in my progress. Replacing a kitchen subfloor sure stinks! And my wife has knee surgery tomorrow morning, so I will be her designated cabana boy for the next week or two. Hope to get back at it soon :)

 

So after living with the '49 bombsite hood ornament for quite a while, I finally came to the conclusion that it wasn't right for this car. I built the center rib on the hood strictly for the purpose of leveling the ornament, so it needed to go as well. I have been toying around with different variations of the Buick bombsite, and I think I like this rendition the most. It is quite similar to the 53's but I designed mine with a number of changes. I attached only the front lower edge of the bomb to make it appear to float above the hood rather than having the entire length resting on the hood (like the 53). Instead of making the outside of the site round, I chose to make mine oval with a forward slant and an organically curved front edge. And the V protrudes aft of the upper edge of the Oval and progressively angles forward to the bottom of the V. Personally , I think the more complex forms help to make the ornament look more 21st Century....more a nod to the past versus a complete copy of the past. Of course I still have lots of clean up left before I can take it to get chromed. Messiness aside, what do you guys think so far?

 

I like the trough thing but would like to see it extend behind the airplane thing closer to your scoop detail and have the airplane thing on thin rods mounted above the hood a tad.

The way you have it now I think it would whistle.

Also now that I have looked at it a while longer it looks like a backwards rocket.

{on edit}
I just noticed the eyebrow thing on the drivers side headlight, I like it.

 

What do you think it would look like without the bomb site at all? The side lines for the scoop come down the front an fit well with the Buick oval but the bomb site breaks up the lines of the highrise back to the scoop opening. The bomb site does not look bad, I just wonder if it might be a little cleaner without it? On the other hand it is model correct.

 

Thanks for the input guys! The eyebrow thing is a work in progress that houses an led accent light. I will be doing a more finished version later. The main purpose was to get a visual and I think it works well with the design.
The bombsite is definitely in keeping with the Super tradition and I feel it looks like something is missing with it gone. I will do a little bit of tweaking and get some better pics up with side views that better show how the trailing edge of the bomb is hovering over the hood.

 

I like it Ben, just had to turn the image around on my imaginary mental drafting table to appreciate the floating "bomb".

One off the wall idea for you to think on, have you thought of leaving the bomb sight at the copper plate stage, then clearcoating it.

Maybe it's just me, but I think a highly polished copper plated ornament would add an extra "Whoa! Look at that!" factor to a vehicle with a huge "Whoa" factor already.

 

Thanks Mike! I love the look of copper too & will definitely be using it in the future...just not for this project. I think I will save that for a steam punk themed project