Ancient Nissan 350Z body shell rat-style rebuild

Hello and welcome back, guys! I was away from the RC drifting for a long time, but in a spare moments, I still felt an urge to make something new. So I did!

This shell, as I recently found out, has some pretty rich history. It started it's life probably more than 10 years ago in Slovakia, where a friend of mine has bought it second-hand.

Then after few years, he gave it to his friend, who had just got into drifting at that time. Another couple of years later, I have first seen it in 2017, when he was selling his old Yokomo to my friend from a local track, who was also a beginner. The shell was included just that he had something to put on the chassis.

The shell was already beaten up after years and years of abuse, so naturally my friend had purchased a new one after few months. I helped him to build it and when he asked me what I want in return, I just told him not to throw the old shell into a trash and give it to me instead.

This is how it looked when I got my hands on it.

Fresh to trash? Maybe, but I seen a potential!

First I disassembled all of the accessories, put off the stickers and cleaned everything inside out.

Cleaning the inside was especially tough, but I did a decent job.

After that, I cut both bumpers out. I didn't like them, so I decided to go bumperless.

After liquid-masking the windows and a base coat of black, I took the shell to an airbrush box. To support an aged look, I painted some shadows around the edges.

This technique makes the car look like it was laying on the sun and rain for a very long time.

When the paint is fresh, it is easy to just take a knife and score some panel lines into it. Since the base color is black, it will show in the cracks. Also with right masking, a window trims will come out nicely.

And then of course - rust and dirt. A must have in any rat-style project. I used a paper towel to smudge a mixed color.

Both front and back got a styrene bash bar.

With a thinner styrene sticks, I also made a roof rack and put a salvaged rim on it.

With everything properly smudged, I started adding some finer details. You can see an open window, rear window vent or an antenna.

One headlight got intentionally cracked and taped.

To fill a blank space an intercooler and oil cooler took a place behind the bash bar.

There are still some bits and pieces I want to add, but I just could not wait to share this project.

Overall this was a very satisfying project. If you have some old, beaten up body shell, give it a try! You don't need an airbrush or anything extra. Just grab whatever leftovers you have at home, use your imagination and have fun!!!