This week's Car Hacks is interesting because it's one of the very few that doesn't involve an actual car or part of a car at all. It does, however, involve a lot of creativity, novel thinking, and an unashamed love of cars.
Plus, the guy who did it shares a name with my son, Otto. Oh, and the subject of this one is a VW Beetle, which, no big secret, is a particular favorite of mine. It's like this was genetically engineered to appeal directly to my brain's delight bulbs. I encountered this grand achievement where all good things appear, on Oppositelock.
Otto posted a picture of a corner of his room, which had been painted to look like the interior of a vintage Beetle. The smallish size of the room and the one slightly raked wall seemed to be an ideal canvas to recreate a car interior. The Beetle portrayed seems to be a pre '62 sunroof Beetle, with an aftermarket fuel gauge and one of those great accessory wicker under-dash trays.
Here's what the Car Hacker himself has to say about his work:
So I'm a 19 year old student attending Faculty of Architecture, School of Design at the University of Zagreb, which is Croatia's capitol. I live with my mom in a 2 story house, and this is my room on the pictures.
I've loved cars since I can remember, and since I can't afford to have one of my own, this is as close as I can get. The idea came to me one day when I banged my head on the slanted roof. Some time later, I realized that the angle of the wall kinda looks like a windshield of a car. Then I thought it would be cool do do the whole room as the interior of a car.
So then I had to choose which car to take inspiration from. At the time I was very into the late 80's Suburbans. The Suburban has the right, boxy shape which could be fitting, but it's too long. I've also thought about a Renault 4 (which has too much plastic on the dash), a BMW 2002 (interior still too bland for this kind of thing), or even a big American 50's car.
Then I saw a beautiful Beetle online with nice green paint and patina. Then it was just a matter of painting the room white (a few friends helped me out here), drawing the outlines with a pencil and doing the green and brown bits first. Then I outlined it all with black, and did the dash. A few friends helped with painting the green parts too, but other than that, I did it all by myself. The finishing touch will be a Hula-girl on the dash, but for now I am still working on it, improving the dash, putting on stickers and whatnot. Just like you would on a real car.
This is also one of those things where the slight lack of polish on the work actually makes it better for me. Sure, the windshield rake is a bit too steep, but the level of detail is just right. He's painted all the dash controls and the passenger grab straps and the door handles and window levers, but more importantly is how every brush stroke manages to capture the sense of fun of the overall project. It wouldn't have been nearly as good if he'd used photographic wall decals or something, because the way it's executed now has the hardest-to-fake quality of all: charm.
This whole room is slathered in weaponized Charmonium, and irradiated with the most potent Charmonic ions. I pointed my Sharper Image Chamometer at these images and the damn thing exploded in my hand.
Make no mistake: I think this room is incredible, and just looking at it makes me want to spend a chilly Croatian evening holed up in that room, snacking on Funyons and playing Mario Kart or something like that.
My one suggestion would be to get a projector so you can show driving movies and play driving video games in the Beetle's windshield. That would be awesome.
Enjoy that room, Otto. Oh, and how'd you get a California plate all the way out in Zagreb?