A small evening. The day went to other work, and we got to 996 only by dark.

I sanded the rear bumper clean at 40 grit. Not going into detail yet, the point is to accept the overall forms and find the weak spots. A couple of places needed reinforcing, and I went in with fiberglass filler. Then I cut away all the excess pieces of fiberglass that had no business sitting where they sat, and came back once more to the main line, so it reads across the whole bumper. It is coming out well. The second line I planned from the start will definitely be there, but I will make it as a graphic, not as a groove like the main one. That gives one more separation from the upper part.

When you work with form, the car has to be turned the full three hundred sixty degrees. It is a hard requirement, otherwise the forms get lost: one angle looks good, the rest fall apart. That, as it happens, is the whole point of mods on Mods Nation: you see the car from every angle, and it is immediately clear how a change will land on the overall look. Any product, even the worst one, can be photographed perfectly, and with my background in film I know that well. But 360 does not lie. If your one angle looks great and the rest are so-so, go back into the forms and redo them.

That had to be checked, which is what I did.

My R77 Aero on the 996 base was built from the start for large side skirts that run below and above the sill. The profile is tuned to them, not to the rocker panels that sit a little higher. The profile calls for them now, but I am still refining the design: the skirts need to get a touch rougher, thicker in the line. There are nuances in there. Modern forms are very hard to marry to classic ones, and that is purely architectural understanding I carry over into car design.

There is still plenty of finishing, but those are small things now, the main elements are in. Louvres, the sides, the arches in place, the wing standing, the skirts in progress. We can talk about the overall look.

To support the rear bumper, which came out substantial, the four pipes have to be thick enough. Thin ones will not offset its visual weight. The bumper is strong, but it needs the thickness of another element beside it, one that will contrast with the bar, with the bumper, and with the tips themselves.

This weekend we bring all the forms out rough, toward final finishing. Not polish, there are still plenty of small things. The lower door line that runs to the front arch is broken right now, it just needs to be sanded down so it meets clean and true. The fuel filler door I need to look at, how it comes off: I am raising its position to fit it into the form of the new fender, which, as you can see, is not original.

The main thing in this build, it seems to me, is this. It is a widebody, wider than C4S and Turbo, plus wide front fenders, a visually heavier nose, and the visual weight of the rear bumper, the wing, and the exhausts brought into balance. On a stock Carrera the exhausts are little trinkets that barely hold their own, and only thanks to the groove line that visually cuts the bumper in two. Without it the effect would only get worse. And still, even a 996 owner needs a couple of minutes to register how much wider this car is. I am deeply pleased with this result: it is this build, not the widebody we will make from the lilac car, that fits OEM-plus, even with the forms changed.