First Impressions
The moment you see something or experience something for the first time that moment will be etched in your mind for ever. The moment JLFT’s Eric Tscherne first saw Impression up close is permanently tattooed on his brain.
Tscherne first saw Impression in the magazines and on TLC’s Rides TV show, like everyone else. Sure he had seen it at various stages during its construction but he had not seen it in its completed form until the JLFT Team stopped by his shop during the early days of JL Full Throttle 2 years ago. The car blew him away! “It truly is a masterpiece, a work of art” said Tscherne, “It’s more than a car”.
After seeing the car first hand, sitting in it and being shown all of the details by Chip himself, Tscherne knew this car had to be done in die cast. “There is only one Impression.” Says Tscherne, “but by creating the JLFT version, everyone can experience this beautiful machine first hand.” That was no small order for the JLFT Team. Tscherne wanted the car to be as beautiful and perfect as the real one. It had to have the same attention to detail that Chip and the guys at Foose design put into the real deal.
The real deal by the way topped the 2 million dollar mark and set the standard by which hot rods will be measured for years to come. The Impression won BOTH the prestigious Ridler Award at Detroit’s famed Autorama AND the AMBR award as America’s Most Beautiful Roadster. These 2 awards are at the pinnacle of custom car building and Chip simultaneously held them both, a feat that may never be duplicated.
The Impression started out as a project for Ken Reister. The car, inspired by a 1936 Ford and the Smoothster, a street rod designed by Larry Erickson over 10 years before, took over 6 years to build. The car is more of a coach built car then a custom. Every single part other then some driveline components and the engine were hand built and designed specifically for this one ride.
Chip designed everything. The body, while taking cues from the famed ’36 Ford, is Chip’s own design. The team at Foose design scaled up a ¼ scale model Chip built and turned it into a skeleton which they used to hammer out the sheet metal that forms Impression’s body. Chip also had the crew “finish” every panel, wrapping the edges out of sight and including inner panels throughout to give the car a continuous skin. This alone nearly doubled the amount of bodywork that Impression received.
The JLFT Team took special care to ensure the shaping of this car came out to perfection. Working directly with Chip, Tscherne instructed the JLFT model builders throughout the build. Chip reviewed Impression with Tscherne twice as long and twice as much as any other car in the line before the JLFT Hemisfear. “We reviewed and revised that car so many times we nearly missed the ship date!” recalls Tscherne.
“We went to extremes on this car” noted Tscherne. “We went so far as to work directly with BASF and Charlie Hutton on the color of the paint”. The JLFT Team did not settle for a standard silver. They contacted BASF who wisely noted the formula of the paint Charlie and Chip cooked up. BASF labeled the color Chipeweter a term Hutton coined as the color was not silver and not quite pewter with a small amount of khaki green thrown in . The JLFT Team got a set of paint chips to their facilities in China for replication. “The color is spot on” said Hutton who layered the paint on Impression after leaving another famous builder’s shop.
The Impression has a European flair to it. The body lines and shapes all flow perfectly together with minimal interruption, if any. The details too, take on a European flair. The wheels are reminiscent of spoked wheels that may have appeared on a coach built classic blended with hot rodding’s traditional 5 spoke. Chip took one 5 spoke and brought the spokes to the outer edge while he took another 5 spoke twisted it and sent those spokes back towards the wheels center. This gives the wheels and almost wire like look.
The headlights are another amazing detail. Chip with the power of modern technology was able to create one of a kind headlights for Impression. Unlike other builds that use Mercedes or other off the shelf components for lighting Chip crafted a dual stacked projector beam headlight set that when viewed from the front create the famed Ford V8 logo. The JLFT model too incorporates this signature detail in its LRG scale model.
The Impression has also left its mark on JL Full Throttle collector Noah, from Columbus, Ohio. Noah was so inspired by Impression he took not one but 2 of them out of their cozy packages and began clicking some killer pics leaving his impression on this one of a kind rod. Noah expertly captured the subtle curves and glistening paint in his photographs. They even have a similar quality to the shot taken by master photographer Scott Williamson who shot the pics of the full size Impression seen in this article.
The Impression has left a lasting mark on hot rodding and the JL Full Throttle version is sure to leave a lasting mark in any collection or alone on your desk or shelf. The car has inspired many to try and duplicate it but none has come close until JL Full Throttle.
-JLFT Team
PS, Where do you get an Orange Impression? Well seems at one time Chip wanted to paint the real car orange. We dug through his sketches and found this unique color combo and thought we'd bring it to you as part of the Artist Series! It's only available in SM Scale andthere is a special "raw" Impression in LRG Scale the JLFT Designer Eric Tscherne thought replicated the look of Impression the first time he saw it.
Tscherne first saw Impression in the magazines and on TLC’s Rides TV show, like everyone else. Sure he had seen it at various stages during its construction but he had not seen it in its completed form until the JLFT Team stopped by his shop during the early days of JL Full Throttle 2 years ago. The car blew him away! “It truly is a masterpiece, a work of art” said Tscherne, “It’s more than a car”.
After seeing the car first hand, sitting in it and being shown all of the details by Chip himself, Tscherne knew this car had to be done in die cast. “There is only one Impression.” Says Tscherne, “but by creating the JLFT version, everyone can experience this beautiful machine first hand.” That was no small order for the JLFT Team. Tscherne wanted the car to be as beautiful and perfect as the real one. It had to have the same attention to detail that Chip and the guys at Foose design put into the real deal.
The real deal by the way topped the 2 million dollar mark and set the standard by which hot rods will be measured for years to come. The Impression won BOTH the prestigious Ridler Award at Detroit’s famed Autorama AND the AMBR award as America’s Most Beautiful Roadster. These 2 awards are at the pinnacle of custom car building and Chip simultaneously held them both, a feat that may never be duplicated.
The Impression started out as a project for Ken Reister. The car, inspired by a 1936 Ford and the Smoothster, a street rod designed by Larry Erickson over 10 years before, took over 6 years to build. The car is more of a coach built car then a custom. Every single part other then some driveline components and the engine were hand built and designed specifically for this one ride.
Chip designed everything. The body, while taking cues from the famed ’36 Ford, is Chip’s own design. The team at Foose design scaled up a ¼ scale model Chip built and turned it into a skeleton which they used to hammer out the sheet metal that forms Impression’s body. Chip also had the crew “finish” every panel, wrapping the edges out of sight and including inner panels throughout to give the car a continuous skin. This alone nearly doubled the amount of bodywork that Impression received.
The JLFT Team took special care to ensure the shaping of this car came out to perfection. Working directly with Chip, Tscherne instructed the JLFT model builders throughout the build. Chip reviewed Impression with Tscherne twice as long and twice as much as any other car in the line before the JLFT Hemisfear. “We reviewed and revised that car so many times we nearly missed the ship date!” recalls Tscherne.
“We went to extremes on this car” noted Tscherne. “We went so far as to work directly with BASF and Charlie Hutton on the color of the paint”. The JLFT Team did not settle for a standard silver. They contacted BASF who wisely noted the formula of the paint Charlie and Chip cooked up. BASF labeled the color Chipeweter a term Hutton coined as the color was not silver and not quite pewter with a small amount of khaki green thrown in . The JLFT Team got a set of paint chips to their facilities in China for replication. “The color is spot on” said Hutton who layered the paint on Impression after leaving another famous builder’s shop.
The Impression has a European flair to it. The body lines and shapes all flow perfectly together with minimal interruption, if any. The details too, take on a European flair. The wheels are reminiscent of spoked wheels that may have appeared on a coach built classic blended with hot rodding’s traditional 5 spoke. Chip took one 5 spoke and brought the spokes to the outer edge while he took another 5 spoke twisted it and sent those spokes back towards the wheels center. This gives the wheels and almost wire like look.
The headlights are another amazing detail. Chip with the power of modern technology was able to create one of a kind headlights for Impression. Unlike other builds that use Mercedes or other off the shelf components for lighting Chip crafted a dual stacked projector beam headlight set that when viewed from the front create the famed Ford V8 logo. The JLFT model too incorporates this signature detail in its LRG scale model.
The Impression has also left its mark on JL Full Throttle collector Noah, from Columbus, Ohio. Noah was so inspired by Impression he took not one but 2 of them out of their cozy packages and began clicking some killer pics leaving his impression on this one of a kind rod. Noah expertly captured the subtle curves and glistening paint in his photographs. They even have a similar quality to the shot taken by master photographer Scott Williamson who shot the pics of the full size Impression seen in this article.
The Impression has left a lasting mark on hot rodding and the JL Full Throttle version is sure to leave a lasting mark in any collection or alone on your desk or shelf. The car has inspired many to try and duplicate it but none has come close until JL Full Throttle.
-JLFT Team
PS, Where do you get an Orange Impression? Well seems at one time Chip wanted to paint the real car orange. We dug through his sketches and found this unique color combo and thought we'd bring it to you as part of the Artist Series! It's only available in SM Scale andthere is a special "raw" Impression in LRG Scale the JLFT Designer Eric Tscherne thought replicated the look of Impression the first time he saw it.
Labels: Chip, Foose, Full Throttle, Impression, JL
posted by JLFullThrottle at 4:07 PM
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