THERE are many reasons for producing a custom scooter. For many people, it's the desire to create an eye-catching machine to enter shows, or simply ride to rallies. For Russ Keating the idea was to create a custom scooter that would showcase his newly set up business, Custom Scooter Art. For anyone who hasn't seen Russ with his stall at a rally or event then Custom Scooter Art offer an alternative to both graphics or expensive spray jobs for your scooter. Instead, they wrap your scooter with vinyl that has been printed with the graphics/design of your choice. Hence the building of Terminator 3.
Mind you, I want you to take a look first past the graphics. Yes, 1 know they're pretty eye-catching, BUT look past them for a minute. Take a while to look at some of the smaller, more intricate items on the scooter. So, what is there? Haven't you noticed the choke and petrol taps - both small bullets. What about the Terminator logo on the front left-hand legshield. Notice anything? Well, when the scooter is switched on one of his eyes lights up, all courtesy of a discreetly placed red LED light. The rearsprinr rack is also very unusual. The canisters on either side aren't old deodorant cans, but aluminium tubing which give the scooter's rack a very futuristic look and a nice one-off sprint rack.
Anyway, back to the scooter. The basis for Terminator 3 is an Indian GP 150 (sourced from Germany of all places). As the bodywork was sound, it was a case then of sorting the design for the scooter. Vinyl wrapping, like most graphics based systems works best with high quality images. Russ uses images provided via PDF files and the Terminator 3 images were applied over a two week period. So, unlike painting the images can be applied quite quickly.
The process of wrapping the scoorer starts with choosing the pictures/design, making sure that they are going to fit the panels. Then the scooter's bodywork needs to be checked to ensure that it is in good condition. Once the vinyl has been applied to the bodywork it is left for 24 hours to completely cure. Once this lias happened the vinyl gets a clear coat which makes it UV stable and scuff resistant. The net result of all of this work is now before you.
What I didn't mention earlier was that inside the legshields the toolbox features a DVD player, CD player and MP3 player - no need to get bored on any rallies then!! Russ decided to leave the engine unit as the standard item as the scooter's bodywork is the showcase for the business, so no need to go tweaking the engine when it's not necessary.
As for the cost side of it, well, it was around the £2k mark. That figure is for the complere scooter, not just the vinyl wrapping. Compared to what a fully muralled scooter would have cost, that's quite a considerable saving. Whether it's your cup of tea or not (must admit 1 like it), you have to agree that Russ has created one eye-catching scooter.
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