Autemo gives the '75 International 150 pickup the rendering treatment

The resurrection of my International Harvester 150 pickup is moving along at a pace that could be described as somewhere between glacial and imperceptible. That's especially curious considering that the hulk has a rather ravenous appetite for time and money that's only eclipsed by its affinity for defecating disappointment all over the garage floor. Needless to say, any time I look at the big IH right now, I'm filled with sensations typically associated with ipecac.

And homicide.

So when the good folks at Autemo offered to take a crack at rendering the butternut millstone into something close to my ultimate vision for the project, I was a little skeptical. It wasn't that I doubted the site's skills. Autemo is a gateway between enthusiasts and a global network of artists with a similar passion for vehicles. If you've got a laundry list of modifications in mind, the crew at Autemo can render them into photo-realistic images in a hurry so that you know exactly what they look like before you spend buckets of cash on parts. So far, the site has served up designs to over 250 clients.

But I'm a man of meager goals, especially when it comes down to this truck. The simple fact is that I'd pawn an organ or three just to be able to pilot the beast across town without having to worry about careening into oncoming traffic, erupting into a fireball or, most dreaded of all, have to be towed home by an inferior model pickup.

There is no greater shame.

That's not to say that I don't have a vision for what I'd do with the machine if I had more money than sense. Jack Davies, the marketing manager of Autemo, urged me test his rendering abilities with whatever wants I could dream up no matter how specific. I set aside a solid afternoon for daydreaming and got to work.

Continue reading Autemo gives the '75 International 150 pickup the rendering treatment...

Photos copyright ©2010 Zach Bowman / AOL

Renderings by Autemo.com

[Source: Autemo]

I hit Davies with an email that must have read like an obsessive compulsive's grocery list. Aside from generic wants like banishing dents, dings and rust, I specified details down to exactly which vintage International Harvester cab lights I wanted.

Drunk with possibilities, I demanded the following:

* Delete the gaudy aluminum body molding
* Black spray-in bed liner
* Sandstorm Tan paint borrowed from the Toyota FJ Cruiser
* Modest 3-inch lift
* Black the bumpers
* A pair of Hella model 500 lamps in the front bumper
* International Emblem in the front grille
* Sliding rear glass window
* California-style side-view mirrors
* Five vintage IH cab lights
* Black ladder/material rack
* A rearview mirror
* 31x10.50 BFGoodrich KM2 rubber

I supplemented the request with a basketful of images sourced from Google Image searches to give Davies an idea of what I was rambling about, and within a day I was supplied with the mouth-watering truck you see above. How's that for hotness? For comparison's sake, let's take a look at how the truck stood in November of last year.



All bow before the power of Photoshop.

Davies says that a typical rendering like the one for the IH will set you back around $150, which seems plenty reasonable to me. After laying eyes on the slicked-over view of the truck, I was finally able to muster up the gumption to dive into rebuilding the front axle last weekend. It's funny what a little motivation will do for you.

If you feel a little skittish about handing over a stack of dollar bills so that someone else can bring your vision for your vehicle to screen, don't be. Autemo has a satisfaction guaranteed policy, and each rendering comes with multiple stages of work-in-progress design so that owners can tweak anything they don't like. If for whatever reason you don't dig what you see, you can have every last copper cent of your hard-earned money back.

You can check out exactly what the artists at Autemo can pull off when they aren't hindered by having to work with an ugly pickup truck by taking a peek at a gallery of some of the artists' more outrageous renderings, or hop over to the company's site for more information. If you think you've got what it takes to perform similar miracles, you can even sign up to become an Autemo artist and get paid for your work.