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Wilhelms Wild Dream


jbwelda

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some of you may have been following this in the workbench section, just finished it up tonite with epoxing the windshield frame into place. saving the best for last as usual! anyway it sure turned out a lot nicer than i may have even wished for. stuff actually fit together well, or at least could be made to pretty easily despite lack of stable gluing points.

i changed up a few things, for one thing got rid of the dragmaster slicks on all four wheels...replaced the front with smaller rolling stock, though kept the wheels. honestly i dont see how you could have used the slicks on the front axle as it is extremely delicate even with the smaller tires you can see it stress whenever you move it. thats why i think i will put it on the kinda cool but not really display stand that came with the kit, to keep from having to move the model itself. anyway i can only imagine what the load would be on the stress points with heavy tires like those slicks.

another thing is i got impatient with trying to find a near correct color so i went with an old favorite of mine, model master deep purple pearl or something, followed by a couple coats of clear. everything laid down nice and smooth which was good because i didnt want to deal with trying sand this delicate body after already having ruined one body by breaking off the tip of the rear fender! as it turns out though it would be pretty easily repairable because of the big chrome fender liners form the same tip. another amazing thing i learned for next time (and i have a couple of these kits to build) is you can build the body complete and it will fit, barely, into place over the rear suspension and frame. that means you can seal up all the seams which i (ahem) failed to do because i thought the instrux (!&%#) implied you had to fit the body around the frame which would have been an interesting and velocity inducing experience, im sure.

yes well here are some pics and i will post some more on the stand as soon as i can.

the left side hood fits a lot better than some of these photos show. i didnt notice it wasnt settled down properly when i took some of the shots.

rightsidefront.jpg

rightsideback.jpg

rearlookingdowncarhooda.jpg

rearendfromleft.jpg

niceprofilefromrightfro.jpg

niceinterior.jpg

leftsiderear.jpg

leftsidefront.jpg

coolprofilelookingdownl.jpg

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Man, that looks nice Bill!!! I like the look with the smaller front tires. I have the original double kit in the AMT box, and someday will build it. My good friend Chuck Darnell has built both kits, here is the only pic I could find on my computer...

101_0128.jpg

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hey thanks for looking and all your kind comments!

one thing i have noticed with every buildup of this i have seen (and i have only seen them on this message board to be honest), is that the interior bucket doesnt really fit the shell too well. it needs to be less deep so the body can sit down over the frame a bit more, and also so that the rear of the seat can fit over the shell a bit better. in attacking those two problems, a hopeful side effect would be to eliminate that small bit of the interior bucket that sits above the body on the sides, esp right next to where the seat starts. for my next one (who knows when...) i think i will do a little more work on making the interior fit better. it would be really nice to see that seat sit down over the rear lip of the body. as i recall from test fitting though, that just isnt going to happen without some modifications to the top of the seat. the other thing about the interior is it screams for some added details. there are no pedals for instance and you can pretty clearly see down there so at least a chrome moon pedal for accelerator would be nice. i might actually add that to this one later because it really screams out at you.

i did leave off the grille ornament though because it looks too big to me. i kind of like it though so maybe it will end up on the car eventually.

it really was a pretty fun build and i really should use the lessons from this one to build a next one that looks really great.

more pics to come in a few minutes...

thanks again for the comments, i really appreciate that someone else appreciates this kind of lost kit.

Edited by jbwelda
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yes the rarity and value of the kit is of little concern to me sometimes.

i actually got the first kit (not counting when i had it when it was originally issued) because i wanted to build the King T. not that i liked it so much, but because i got to know don tognotti over the years a little bit and he was a guest judge at a contest i entered once, and he awarded me his "pick" trophy, and i wanted something to display with or on it!

so i actually got the first kit for about 60$ in very nice shape a few years ago. not a bad price at all. i never did get to building the King T yet, but will attempt that one next. my biggest obstacle to that build right now is not being able to match the paint even close out of a spray can. i will have to beg a friend of mine to mix up some paint and airbrush it for me. but unlike the wild dream, i DO want the King T to be as accurate a representation as possible...and the thing was just restored and it was at a show here a few months ago and i got great detail photos to use as a resource.

i always really loved the Wild Dream and once i got the kit i just gravitated to building it first.

i once read an article in car and driver i think it was, about how "odd" cars seem to multiply when stored. it mentioned some guy who bought one corvair and before you know it, it had multiplied all over the field it sat in, because the owner kept buying others for parts, or just because it was so darn cheap he couldnt pass it up.

so it has been with me and this kit: i have gathered up a few examples over the past couple years. that means to me its not all that rare. they seem to go for about the same as i paid, 50 - 60 for a decent example though with a torn up box or missing a minor part or two, and come up pretty often. so i have to conclude they really arent that rare afterall. in fact, for that price i think they are competitive with modern, imported kits and surprisingly cheap considering it is two complete cars, including display stands and everything! i have 4 boxes in my closet right now and at least one of those boxes has a couple of semi-built examples in them. i have already supplied some King T parts to a friend of mine also building the car but have a lot of misc parts if anyone needs specific ones, PM me and we can work it out. if you are going to build it, i can support that!

while i wasnt aware that it (the molds) had been pillaged for other releases, i dont doubt it either. (btw, what other releases are parts of Wild Dream in?) i just thought the kit disappeared into the clouds of obscurity.

RIP Don, a permanent solution to a temporary problem.

thanks again for looking and commenting on this thread, i am really pleased how well this kit went together and look forward to starting on the King T soon. i really consider it an honor to read the comments from people well known and not so well known but respected just the same!

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