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1959 Dodge -- My Tunaboat Replica -- W.I.P.


Ramfins59

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I am finally making a Replica of the '59 Dodge that I owned from 1996 to 2005. It was pretty much my fair weather daily driver from October, 1996 through June, 2000 when I stopped driving due to partial vision loss after a series of TIA's or strokes. I sold the car in June of 2005 and I miss it immensely, along with driving in general.

Thanks to my friend and fellow modeler and Forum member, John Augugliaro (Fastback340), who sent me a pristine, unbuilt '59 Dodge Promo, work has begun on the Tunaboat Replica. The car was given the nickname "Tunaboat" by my friends and fellow LIARS Club members after some butt-hole kid in my neighborhood threw a dead baby shark on the front seat (I absent-mindedly left the front window open) and the fish baked to the front seat upholstery in the hot sun all day. It took weeks to get the stink out of the car.

I sanded the mold lines from the body along with the hood ornament, the Lancer badges on the front quarters and the molded on wipers. I have chromed wipers, spotlights, mirrors and antenna's. I sawed off the taillight bezels and will replace them with chromed ones from Modelhaus which I have. '59 Caddy bullet taillights were glued into the chrome bezels. The grille was blackwashed and polished PE headlight half moon shields were glued onto the headlights after I gave the lenses a coat of white acrylic. I also have a set of Bob Dudek lake pipes set aside for this car.

I primed the body with Duplicolor primer/sealer and sprayed the fins with Model Master Wimbledon White lacquer. Once that dried I masked off the fins and then sprayed the rest of the body with Model Master Afrika Mustard enamel. When that dried I peeled the masking off the fins and here is how it looks at the moment......

TUNABOATREPLICAPAINTED1024x753_zps10b51c

As you can see from the pictures of the car, the paints matched up pretty well. The Afrika Mustard was a tad lighter when it was wet. Once I spray it all with either enamel or acrylic gloss clearcoat and then do all the BMF work, it should all look a little neater.

Now I move on to working on the resin modelhaus interior for the car. Thanks for looking in on this build. Additional updates will come as they happen. Any and all comments are welcomed.

Edited by Ramfins59
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Thank you all very much everyone. I appreciate your encouraging words.

Chris, thanks for worrying about me. I took a break over the holidays for visiting family and enjoying the holiday festivities. Then I fought a chest cold which kicked my butt for about a week. I haven't wanted to sit at my bench down in my chilly basement with all the zero degree weather we've been having lately. My gas furnace has been running constantly. I just got the highest gas bill I've ever had since we moved here 7 years ago.

Carl, yeah I really miss the sense of independence that driving gives you. Thankfully my wife plays chauffeur for me whenever I need to go anywhere.

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Sorry you had to get rid of your 59...looks like it was a beautiful ride. Art on wheels. Really sorry you can't drive anymore. One of my favorite things in the world to do and due to an injury I haven't been able to just cruise for the last year but it has lead me back to this hobby after many years and I must say I really missed it. Right now I am also building a car I used to own...a 77 FIrebird only I am doing it the way I wanted to build it before I had to get rid of it years ago with finances being tight and having a family. Best wishes to you Rich and I look forward to watching this build.

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That's a real sharp build you got going Rich! Your 1:1 reminds me of the one my Uncle owned back in the mid '70's except his was white.

Frankly, I think the late '50's Mopars were the best looking cars on the road. Of course, styling is subjective, but Chrysler had the best integrated design with the fins, and the use of chrome. Too bad that sort of creativity and daring has been lost except for a few.

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Thanks again for all the kind words everyone. It is really appreciated.

John, you got it buddy. If you can make to the host hotel on either Friday or Saturday nights I'll even hook you up with some "liquid libation" of your choice.

Remember, I'm just over the bridge and can be out there in 40 minutes. Maybe a Friday night Banzi run is in order…..

Unless I bring Amy as the designated driver, I doubt I'll drink. But it could be fun just to hang out without the "show" getting in the way. B)

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I think it will be "back to the drawing board" on this. The longer that the Afrika Mustard color enamel paint dried, the darker it got, and now it looks almost brown...... way too dark for replicating the actual color of the car. It will be a trip to the paint stripper and a "do over". I have another color option to check out and I'll advise the results of that after I check it out.

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I think it will be "back to the drawing board" on this…..

If your not happy, that's all that matters. I thought it looked dark in pictures too, but it's hard to tell. My car always looks blue in pictures, but it's a green/blue (Turquoise!) that never photographs right.

Strip-it and try plan B. B)

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Yeah John, I'm not happy with the color at all. It doesn't even come close. I sprayed a sample of another Tamiya color (Dark Yellow) but that too was way too dark. So it looks like it'll be "back to the hunt" for paint that matches. I googled 1959 Dodge paint colors and nothing comes close to the color of the car, so I'm thinking that maybe over the years someone repainted the car, although the jams and under hood and trunk areas were all the same color. I recall that in a spot where the paint was chipping, it was really thick (for a paint chip).

John, no, I wasn'y planning on replicating the baby shark. BTW, my daughter asked if I was going to replicate the beanie baby fish that Tommy tied to the antenna's and the multi-color plastic, magnetized letters spelling out

"U S S TUNABOAT" that he stuck on the side of the car to freak me out. I wasn't planning on doing that either. That whole episode is one that I'd like to forget actually.

As a side note here, I thought that my old Dodge was the only car to be called a Tunaboat. Apparently I was wrong.... Check out this site...!!! http://tedstunaboats.com/

This saga will continue.

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I've seen the actual car and while it does appear close, there's really no way to tell without an actual paint "chip". Rich will ultimately make the call….

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