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Poor Poor Pitiful Swap Meet '66 Mustang


Snake45

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Saw this started AMT '66 Mustang at a recent toy/train show/swap meet and was taken by the beautiful dark green paint someone had skillfully laid on it. Didn't need another copy of this kit but the price was right. When I got it home and looked at the paint under my Optivisor, it wasn't quite as nice as I first thought, but ah shucks oh well, that's the reason I bought it and I'm not gonna bother stripping and repainting it. (It's actually a little darker than it looks in the pics.)

At first I was just gonna go ahead and Snake-slap it together factory stock, but the paint's not metallic and so not a perfect match for the Ford color. So now I'm thinking of making a "high school hot rod" out of it, circa somewhere in the 1969-72 timeframe. In other words, a couple cheap changes like maybe chrome reverse wheels with L60s on the rear, rear end jacked up a little with extended spring shackles, custom grille, maybe custom taillights, stuff like that.

Or does anyone else have any other good ideas? I just need a quick, "gitter done" slump-buster project to get my chemicals flowing again after a several month building layoff.

66MustangHT03_zpsbekx1nkj.jpg

66MustangHT05_zpspxkzz7v2.jpg

BTW, the kit came with all the stock parts and the front valence is painted to match, so no problems there.

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I have a Lindberg 64 Dodge 330 I want to do the same way, shackles L-60's, mismached paint, cherry bombs, and thrush stickers. I'm looking forward to seeing were you go with this. Do have a source for the tires yet?

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Do have a source for the tires yet?

Think I'm just gonna use old-school AMT solid vinyl Firestone Supremes on the front, and common AMT hollow Goodyear L60s on the rear. The project's not really worth any "good" tires.

"High school hot rod" will have a double meaning on this one. With no advanced bodywork done (door lines deepened, new panel lines scribed in, mold marks removed, etc.), it'll look very much like the models I built in Jr. high/high school, when this car would have been seen on the street.

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Mildly entertaining post-apocalyptic movie with random clever parts to it, a few entertaining vehicles, including the star vehicle

i057716.jpg

Been done here before by Rob Mattis, but one could borrow the basic theme and/or borrow the theme of another mustang movie car variant, if the offroad look appeals to you:

photos:dallas-texas-645052.JPG?133090583

Edited by Russell C
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Back in the day, my uncles and their buddies all seemed to follow the same approach to hot-rodding on a budget: First, jack it up in the back, usually with Gabriel Hi-Jackers air shocks and/or extended shackles. Second followed closely behind; wider tires on chrome wheels out back. Very common then in my neck of the woods to see new 15x8(or 10)-inch Cragars and white letter tires on the rear with stock steelies up front. ( Just cheaper to buy 2 at a time, as budget allowed ) Thirdly, traction bars; Lakewood brand, please. Fourth would involve exhast, depending what your car had to begin with, you either bought Hooker headers or Thrush mufflers, if not both. Cherry bombs were also accepted. J.C.Whitney provided chrome exhaust tips. By this point, priorities shift and vary, but alot of no-name chrome engine dress-up goodies appear, as do under-dash 8-track players and Jensen Co-axial 6x9s in the rear shelf.

Oh yeah, it was very important to show your colors; that is to apply all those complimentary "stickers" the above manufacturers included with their products to the rear quarter windows of your ride, thus looking "race car-ish" without messing up your paint/primer!

I swear those boys chose Hooker headers just because Hooker had the biggest and coolest stickers!

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Don't forget the Lakewood traction bars.

I'm thinking this will be more of an "appearance" hot rod than a "performance" hot rod. I see the engine (not that I'm going to bother putting one in) as being "modified" with at most a chrome air cleaner and valve covers and a sharp tune (not even headers). I don't think the power would require traction bars when there are more 8-track tapes to buy! B):lol:

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Don't forget the FM converter!!!

Oh yeah! I had one of those in a '69 Camaro!

Truth to tell, I'm not gonna put much effort into the interior. It's been painted a flat tan or beige. I'm gonna rattlecan it satin black and hit it with a little chrome trim--maybe some woodgrain, I dunno yet.

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Primered rear fender flares and paint the gas tank and rear axle white, with two extra stock taillights for each side, and little orange horseshoes on the lower panel below the rear bumper (Clark gas stations used to give 'em away IIRC).

Not gonna do primered flares but there were some bolt-on stainless steel or aluminum "stone guards" you'd see back in the day--I might try those behind the L60s..

Not wild about dual taillights, but JC Whitney used to sell Mustang taillights that were just basically red plastic rectangles. Might try to make those. They also had a full-width "grille" looking thing. If I can figger out how to make one of those, I'd give that a try.

I know the orange horseshoes you're talking about, but I've never heard of Clark gas. I think maybe Gulf gave those away in my area. But I think those were more around 1964 to 1966 or 7 or so--I think those were pretty much gone by 1970 or so, which is the timeframe I'm going for.

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Don't forget the FM converter!!!

Oh yeah! I had one of those in a '69 Camaro!

 

Truth to tell, I'm not gonna put much effort into the interior. It's been painted a flat tan or beige. I'm gonna rattlecan it satin black and hit it with a little chrome trim--maybe some woodgrain, I dunno yet.

I hear ya. It'd be tough to make a 1:25 matchbook to jam in the 8track.

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I grew on the Texas coast, so I remember the older guys driving around with the back jacked up with wide tires and mags on the back and stock wheels and hubcaps on the front. And being in a rust prone area, there were the obligatory spray can primer spots and Bondo.  And the JC Whitney mail order or local Western Auto chrome parts.

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I grew on the Texas coast, so I remember the older guys driving around with the back jacked up with wide tires and mags on the back and stock wheels and hubcaps on the front. And being in a rust prone area, there were the obligatory spray can primer spots and Bondo.  And the JC Whitney mail order or local Western Auto chrome parts.

Sounds like you smell what I'm cookin' here. Not gonna do primer on this, though--the paint story (since it's a nonstandard color) will be that it's either a $59.95 Earl Scheib job, or was done in the school's Auto Body class--take your pick. B)

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  • 2 weeks later...

I found a pic of one of the JC Whitney custom rear end treatments of the day. I saw a few of these in real life back in the day. Would LOVE to be able to do this on this model--anyone have any ideas on how to accomplish it?

Tried to "insert the image" but like last night, it just sits there and spins and nothing happens. Here's the link to the pic, you can click on it yourself:

http://www.packlighter.com/65TAIL.jpg

 

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I found a pic of one of the JC Whitney custom rear end treatments of the day. I saw a few of these in real life back in the day. Would LOVE to be able to do this on this model--anyone have any ideas on how to accomplish it?

Tried to "insert the image" but like last night, it just sits there and spins and nothing happens. Here's the link to the pic, you can click on it yourself:

 

http://www.packlighter.com/65TAIL.jpg

Here's another pic of the same arrangement:

 

http://i1220.photobucket.com/albums/dd450/justgldns/P1010072.jpg

 

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