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Vanishing Point Challenger Update 9/14/2015


MGL

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Tonight I started a model I've been wanting to build for years,The Vanishing point Challenger. My camera battery is dead so no pictures of my progress yet but all Ive done so far is clean up some parting lines and study the parts. I started with the Revell Streetburner 70 Challenger kit.

 revell 25 challenger-1970-box t

The engine looks like its a bit generic so I will put it together tomorrow and see how it looks and If I'm not happy with it I have the engine from the 68 Dart I can use. It looks like if you were building the T/A version you would still use this same almost a big block engine so if that's your plan you will want to source a better 340. The seats also look a bit wrong for the car, here are some 70 R/T seats with the herringbone pattern:

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And the back seats:

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 I'm not up to date on all the ways Dodge offered the R/T in 1970 but Kowalski's car had a black rather than argent grill surround, and no chin spoilers. It also had bumperettes, I'm not sure how I am going to add those:

 1970-dodge-challenger-rt-vanishing-point

The taillight surround was body color:

vanishingpointraef

It also looks like the tires were the Good Year poly glass tires, the parts pack tires should be a good fit for this. I've got a couple of herringbone patterns saved for decals along with a few other important items like these:

81AI0ce-QJL SL1500

18246467-Black-and-white-seamless-houndstooth-pattern-or-texture--Stock-Photo

RTP3444938 0

I'm looking forward to this build, as always your comments and suggestions are welcome, and if you've built this kit before and some advice I'm all ears. Although it should be mentioned I'm not a complete rivet counter so I will let the not so obvious slide. Heck, most people that look at my models have never even heard of Vanishing Point or can tell a 70 Challenger from a 2010 for that matter.

 

 

 

Edited by MGL
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For the original movie...Dodge sent over 5 Alpine White Challengers for the production company to use for the movie, 4 of them were 440 4spd cars, the fifth was a 383 auto. They actually used the 383 car to tow the camaro into the two D8's at the end of the movie. If you wanted to build one to represent the car from the Fox remake, you could use a HEMI motor, they showed one on film, but it was actually in a Charger...different air cleaner. Good luck...can't wait to see more!!

Edited by dieseldog1970
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My wife snuck up on me.

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The interior is almost done, The houndstooth pattern is a bit big but it doesn't look hateful in the car.DSC02299

The battery and washer bottle are done, I put a mopar battery decal on the side of the battery.

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The grill still needs the decal and I still have some BMF work to do on the window trim. The hood trim was short so I glued a strip of evergreen to it and sanded until it came correct.

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Still a lot of odds and ends to do and I am waiting on some distributors from Morgan Automotive Details.

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I'm still not sure what is going to be the best way to fill in the black in the hood scoops as they have no guidelines. I'm leaning towards black sharpie.

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I couldn't find Alpine white so I used what used to be called GM code 10, it was always a close match before and under the lights in my garage it feels about right. I didn't notice this car has power windows until I started detailing the door panels but I am going with it. Thanks for looking.

 

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Thanks Gene, Russell, I haven't looked at the AMT kit, if your going to do full engine detailing the revel kit isn't bad but it does have an axle running through the block. You could do away with that easily enough but I left it and so far it looks like it won't be an issue. Other than that the Revell kit has everything except the bumperettes on the front bumper and the seats are the wrong pattern. and it would have been nice to get a couple extra R/T decals on the sheet.

Here's what I did today. The parts pack Polyglass tires are an exact match to the movie car, the side with the tire size is out in the movie. The kit has paddle wheels that don't quite fit the rear tires so I filed a groove were the bead should be on the front side.

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Then I bent some angled evergreen stock to get a curve.

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I glued the evergreen to the back side of the wheel to create a back bead.

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After some MM steel paint the backside doesn't look to hateful and the tires are secure instead of flopping around on the wheel. I also found some disc brakes in my parts box for the front.

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I'm pretty happy with my pistol grip shifter, I had tried to BMF the chrome part but ended up snapping the pistol grip off and had to glue it back together so I painted it instead.

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The steering wheel is notched and I didn't realize it wasn't lined up until I put it in the dash.

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The body is all done, just waiting on the engine.

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Still working on the R/T decals for the fenders, tomorrow I will attempt to make the bumperettes for the front and do all the engine details I can while I wait on the distributor. And I will try to tackle that black inside the hood scoops.

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That's where I am now, also looking at my next project, thinking about the 41 Plymouth stock looking but with a Hemi since I really don't want to spend days doing research. Thanks for looking.

 

 

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My first attempt at painting the black in the hood scoops ended badly and in trying to wipe out the black with denatured alcohol I wiped through the clear. I touched up the paint, tried again with a fine point sharpie and recleared the hood and it came out much better. But I didn't take a picture yet. I took some evergreen stock and glued it together leaving the last 1/2 inch unglued, then I started filing and sanding.

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Bumperettes!

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Made a heater hose. I've seen pictures of restored cars with both hoses black, both red and one red and one black. I'm not sure what the car would have had new so I went with one each. I also ran a PVC hose, a throttle cable, and a fuel line.

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That's about all I can do until my order comes in from Kris Morgan. I ordered 10 distributors from him but he makes such a nice product I'm sure he's busy so I'm not going to sweat it, besides I only ordered them 6 days ago. Thanks for looking.

 

 

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outstanding work Mark! the VP challenger will always be one of the baddest cars around. Even though it wasn't anything special, it showed how much attitude and general badassness it could throw at you and the cops ;)  keep it up, looking forward to completion!

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Looks very nice. Don't forget to Bare Metal the side window drip mouldings. The VP Challenger R/T had them.

All the times I looked at this car I never noticed. I just looked at a couple of pictures and you can see the sun reflecting off the chrome. Thank you Ron, good catch!

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Thanks for the comments, I got the BMF on the drip rails and the R/T decals for the fender done but in looking at the kit box Scott posted above I realized I forgot the 440 magnum decals for the hood. All that's left is that, the distributor, and final assembly. My local hobby shop sells Parts by Parks distributors and wire, in fact I just used one on the 41 Plymouth I plan on finishing tomorrow, but with this one being right out front and not hidden under an air cleaner I want to wait on the MAD distributor. Sorry, no pictures today, not that there's much to see. 

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The chassis and the body on this Revell kit don't match up too well. After ensuring the window unit was seated all the way, and the interior was also seated all the way, the chassis plate hung down about 1/8 below the body. I shaved a bit off the bottom of the rear window and that brought everything up a little. I then bent the tabs on the back of the interior tub and shaved them down some for another small gain. Then a shaved as much as I dared off the mating surfaces of the interior tub and chassis plate until it came correct.

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The distributor is in and I printed a copy of one of the movie posters for the display box. I am moving this over to under glass now ( http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/topic/105808-vanishing-point-challanger/ ). Thanks for looking and for all the kind words and encouragement.

Edited by MGL
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