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Phil Bonner / AL Means Ford Thunderbolt


gtx6970

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Last one of the rush Ive been on. While looking thru my stash I realized I had nearly a half dozen of these kits still sealed.

Well,,not any longer. Im now down to 2 left and neither are no longer sealed.

This will be the last one for a while. Spring is coming quick and outside duties combined  garage time are calling louder every day.

 

Painted with Tamiya TS11 Maroon topped off with Testors wet look clear ( I like this clear a lot ) . Decals are from Top Ends ( aka Jack Smith )

Just lightly rubbed out in an attempt to remain close to a finish  I feel is about right for the era . Same interior colors as the others, a mix of Tamiya Champagne Gold a with duplicolor for the dash and upper door frames . Chrome accents on the interior were done with a 1mm chrome pen . Wheels on this one are Testors champagne cold ( its just a touch darker then the same color from Tamiya ). In person Its kind of like a dirty silver. I had the ones shown here , all Gold and chrome reverse on it and I think these looked the best compared to the 1/1.

I had issues with the fender decals so I decided to leave them off  to kinda sorta replicate the car as its restored today and still look something like the days of old .  The rest  went on with ZERO issues . The black in the body side moldings is a black sharpie then take the side of a tooth pick and drag along the edges to get a good clean crisp line in the black

 

As well as a final parting shot with the rest of the family .

 

Thanks for looking and comments / criticisms more then welcome .

 

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Edited by gtx6970
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Great job, and nice fleet of Tbolts!!

I saw the Bonner car at Chicago. It's too bad they painted it the wrong color, it should have been white.

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Bonner had a team of cars. I know of at least 2 were Burgundy. 1st one his driver crashed and totaled 

2nd one is the car I believe is restored today . Found it in a barn in Georgia I believe

 

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nice work, there, Bill.....I admire your devotion...you have six built car's on one table,  that's more than I've built in six year's...lol...:lol:....the Ace....:lol:

Thanks , But the Gas Ronda and Hubert Platt cars were built at least 15 years ago ,,maybe longer . Ive been going thru my stash to get ready to thin down. and When I saw I had a bunch of these put back and will with several decals sheets as well. I knew it was time to get them done. It was super easy to do them all, basically all 4 at once . The interiors are all the exact same .  Some subtle variations  underneath just to give each one some kind of character. ( white headers on the Tasca Ford car versus satin dark grey on 2 and flat black on the 4th  )  But basically the only differences are exterior  color and decals . On the 4 that I just built the chassis plate  and suspension are all the same - all 4  the front and rear suspensions were glued in and the whole assy was rattle canned satin black at the same time.

  I had some major decal issues on the Bob Ford car that just about made me put them all back in the box . But overall it made building 4 cars at once pretty easy . To be honest the hardest part of the entire project was finding a color that looked close to the tops of the doors and dash on the 1/1 cars.

Edited by gtx6970
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Bonner had three Thunderbolts. Four if you count the clone he had built before he passed away.

1. The burgundy one that was wrecked, and scrapped. It was one of the original 11 burgundy drag council Tbolts.

2. The Poppy Red hardtop (supposed built by H&M), now owned by Don Snyder.

3. The white one pictured above with Fred Lorenzen who drove in some match races. This is the car that was recently found in a barn, and restored by Donald Allen. it was painted burgundy like Bonner's first Tbolt instead of white. 

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Bonner had three Thunderbolts. Four if you count the clone he had built before he passed away.

1. The burgundy one that was wrecked, and scrapped. It was one of the original 11 burgundy drag council Tbolts.

2. The Poppy Red hardtop (supposed built by H&M), now owned by Don Snyder.

3. The white one pictured above with Fred Lorenzen who drove in some match races. This is the car that was recently found in a barn, and restored by Donald Allen. it was painted burgundy like Bonner's first Tbolt instead of white.

Many thanks, That I didn't know.  I read about the one found in the barn and where Bonner himself tried to buy several years earlier before he passed.  The article stated he knew it was his car instantly because it still had the chrome upper fan shroud he had done back when he raced it . So I ' assumed ' it was the maroon car . Thanks for the info

Edited by gtx6970
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A hardtop ? That would make it  NOT one of the original 100 sedans built ,,there for isn't a Thunderbolt in its  truest form ?

You are correct, it is not one of the 100 DST cars. I have heard it was built for Bonner by H&M, other than that I don't have much info on it. I've never even seen any vintage photos of it.

It's in good company here: http://www.snyderspecialtycars.com/

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Edited by fairlane1320
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  • 4 months later...
19 minutes ago, gtx6970 said:

Thanks.

I have 6 built so far. Maybe enough kits and decals to do maybe 3 or 4 more.

 

It is hands down my favorite kit of modern times

Im addicted to the Thunderbolt. I recently sent an email to that person you got your decals from... (Jack Smith). Just waiting for a reply. I’m currently working on the Bonner car, The Fugitive,  and the M/T car... which took some cutting up, in order to fit the Hemi heads in the bay. I got a lot of info from your thread “ Thunderbolt Colors” btw.... thanks...

Edited by Brutalform
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4 hours ago, Brutalform said:

BTW... what cars do you have decals for that you plan on building???

In all honesty, I don't remember for certainty. I know I have the Fugitive, the Butch Leal car.

We are planning a cross country move early this summer. so about all my model stuff is packed up or about to be  in prep for said move.

Jacks decals are sweet. You will not be dis-appointed

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Good luck on the moving. That can be rough. Yea, I’m still waiting for a reply from Jack.,I do have the Revell decals for the Phil Bonner car, except the two rear quarter “THUNDERBOLT “ decals. I was going to see if the extra Brannan decals I have in my stash are close enough to use. I would like to have the correct ones. Just finishing up The Fugitive now. I’m going to post all of my T Bolts later on. 

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 5/7/2018 at 5:25 PM, gtx6970 said:

In all honesty, I don't remember for certainty. I know I have the Fugitive, the Butch Leal car.

We are planning a cross country move early this summer. so about all my model stuff is packed up or about to be  in prep for said move.

Jacks decals are sweet. You will not be dis-appointed

Hey Bill... just finished the decals in my Bonner car. Those decals are a delight. I see what you mean about the blue “ FORD” front fender decals though. I decided not to use them either. Exactly why I didn’t add the white trim yet. 

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