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Dodge Charger by MPC


mitchy

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I have not done much over the xmas period, but I did start to fiddle with the MPC Dukes of Hazzard Charger.... I do not plan to build it in Dukes trim, it is a hash up of a few different models; Petty’s ‘73 Nascar charger, amongst others. There is no rear seat, no inner front wings (fenders) apparently the engine is not correct, tires way too fat etc etc so I ‘m going to build my own dream race-prepped street charger mash up.

so far I have the 426 cu in hemi painted and built, and I am working on the body at the moment, adding front wheel arch tops as the kit comes with nascar style round-topped arches- I have replaced tbe missing plastic with the bonnet (hood) gap sprue so as to have exactly the same plastic as the front fenders for material integrity.

Stock round-topped arch closest to camera, the repaired flat-top at rear:

9366168F-5F92-4AAC-9CDE-FF298B2AA51E.jpeg.85cd47878b067e62562071953a4e8dfd.jpeg

That piece of flat sprue was  shaped and welded in place. It even has the correct curvature, so hopefully no stress or strain to crack in the future:

5792AE5B-5962-44A6-AE94-D7BA79D9B60E.jpeg.5d7a8b076863e2cd8ec1e7bc95a547de.jpeg

Arch is shaped in situ, small gaps are filled with tamiya styrene cement:

65794712-E18F-4017-9937-40928192CFBE.jpeg.6e45a0d9ffac12ee06423d1f0a90000b.jpeg

Righthand arch shaped and primed, lots of wet sanding to do still before the paint goes on, but a seamless repair:

54004272-2213-420B-B3C5-0A02C7CDF07D.jpeg.33df5fb49c7f7a7ae8ce26b2a826997d.jpeg

Nicely detailed hemi v8, but the manifold headers come with no exhaust pipes to empty into... go figure.

 I’ll have to make my own from scratch.

A40377F4-A2D5-44F3-A3F4-969E2B506EA7.jpeg.63285e8c0ea738df52e83aef9c95c376.jpeg

Other little niggles appear whilst test fitting; such as the roll cage which is designed for the 73 Charger just does not work in this earlier 69 body- more chopping and bending to be done then...

FC7CDBBF-0DBF-4E16-A79A-1C300989DD4E.jpeg.3630b43bc4213a440e42fc72001827e7.jpeg

All in all not a bad model, but to build it box-stock would be somewhat disappointing for me. 

There is also a cubic tonne of flash on many parts, everything needs a good clean up, though the detail is more than acceptable. Even the engine block has molded in cylinders and pistons, the heads have the combustion chambers and valves, and even the camshaft and rocker assemblies are supplied. There is a clutch, also never to be seen once assembled.... Obviously some thought was put in to the simple enjoyment of the build, rather than the show of the final result! 

Edited by mitchy
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As a true 60s-70s fan, I am toying the idea of a strong body colour contrasting with a satin black painted vinyl-effect roof. 

I then remembered that I have some scraps of satin black 3M vinyl wrap, so I have just made a little test. Looks promising...

The bonus is that it can be applied exactly as a real vinyl roof, with the overlap seam and all. Cool.

Here’s a photo

A9EC440E-26FF-4AB0-BCDC-0CCC6B67AA8C.jpeg.2b8ea46aa7fad3ba8f854e1c6dbf01e7.jpeg

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It is probably wise to put it on a bit warm, not really hot though. I actually put it on for this test at ambient temperature (approx 15C, 54F) and it went down quite easily. I think installers use some gentle hot air for complex bodywork contours.

Wrapping it around the extremities like window returns probably requires a higher ambient temp, but I did not try it as I was afraid to pull the primer off whilst peeling off this test piece. 

 

 

 

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20 hours ago, mitchy said:

It is probably wise to put it on a bit warm, not really hot though. I actually put it on for this test at ambient temperature (approx 15C, 54F) and it went down quite easily. I think installers use some gentle hot air for complex bodywork contours.

Wrapping it around the extremities like window returns probably requires a higher ambient temp, but I did not try it as I was afraid to pull the primer off whilst peeling off this test piece. 

 

 

 

Thanks for the tip, I will definitely be checking out this stuff. Product description says it has "air channels". I assume that means the adhesive reverse side is somewhat engineered in such a way as not to let any "air bubbles" occur during application. 

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I managed to get the paint on over the last few days.

Vallejo Premium grey primer over the bare plastic, some sanding and corrections, Tamiya fine white straight from the can (magical forgiving stuff, I care not if you disagree!), and a custom blend (I count the drops into the AB), 10 Vallejo Premium Red : 3 Yellow Ochre, and some distilled water, which gives that hot-but-not-quite-orange-almost-fluorescent colour I was after. I think a Charger looks best red and black (or blue or yellow or orange, white, brown, for that matter.....)

Next up is a light sanding to lose any texture, and a polish- no need for clear, but that’ll have to wait. I can get on with the chassis and interior.

Then its time to vinyl the roof and chrome up! Whoopee.

———

Tamiya fine primer looks awful lumpy when fresh, (but never fails to amaze once cured):

53F183DA-3FEE-43CB-88EF-7C0182924C90.jpeg.566ff2e444987a1c8478c58cafdfb876.jpeg

Indoors:

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Outdoors, I can’t wait to polish! (Hey, There’s no filler cap on this model- hmmph!)

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Front wheel arches turned out great -phew!

 

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Better leave it to cure properly for a week or two, time for some other projects, Thanks for looking.

 

Edited by mitchy
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Good question!

My method is to lay down some resin masking tape to mark the limit of the vinyl roof. This will give me a marked edge to burnish the vinyl up to. I then carefully cut along this edge, much like one would with BMF, and remove the excess vinyl, along with the masking tape.

I have some heavy aluminium foil tape that I cut into strips and apply as trim.

The trim is quite flat rather than round, and the thick alu tape mimics this very well:

7542AF99-1865-4295-8DB1-A91D30A705FA.jpeg.a19fef045e5ba56ef33d9d2301ed527c.jpeg

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I can more easily polish the paintwork prior to applying the beading. This gives a fully polished paint surface right up to the vinyl, without having the beading in the way:

9423DFB5-4741-49FA-A413-7AA4E2C1FABC.jpeg.6806457b132c027b98ea2a92db219a37.jpeg

 

Mark out the limits of the vinyl with precision masking tape, and check that there is enough vinyl to cover the area! 

BCB2BAA4-5265-46C1-AABE-974BE1349D9B.jpeg.e27238ff99a9ac5b83c67cc795459bd3.jpeg

 

Vinyl applied; worked well into the corners and edges of the masking tape beneath:

91862215-0EFD-46B3-A21C-991078B2E3D7.jpeg.72d4b1348a0396a85509865e4a4a1fc2.jpeg

 

Cut with a fresh blade along the inner relief edge of the tape and all along the periphery, and carefully weedle out the excess, using any means available. A toothpick is the perfect tool to hold down the vinyl at this very acute convergence point:

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Use a finger nail or toothpick to get the vinyl’s edge into those nooks and crannies. 

Then small strips of adhesive alu tape are carefully run where necessary:

F79F6DDD-4D71-4F1B-B648-0F5D83C8A168.jpeg.b55d22cbe3c6c8131ad07106a3d4cbd1.jpeg

The top roof section is then measured and fitted after the two sides.

Bingo!

 

Edited by mitchy
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I have been painting wheels today. As I have finally got around to removing the chrome, I thought I might try to paint one of the Charger wheels. 

I AB’d the rim in silver, then hand brushed in the dark grey elements.

My tyre lettering needs some work!

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