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The Straight Six community build


Chuck Most

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After looking at the tail picture I posted earlier, it was obvious the left bezel was slightly misaligned, so it was adjusted until I was satisfied with the fit. Tomorrow I can add the filler strips, align the bumper and adjust the bumper-to-panel gap, then decide how I want to attach the bumper:

rearpaneldone.jpg

I also cleaned up the steering wheel and removed the horn ring, assembled the headrests from a '69 Charger which I will use with the '68 bucket seats, cleaned up the steering column (but did not yet add the column shift lever), and snagged the battery, 2-speed windshield wiper motor from the '69 Charger kit, too:

sharedparts.jpg

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I attached the tail light bezels and trunk panel to the body shell tonight, added some styrene rod from behind to strengthen the joints, cleaned up the gaps a bit, then cut, fit, and glued the little trim pieces beneath each bezel. The trim pieces will need to be thinned slightly once the glue has cured, but the back end of the car is almost done:

finalbumperfit.jpg

The rear bumper will need to be re-chromed, but I should be able to mask the bezels and preserve the chrome finish.

The lump on the left inner fender where the battery tray should reside was cut out, so I will patch that area and make a battery tray, then place the modified battery from the '69 Charger R/T kit on top:

battray.jpg

I need to start thinking about interior and exterior colors soon, too. :)

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Looking awesome Casey

Thank you, Darrin. :) I'm happy with it so far, and still motivated to work on it, which is good.

Tan with a black vinyl interior! :rolleyes: Green or brown would also be acceptable. ;)

I would prefer not to do a black interior for a number of reasons, so that will probably be a last resort interior color choice. Black carpeting, maybe.

I'm leaning toward a gold/beige exterior, with a gold/beige/light green interior.

I'm still working on the trans tunnel, and need to apply another primer coat tomorrow:

tunnel1-1.jpg

I have to remove the extra muffler locating pin and research how the A-body /6 exhaust was run, so I can start planning that out.

I did another rear bumper test fit after I sanded down the filler pieces a bit, so that back end is done, and the bumper will be sent to Chrome Tech USA for re-plating:

rear72212.jpg

I worked on both side of the now-flat hood, too, but nothing exciting, really. Just sand, prime, and repeat.

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Looking good folks.

Heres some of my previous sixes.

ForPly - Plymouth 6 in '31 Ford

31Ford06.jpg

Drift Rod - Early Skyline in '32 3 window

323Window01.jpg

Plymus Chryst - '41 Plymouth with Slant 6

PlymusChryst07-1.jpg

Thunderchild - Scratchbuilt DOHC head on blown Chevy 6 in '57 T-Bird

Thunderchild10.jpg

'63 Nova

63NovaConvertible010.jpg

Eraly Skyline in Nissan Vannette

Vannette02.jpg

'53 Vette

50sChevys24-05-095302.jpg

GTR 2000 Skyline

SkylineGTR200003.jpg

And this on is under construction with a 6 from an AMT '60 Pick up. More pics of this soon.

59ImpalaWIP30-05-12001.jpg

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The trans tunnel is pretty much done, pending a final test fit with the firewall/body. I have Duplicolor Filler Primer, superglue, and accelerator were all very helpful:

8112one.jpg

The hood got the same treatment, but still needs a little redefining of the character line and a bit more sanding:

8112hood1.jpg

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I got a few minor things accomplished on the '69 Dart today.

1) I test fit the hood on the body to make sure I hadn't sanded the edges too much or unevenly (which I did):

8412hoodtest.jpg

2) I removed the molded in/on torsion bar anchors and parking brake cables/brake lines, and cleaned up frame rail drain holes:

8412cleanup.jpg

3) I started to remove the B-body shifter boss and the molded on linkage, then shortened the manual transmission, though now I'm thinking I may have done so in error. I'm not sure if A-230 (or whatever was used) 3-speeds came in a shorter A-body length like the A-833 4-speeds did:

A230Abody.jpg

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Looking good, Fred. :)

I removed all the molded on torsion bar bits, used some styrene tube for new forward torsion bar sockets, and cut some thin steel rod I picked up at Hobby Lobby for torsion bars. Luckily, it was within .003" of the diameter needed for Slant Six bars, so I lucked out. I will add some torsion bar anchor detail to the backside of the trans crossmember and fill the holes on the front face, but where it's at now:

81312one.jpg

81312two.jpg

I forsee a Scale Hardware order in my near future. It would be nice to be able to use four scale bolts to hold the K-frame in place when needed, then be able to remove it when it comes time to finish everything. ^_^

I also stared boring out the wheel back centers, so I can use only the rim in combination with the drum brake backing plates and drums I picked up from Scenes Unlimited. :)

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I drilled out the centers of the four wheel backs, making four wheel hoop halves out of them, so now I have to chose wheels to go with them. I will probably use the 15" Goodyear Polyglas GT tires which I used for test fitting the hoops and drum brake backing plates:

hoops2.jpg

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Casey, you're gone buddy, but you already know this, right? Incredible detail work, this is going to be one beautiful Dart when it's finished!

Now onto my part, AMT's '50 Chevy Pickup. First up is replacing the plastic bed with one made of Basswood!

I started out by cutting a piece of basswood out to match the kit piece, tabs and all...
50ChevyPU001-vi.jpg

Then I cut the piece of plastic that goes at the tailgate end off the kit piece and mocked it up with the wooden floor...
50ChevyPU002-vi.jpg

I decided to drill out the "rolled" edges of the bed sides while I was at it, looks much better than a flat piece of plastic, doesn't it?
50ChevyPU003-vi.jpg

The bed floor mocked-up with the rest of the bed, so far, so good...
50ChevyPU004-vi.jpg

Next, more Basswood was cut into strips for the top half of the bed, along with some straps from some c-channel plastic I got from somewhere years ago.
50ChevyPU005-vi.jpg

Edited by Custom Mike
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Having decided I wanted a real wood bed, and seeing Casey's incredible detail work, I decided I wanted more detail! So I drilled out the fender bolts on the inside of the bed, and will replace them with straight pins!

Neatly drilled holes, what have I gotten myself into this time???
50ChevyPU006-vi.jpg

50ChevyPU007-vi.jpg

A quick mock-up to see how they'll look when they're in place...
50ChevyPU008-vi.jpg

P1300436-vi.jpg

Trust me, they'll be straight once they're clipped and glued down!
P1300437-vi.jpg

I scribed planks into the underside of the bed floor, this part will be visible from the bottom of the model...
50ChevyPU011-vi.jpg

The underside of the floor and the planks for the inside of the bed, all stained and ready for some glue!
50ChevyPU012-vi.jpg

At this point, I've added some angle styrene to the sides of the bed to hold the new wooden floor in place, and started gluing the strips to the bed floor...
50ChevyPU022-vi.jpg

50ChevyPU024-vi.jpg

And all the strips glued down. The straps are held in place without any glue, the strips are so tight that glue wasn't needed!
50ChevyPU013-vi.jpg

Edited by Custom Mike
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Almost done with the bed....

The straps have been trimmed up, and we're looking good so far!
50ChevyPU014-vi.jpg

Now I need to remove the attachment points from the kit bed, and attach them to the new wood bed, this looks like a job for my Trumpeter Panel Scriber!
50ChevyPU015-vi.jpg

I slowly started cutting the attachments loose...
50ChevyPU016-vi.jpg

Both attachments free and cleaned up for installation on the wooden bed...
50ChevyPU017-vi.jpg

Mocked-up on the wooden bed, along with another piece of the c-channel styrene for the stiffener between the attachments
50ChevyPU018-vi.jpg

Here's the forward attachment epoxied in place in it's new home...
50ChevyPU019-vi.jpg

The stiffener epoxied down...
50ChevyPU020-vi.jpg

And the rear attachment epoxied down. The marks on the edges of the bed were slightly off, so I used the frame to line them up in the proper locations.
50ChevyPU021-vi.jpg

The straps were painted with Alclad Aluminum, I thought I had some Chrome, but noooo...
50ChevyPU040-vi.jpg

And a bit of touch-up painting of the attachment points and stiffener, the new wooden bed is now completed!
50ChevyPU041-vi.jpg

Edited by Custom Mike
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