'70 Grande

I always liked the "mod, 1970's" decals in this kit; I wish somebody would reissue/reprint the decal sheet for my build using the reissued Tweety Pie. Nice. nice build!

Beautiful build! Stunning paint and detail work!

Beautiful, beautiful build! The lowering that you did to this build really sets it apart from most Nascar Kulwicki T-Birds; makes it really look good and race-worthy.

Wow, Carl, this is a really good one! Nice, super-clean build!

To me, visually, there is an excellent visual-relationship between the curved-shape of the nose and the curve of the side-window opening, (especially at its rear). This is an excellent model and very well done. I think the nose actually "feels" better on this '71 body style then it did on the 1970. Your model shows "...what could have been" very, very well!

This is a great topic for the forum; the different stories so "different", yet, many still the same! My story: I always loved cars as a youngster, was born that way! When Matchbox cars were introduced in 1964(?), I was 5 years old, and started my collection of them quickly... (okay, so I only had 4 or 5 of 'em, but it was my collection). Hot Wheels followed in about 1967 or '68, and I had a few more of those. At 8 or 9 years old, when at the local Woolworth's store with my mother looking at the Hot Wheels, across the aisle were some model car kits. I promised to mow our lawn all summer long if she'd spend the $1.79 to buy one for me, (wish I could remember which kit it was). I built it poorly, but was very proud of it. I got my two school buddies to build models, too, (one of them loved the Tom Daniel kits and built everyone of them). We always had work sessions on my parent's kitchen table, (mom was never too happy about the puddles of paint and globs of glue we left behind)! I built car and a few WW2 aircraft models until I was a junior in high school, then quit because of a job and girls. I've tried writing down a list of every model kit that I built as a youngster, and think it's pretty-much complete, (try it sometime, you'll be amazed at what you'll remember and how many kits you built back then). I came back to the hobby in 1989 at the age of 30, when my interest in Nascar was at it's peak; so I wanted to build "just one" Nascar model. My interest in Nascar died about 10 years ago, but that, "just one" has turned into over 150 different car kits in my collection, and I still keep buying.

Nice build of this vintage, (and one of my favorite), kits. You don't see this one built-up as a custom to frequently anymore, but your build proves that it builds up into a very nice one! Your paint color choices are excellent as well; nice job!

Beautiful build of my favorite Nascar driver's car; always thought that Ricky Rudd deserved more credit than he got during his racing career.

One thing that always surprised me was the overall "size" of the Coyote... it was a really long and extremely-wide car built on top of a relatively small VW chassis platform! The B&W photo of the 1:1 really emphasizes the car's size to me; Hardcastle inside the cockpit looks tiny to my eye! I've always thought this car would have made a fantastic, phantom race car build as well, (but at 3/4's of its actual size)! I'll be watching this build, too. You're off to a great start!

Excellent paint and body-work! By painting that revised body in Gloss Black, it meant that your body-work had to be stellar, and obviously, it is! Nice job!

I don't have any Pacer memories myself, but this one brought back a few similar memories of my own! Those are the kind of posts that really make me smile!

Doesn't it have a Catalytic Convertor molded into the chassis' exhaust system too?

This announced reissue caught me by surprise! I can't remember if this kit had separate pieces for it's front and rear suspensions or not; anybody remember? (Or did it have no real front suspension pieces other than the wheels-mounting-pins, and a 1-piece/separate rear suspension/axle/springs piece with the driveshaft molded-directly into the main chassis piece)?

Emmanuel, That is a very nice "save" of a gluebomb built-up! That paint color looks excellent on this build! Your choice for using the Gremlin's wheels was a good one also; excellent build!

Love this build of a "not-often-seen" subject. '71 Fords might not have been extremely-successful in Nascar, but they sure did make great looking race cars! Excellent job on this build. I'd like to see a straight-on photo of the rear of this build, so i can better-see your hand-done paintwork on the tail light panel!

Love this build! You really pulled-off the "tough, street-racer" look! Your engine and interior look excellent, as well as your Blue paintwork!

Let's see... I made a post way back on page 18 regarding the mis-positioned beltline trim. It looks to me like Revell got the beltline positioned correctly behind the rear wheel well, but then it incorrectly steps-down on the door and front fender; another flaw in the execution of this kit's body.

The mention of the door lock's position was an inaccuracy that I missed; when I went to look at it, I actually did a belly-laugh! Wow, a detail so simple, yet so far off.

It seems to me that Revell, "did the right thing" several years ago when they released their '68 Dodge Charger kit with a inaccurately-shaped body, (again, mostly roofline issues), and then went to the expense to pull the product off of the shelves, and retool the body piece correctly, and then reissue the corrected-kit. I believe most car modelers realized the expense they incurred to do this, and truly appreciated the corrective measures that they took. Since then, reissues of that same kit have sold well, end-result; a "win-win" situation for us modelers and hopefully a "win-win" financially for Revell. If most of the chassis, engine and interior components of this Mustang kit are well-done and accurately reflect the 1:1 Mustang, (I think that's what I'm hearing/reading about this new Mustang kit), then it seems like a good candidate for Revell to "do the right thing again" with; correct the body issues and reissue to a customer-base that would understand and appreciate their efforts and their financial investment.

In addition to the roofline issues, I can easily see that the beltline trim seems correctly positioned behind the rear wheel well, but then it steps-down on the door and front fender, where on the 1:1, the beltline looks to line-up-evenly all the way across the entire length of the body.

Mine was my 1970 Ford Mustang Grande, (hence, my forum name). My car was a T-5 car; 351 Windsor, Dark Blue paint with a Black interior and vinyl top. It had no Mustang nametags or badges on it anywhere. The car was manufactured in Feb. of 1970, exported to Germany and sold there. In Germany, at that time, there was already another German automotive product that used the "Mustang" name, so Ford was not allowed to sell Mustangs or use the Mustang name in Germany. Hence, all Mustangs sold in Germany were labelled T-5's only. A US Army Lieutenant purchased my car brand new in Germany, drove it on the Autobaun for 2 years, then upon his return to the states, decided to have the car shipped back to the USA because he loved driving it so much. I bought it from him a few years later, and I loved driving it as much or more than he did! Sure wish I still had it...

I like this project; you're off to a good start! I think the hood scoop looks good. My only suggestion; the rear wheels in your first photo appear to me to be too "modern" for a 1960's-era gasser. It looks like you went to a different rear wheel in your last photo, but it might also be a little too modern-looking. Of course, wheel-choice is entirely up to you and whatever wheels you think look the best on your build! (I've build many a race car with wheels that weren't "correct" for it, but they just had the "look" that I wanted).

Wow, Carl, this is an awesome build! Your paintwork is outstanding! One of my favorite subjects too, mid-1960's Ford!

The pretty girl that lived 3 doors down from me when I was growing up, (I was 14 at the time; she was 13...)... anyway, her mother owned a '67 T-Bird just like this one, but in a Pale Green paint color with a Dark Green interior. I rode to school in it a couple of times. If I recall correctly, the interior on this T-Birds was really well done, with high-quality materials and a beautiful look and feel. And these cars just "floated" down the road with an excellent ride-quality... I always thought the looks of these 4-door Birds was "okay for a 4-door...", but the quality of these Birds is what has always stood-out in my mind!

Really like this build! Your chassis paintwork is outstanding! How did you get the edges of the frame "highlighted" like you did, (especially right behind the front suspension and front wheels)? It looks really good; I'd like to try your technique on some of my future builds!