ModelcarJR

The chassis is done and I have mocked it up on wheels. I am using the steel wheels in order to save the two sets of chrome wheels in this kit. I have used these wheels on other builds and they look great. They are "big and littles" but I can pair them up with the same wheels from another kit and have 4 sets of wheels, two for small tires and two for larger tires. Thanks for looking! ?

Thanks, Carl! I appreciate your comment! ?

Thanks, Joe, Scott, and David. I appreciate your comments! Rubbed out the body and still have the hood to do. Out of foil and waiting on a delivery. Drove 30 miles downtown to the only HS that I know of and they are out of foil. But I have everything painted and its gonna rain tomorrow. So I should have plenty to do. Maybe I'll work on the Thunderbolt. Thanks for looking!

Paint, engine and interior look great, Bob! Nice work! ??

Thanks, All! I appreciate your comments! That's the age-old question: to airbrush or not to airbrush. That is the question. Whether 'tis nobler to grab can and shoot or suffer the slings and arrows of readying the compressor, prepping the airbrush, decanting the paint, and cleaning the airbrush for 5 minutes of pure joy! But alas, poor Yorick has no paint booth nor anyplace to put a paint booth so he must move everything outdoors. Half hour to set up, 5 minutes to paint, and half hour to take down and clean. So I examined the paint can and once the nozzle was removed found that there was a crack in the bottom of the plunger where the nozzle goes. So I took some super glue and sealed the crack. Once dry, I used a new nozzle from a new can that has not been used yet. Earlier, I had rubbed out the body and left some bare edges and noted that the dark spots from the spitting paint were still there. So with both the spots and the bare edges I decided to primer again. Once the primer was dry I added two coat of Dark Toreador Metallic and two coat of clear. I think it turned out pretty well. There is some lifting in the inside hood edges but I will scrape those out and paint black along with the inner fender liners. Paint looks a little heavy in spots but I am going to use decals on the emblems anyway. I'll rub it out in the morning and see how it looks. But the paint can if fine and even if I have to remove the paint I still have plenty to try again. Thanks for looking!

Finished the engine today. It has plug wires but I had to tuck them in pretty tight to fit other parts and to leave room for the air ducts later. Here are a couple of pics. Thanks for looking!

Thanks, Tom! All of those look great! I think I'm just going to go with the redlines with Cragars. Or maybe I'll use the wheels with the 64 Thunderbolt. My tire supply is woefully short at the moment! Thanks again. BTW, the color I have chosen is very close to the last one you have in your photos. I painted the body today, nice day actually but the Dupli-Color nozzle spit on me. Its hard to see in the pictures but there are a few spots on the top and on the sides. You can see the spit on the stand in the pictures below. Undeterred, I continued to paint and thought that maybe everything would blend in. And I am still hoping that overnight the spots may fade. In any event, I didn't clear it yet so I am going to rub it out in the morning with some polishing cloths and then if I need to will add another light coat of paint and then clear if everything looks OK. I am going to replace the needle in this can with another from a new can and hope that it quits spitting. Thanks for looking! ?

I'm back on this one, the last one that I painted earlier this fall. Finished the interior today. No gauge decals so i just dry-brushed the best I could, some aluminum paint and chrome pen. Done! Thanks for looking!

Thanks, Joe, Mike, David and Bob! Yeah, I'm not very good at wheel brand identification. I thought the spokes had that bulbus look like the wheels that you most often see on Mustangs but I guess not. Maybe I have a set of wheels from the 32 Ford Sedan that look more like that and would look better painted. But those are "big and littles". So I don't know. Thanks for looking and thanks for the suggestions!

Thanks, All! I appreciate your comments and Merry Christmas! ?

Thanks, Mike! I appreciate your comment! I'm going to go basically factory stock but always like to put a good set of tires and wheels on any build. So I am going to go with the Fireball tires on this one. I had the redlines painted but them I cleared them hoping that is would help seal the red paint. However, over time the clear starts breaking up and flaking off. So I am in the process of removing the clear and paint via toothbrush and hot water and re-painting the redlines. I've got plenty of time due to the bad weather. I am not going clear this time. The wheels from the kit really won't fit that well on these tires, so I found some 5 spoke chrome wheels that I like and that fit in the 65 Ford Galaxie kit. I think these are called Torque Thrust but don't hold me to it. Those wheels along with some new wheelbacks from the parts box that came from a 41 Plymouth will work just fine and fit the small plastic axle front and back that is similar to a metal axle. Thanks for looking and Merry Christmas to all! The two on the left have been re-painted after peeling off the clear. The two on the right are still to go.

I've started this one by doing the body prep, assembling some parts, like the engine block, and cutting apart the parts trees and bagging them by color, black, aluminum and interior color. I'm not sure about the interior color yet, but there is an exterior color, Aztec Bronze that I am going to substitute Dark Toreador Metallic. Its a little darker but close. The body was in good shape and the other parts are well engraved. So the box art shows redline tires and I was hoping they would be in the box but only tires are some small but somewhat wide Firestones. So I set out to find some better tires that would fit. The seven sets of tires below are: 1. tires in the kit, 2. similar tires with thin redlines (I don't know if I painted them or if they came that way}, Fireball tires that I painted redlines on (very tedious), 4. small. wide, very spongy, Goodyear tires, 5. larger redline and 6. Goodyear pad printed tires from the 65 GTO kit and 7. B. F. Goodrich tires. The last three won't work with the wheelbacks in the kit. I could make the Fireball tires work but I still have two tires to paint with redlines. So I will probably go with the same size tire in the kit that already has thin redlines. I could spend a few more hours going through all the tires I have collected over the years that I have in two scrapbooking cases but most of them are useless. If anyone has any suggestions let me know. I'm waiting out the cold. Thanks for looking! ?

Looks great, Tony! Plain, simple, and well executed! ???

Thanks, David, Dominik and Jeremy! I appreciate your comments!

Thanks, David, Joe, Jim, Tom and Mike! I appreciate your comments! I remembered that I built a 65 GTO some years ago. I'm not sure if it was this convertible kit that I added the hardtop too or a hardtop kit. Anyway, I used the chassis, engine, wheels, tires, and mirrors from the Revell 66 GTO. Although I could have done a better job on the rear wheel position, it turned out pretty well with a few other additions, such as, MCG PE, a steering wheel from the 66 Chevelle wagon and an antenna that has since fallen off. The paint is MCW Evening Orchid Metallic. Thanks for looking!

This is an AMT kit re-issued by Round 2 with updated pad-printed tires and new decal sheet. I kept the redline and Goodyear tires for a future build and substituted some blackwalls and wheels from the 66 GTO in the parts box. The kit itself is a pretty basic relic for days gone by. One piece chassis, metal axles, hole in the engine, interior bucket with poor door panel engraving. The decal sheet is not very good. the dash decal broke on me but I was able to piece it together. The red on the GTO crest on the front fender quarters doesn't register and the front turn signal decals are too small. I didn't even try the pin stripes for the top of the fenders and doors. I did practice on a couple of skills that I wanted to develop; seat belts for the interior and drilling out the headlights and replacing them with clear plastic. Both turned out pretty well. I also eliminated the hole in the engine and used some brass rod for spindles on the front. That's about it the rest is box stock and certainly not to the level of detail that Steven G. is putting into his 64 Pontiac Bonneville Convertible. The paint is Dupli-Color Bright Aqua Metallic on the exterior, Krylon Satin Ivory interior and Tamiya Coral Blue on the engine. Thanks for looking!

Thanks, Carl and Scott! I appreciate your comments! The colors are Dupli-Color Bright Aqua Metallic on the exterior and Krylon Satin ivory on the interior and Tamiya Coral Blue on the engine.

Thanks again, everyone for the very nice comments! Harry, thanks for the helpful hints. I will try them. I also did download the instructions for the camera and they are 40 pages long. Lots to study. Yes, Jeff the foil is regular chrome Bare Metal Foil with aluminum BMF on the rear fender insert. ?

This one is done. I'll add some decals tomorrow. I don't have an interior mirror or sun visors to add. I might have an exterior mirror but I don't know if I want to use it on this build. My aim in building this one was to work on seat belts and drill out the headlights and replace with clear lenses and I did that. So I don't regret buying it or building it, but it is a bit ratty! Thanks for looking! ?

Thanks, Dennis, Mike, Rick and David! I appreciate your comments! Yes, I have two smaller pin vises that I have used now for at least 30 years. I think I am on my third set of 25 drill bits as I have broken a few over the years. I used the smaller one for a starter hole in the center of the headlight before I used the big mama! This morning I didn't know if i would have enough foil but I got everything except the wheel opening edges foiled today. Finished the dash with the decal in the kit which was a little disappointing. It broke apart for some reason and I was able to piece it together. I wasn't expecting it since it is a new wrapped kit and the decals are wrapped separately in the box. I may spray the decal sheet with some clear lacquer before I try to use other decals. I added a three spoke steering wheel from a 68 Dodge Charger and got rid of the 4-spoked go-kart steering wheel in the kit (my rule is that steering wheels should have no more than 3 spokes and spoked wheels should always have 5 spokes). I had to cut off the column and also added a turn signal lever. I installed the windshield and glued the interior in place. I used a set of wheels and tires from the Revell 66 Pontiac GTO from the parts box and now can save the wheels and tires from this kit. The kit tires are a little taller so this 65 sits a little lower which looks good to me. Here are some mock-up photos. Thanks for looking! ?

Just finished the headlights. I drilled out the plastic and since the headlight rims or bezels are deep enough, I put a flat piece of plastic on each side and painted the inside of the lights aluminum. The glue on the right side lenses is dry but the left side was just completed and the glue is still drying. That's why they look a little different. But I think these look better than the chrome plastic from before. Thanks for looking! ?

Thanks, Steve, I appreciate your comment!

Thanks, Bill and Robert! I appreciate your comments! Bill, fortunately, Round 2 did not include the metal clip for the hood in the kit. I left the remnant tab on the hood but should have removed it. I'm not even sure if I'm going to use the chrome faceplate for the hood scoop. It looks a little big and clumsy. Robert, I am planning on drilling out the headlights. I found four clear lenses that I think will fit so now I just have to find something for a headlight bucket. I may use some velocity stacks if they will fit. Also see below. I covered up the holes in the engine and found some metal pins to use as spindles. It may leak a little oil and maybe a couple of cylinders will be down but it won't be as noticeable once everything is put together. However, the chassis will remain flat black. My son bought me a modeling tool kit off the internet for my last birthday. It has some things I can use but most are too big or unwieldly. But this giant pin vise might come in handy. In fact, since I've taken this picture I have drilled out two headlight openings and once I drilled a small starter hole with my regular pin vise, the larger one finished the job just like drilling butter. So maybe I can improve the headlights on this one. Thanks for looking!

Well, those parts must have even fooled the folks at Round 2, as my instructions shows them attached next to each seat at the bottom. In any event, I didn't use them. I've been working on MCG seat belts with some seat belt material this afternoon and evening and have them done. I'll finish the dash in the morning. Round 2 did include 3 different dash gauge decals in this kit. Its nice to finally get some dash decals in an AMT kit. I noticed that I probably have the seat belt clasps on the outside instead of the inside in the back seat but they still look nice to me. Thanks for looking!

Thanks, David, Joe and Bob! I appreciate your comments! Here are four parts that can be eliminated in my opinion. They appear to be external seat hinges which I have never seen in any kit or any real car for that matter. I guess they are supposed to attach to the bottom of each seat. But they appear to be out of scale and would make the seat to wide to sit in the bucket, possibly. I don't see these in any photos on the internet (see below). Besides, they are just going to get in the way of the seat belts so I am leaving them off.