ModelcarJR

Thanks, Ian and Dan! I appreciate your comments! Dan, I don't really know what wire is on this engine. I normally use pre-wired distributors from Morgan Automotive Detail (MAD) but most of the photos I saw had orange wire so I found a non-descript package of orange wire in my drawer so I drilled out a distributor and used it. As far as the kit goes, I think it is a good kit and they command a good price for it but it does have a few drawbacks that I will describe a little further as I explain my build-up of the interior that follows. I finished the interior but there were a few problems. First, the decals for the dash don't fit well and have poor color registration. I solved that problem by not using them except for the Tach decal. The tach sits on the top of the dash and the decal doesn't fit well because of the concave surface of the tach. I got it in place but I dare not touch it as it will probably cave in. In addition, the red indicator seems to be pegged at 7000 RPMs so watch out - this racer is on the move! I just used black paint for the rest and I left out the tri-gauges that should attach to the bottom of the dash but I thought it was too close to the shifter and therefore, distracting. Oh, and I also cut off the radio knobs and put in a piece of plastic strip over the radio to delete it. Three other alterations seemed to be necessary. I removed the shifter top since it looked like a small mirror that was attached to a shifter. I replaced it with a ball from the head of a straight pin and used the bottom of the straight pin for the tach after drilling a small hole using a #75 drill bit in the bottom of the tach and the top of the dash. That way I don't have a glue blob on the dash to attach the tach. Finally, I couldn't get the very unusual combination of the steering column and the pedals to work for me. I guess I should have made the hole bigger in the pedal unit so that the column would go through or sanded down to column so it would pass through the hole or maybe both. I any even I just cut off the gas pedal, found a clutch and brake pedal in the parts box and glued everything to the floor. You can see that there is something black down there but you won't see much once everything is assembled anyway. So the interior is done and it is painted Testors Italian Red and I hope it will go with the exterior bright red color once I have received it. Here are a few photos and thanks for looking!

Thanks, All! I appreciate your comments! ?

I decided to build a straight-line racer so I bought the Moebius/Model King collaboration. I don't know a lot about drag racing. I used to attend the Nationals in Indianapolis around Labor Day when I was growing up there in the 60s and 70s. I also attended the inaugural race in Baytown (Houston) back in about 1990 with my 6-8 year old son. I think it was called Royal Purple Raceway at the time but it was a mistake to take my son and try to sit in seats near the starting line, even with ear plugs. We ended up near the finish line. Anyway, I have most everything painted except the body. I am waiting on a can of Tamiya Bright Red that I thought would look good on this kit. I assembled the eingine as a first step and added spark plug wires and a fuel log connected to the carbs and fuel pump. There was also a lot of paint detailing, including the valve covers and racing air cleaners. Thanks for looking! ?

Looks good, Dan! That's an even better replica of your car than my replica of your car with no sun roof (which I think you have seen at a contest)! Which inspired me to buy a a 2015 B5 Blue Challenger (not an SRT8 but an SXT Plus 6 cyl.); and then I built a replica of my car, using the 2009 kit and modifying the taillight and grill panel (I ignored the engine). Sorry for hijacking your thread but my inspiration got the best of me! Nice job on your replica!

Thanks again, everyone! I appreciate your comments! I decided not to try this one again at this time. I don't think I can repeat as well! ?

Thanks, All! I appreciate your comments! I didn't mention that this build is over 20 years old and sitting on a shelf in an individual case. I guess I should revisit some of these old builds more often for inspiration. Thanks for looking! ?

I recently purchased this re-issued AMT kit because I have built it before and I've always thought that this Ford was the sharpest of the long early 60's Fords. I found my first build of this car on the shelf to refresh my memory and surprised myself. According to my build sheet, I used Artic Blue Metallic as a substitute for Viking Blue Metallic (I don't even remember that model paint color) inside and out. There isn't a blemish in the paint that I can find anywhere! The 427 is detailed with plug and coil wires (not a pre-wired distributor) battery cables, heater hoses, fuel line and even a removable oil dip stick! I must have been a little crazier about detail back then. BMF exterior and the intricate detail in the interior was added with BMF. Finally, I added an antenna and vanity plates. I don't think I can outdo my original build of this kit. So, here are some photos while I contemplate starting this build. Thanks for looking! ?

Thanks, Greg, Carl and Dan! I appreciate your comments! I'm going to give this to my son but he will have to wait until after the contest in July. Thanks for looking! ?

This one is done! I stretched it 3/4" to approximate 18 inches. The 4 door is actually 20 inches longer than a 2 door but I cheated to make it simpler to measure and I think it looks fine. I had to cut 1/4 inch out of the rear panel so that I could fit a 1 inch rear door that was cut from the front door of a second kit and it fits just inside the rear fenders. But the net increase in length is 3/4". I also lengthened the rear floor, driveshaft and roll bars. I modified the front bumper to eliminate the bars and wench. I also added a piece of material in the rear cargo area to cover the manufacturer's signature. It looks pretty close to my son's Rubicon although its not an exact match. I had to add a little rat! Thanks for looking!

Thanks, Dan, Carl, Dan and Eric! I appreciate your comments! This one is done! I stretched it 3/4" to approximate 18 inches. The 4 door is actually 20 inches longer than a 2 door but I cheated to make it simpler to measure and I think it looks fine. I had to cut 1/4 inch out of the rear panel so that I could fit a 1 inch rear door that was cut from the front door of a second kit and it fits just inside the rear fenders. But the net increase in length is 3/4". I also lengthened the rear floor, driveshaft and roll bars. I modified the front bumper to eliminate the bars and wench. I also added a piece of material in the rear cargo area to cover the manufacturer's signature. It looks pretty close to my son's Rubicon although its not an exact match. I had to add a little rat! Thanks for looking!

Thanks, Carl! I appreciate your comment! I wasn't able to finish but I have made a lot of progress. One hurdle was that the body at the back door was either too wide or I didn't make the floor wide enough for the back seat area. So I took a shortcut - I used some tape to close the gap and just painted it black. With the seats and roll cage in place no one will notice anyway. Its not finished but at least its on wheels and all I have to do is finish the hardware and decals after Indy. Thanks for looking! ?

Thanks, Dan! I finally had he chance to paint today although its still very humid. I used the Mopar paint pen for Bikini PPT but was disappointed. After getting the 7.4 ml. from the pen into a jar and thinning it a bit I barely had enough for a good coat. Plus, when I looked at it it didn't have enough green in it to my liking and I don't think it matches my son's jeep. So, since it needed another coat and to me it looked just like Tamiya Light Blue Metallic, I used it to finish. I won't be able to finish over the next several days. My wife and I are headed home to Indpls. for the Indy 500! Thanks for looking! ?

Thanks, Atin! I appreciate your comment! Finished the frame and wheels and taped off all the black paint on the body. I posed the body on the chassis and wheel position looks pretty good. I can't push the body down all the way as the tape is in the way. Just waiting for the weather to clear to paint the body. Still raining today. ?

Thanks, Curtis, Carl and Dan! I appreciate your comments! Dan, missed you at the IPMS show. I took a few places and once again bought too much plastic! Moving slowly on this Jeep. Managed to get some primer and flat black on the chassis and interior pieces, despite the rainy weather. I puttied up and sanded down the tops of the fenders and detailed the added rear door hinges. I have a few more pieces to paint and I am just waiting on better weather to break out the air brush and try to get the 7.4 ml. of paint from a touch-up paint pen onto the body. I hope I have enough. Here are a few progress pics:

I got some primer on the body before it started raining today. The right side looks pretty good and if the left side turned out as well, I would probably be done with the body work. But the left side behind the second door isn't mated perfectly and that seam sticks out a bit and is too wide. So I added a couple of strips of plastic and sanded that out. Next I applied some putty and sanded it out after it had dried. Everything looked pretty smooth so I applied a light coat of primer and now it looks much better. I added a hinge to the door and I know that the doors should have two hinges but the front door hinge is molded in and if I add another it will look too close. So I'll just use 1 hinge in line with the front hinge for the back, just for symmetry. I'll drill some holes in the rear hinges later. Here are some pics of the patch on the rear left door. before and after:

Thanks, Carl and Andy! I appreciate your comments! The only thing that will slow me down is the weather. Its suppose to rain for the next 4 days and its raining today! I think I have most of the changes made to the body and interior. Now I only have the frame, rear driveshaft and tailpipe to lengthen. I am still working on plugging up the pre-drilled attachment holes meant for the door sill plate and Light bar. I am considering adding running boards from the parts box. Here are a couple of pics of progress.

Thanks, Greg! I appreciate your comment! I have cut out one door, cut and fitted the rear floor section that needs to be added, and cut the frame so that everything will fit. I am going to try to figure out how to fit a back seat in place that is level with the front seats instead of the higher position on the rear decking. One more door to cut out and putty up and I can move on. The only part of the extra frame that I have that is straight, is the piece that is covered by the splash pan for the transfer case. So I may have to cut the splash pan away. I will also have to lengthen the tailpipe and rear driveshaft. That will make the rear driveshaft longer than the front driveshaft, which might be an issue in a 1:1 Jeep, butr I am going to ignore it. Here are a few pics:

Thanks, All, for your comments and suggestions. I appreciate all the knowledge about these Jeeps and I confess I have none! My son will notice if it is not a 4-door and he might notice some of the other finer points that y'all have mentioned. But as long as it is the correct color and has 4 doors I think he will appreciate the effort. Besides, it is given me a bit of a challenge. I am not going to add full doors and a top. My son has aluminum bar doors that he uses when he has the top off and the doors removed. I am not sure if they offer half-doors like are on this kit but that is what he is going to get. Here are a few pics of progress so far. I have added the interior door panels, a door jam, rescribed the door lines on the front doors and cut the floor pan to lengthen it. Now I just have to cut the rear doors using the front doors from the extra body and glue them in place and the body will be done. Still work to do on the floor pan and frame. Thanks for looking! ?

I don't know if this belongs here. Its not a pick-up or SUV so I guess I'll put it here. My son bought a 2020 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon 4-door 4 x 4 and wants me to build a replica of it. He bought the touch-up paint, Bikini, that I will describe as a Turquoise Metallic. you can see the color on the touch-up pen in the first photo. The problem is that there are no 4-door models that I am aware of. I did find a Maistro 1/24 scale Die Cast and I thought about buying it and re-painting it. But since I have two of these 2-door kits that I bought for less than $5 each I am going to try to add a second door to this 2 door body. If I accomplish getting the body right, then I'll modify the interior floor, frame and related pieces. I looked up the dimensions and the width and height is the same but the 4 door is 20" longer. I am going to call it 18" which will be 3/4" in scale. So I cut the left side of the body at the rear of the door line and about 1/4" into the rear quarter panel. I scribed in a new door line about 1/16" inside the cut to make it at more of a right angle and leave a 1/16" door jam. I'll do the same thing to the other side. Then I'll cut the second body at the door line, re-scribe the door line and cut it again about 1" forward so that the net will be 3/4". I'll glue in the second door and use the piece of the rear quarter panel to shape the rear door at the rear wheel opening. I'll lengthen the interior door panel to give the body seams some strength and I may do that before gluing the rear door in so I will have something to glue the rear door to. Here the starting photos:

Thanks, Rusty, Carl, Charlie and Jay! I appreciate your comments! Yes, Carl, there are a couple of gangster figures, pistols, a rifle and a machine gun. Also included are about 3 boxes to build to fill with clear bottles of booze! But I won't be building or using any of them. This one is finished! I had my problems with this one, some self-inflicted but others are just due to the poorly manufactured kit. I used the outer black line of a Camaro decal for the pinstripe down each side because it was thinner and adhered to the body better than the 30 year old decal in the kit. It was a battle but it is done except for 1 or 2 touch-ups! Thanks for looking!

Thanks, Charlie! I appreciate your comment! I do own an Iwata compressor and two Badger 150 air brushes. The reason I don't use them more often has to do with my painting situation. I have to paint everything outdoors on my patio and moving the compressor, air brush, paint, empty botttle, lacquer thinner can, screwdriver for the lacquer thinner can lid, cleaning rag and model parts to be painted is a PITA! I have no place in the house or garage to set up a permanent paint booth with the proper venting. But I have been inspired to paint MCW paint on occasion, like this beautiful 65 Pontiac GTO painted in Evening Orchid Metallic, also known as Iris Mist. I haven't used MCW since I bought a couple of bottles just after the change in ownership and both bottles of paint flaked and peeled off. Maybe they have their act together now and I'll try them again but I will have to be inspired to go through set-up and clean-up for airbrushing. It couldn't have been the painter! ? Here's a pic of the front of the 28 Lincoln. As soon as I finish the rear this one will be done! Thanks for looking!

Thanks, Mark, Tom, and Tom! I appreciate your comments! Well, everything was going fine until I got to the interior. The interior just doesn't fit well and I had to modify the second cowl to get the body to clear. I got rid of the storage compartment door as it doesn't fit either and can't be seen anyway behind the front seat. I also had to cut away part of the front door panels to fit the dash into place. Then I made my big mistake. I couldn't figure out how to glue the body/interior into place since the jump seats were suppose to slip in and be trapped by the rear seat flooring. I should have just glued the rear seat flooring onto the fender unit and then found a couple of spots up front, like around the firewall posts on each side to tack it down. Instead, I put a bead of my medium CA on the bottom edge of the interior/body to glue it to the fender unit. The result was a battle to keep the body attached with the resulting glue fog on the fender unit and tops of the rear fenders. So that took hours to touch up with a brush and remove some of the glue that had seeped out onto the right rear fender. I scraped most of it off and then use one pass of wet semi-gloss black with a wide brush to cover. I also needed a few brushes of flame red. I should have known better. I ended up gluing the jump seats in anyway. I am not going to use the second windshield on the second cowl because the glass for this windshield wasn't included in my kit (it was sealed and I know I bought it in a hobby shop 30 years ago). I did cut some clear sheet to use but once I cleaned up the windshield frame I had removed so much chrome that it didn't look good anyway. The chrome comes off of these pieces just by handling them, including the wheel centers and the radiator. So here's a few pictures of the battle. This build will be destined for the Shelf of Shame! Thanks for looking! ?

The engine is done and the chassis construction is complete. The wheels are poseable at the moment and hopefully the rack and pinion steering will work through the steering wheel when the interior is done. I mocked up the fender unit and body and everything looks good. I didn't rub out the fender unit nor the body after the re-paint and second clear coat. Hopefully I can keep my hands clean so I won't have to rub them out as they have a nice gloss and finish now. Thanks for looking! ?

Thanks, Tom and Carl! I appreciate your comments! I rubbed out the body and took a little too much paint from right side so I had just enough paint to paint the right side again. I also separated the two top hood pieces from the sprue and it left bare spots on the hinge and top rail running on top of the doors.. I should have separated these pieces from the sprue before I painted. I sanded them down and remounted on a bottle and repainted them. Then I re-cleared both the hood pieces and the body. Turned out pretty well. Next, I started putting the frame together. I couldn't figure out how to keep the frame square. Then I thought about using something through the hooks on the front and back of the frame to give me a visual whether or not the frame was square. I used a couple of pieces of brass rod that I normally use to ream out the nozzle for my super glue bottle. The glue build-up help keep the rod in place in the hooks of the frame. I did decide to break a glue joint because the frame was not square and while re-gluing used the rod to gently push in the left side while holding the glue joint tightly with my other hand. The front suspension was a little tricky. I had to sand down the ends of the tie rod because the pins on the spindle arms barely poked through. Then I successful heated up a knife blade and melted the ends of the pins to keep the tie rod in place and working properly. I ready for the rest of the frame assembly but I am going to put the engine together first so that I can get everything in place at the same time. Thanks for looking! ?

Looks great so far, MrMike! But your paint stands have way too little paint build-up on them! ??