StevenGuthmiller

For me it's AMT 1962 Pontiac Catalinas and Lindberg 1964 Mopars. I've got a ton of Johan Mopars and AMT/MPC Pontiacs to upgrade! Steve

I do a lot more bashing now than I used to a couple of years ago. Although I don't think that it's "bashing" in the sense that most in this thread are thinking of. My bashing consists of raiding factory stock chassis, engines and other parts for upgrading vintage annuals. Right now I'm stealing a large portion of the chassis, engine bay, engine and interior parts from a Revell '68 Charger in order to upgrade an MPC 1968 Dodge Coronet R/T. I've really begun to enjoy these types of endeavors. Steve

Thanks Bill. I had seriously considered one of these sets, but I think I'm settling on steelies, with maybe the poverty caps from the Revell '68 Charger. Well, I think the rear seat is good to go. Steve

The rear seat didn't turn out half bad! A few small areas to be addressed. There are a pair of creases in the side bolsters of the seat back that I didn't get filled as well as I would have liked, but after looking at them, I decided to leave them alone. Often times these vinyl seats had wrinkles and stuff in them, and if they will even be noticeable after paint, they'll add just a little more character. Steve

Yeah, I just really dislike working with putty in general. I guess that all of the ones that I have used have their pluses and minuses. The Squadron is really too soft and shrinks quite a bit, but it dries very fast, (actually too fast. I usually have to throw out half of the tube because it dries up) and the green stuff gives a good contrast with the plastic so you can tell what you're doing. The glazing putty probably works the best and there is virtually no shrinkage, but there's less contrast and I really hate having to mix the stuff. The Tamiya gray gives a good contrast, doesn't seem to shrink as badly as the Squadron, but it's really filthy to work with. But all in all, I think I'll stick with the Tamiya for the time being. I usually don't have to use a lot of it on my projects anyway........Thank God! Steve

I think that the rear seat is finished and ready for primer. Hopefully it won't need any more work. Steve

This is Tamiya putty. I've tried Squadron and glazing putty in the past and so far, I hate them all! Steve

Thanks John! Still working on widening out the rear seat. I think I have them pulled out to the width that I need. Just getting the seams filled and sanded and then I will add some piping and hopefully they will be ready for priming, and then we'll see what we have. Steve

I bought a 1957 Cadillac convertible from TKM many years ago. It more closely resembled a door stop than a '57 Cadillac! Steve

Thanks Scott. Still getting the engineering done on all of these interior pieces. The door panels are pretty much finished, so now I'm able to start working on engineering the new door panels and original Coronet seats to fit the Charger interior base. I've already gotten the door panels pretty close to where they will need to be situated, with some tweaking to come. I've gotten the Charger rear package shelf shaped to fit the Coronet and added back the MPC interior locator tabs to help with final positioning of the interior. The rear seat is what I'm working on now. I've split the seat and added material in the center to widen. I've also decided to separate the seat from the back to make things easier to finish. Now I've begun adding some more material to the outer edges of the seats to get them to fit the tub appropriately. This is all a considerable amount of work just to eliminate the convertible top wells, but to me it's worth the effort, not to mention a lot of fun to stretch the brain a little. Steve

That's part of the reason why I love American cars from this era. Back when interiors had some character instead of just monotone gray. Steve

I agree with the others. You're opening yourself up for all sorts of problems using regular masking tape. I use Tamiya tape for the edges and then mask the rest of the body with masking paper. I've found from many years of experience that it's best to not let any garden variety tapes of any kind touch my painted surfaces. You can get perfect edges with Tamiya, so why risk all of the bleed under and paint lift that you can get with masking tape. Thin strips of Tamiya tape makes effects like this '61 Buick interior relatively easy. Steve

I think I may have found some 32 awg from an electronics shop in Iowa! ? Steve

The thickness is just a hair thicker than what M.A.D. uses for their pre-wired distributors. It's 30 AWG "wrapping wire" that I got on Amazon. If anyone can tell me where I can get large amounts of thinner insulated wire, I would be interested. I'm guessing maybe 32 or 34 AWG? Haven't been able to find any yet. Edit: I can get 32 AWG jacketed wire on ebay, but it appears that it all comes from China. Not my preferred trading partner. Steve

Another modification I wanted to do was to remove the molded in seat belts. Steve

Enough ignition wire to last me until the second coming! Steve

Continuing with the fabrication of the door cards. I need to finish these before I can move on to widening the rear seat and other interior mods. Steve

Scratch building door cards for my '68 Dodge Coronet project. Steve

Detailing carbs is a lot easier when you're starting with Chief Joseph's carbs! Steve

With Alclad paints, I usually mix one of the many aluminum shades with a little bit of "Pale Gold" for carburetors. Although I recently bought some Alclad "Pale Burnt Metal" that should be a very good option for carbs. Here are a couple with the aluminum/pale gold mix. This is the "pale burnt metal" that I'll try on my next project. Steve

Looks terrific......for a wagon! ? Steve

I was planning on using the wheels from the Revell '68 Charger, but I really didn't like the tires. They look too small to me and they're devoid of any sidewall detail, and I'm not sold on tire decals. So I was going to use them with a set of AMT "parts pack" red lines, but the wheels from the Revell kit are the "sleeve" type with no outer lip, so they really won't work very well with the AMT tires. So, I ditched the whole works and ordered a set of A-12 wheels and tires from Fireball, along with a set of "street hemi" AFB carbs. If I decide to use hubcaps, I'll use the Revell '68 parts. Steve

Here are the photos of the finished dash pad. Might get a little refining, but it's pretty close to where I want it. Steve

Yes. These photos show the pad with the left side modified and the right as it originally was just to depict what I was doing. I’ll post some of the finished pad in a while. Steve

No help whatsoever! But she tries. ?