StevenGuthmiller

Beautiful Jim! It definitely rivals your '74 in the paint department. & this is actually a good looking Torino! I've been meaning to get one of these for years. Steve

Finally finished up the interior today! I guess I'm fairly happy with the results. There were parts from several kits thrown together for this one, so things didn't always go as smoothly as I'd like, but not too bad. The tub, seats & console came from the original MPC annual. The dash was from the more recent AMT '70 Super Bee kit, & the steering wheel & column were from The Revell '68 Charger. The dash was slightly modified on suggestion from some other forum members. I appreciate their input greatly. The air conditioning vents were eliminated & the dash pad was slightly modified to remove some of the "point" from the center. I also added a "grille" to the dash top, & a PE button for the glove box. Clutch & brake pedals were added as well as a shifter to change it from an automatic to a 4 speed car. For the first time I decided to try the "pantyhose material" trick on the rear package shelf. Not 100% accurate looking, but it adds some texture & interest. The wood grain detail is of course, that 50 year old decal that I found. I also "flocked" the carpet, added cast window cranks & homemade door lock buttons. Now it's on to foiling the body & then engine & chassis work. Steve

Yes! First time in........forever! As you know Bill, gauge face decals are a real rarity when you're dealing with these old annuals. Luckily, I recently got some decals from another member, (Casey) which were from the Revell '69 Charger. They were a little small for these gauges but you'll never be able to tell. I didn't apply them as decals, I just cut them out & glued them directly into the opening with the backing paper still intact & then used the Laser Bond over the top. Now if I could only find gauge decals for my next 30 builds! Funny you should mention the color. Believe it or not, the color is Testors # 1913 flat military "Medium Green" shot straight from a rattle can, & then over coated with a light coat of pearl. Steve

Getting close on the interior. Here's a few dash pictures. I found that "Laser Bond" works considerably well for gauge lenses! Steve

As with anything Wayne, it depends greatly on what's underneath. In general, it looks pretty good, but in my opinion, not as shiney as something like Testors clear. But it's much more durable than Testors & after some of the problems I've had with Testors, I no longer use it. The Perfect Match polishes out pretty nicely. This photo is right after spraying with no polishing. Steve

I'm not sure that I agree with you Bill. While I do agree with your assessment that a lot of the kit tops can be little too blocky, the sail panels, if new & properly done, should have very little sag in them. The top on the Corvette that you pictured looks terrible as far as I'm concerned. It may have been inherent to this particular top design, but I don't believe it's representative of most tops Here are a couple of photos of the sail panels on my 11 year old Honda S2000. As you can see, there is very little sag in this area. Granted, the tops are probably designed a little better today that the were 60 years ago. That being said, the top from the Johan '62 Mopar kits are just the reverse in that area. They're almost bowed "out" rather than sagging. Steve

Very true Charlie. We've had enough rain in my area this summer, to the point that building an ark has crossed my mind. I've had relatively good luck with perfect match paints, but I pretty much only use clear. I do use solid colors like red, black & white on occasion, & to this point, have been happy with the results. Steve

There are a lot of different ways of doing them. I use acrylic craft paint mixed a little darker than the body color. Steve

Modelhaus used to make a few resin tops, but they were pretty limited. As we all know, Modelhaus is no longer & they didn't do a top for the Johan '62s anyway. As far as I know, there is nobody making them at this point. I have modified a couple of tops for builds, but I've never made one from scratch. The top for my '59 Mercury was modified from a Revell '59 Impala top. Steve

The clear that I use is Duplicolor "Perfect Match" "Protective Clear Coat Finish". It's an "Acrylic Lacquer". You definitely would not want to use it over anything other than lacquer. I've had pretty good luck with it for the most part, but for some reason have had this slow curing problem on just a couple of projects. That's what leads me to believe that it may have just been a bad can. I also use Duplicolor "Paint Shop Clear" on occasion. It comes in a quart can & is pre-thinned & ready to spray with an airbrush. It is also a lacquer & works quite well. I just decided not to dirty my airbrush for this build. Steve

Yes, the '62 Plymouth annual did come with an up top. Many of the original annual convertibles from Johan came with an optional up top, but not all. Johan produced full sized Dodge convertibles from 1962 through 1964, & full sized Plymouths from '62 to '68. I believe all of them included optional up tops. The only tops that would be compatible with the '62 Plymouth would be from the '62 Dodge or Plymouth, & possibly the '63 models. Revell also produced 1962 Mopar kits that included an up top. Don't really know how compatible they would be with a Johan kit, but I'm confident they could be modified to work. None of the later Johan "USA Oldies" reissues included an up top, so your only avenue would be to find an original from 1962. Steve

Here are a few photos depicting the ill fit of the top for the Fury. A little better than the Chrysler, but will still require mods. Box for the Dart. Steve

I don't have the original Fury box, but I have the Dodge Dart one. Also have the up-top. Same top for both kits. Sorry, but I won't part with them. Word of caution, even if you find an original top for your Fury, it will require some modifications on both the top & the body to get it to look right. Johan was famous for providing poorly fitting up-tops for these early '60s Mopars. I've recently started working on a '62 Chrysler 300 that required not only adding the top snap trim to the body & cutting some of the tulip panel away, but also shortening the top & revamping the rear quarter window openings. Steve

I just couldn't leave it alone! There were a couple of spots that just jumped out at me every time I looked at it. So I masked again & shot it with a couple more coats & then did the finger rub down. You may notice that the top is quite a bit darker than before. I wasn't really satisfied with the original color either, so I darkened the paint a bit before re-shooting. This is a little closer to what I had originally envisioned. Something closer to a dark "gray-green". You can see the difference in the last 2 pics. Steve

I agree, the color is not what I would pick. Although, I did recently see a '63 Buick convertible sitting by the road for sale that was a pale blue. It looked pretty good in that color. But it was a much paler blue than this "baby blue". I've always disliked this color. Steve

Thanks Richard! I knew almost instantly When I acquired this kit that it would have to be painted one of the "mossy" greens from that era. There are a couple '68/'69 Coronets & at least one '68 Charger in my town done in these types of colors. Seems to have been quite popular at that time. Steve

Not really my thing either, but it was needed to bolster the "rare old kit" collection. My enthusiasm for full sized Buicks really peeters out after about 1961. The word "behemoth" comes to mind! But I have been surprised before on how interested I could become on a car I had little interest in at the on set. Steve

I've been using Duplicolor clear for the past couple of years & I've only had this issue a couple of times in the past few months. I have 3 or 4 nearly empty cans laying around my shop that I've been trying to empty out, but I'm not sure which can is the culprit. I don't remember which build I had the same problem with, but I'm pretty certain it's just one can that is giving me this issue. I'm pretty confident it will eventually harden up because I don't remember having any lasting issues on any other projects. I guess it's time just to toss out all of those old cans & start fresh next time. Steve

Funny you should mention that Joe. I think I got a bad can of clear coat at some point. For some mysterious reason this clear coat is not fully curing. Maybe it just needs more time, but usually the Duplicolor clear that I use is fully cured within a few days, or at least well enough where it's completely hard. This one is still soft on the surface after drying for a couple of weeks! It hasn't been a major problem, but I do have to be very careful about what comes in contact with the body. When I masked for the blacked out panel around the tail lights, the tape left it's impression in the paint in spots. Same thing when I masked for the top. This time I used tin foil thinking that it would minimize tape on the body & eliminate any further paint marking. Unfortunately, in some places where the foil touched the body, it also left marks. So far, this hasn't been much of a problem because the marks polish out pretty easily, But I'm a bit worried that the paint may never fully cure. Steve

This AMT 1963 Buick Electra hard top just showed up today. Got a pretty good deal on this one. A very nice, easily restored example for $35.00. Steve

Just a small update on the top. I'm still not 100% happy with it, but I'm thinking I'll most likely live with it. I may do a little tweaking, but for the most part, it's done. Steve

Thanks guys! I'm not sure if I could find anything that thin around here, but it's possible. But, that being said, this is working quite well for something I originally thought would most likely wind up in the trash. The only real draw back is the fact that if you look at it very close, you can actually see the "pixels" in the decal from the printing process. I guess printing technology was a little lacking in 1965! I monkeyed around a little with "rubbing" it out last night, & it doesn't seem to be working as well on the dulcoat as it does on bare flat paint. But I shot an extremely light coat of pearl over the color & wanted something over it to protect the acrylic pearl paint. I have used a little polish on interiors & tops in the past to get the same affect as the "finger oil" technique. I'll probably give that a try tonight. Steve

Well, the top is not exactly "done", but almost. Just need to do the old "rub it with the finger" technique, and then it will be done. Figured I should let it cure for a bit first. Steve

Here's something that turned up in a quick search. The package says "lift & place" so I assume that they are self adhesive. Steve

You would surely think that someone should carry something similar. I would almost think that a "contact paper" would work. Can't be a lot different than this. I'll bet if a guy checked around you could find something close at a Hobby Lobby or something. Finding something within the correct scale might be the difficult part. Steve