RancheroSteve

Thanks, Ray. Looks like you're off to an interesting start on this one. I always felt like the kit had some other creative potential in addition to a replica version. Just curious, what parts were you missing? Gets me to wondering if Atlantis has the tooling for this one. Maybe with the interest in (and hopefully sales of) the Mooneyes dragster, we might see this kit again?

Very cool - I love this kit! One thing I'd recommend is cutting off the front part of the belly pan just ahead of the front axle and attaching that to the upper body. It makes getting the body off and on just a little trickier, but it's more prototypically correct and allows you to eliminate the seam in the nose. While you're at it, you can also cut off the sides and the rear of the belly pan and attach those too! Just do a lot of test fitting, of course.

Sorry, not an answer to your original question, but I thought some of the folks here might enjoy seeing what the Sonny & Cher cars looked like in 2005.

Getting way off topic here, but Doug was a member of the Los Angeles Shelby club and owned a GT-350. Despite being a "rock star" he was a friendly and humble guy.

Incredible work so far - I look forward to seeing more!

Thanks. No idea if the yellow I used is "right" - I just mixed a few different MCW yellows I had around until I got something that looked reasonably close. I looks a little different in person than it does in the photos. What also doesn't show very well in the photos is that I airbrushed some clear gold along the lower part of the body in an attempt to replicate the paint job the real car has.

That's a good looking one - thanks for sharing!

At least the recent re-issue gives you decals for the valve covers.

Beautifully built and photographed. I too have this kit in the stash - it looks to be well engineered and crisply molded. I'm always glad to see 1/24 scale F1 cars even though they're pretty tiny.

Thanks for the compliments, everyone! I really don't think the kit is all that bad, especially if judged in the context of the era it was released in. The tooling is showing it's age, but I didn't have any major issues with assembly apart from making things more complicated of my own accord. However, in looking at my finished model, as well as other Piranha builds, and comparing them to various photos of the real car, I've started to think that AMT didn't really get the proportions of the car correct. The body height, especially at the front, looks too tall to me and kind of robs the model of that really aggressive, raked look that the car should have. Maybe if I ever build another Piranha (ha!) I'll try to fix it - but of course that would really entail a major re-engineering of the whole model.

The old adage is that it's worth what you're willing to pay, but when I'm thinking of buying something on eBay, I always check out the "sold" listings (scroll down and check the box on the left). Sellers are free to ask whatever they want for an item, but at least that gives you an idea what other buyers are actually paying.

Just finished this one up before we move house. I built this back when it first came out and remembered enjoying it, now I had the chance to apply my more adult skills to it. I've always thought the box art photo was great, so I tried to simulate that as much as possible. The extra roll bar braces were removed, the engine lowered, and a driver figure added, as well as some wiring and plumbing. Built from the latest (2018) Round2 release of the kit, which finally includes the correct decals and a nice reference booklet. Thanks for looking - comments and questions welcome.

You really aced this one - just perfect! I have the Avex Dome version that I hope to get to one of these days.

Hey, just stumbled across this post - good work so far. Glad to see that you did your research and removed the roof lip. It's the worse thing about the body, which is good in most other ways. I always cringe a little when I see an otherwise fine model where the builder hasn't corrected that issue. Here's a close-up shot of a Ranchero roof that shows the rounded contour of the back of the roof edge and the chrome trim. I believe the chrome trim was the "deluxe" option - base level Rancheros had the same trim, but painted body color.

I'd guess starter clearance on the passenger side and steering box and clutch pivot on the driver's side. Everything's tight fit in there on a first generation Mustang.

I found this teardrop in my parts box - pretty sure it came from the Galaxie kit. It's yours if it'll work for you.

My father in law owned a Henry J back in the 50s. Said it was the worst car he ever had.

That "damper" is actually the hydraulic ram for the power steering - so yes, it needs to go.. Great work on this so far, JC!

This is great! I had one of the Hawk versions back when I was a kid and I bought a couple of the Testors re-issues with something similar in mind. I'll be eagerly following your progress on this.

Looks excellent, Phil! Looking forward to seeing more.

Looks like the last re-issue was 2015 (the one with the Roth figure). They're widely available for relatively cheap. I built mine from the 1993 re-issue, but apart from the figure everything is the same.

Vince, here's another shot that shows a bit more of the hut. I built this quite a few years back, so kinda hard to remember exactly what I did, but I think I generally just tried to copy what the box art looked like. I mixed an appropriate shade of brown for the thatched parts, then went over it with a dark wash that settled into the cracks. Then painted the stuff on top of that, like the curtain, guitar, etc. Finally you want the whole thing to look dull & flat, because nothing will kill the realism of something like this than shininess.

It's a fun little kit.

Here's an article about the building of the recreation which also includes some photos of it side by side with the original. https://www.drivingline.com/articles/the-mooneyes-dragster-cloning-our-heros-3-of-3/

Wow, excellent in every way!