microwheel

Thanks Joe, here is a couple pics of the scratches Im talking about in the hood. It all depends on the lighting on how bad they look. In this first pic, they are barely visible. look at the drivers side corner near the windshield. Right by the hood scoop. In this pic, I set the room with less light and you can see, they really stand out. So I may go head and strip the hood and repaint it. Its no big deal since I have another hood decal. But I think I'll wait till after I get the rest of the model finished.

Just a few updates for now guys while I'm working on finishing this one up. I got the front lower body nose panel installed along with the front spoiler. I completed the fuel line running to the front of the car. I had to make a slight modification to the front tie rod so the front wheels properly lined up after noticing that they were slightly off. So I cut a small piece of evergreen plastic round rod, cut the tie rod near the passenger side and added the piece of round rod and epoxied it in place to lengthened the tie rod so the wheels sat correctly. This will get painted to blend in with the tie rod once the epoxy fully cures. I also got the headlights and parking light lenses installed and most of the body script and remaining photo-etched parts such as door handles and door locks. You'll see these later when I have time to take more pics. I also started working on installing the side pipes. I added a tiny bit of CA glue to the front side pipe hole to hold it into place as I applied 5 minute epoxy to the rear hole and seam where it meets the header. The seem will later get dry brushed with Alclad II chrome paint to blend the header and side pipe together. I'll do this once I have both pipes installed. Here are a few pics for now, I'll try to take more later as I can. I still have more odds and ends left to do, but it should be finished I hope by sometime tomorrow. More updates later.

There were many ways that states classed and registered vehicles. To put a dead horse to rest, all I know is what I know from when I worked for Chrysler. I worked at Corporate head quarters, and their advertizing department, design department and test production departments were housed in the same complex. I only know what I know from the time I worked there guys. But call them what you will, they were still station wagons. You can go by the model name, you can go by the badging, but they were still classified as station wagons for the sake of internal communications by Chrysler's big wigs, and that's all I know.

Hey guys, I'm just about finished with this build. I have a few more detail touches to do and then some clean up. I will try to have a few pics ready to post later today. I do have a little bit of a issue with it that I may have to address, but nothing that will keep me from doing final finish work or posting some progress pics. The issue I ran across was my own fault though. I was setting up and installing the hood pins last night, and got them where I was happy with them. When I went to test fit the hood with the hood pins in place, I noticed a little bit of, what seemed like warpage on the back drivers side corner of the hood, so I removed the hood and attempted to give it a gentle bend. I knew better than this, from past experience, so what do you think happened? No I didn't break the hood thankfully. But I did put some fine hairline cracks in the paint near that corner. It's not real visible. But I am building this for some spring time contests I hope to attend, and I want it to be right, so I may drop the hood in some stripper and repaint it. Good thing I have plenty of premixed color and clear, as well as a extra hood decal. lol. But it adds a extra week of work just to give the dang hood time for any repaint to cure. I did try rubbing it out, but it goes through the clear coat into the paint itself. If I get some progress pics later today, I'll see if the camera will pick up the issue I'm talking about.

Yup that's what I do, when the wife wants to go to the big town shopping, it's near enough to the hobby store, that I make a supply stop. lol. The 2013 Camaro idea sounds good. How far away from finishing up your 70 are you?

Hi Steve, nice job. Glad the paint issue worked itself out for you. Sometimes just stepping away for awhile, from a build giving you fits, tend to be the best way to sort the problem out. It gives you a chance to think it through. I'd say your patience paid off big time.

Hi Raoul, as someone who worked at Chrysler's Corporate head quarters, I can tell you from first hand knowledge, that Corporate called the Chrysler, Plymouth and Dodge versions wagons. The advertizing department was in charge of the badging on all the models, and they were the ones calling them Suburbans. In the early years, it wasn't important or a issue, but later in the mid 60's Corporate was getting concerned that there would be issues between Chrysler and GM over the badging, which is why they ordered a end to it in late 76. That's the reason why the 77 model year was the last to carry the badging. Though there was never any legal issues from GM over it, there was conversations between Chrysler and GM where GM many times, especially in the mid 70's, expressed their displeasure about it. When Lee Iacocca took over the rains of Chrysler, the advertizing department wanted to bring the badging back for the 81 release of the Reliant and Aries wagon models, and Mr. Iacocca told them no, for the same reason as before, he did not want potential legal issues to develop between Chrysler and GM, especially since he was in the middle of trying to bring Chrysler out of financial difficulties, and didn't want a issue with GM that could cost them more financial trouble. I was there in early 1980, during that period and remember, very well, the memos floating around about it. But it's like I said, at least I think I mentioned it before, If I didn't, I sure meant to, that calling them a Suburban is as correct as calling them a wagon. I wasn't trying to tell Dan that he was wrong in calling his build a Suburban, I was just asking him why he didn't call it a wagon or station wagon, which was more common for the times. I was only trying to kindly point out that someone who wasn't born back in the day of the station wagon, or had much knowledge of them, might have mistook his title, and thought they were coming into his thread to check out a Town Wagon (or the 4 wheel drive version Power Wagon, not to be confused with the pickup truck version) or Ramcharger build. Which were Chrysler's versions of the GM Suburban. That was my only motive for bringing the subject up of the name. We, the experienced modeler's have to remember, that there are young, first time, and inexperienced modelers coming into this area, and sometimes, they may not have the automotive knowledge that some of us older modelers have. A good example is, the other day, my 15 year old adopted son and his firend saw a 74 Chevy Impala station wagon, while in the car with me, and called it a really old Chevy SUV. I had to explain to him that it wasn't the same as a SUV and what the difference was. Anyways, sorry Dan didin't mean to seem like I was hijacking your thread. Your build is coming along really nicely, and I like the color choice you made.

Hi Joe, well I think using what you did worked out fine too. All I did with the kit valve covers, was to mix up a flat aluminum wash using Tamiya acrylic flat aluminum and then applying it the same way you would a black wash, between the finned areas of the valve covers.

Thanks alot guys, for all the interest in my build so far, being able to work with the hobby again after so many years away is great, and it helps take the mind off of ones troubles.

thanks Randy, I hope to have it done sometime around the first of the week.

Actually Joe, the cowl vent is not deformed and it is correct, it was made that way because of the way the drivers side windshield wiper was attached. As for the headlight rings, Im not sure about that, I know mine had a couple of seem marks on the sides of them, but I didnt notice any on the top. By the way, Is that a different engine in yours? I kinda like valve covers.

This is really looking good.. Nice save of a old kit

Morning Guys, got alot done the past few days. Mostly got the engine and engine bay detailed. May not seem like alot, but it sure seemed like it took long enough for me. I didn't take pics during the process, I was just to involved to stop and snap pics. But I will do my best to describe what I did. First you got to remember, I'm not building a 100% fresh from the factory version, this is more along the lines of the guy/or gal who has had their ride for awhile and dressed it up a little for a show here and there, or maybe just to show off to their friends. It's more a street version than a drag strip version. You know, the person that wants it fast, but also wants to take it on the local color tour with the weekend Camaro club. Besides, the Baldwin Motion Camaros weren't factory, anyways. They were dealer modified. LOL Anyways, on with the details.. The first thing I did was to throw out the crappy kit supplied battery and dug through the parts boxes till I found one that Looked better. While digging for that, I ran across a windshield washer bottle, and thought to myself "hummm, why not", so out it came to the bench. These were then painted and detailed and tucked into the engine bay. And Yes some of the 70 BM Camaros had windshield washer bottles. I have pics of them if you need to see lol. Next thing I did was to assemble, paint, and detail the fuel cool can. Once I did assemble it, I didn't like the way the top of it was kinda rough looking, even after sanding, so I got out my trusty hole punch and made a new top for it out of evergreen plastic. Once it was painted and installed, I finished running the fuel lines to it complete with hose clamps. Next a photo etched radiator cap was added to the radiator, since for some reason there really wasn't one detailed into the radiator by AMT. Next the upper and lower radiator hoses were painted and detailed with hose clamps and installed. The ignition module was then bare metal foiled and then a black wash was added to get the look I wanted. It was then detailed with ignition wire and installed on the firewall. Next I added heater hoses with hose clamps. Yes the correct ones would have been black, but I wanted to contrast the engine bay with a little more color, so I went with red ones. I also made a fender hanger bracket for the hoses out of a scrap strip of photo etched sprue bent to shape. I also used a piece of the same material for the windshield washer bottle line bracket on the drivers fender. The hood latch and horn assembly was then detail painted and installed. And finally the brake booster and master cylinder were assembled and painted and installed to the firewall and the brake lines were tied into it. All that's left to do for the engine bay is add the hood pins during final car assembly. Which I hope to start on the first of the week. I plan to spend the weekend with the wife since our son is spending it with one of his friends. Anyways here is a couple pics of the engine and engine bay completed. More to come as I get things done.

Your coming along nicely with your wagon Dan. So how did your second try with the headliner turn out?

Thanks Joe For the photo etched stuff that has recesses with higher script that needs to be chrome looking, I usually just paint the whole part with a flat color, and then lightly sand over it till the higher script shows through the paint. For photo etched parts that need the whole part painted, I use Tamiya ultra fine grey or white primer which lays on really smooth and doesn't need to be applied heavy, then paint the part. You can remove the photo etched parts for paint by laying them on a piece of masking tape and cutting them loose, this allows the part to have something to stick to so you can paint the part you need without having to try and hold such tiny parts. The tape does the holding for you. And you don't loose the part after you cut it loose that way. Most photo etched parts that do need to be painted, really only need to be painted on one side anyways, and the tape keeps one side of the part unpainted for you so when you apply it to your model, either with CA glue (which I have never been fond of for applying photo etched parts), 5 minute epoxy or clear lacquer, the bare metal side will take the adhesion better that a painted side would. Also when I work with installing my photo etched stuff, I do it with everything in a shallow cardboard box, this way in the event that a part goes flying on me, it only goes as far as the box lets it, and makes it easier to find. I learned that lesson after spending many hours on the floor looking for a one of a kind photo etched part, lol.

Thanks everyone, my wife went through cemo 1 day a week for 4 weeks, as the doctor thought that was all she would need. her last one was 3 weeks ago. this past week she had a doctors appointment and he wanted to do some follow up blood work while she was there just to see how things were looking. Her blood counts were up but not very much, or not as much as he thought they should be by now, so she has to start back on 4 more weeks of cemo starting this coming week. The drug they are doing her treatments with is called Rituxan, and if it doesn't do what he thinks it should this time, then she will have to go on a more traditional type of cemo treatment. what she has is called Splenic marginal zone lymphoma. It starts in the spleen and gets into the bone marrow. The survival rate depends on how a person responds to treatment. Rituxan is supposed to be the best treatment for this type of cancer, so our hope is that she starts responding better to it. There is no cure for this type of lymphoma, but if a person responds well to treatment, they can go into long term remission, which is what we are hoping for. This is what we have been dealing with, then throw in the fact that our 15 year old adopted son was diagnosed with crons this past spring, it's made for a wonderful year. We have insurance, through Blue Cross, but they nicely told us we have to meet a $12,500 dollar per year deductible before they will cover anything, and the fun just keeps on coming. LOL. So you can see why I wrap myself up into the hobby. It takes my mind off things, even if it is for just a little while in the course of a day. The nice thing about it is, I ask her to pick out the project she wants me to work on, so she does, and that inspires me to keep at it till it's finished, if for no other reason that for her to see it done. Because I know there will come a day when she wont be able to.

Hi John, sorry I haven't had time to sit down and do a full how-to write up on making brake and E-brake lines. Between working on this model, and dealing with a lot of running for my wife who is dealing with lymphoma cancer, time hasn't been my friend. But as soon as time allows me, maybe I will try to create a how-to post over in the tips tricks and tutorials area.

Nicely done so far Steven. I'm with Pat, I hope ya didn't paint that on the table lol, I can just imagine you being chase with a frying pan if you did. LMAO

Update for this evening. Got the radiator mounted to the sub-frame assembly, got the front sub frame assembly mounted to the rest of the car. Mounted the front wheels. I know it doesn't sound like alot but it took a good deal of the day. To mount the sub-frame to the chassis and body, there are 6 mounting points, 2 in the front by the radiator and 4 where the sub-frame joins the chassis. To get things to go together without alot of binding and twisting, (amt was known for making things fit tight or in such a way that you ended up with a warped frame look), I applied a small amount of model cement to the mounting points near the radiator, and then set the sub-frame to the front fender mounting points allowing the back of the sub-frame near the chassis to hang down free. once the model cement had set up fairly well, I went over those same mounting points now joined in their place at the fenders, with a small amount of 5 minute epoxy, then I let this sit and harden up for a hour. Once that was done, I then applied a small amount of model cement to the 4 mounting points on the chassis that were still exposed since the sub-frame was a little tilted away from the chassis. I then pressed the back of the sub-frame into the mounting points on the chassis, and with a slight clicking sound, (this was from things being really tight), the sub-frame locked into place on the chassis. The real test came when setting the front wheels, if there was going to be any frame miss-alignment it was going to show at the front wheels. As luck would have it, the front wheels mounted true, level and straight. You have to remember, I reworked the front suspension a little bit, so that was my reason for worrying about this. But all went well and the biggest head-ache was now out of the way. I can now move on to the final assembly and detail work. There is still lots more to do, like tying everything together, as well as some final assembly, and a bit more detailing. For now here is a couple pics of the sub-assembly and engine in place. I'll post more as I get a little farther along toward the finish line so to speak lol. Now maybe I can finish running out the fuel line up to the cool can once I get it ready to go in the car. The side pipes will be one of the last things to go on since I still got to handle the model alot to finish up the detail work. To be continued lol

You should be fine with that primer. You'll know of you have any issues with the paint, when you go to wet sand and polish. I would still give it a good week of cure time, just to be on the safe side. Even though most of the model masters acrylics can be air brushed without thinning, in the future I would still thin it some just to help it lay down better as well as speed up the cure time. I'm sure your going to be fine though. Looking forward to more of your build.

Hi Tim, there really isn't much difference in the two thinners. By the way your paint looks good. the only problem I have had in the past with model masters acrylic paints thinned with their acrylic thinner, is it seems to peel off really easy, and this makes me believe it doesn't bite into the primers I use, which is usually Tamiya primers. Other's may have had better luck with it. However when I mix it with any hardware store brand denatured alcohol it seems to lay down just as nice as it does when mixed with model masters acrylic thinner, and I don't have the peeling off issues with it. Since you've already painted it with the thinner you have used, I would give it a good week or more to fully cure, just be ready to have issue when wet sanding and polishing it out. You may not, but just be aware that you might, depending on the primer you used and how it bits into it.

One last update for tonight. I decided to go ahead and install the grill before calling it a night. Here is a couple of pics of the grill fitted in the nose of the Camaro.ignore my messy workbench. I'll get around to cleaning it up in the next couple of days. to be continued lol

Thanks Joe, If you haven't tried any of the Model Car Garage detail kits yet, your gonna like what those guys do with them. They have alot of other stuff too that's worth checking out. As for the Alclad II, I only use it when I absolutely need to, its so easy to mess it up with applying too much or not getting the prep work just right, that I try not to have to use it, but sometimes............! Glad you liked the reference pic, I have a bunch of em. I usually grab as many as I can find when working on a project. I know alot of guys work on several model projects at once, but I usually work on one at a time and put all my effort into finishing that one. Guess im just not a multi-tasker lmao

What he said, but just for future info, usually if you mix testors enamels 50/50 with any brand of hardware store lacquer thinner, you can usually gently wet sand and polish it out after a full 3 days of drying time, where using a enamel thinner can take a week and most times longer to cure. Tamiya acrylic mixed 50/50 with hardware store brand denatured alcohol can be gently wet sanded out after 24 hours, and Tamiya spray can Lacquer can also be gently wet sanded after 24 hours. (depending on how heavy the coats were applied.) Testors Model Masters Spray can Lacquers (for me at least), usually take about 48 hours to cure enough to gently wet sand out and polish. If you have a old scrap unpainted model car hood around and some extra paint left over from your paint job, apply the same paint process with the leftover paint to the scrap hood and then let it sit for a few days. then gently touch it to see if it still feels even the slightest bit tacky. This allows you to check your paint curing time without messing up your nice paint job by touching it. If that isnt a option for you, then the rule of thumb is the longer you can let it set and cure without messing with it, the better. And then follow your nose, so to speak, sniff it every few days and see if you still detect a slight odor of thinner or paint. If you do then it is most likely still curing.

Hi Luis, I think your weathering work is going rather nicely