Snake45

I thought he was on his way to his Village People cover band rehearsal. I think he was the cop.

I have extra '66 Mustang stock wheel covers, if those would help you out. (I have a feeling you're looking for something else, though.)

Not sure I'm clear on the concept of the whole premise, but there's no denying the outstanding craftsmanship. I'd have to think a while to come up with when I've seen better "patina." Well done!

Guilty on all three counts, My Brother.

Not wild about the "characters," but that Bug actually looks pretty cool. I'd build that!

I'm not the party involved, but a PO Box IS my "complete mailing info." There are no mailboxes on my street, never have been. I have to go to the PO every day to get my mail.

That's kind of what attracted me to the project. You don't see these things built with the twin-scoop hood that often.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Those who have been around here a while know that Bill is inflicted with a horrible disease known as Neverfinishititis. I can laugh at this because I am the poster child for the disease. There are a LOT of us here who seem to start 10 or 20 or 50 models for every one actually finished. It is horrible. I know guys who will buy one kit, work on it until it's finished, put it on the shelf and go buy another one. I envy them. (Well, in a way I do. They don't have my stash, though.)

Exactlyl. Almost looks like an old MG or something. I'd like to build one and see if I could put some sporty-car flair on it, or something of that nature.

I didn't realize that would be standard on a '71 Cuda, but if true, it's not more than two minutes' work for Mr. Silver Sharpie. Thanks for the tip.

I'll bet you had a lot of fun building this. In fact, you're making me want one--and that's a pretty high compliment.

Duck tape? Might be a close match. Only problem is...it would look like duck tape.

Well then don't buy one. More for the rest of us.

Yet another SORY TURD.

It came up fine for me, no warning. I think maybe some of y'all's anti-malware just didn't like the ad that was running at that moment, or something like that.

I second that. The gray looks close to Model Master FS36231 Dark Gull Gray (used for airplane cockpits).

Interesting. Never seen that one, but I have that kit in another box ('80s?), molded in a nice-looking metallic blue plastic. It's not horrible and I plan to "build" it sometime soon. (The box calls it a '68 but it's a '67.)

Here it is alongside a Johnny Lightning '70 HemiCuda.

Sometime around 1992, I bought a bunch of built models from an estate. Of the dozen or so, none was particularly rare in those days, but now, some of the JoHans and '80s MPC reissues are getting a bit scarce and I'm glad I got them. (I didn't pay more than $3-$5 for any of them.) This Monogram '71 Cuda was among them. It's not super-rare, but it has been a while since we've seen the twin scoop hood version molded in black. Looking for an easy rebuild project, I grabbed this one out of the box deep in the Snakepit. I thought it was probably clear-coated and might clean/polish right up, but close inspection showed I'd be better off stripping it. It turned out to have some kind of black paint over the black plastic—and a good deal of it, too! Once stripped, I deepened all the door etc. lines, detailed the grille and rear panels, and chromed the window frames with my beloved Silver Sharpie. For the matte black rear panel, I just masked the area off and gave it a squirt of cheap Walmart rattlecan black primer. I glued the front valence on and filled the seams as described in my post “Embossing Powder for Invisible Seams” down in the Tips and Tutorials section. The black plastic body was polished to a nice shine with Wright's Silver Cream. I “rechromed” the bumpers with Rub N Buff. I didn't do a thing to the interior or chassis, but I did replace the wheels with Rallyes from the wretched Monogram '70 AAR Cuda kit, and the rear tires with the “bigs” from the Monogram '70 Chevelle. I spent maybe 20 hours on this resto/rebuild, and it doesn't look half bad. I think the original builder would be proud of me. Oh, I just noticed from the photos that I forgot to reinstall the front turn signal/parking lights, and the side rearview mirrors. Sorry, Harry!

Not long ago I restored a built Monogram '71 Cuda molded in black. The goal was to polish the black plastic but there was one snag: On the Monogram kit, the front valence is molded so it meets the body where there is no “panel line” on the real car. This seam had to be made to disappear. If I'd started with an unbuilt kit, I might have been able to glue the valence in with liquid cement and sand the seam out smooth (I often do this with model airplane fuselage halves), but as it had been glued in before, when I removed it, I found that the four mating surfaces were now a bit uneven and without filler, the seam would show. So I glued the valence on as best I could with liquid cement, and let it all sit 24 hours for a fully cured bond. The next night I laid down a nice wet coat of superglue into, over, and around each seam. Immediately, while the superglue was still wet, I sprinkled a thick layer of black embossing powder over the entire area, pressed it down firmly with my finger, then shook off the excess. (If you have enough powder over the superglue, there is no danger of supergluing your finger to the body.) Then I coated the whole mess with another good, wet layer of superglue and let it set for 24 hours. The next night, the areas were ready to be filed to rough shape, then sanded (using sanding blocks), and finally polished the same as the rest of the body. Notice that I was able to blend in the lip/rim around the wheel opening, which doesn't really mate all that well with the kit parts. In the photos, due to lightening for clarity (and enlarging), a slight seam and some tiny pinholes can still be seen, but these are virtually invisible to the naked eye on the finished model. I believe the pinholes could be invisibly filled with some black paint.

I had that kit--molded in a sort of metallic burgundy. I still have a couple kits from that same series--F9F Panther, P-51H Mustang, and Spitfire. Also have a VERY rare Lockheed F-90.

I've been using an Optivisor for about a decade now. I simply couldn't build without it.

I assume you mean the '66, as the '69 chassis would be 3" too short. If you're going with a full-detail chassis, you probably want a full-detail engine, too, and that pretty much narrows you down to AMT '66 Riviera. If you want one of those old-school engines from the '66 Skylark dirt tracker, I can probably fix you up.

That's some pretty amazing work!

Wow. You might have just won the thread. That is one SORY TURD.