Mister 4x4

So, I finally got a chance to get 'something' done. It's stupid hot outside right now, so I'm enjoying the A/C. Since I’ll be weathering the heck out of this one, I decided to just brush paint the chassis… yeah, I’ll never do that again since I have a dedicated airbrush booth. I also loaded up the underside with some course embossing and Elmer’s to simulate the caked mud we found under there… we’ll see how that turns out. I brushed on some Tamiya Flat Black and sprinkled on some more embossing powder to hopefully simulate the crappy job of the rolled-on bed liner the previous owners put down. It’ll become flat black again when I shoot the body in the next few days.

I like it! Nice job and Great idea! I like the direction you went with it, since the top would still be removable, were it a real car. When you mentioned 4-door TJ, I immediately thought of the Jeep Dakar Concept. It's really too bad they didn't go with that one.

I guess I’m bored with my ’82 Mustang model kit or something… which is odd, since I’ve been working on it here and there since March 2018... and I’m still not done with it. I think it’s because I’m trying to make sure I get every little detail just right (it was my first car, after all), and as I go along I think of more little things I need to add. So, I decided to start another project – one I can [hopefully] knock out in a few days to a few weeks, rather than years. Back in August 2020, I went to Austin with my pal Harry to pick up another 1980 Jeep CJ-7 (a Laredo with a 304 V8 & TF-999 automatic transmission) to harvest the drivetrain and swap into my 1980 Jeep CJ-7 (that used to have a 258 I-6 & T-176 4-speed manual transmission). My BFF Dave came to San Angelo in January 2021 to help finish swapping the 258/T-176 into the ‘new’ Jeep (that he’s affectionately named “Klooge”) and took it home to Phoenix. As it sits, I still need to rebuild, warm-up, and install the 304/auto into my Jeep (“Dookie”). But that’s another story. “Klooge” was a hot mess (more like a dumpster fire) that needed a LOT more work than we’d thought, which Dave is getting through in short order. One of my ‘things’ is that I like to build models of cars I’ve owned, and technically, I owned Klooge for about 4 months before signing him over to Dave, so I’ve decided to build a mini-Klooge (as I found him) as a result… I’ll build another version once Dave gets him back on the road and the way he wants him. So, to kick things off, I scored another Monogram 2-n-1 CJ-7 kit from ebay (along with 2 more CJ-7 kits, so I can build one of Dookie when I first got him, along with the one after Dave finishes his work – I already have one of Dookie as he sits now… but after I get done with him [again] I guess I’ll need to get yet another one – sheesh. A few days ago, I decided to get busy on “Old Klooge,” and cracked open one of the CJ-7 kits. My logic is that since he was such a mess, all I should have to do is pretty much paint everything flat black and weather the BLAH_BLAH_BLAH_BLAH out of everything. I assembled the frame, suspension, and axles after trimming a ton of flash, then took the Dremel to the frame and ‘tub’ to duplicate some of the rust damage we found. There are a few holes in the frame, along with some rust ‘blow-throughs’ on the sheet metal. I also scored 2 sets of AR-589 wheels (from the 'Revell Trucks! GMC Pick-up' kit) and painted one set silver (to simulate the aluminum wheels) which will just get weathered with plenty of dirt and grime (Dave’s planning on Plasti-Koting them black, so we’ll see how that goes for the other set). I also pulled apart and cleaned up the V8 the previous owner had ‘glue bombed’ during assembly (that’s as far as they got, fortunately – but they did manage to break the hood hinge piece). Then I cut out the transmission/transfer case cover from the floor, since Klooge didn’t have one when I picked him up (thanks to my wife for reminding me of that) - I might just make a scale piece of cardboard for that (that kept the cats out over the winter). There was also a speaker hanging out of a hole in the dash, so I took the Dremel and punched a speaker hole in the dash panel. After all that, I ordered some O-scale diamond plate from HobbyLinc, which should be here next week. Here’s Klooge on the trailer on the way home from Austin. Doesn’t look so bad, but little did we know. The hard top is for my Jeep, but I got the half doors for Dave, since he really liked having them on his ’92 YJ Wrangler “Islander” (which, I scored a Tamiya kit so I can build that one, too). All said, I think I have 6 more Jeep kits to build, so I guess I need to get crackin’. And here were after spending a little time getting started with the kit. Next up: slather on some embossing powder to simulate the bed liner on the floor after I punch a few small rust holes in the front seat footwells and clean up a few more parts to get ready for some flat black paint. I've never built a 'beater' before - this is kind of fun. I promise I won't take 3 years just to get 3/4 of the way there.

Interesting and good to know - thanks for sharing. Honestly, I thought it was a C4 at the time, when I didn't know squat about cars in general - I really only learned about the AOD around 10 years ago when I stuffed one in my '71 Mach 1 to replace the roached FMX. A buddy of mine literally gave me the AOD from his '89 5.0 GT when he swapped in a T-5. I just looked a few things up and it looks like my '82 actually probably actually had a C3 (which in 1985 became the a4dl by adding OD)... and that makes sense, because I don't recall it having OD. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_C3_transmission Hey, regardless of whatever is was or should've been, I'm keeping the bonus points for swapping the automatic onto my 4-cylinder, just the same. 😁

SWEET!! I LOVE It! 👍

Wait! That kit might be more accurate than you think. 😲 Apparently, there is a known-issue with the hood-to-bumper alignment on the 1:1s. I was talking with a new Viper owner a few weeks back at a Cars & Coffee gathering, and he said the hood lines up fine, but the bumper lining up to it has all sorts of issues he's been struggling with since he bought the car. His is a yellow RT/10, BTW. I'm more a fan of the coupes, myself - they remind me of the '63 Ferrari 250 GTOs (one of the most beautiful cars EVER).

Thanks! Hopefully, I'll actually get it done sooner than later... my stash has been growing, and I'm falling way behind. 😉

Very nice! I found a glue bomb of this kit on ebay, and one day hope to build a tribute to my BIL's '60 Dodge. (Yeah, it'll be 'fun' trying to make it a 4-door... I know)

I just realized that it's been over 3 years since I started this kit. Wow... pathetic. Didn’t get a lot done yesterday, but I made these discs to help mount the wheels correctly. I’m using wider tires than came with the kit (just like on the real car), so they don’t glue together like they should. I “chucked ’em onto” a Dremel bit with a threaded tip, then trued ’em up on some 400-grit. They fit great! Then I got the wheels mounted up, and they're just right - they sit correctly, and roll, and everything... unlike the other kit I'd built where the wheels just got glued on. Right now, I'm making a headliner (since I've always wanted to and thought they were always a little 'unfinished' without one). Should be close to putting it all together after tinting the windows and finishing up a few more details.

OK - MUCH better! Here is the first attempt at 'carpet' using some course embossing powder (need to pay attention to the label next time): And here's the second attempt, with the lower door panel carpet pieces, and some cream-colored flock to make 'sheepskin' seat covers: I even left the pile of brown gravel I scraped off from the first attempt in the picture. Hopefully, I'll get a good shot to get this one finished this coming Labor Day weekend.

SWEET!! I love the Fox bodies, and especially the SVOs. Nice work!

Nice Job!! So many people don't even know that the Nicholas Cage movie was a remake.

So, I'm still alive, and still working on the '82 Mustang. I finally broke down and ordered some flocking. It arrived last week, and I had some time to mess with it today. I scraped all that course embossing powder (looks more like brown gravel), and I laid down some tan flock over the brown paint for the carpet, and I'm actually really happy with how it came out. I also picked up some cream-colored flock and coated the front seats in hopes they'd look like fake sheepskin seat covers... which, they kinda do. I'm not going to sweat it at this point. It's all still drying, so I'll get some pics later.

I saw this article in one of my Mustang Monthlys from a few years ago. Don't know if it'll help or not, but here ya go: http://www.mustangandfords.com/featured-vehicles/1308-1988-ford-ssp-mustang/

I used to slam 'em together in one day - that's how I wound up with the one in the first post of the thread. LOL!

Well, I got the trim cleaned up quite a bit between the use of isopropyl alcohol and liberal use of fine tip Sharpies. I also took the Molotow 1mm Chrome Pen to the emblems, door handles, locks, and the hood ornament. I used the chrome pen, then the red fine tip Sharpie, then the blue, then a toothpick since the white paint pen tip was too big - not a decal! The original car had burn thru places from the detailer hitting it too hard with the buffer on the real car, so those burn-thru spots are actually somewhat authentic, even though they're a side-effect of too much polishing. I cut the .05mm fine tip black pen down to a wedge shaped tip and hit the seams on the doors, hatchback, and gas filler door, which came out OK... maybe a little too much on the hatch seam, though. Still gotta paint the reverse lights, but I'm liking how it's coming out. Getting pretty close to putting it all together!

Incredible work, as always!

Sweet! I love the '80s T/As - you're doing an awesome job!

Surprise! I got something done and it didn't take months to do so. I decided to mask off the black trim and run some Testors matte black through the airbrush today. Suffice it to say, Testors' instructions on how to thin the enamel weren't the greatest, but I got through it. Looks like it's time for an eye-dropper or two as well. I still have some spots to tweak with the Sharpie, but overall I'm happy with how it went. The Tamiya masking tape did a great job, but the thinner Testors masking tape came up in a few areas and allowed some errant overspray (which I can hopefully get cleaned up as well). All-in-all, I'm pretty happy with it. I have a business trip this week, so hopefully I'll get some time next weekend to work on it some more.

So I got some time to play around with some of the details I've been thinking about the past few weeks. I have this reference picture of the engine, and it's simply ridiculous how many hoses are running back and forth to various places and sensors on the engine... I don't remember having that many on mine, so I'm thinking my reference picture might actually be a California car. Regardless, I have to make some hoses and whatnot since I'm at the point of weathering things. Here are the interior side panel/engine aprons (or whatever they're called), along with the firewall and air cleaner. Rather than make all of the harness and hoses, I drew some of 'em on with a Sharpie, along with some brake lines with a Molotow Chrome Pen. Those big slots in the firewall are the kit's fault - it didn't come with any kind of hood hinges. Another deficiency I found in the kit was the movable front wheels... with no tie rod or anything to keep them aligned with each other. Wow... way to go, Monogram (edit: Ooops - MPC... my bad) - this might just be the worst kit I've ever had. So, I made some steering arms and a rack & pinion using a paper clip, one of those little straws from a can of WD-40, and some masking tape. Looks pretty decent, if I might say so myself. I also weathered the exhaust system just a little bit more - the real car had a couple of holes in the muffler (rear seam) that I hopefully captured here with the extra soot. I also polished the body, which came out "OK," I suppose, but I still need to clean all of the 3M Perfect-It from the nooks and crannies. After that, I'll mask off all the black trim areas and see how that goes. I'm thinking the contrast of the black trim will help hide some of the trash I got in the paint while I was playing with the pressures on the airbrush and figuring out how to thin the acrylic paint I used.

Well, the first run with the new airbrush station was a success in my book. The paint job however... mixed reviews. It was looking really good until I shot the clear, then things changed a little - the color went a little darker than I was hoping for, but it's probably actually closer to the factory color. I also got a little bit of trash in the clear, along with the Pledge Acrylic as clear coat didn't lay down as shiny as I was hoping (gotta do a little bit of polishing now). All in all, I'm still pretty happy with it. Now, if I can just get it polished and add the black trim without messing it all up.

So, a few years ago I built this cool shed on the side of my driveway, hoping it would eventually become a small shop in which I could permanently set up my airbrushing gear. Then, we basically made my mom get rid of her storage unit ($70/month bill she no longer had the money to pay), and her final leftovers wound in it while she was ‘going through the last bits.’ Well, as usual, she abandoned that since it was hot, in a place that she didn’t have to worry about it being destroyed or gone missing, and was boring so she didn’t want to do that anymore. That was sometime in late summer of 2016, and we’ve been waiting for her to finish ‘going through’ her BLAH_BLAH_BLAH_BLAH ever since. Over Christmas week, I decided I’d had enough of that and got busy on completing my small shop area. We boxed up the junk she’d covered our plastic table in, and basically shoved it aside so I could get the area I need cleaned out, organized, and ready for a transformation into functionality. I snagged a couple of work benches from Harbor Freight, along with a portable air brush booth, and a bunch of other cool things to make the workstation much better. What does all that have to do with my '82 Mustang build? Last week, after adding a few more finishing touches to the work space (tunes, a trash can, cutting mat, a new caster to replace the broken one on my old computer chair, etc.), I got to shoot some paint. I have no idea what to use for ‘primer,’ so I found some interior acrylic ‘Feather Gray’ at the hardware store, thinned it out, and shot it through the El Cheapo Harbor Freight airbrush. Getting the right mix of ‘thin enough for the AB was a challenge, but I eventually got some “primer” laid down on the Mustang body parts. I have no idea if it’s even going to stay stuck, so I’ll let it sit for a few days before checking it out – it’s stuck to my fingers quite nicely, however. If it won’t stick, no worries – it’s water based, should come right off, and I can start again once I find some real primer for the airbrush. I also learned a few valuable lessons today, in the way of securing the work, setting the flow needle, and making sure the airbrush actually stays together while cleaning it. Good times!

I hate that the color palette isn't even close to reality. For instance, Ford Paint Code 'V' - Light Pewter Metallic. It's one of those colors that kind of depends on the lighting.

Wow, so it's been almost 2 months since I last posted any progress. Been all sorts of busy, and just hadn't gotten back to it in awhile. I picked up some embossing powder and decided to make some 'carpet' for the Mustang. Yeah... that turned out like BLAH_BLAH_BLAH_BLAH. I picked up the 'extra thick' embossing powder, thinking that the bigger bottle of clear would be what I needed for many years of scale model carpet goodness. Nope - it looks like I've effectively spread tan gravel on the floor of the kit. Whatever... it'll be inside and nobody will be looking that close, anyway. I played around a little bit today and worked on the center console and dashboard. I just need to touch up a couple of tan spots on both and maybe print some gauge faces (haven't decided yet). The kit came with front wheels that could be steered (or posed, rather), but didn't have a tie rod connecting the two. So, I busted out the trusty pin vise and drilled some holes through the 'spindles' and made some tie rod ends out of a paper clip along with an old school tie rod to span the gap between the two. I'll dress it up to look like the rack & pinion which is also missing on the chassis. Baby steps, I guess.

SWEET! Love the Fox bodies! Nice work!!