E St. Kruiser50

Thanks George As you know, I grew up in SoCal in the 50's and 60's. Street cars were outrageous at times back then, much more than now. I've seen "rails" (Dragster's) and "Flipper's" ( funny Cars ) on the streets in L.A and BERDOO cruzzin on the week-ends, runnin' on "alcohol" and "nitro" - can't mistake that smell - and the sound of 1000 horse Power on the street- OH MY GOSH. Absolutely loved it. We called um' FRIDAY NIGHT SPECIALS. You could hear them way before you ever saw them. Ear bustin' - Thunder clappin' motor's. They were the high-lite of the week-end. Incredibly wild. Nothin' else like it. This'll be a "Mild" sorta throw back and tribute to those bygone day's of "Street Shock And Awe"

Peter, Peter, Peter These are just so cool. "The BONDO BRIGADE" . I love doin' bondo work and "Re-sculpting" an already classic shape. These are looking so way 50's - 60's retro, with some contemporary up-dates. Very, very nice dave - Another "Bondomeister" happily playing

Hey Peter You seem to be in that same "Building Zone" as me. Got the "New Year Bug", and am having a blast "Carving Out" some new idea's. You're "Eleanor" has a great start. Love to watch these kinda builds. Don't stop now - dave

Hey 'jurgen' Your build is lookin' great. Love the black paint - BEAUTIFUL!! George is right, triple black would be a knock out. I'll keep watchin' this as you make more progress. Keep up the great work - dave

Hi 'jurgen' Good to hear from you The rear panel is actually from a parted-out die cast '68 R/T, and came from the ol' parts box. It fit perfectly and has chrome around the outside of the panel too. Much nicer than the kit part. Forgot to mention in the first post that I used a '71 Cuda hood with the "Shaker" scoop. It'll have "Cuda Style Hemi Graphics" on the sides, to continue the agressive look with other decal badging to help support the look I want. The hood will be hinged, and the "Yes It Has A Hemi", will be detailed "As Stock" with black valve covers and so on. Later my friend - dave

Hi all Well, I haven't done contests for several years here locally, but won a couple of nice awards this last month pretty much accidentally at our last two club meetings. Kinda got me fired up and the ol' juices flowin' , for competing again in the area events, and down in Eugene, 100 miles away. I've always loved competing, starting from back in the late 50's. Not so much about winning, but just the whole "Expectation" thing and being part of the event. I've never built a theme car before, but our next NNL has the theme of 60's cars which is perfect for a project I wanted to build. The other event is a challange contest, between two local clubs, ours, SABA, and the Eugene club, LAMA. This is our third "Challange" contest. We meet at a Pizza place half way between the two clubs, eat, tell lie's and show off our stuff - way fun . I'll be building a car for each event. Never built a Chrysler product before in all the years of my building, so I decided this was a good time to "Jump in" . This is the latest '69 Charger release. I've always liked the funny car look - Kinda "Wedgy" and "Edgy", and I've wanted to try to do something for the street with that look, and throw in some Pro-Street/Pro-Touring touches, for a muscular "Beefy" look, right off the track - "almost illegal for the street" look, but not look like a JADA die-cast. The body will actually be pretty stock except for the exagerated "Skirts". Kinda how I'd build this in 1 to 1 if it were mine. Here's a couple of shot's of my first "Dodge attempt".

Hi Mike I'm going to answere your P.M. here, as it may help others too. I see two choice here. The first is to flatten the rear curved area so it matches the forward straight area of this pillar. The curve is nice, but to me is a little clumsy looking with the "Edgyness" and straight "Crisp" lines on the rest of the car. That's sorta the theme, plus you've kind of boxed yourself in by doing this by the "Seat of Your pants" , instead of having this pretty much planned out, and fitted ahead of time. If it was me, and I had all this work in it so far , I'd take my time for this window detail. I'd make a mold to vacuum form the window, and make it so the plastic forms about a 1/16 inch down all four sides, forming a trough for a flat frame to fit into, and the glue area would be on the sides, out of site. Measure the front window flange width where it's to be painted black, and make your frame the same width to match and keep the build balanced. Once you have your window trimmed to size, you can use that to fit the frame into, and then build a hinge and attach that to the back of the frame, and then paint it black to match the front window. I would use Detail Masters window tint on both windows to really give it that contemporary believeable look. Get your hinge working good and everything test fitted and then glued into place, assuming you use "Slip hinges" so the moveable parts can be removed. After the window is tinted, you can slide the frame into the window, and put a little epoxy glue on the edges. Re-slide the hinge back onto the body, and VOILA a working hinged rear custom made window and you've learned a ton of new skills The second choice would be to make a curved pattern and vacuum form a window to shape that forms over the side of the mold like on #1 above, and would fit the opening of the rear window, exactly the same as #1 choice, but this is curved. Next, make a nicely curved frame, same as above, that would fit inside the vacuum formed window. If you have donor body's and parts laying around, find a shape already with the right curve or something close, and use some flat body pieces for the top and bottom pices that connect the two side curved pieces. Use super-glue to bond them together, and use ZAP IT to set. If you can't get the curve quite the same, vacuum form a donor window, wax the inside so filler won't stick, add some type of filler like Evercoat. Cover the curved area on the frame with the filler and press into the back of the formed window. Remove in about an hour, and again VOILA, perfectly shaped frame, ready to be sanded, hinged, painted black and installed. I very seldomly use Evergreen strips, because injection molded plastic is so much thicker, stronger and ridged. Paint the frame black to look like the the front windshield where the outside of the glass is to be painted black. This forms a nice ridged support for hinging, and is hidden, and so is the glue area as explained in step one. I'm sure some of this is confusing, so any questions I will gladly answer - dave

Thanks guy's Fun weekend - but no modeling. I'll get more done and have more pics later this week - dave

Hey all This is one I enjoyed doing.

Hey Chris I can spray DupliColor acrylic lacquers over HOK UC35 catalyzed clear. I even shoot Lacquers over enamels without problems - there's just a trick to it I developed-very easy. Good luck - dave

Thanks everyone for all your input . Got the split-window roof section molded on, and cut off the lower part of the body on the '69 and added it to the bottom of the '05 to get the side pipes recessed, and placed where I wanted them, with the right look - at least for me . Car will stay "In the weed's", as the "Attitude" and "Beefyness" (Where's the beef? ) is what this build is about . After painting I will add "Real Chrome" door handles from a '67 Vette, the gas cap shown here from the '67, a "real chrome" swoopy side mirror from a '59 Chev, a "Real chrome antenna" on the right side of the trunk, and some appropriate decal badging to add to the fun "Retro Vette" look. Anyway, having fun and making progress - dave

Thanks guy's I appreciate everyone's imput and idea's. Got the license plate recess area finished. I'll finish the roof and play with the exhaust. Gotta bend up a hinge for the hood, and lay down some Zinnzerbin primer to seal the body work before painting. Later - dave

Well Harry, this rendition is for you . I can't draw like you, but I can "Hack Away" at this ol' plastic LOL Whata ya guy's think??? I like it myself. Think I'll give the "Old Girl" a go if you guy's like it. Later guy's - Dave

Too funny. Welcome to the "Twisted Minds" model building club

Hey Wayne Good to hear from you. There is a forum link on the website. It's sorta buried in the contact us link. I had to do a little searching to find it. After you click on contact us, then go to SABA On Proboards:Forum Click on that link and - VOILA, your there . Your welcome - dave

Hey Erik How will I know you so I can meet you?? and see your models. Hope to see you there - dave

It just keeps gettin better Happy B-Day Lyle. You're just a kid. All the best - Dave

WOW Harry, that's beautiful. Love the color. That'ed look great with the front end from the RED "vette" that you posted earlier, with the 427 Stinger hood. Maybe the next project?? Thank's for the post - dave

1:00 in the afternoon on Saturday Hey Erik - Were you here in Portland for the Antique Car Collector Show last October, at Jantzen beach by the race track? Later - dave

Hi Erik I know it's probably an error, but you said you may be there "SUNDAY", and the show is Saturday the 18th. A Little "Pre-flight jet lag" ??? Anyway, the show goes to about 3:30 at the latest. Awards are usually about 3:00 - YES, we have a few - LOL dave

WOW That would be so cool . Keep me posted and I will let the guy's know at our club meeting this Sunday. I'm the Vise-Pres again, so I help with announcements and so forth. Be fun to let them know. All the best - dave

Hey John Nice to hear from you. Great "Studdie" Hope to see you there at our NNL. Thanks for posting the "Instant Link" to our site - dave

Not rude at all to ask. Yes, Bob our friend passed away, but we're actively keeping his memorie alive by renaming the event he established, and having a special award in his memory. Great guy and loved by all. Thanks for asking - dave

Hi all Well, we have a new website with all our members and some of their builds, including BOB PAETH. Check us out and our schedule of upcoming events. More info will be added later. Thanks for looking - Dave www.sabanw.org

Hi all Been hackin' an whacken' on the rear of this this thing, and got just a bit of sanding and priming to do and then it'll be time to do the exhaust. The rear of the '05 is pretty round where the '69' bumpers go, so I flattened that area out using some pieces I cut from the '69 body that also have the '69 smaller round taillights, and adding them on the outside area of the rear end as you can see in the pic's. The next thing I did was to cut the license plate recess area off the '69 and centered on the '05, as you see in the next pics. The stock trunk lid with the glass in it, ends between the glass and the end of the trunk, so I filled that area in ,and extended the two trunk lines to the end of the body. I also filled in the door handles, recesses for locating both outside mirrors, and the gas cap I'm going to do some fun retro stuff. Trying to keep these major changes subtle while blending the different body contours, was again the most challanging, while trying to make the changes appealing and believeable at the same time. I hope all the little retro styling idea's I have planned will help bring all this together - we'll see Anyway, I'll post more stuff later - dave