Ben269

Thanks, guys. Bruce, I used medical tape for the window net, worked out ok.

this one is done, pics in the under glass section.

Finished up this Bud Moore 1987 Thunderbird. I tried to replicate the headrest that was in the Bud Moore cars during the 80's. Powerslide decals, and raised the window openings to make a more convincing 87 thunderbird body. I showed a couple pics of it in the WIP section.

These are some good examples from that era. It looks like there was some variance between teams, or between speedway cars and short track cars. It would be great to get that Monogram body more accurate. All comments or ideas are welcome, I'm sure some of you have tried this, or at least had ideas?

Side note, the blue body looks real crooked from the top, but its not, just looks that way in the photo. I need to take better photos, and try to center the model better. I think there are a few good write-ups about taking photos I should go and re-read.

I think everyone who enjoys building NASCAR kits has noticed that the 83-86 Thunderbird has a few noticeable flaws, especially in the front. The openings on the fenders are too large, and the nose seems to be too short. the bumper and grill appear to be the wrong shape altogether. There was a very detailed breakdown on the Randy Ayers site several years ago, with a pretty good attempt at fixing it. Not sure that model ever got finished, but it was headed in the right direction. I tried to fix it a different way, but I am not too pleased with the results. I thought since the biggest problems were the shape of the front fenders, and the nose being too short, I would try to graft in different fenders. I had a Buick Regal NASCAR body without a hood, so I cut those fenders off and grafted them on to the thunderbird. I then cut the front bumper and headlights and grill apart to get it more narrow. The grill on the unmodified white body shows how they laid it down too flat, and didn't point out the beak enough. I attempted to stand it up a bit more, but push out the middle so it has a more pronounced curve. The result is too narrow in the front compared to the back, and the grill looks too tall compared to photos of the race cars. Its been sitting in the box of NASCAR parts, and was in the back of a picture on my Ricky Rudd 1987 build, when Shark noticed it and asked about it. I figured that was a good time to open up a thread and see if anyone has had better luck trying to fix this body?

Chassis is completed. Should have the rest of it done tomorrow.

Does anyone know how to fix these windows? it looks like a tire, or a sprue pressed into them, its a pretty deep groove. Can you fill it with canopy glue or something? I assume they are beyond saving, but maybe someone knows a trick.

Yes, the blue one is the 83-86 body, and I am trying to fix the front end. They just don't look right. I'll start a new thread for that one, I think its a subject that others have tried to fix in the past, and would like to get other peoples thoughts on that.

Dave, you are right about the shape of that A pillar. I didn't sand it like you did, but I think its too prominent, and when I do the next one, I would like to address it, maybe straighten and thin out the bottom part so its not so thick at the bottom?

Almost done, just a few more parts to paint.

Chassis and cage are not complete yet, but I wanted to show the headrest and seat that I made to replicate the style Bud Moore used through most of the 80's. Need to make the pad for the headrest still, but I am happy with it so far.

I filled in the seam where I raised the door line, and sanded it smooth. I didn't take any pictures of it before paint, though. Worked out ok, and now it fits over the sides of the roll cage as well. Powerslide decals.

I started this a few months ago. I feel like these 87-88 bodies are not quite right on the window opening, so I made the door panel taller and the window narrower. I think it helped.

Nice job, this turned out really well! As you stated, these are tough kits to work with, they do need a lot of work to get to sit right, fit right, and look right. Its a shame, because there are so many good 83-86 thunderbird liveries to replicate.

This is a very cool project, I love these and the Metro vans. Its coming along great!

Did you paint the shift pattern on the shift knob? love it!

I made the window net out of an electrical tape that has a texture like hockey tape. Used it for the roll bar padding as well. I have the other car in the kit, it came in a 2 pack with the Zerex car. I would like to make some modifications to the body, raise the door sides so the body can drop all the way down over the chassis. right now, it gets hung up on the roll cage on the top of the doors. The windows look too large, so fixing those would solve both problems, hopefully. I also think the nose is too straight up, so maybe a guy can sand the leading edge and soften that a bit? Has anyone improved the shape of these bodies and had success?

Started this a while back, had to stop for a while. I couldn't figure out what color the chassis was, so I watched a few races from the 1987 season until I saw the race where Ken wrecked bad, and you could see all the black under the hood after the wreck. I like the way it turned out, I used Tamiya paint, Italian red, obviously, and white. the decals are a combination of the kit decals, and a JNJ sheet.

Finished this one up tonight, looks good on the shelf but lots of flaws. Struggled with the paint, had to redo it in a few spots. The decals were a challenge as well. Ended up using 3 different sheets, the stock ones that were 30 years old, the unknown brand 1/25 scale ones for the side Valvoline and rear, and the Powerslide 1986-87 valvoline decal sheet. I love the paint scheme on this car though.

Charlie, I used Testors bottle paints, Arctic Blue Metallic (1109-RM11091_0611), and Blue Met. Flake (1539-RM15391_0811). The arctic blue is darker, a nd I mixed in a little purple for the belt line stripe. I mixed some of the arctic blue into the blue metal flake to darken it up a bit, and used that for the body and chassis. I watched a few races from 1991 on youtube to get an idea, then just mixed the colors to get what I thought looked close. I have no idea what the actual colors are.

Got some of this going, finally. The paint hasn't been going great. Had to paint the white on top twice, and it wrinkled up. had to redo the red in some spots because the tape pulled some off. I am going to clear it and wet sand before decals.

Tires are looking good, just need to add a bit of weathering to dull down the white.

Paint is on the main cage and the chassis. I forgot to add the vertical bars at the front, so I added them afterwards. I will have to hand paint them later.