Custom Mike

To finish off tonight, I got some parts painted with Dupli-Color Black primer, I'll be starting on the chassis tomorrow night! And I got a couple of thin strips glued in place to repair the drip rail on the roof panel...it should be real fun to get this to match!

I've got a issues on the cab fix, the first one was a slip with the panel scriber, an easy fix. More evidence of my heavy-handed sanding.... A bit of re-shaping on the bottom edges of the front end to round them off some more... And the biggest problem on the hood. The character line was all out of whack at the front corner, so it got straightened back out. I've also got some super tiny pinholes along the topside of the character line at the back edge. I'm hoping the next coats of primer fill them in, we'll see. And a couple of quick pics to check the hood on the cab for character line matching and overall fit...

Some more primer laid down on the boat, it's looking like it's ready for some Candy Silver once the primer cures! And the hood wearing some primer. Not the best pics, but they'll do for tight now. I can see two small issues to take care of so far, nothing major thankfully! And a few shots of the cab in primer, again a few small issues, but nothing serious, so it's looking good!

Thanks Carl, this one is special to me, so I'm giving it more attention than normal, I want it to be as close to perfect as I can get it, I'm sure Toney would approve of it. Going back to work on the truck's cab and hood. The hood is in much better shape now, but I may end up having to add a shim to the driver's side at the front corner, we'll see! The front end all sanded down and cleaned up... It's strange, some times the hood sits beautifully all the way around like this shot, other times it's slightly up on the driver's side...aggravating piece of plastic! I glued the back of the cab in place to insure that I had the warp straightened out.... And I cleaned the glue joint up a bit on each side. I don't want it smooth, since there is a nice seam there on the 1:1 truck, but I don't want it looking nasty either!

This should be a good one Greg, I love this kit and can't wait to see what you do with it!

A couple of closer shots of the garbage I've got to sand. fill and generally make look like it belongs here! A bit of filler applied to close off the gaps around the edges...like I needed more work on this beast! The good news is, the filler piece did reduce the warp in the cab a bit, the gap is at least passable now! I moved back to the boat so I didn't get any more aggravated with the truck and it's wonderful hood. I got the boat re-primered, and sanded down a couple of spots that needed a bit more attention. The area where the water pickup will go had some bad scratches, so they got taken care of.... There were a few small lumps in this area that had to be smoothed out again.... And finally, I painted the interior side panels with some Dupli-Color Fabric and Interior paint in Silver, then mocked 'em up real quick. I had already sanded on the bottom edges to get them to fit in the boat easier (And hopefully avoid any further cracking trying to install them!). I found at this point the tube for the water pickup needed to be removed so the interior panels can be installed later, no big deal there, it's easy to glue back into place! That's all for tonight guys and gals, drive safe, and don't forget to tip over your waiter or waitress!

More sanding and constant checking.... It's looking really good so far! It was at this point I realized that the hood was not fitting properly at the driver's front corner again, but it's not the hood that's the issue at this point...the cab is warped too! this kit just gets better and better! Yup, the big honking gap there is due to the cab being twisted downward at the corner...and both of the cabs I have have the same issue! The fit of the hood to the cab is perfect on the passenger side at least! In an attempt to pull the warp out of the cab, I broke out the filler for the front of the cab and glued it into place. Surprise, it fits horribly too!

A bit of work on the hood smoothing out the filler pieces. It's going pretty smoothly so far, let's see if it continues! Now to get the hood to match up with the cab. I started by marking the back edges of the hood with a blue sharpie to see when I had removed enough plastic to get the sides of the hood flush with the cab... I started the fight with some aggressive sanding stick work, the hardest part was keeping the character line straight, and matching it to the cab the entire time. Every bit of plastic removed from the top side meant a bit more had to be removed from the bottom to bring the line back up to where it was supposed to be...fun!

My last postings for tonight will be all about the wonderful hood in this kit. Having ruined the first one, I took a slow, deliberate approach to the second hood. I stated by gluing the sides to the hood first this time, making sure they lined up with the cab. Once they had set for a week and I was sure they were not going to move, I set the front piece in place and glued it down to match the lines on the top of the hood, not really worrying about the sides. Once the glue had set, I had a nasty gap on each side where it meets the lower front, but it sits perfectly on the cab, so now I needed to fix the gaps. A bit of strip styrene was glued into the gap to fill the holes, so far, it still fits! In this last pic, you can see the mismatch between the sides and front piece, that's gonna be fun to get straight! But it fits, so I can fix any other issues at this point, it's only plastic! We're getting there! The filler piece is not fully sanded down on this side in this picture, trust me, it fits now! The next big hurdle will be cleaning up the seams, and getting the lower front and sides to play nice together, that should be a ton of fun!

I sanded my intake plate smooth and popped it loose, then glued the intake pipe into place inside the boat. The next step is more primer on the boat to see if we're ready for paint finally!

I sanded the filler down and popped the brass filler piece out, cleaned up the opening a bit, then laid the actual intake plate in place, and added a bit more filler to cover the gaps along the edges. I should be able to sand this down tomorrow night and hopefully be done with this part!

Here's the screen I'm going to use on the end of the intake tube...well, actually on the plate, since it's easier to attach it to the plate than the tube! Yeah, that's some seriously fine mesh! A tiny piece was cut, and applied to the backside of the plate... Extreme close-up anyone? Once the superglue dried, I sanded the plate down and polished it up, I'm still not sure if I'm going to leave it brass, or paint it with some Metalizer Stainless Steel, we'll see how it looks once the boat is painted. I cut a piece of the brass to match the intake plate, laid it in the hole and covered it with filler. Once it cures, I'll sand it smooth and pop the plate free, the see if my actual plate fits!

Here's the angle I wanted on the intake pipe, it wasn't easy, but I pulled it off! I put the intake tube in place and marked it where it came out of the hull... A quick mock-up of the plate, I think this is gonna work! The intake tube cut off. Once it was cut, I ran an X-Acto blade around the inside to thin the wall out a bit more to make it look better, it was pretty thick! I drilled out the floor panel so the intake tube could pass through it. The hole is a bit bigger, but it's not like this part needs to be waterproof, it's inside! After mocking the intake tube up again with the floor in place, it looks like my angle is a bit off...I marked it and re-cut it, so it's a good fit now!

I put the original bed floor back in place and marked where it sits so I can add some angle strip to retain the new basswood floor. Next, a quick mock-up with two strips of basswood. It's going to be the same thickness as the original plastic bed floor, talk about lucky! The last bit of work tonight was on the lower front edge of the hood. I sanded the rolled edge off of the turn signal. I was planning on removing the turn signals from the new hood and using the turn signals from the original hood, but I kind of like the smoothed out look! And smoothed out, I like this clean look, and it'll make it easier to clean up the seam when I glue it to the top of the hood too! I also got the plate for the water intake made up, and set up the boat and flooring insert for the intake pipe. I used a piece of thin brass I got out of an alarm panel to make the plate, and spent a ton of time trying to get the hole just right for the pipe to fit properly. Here's the pics, enjoy! It took two tries to get the hole in the brass just right, this was fun! The plate in it's proposed spot on the hull.... I marked around the plate, and marked the hole so I could drill the hull for the intake pipe... The hardest part was getting the angle of the hole right so the intake pipe would sit the way I wanted once it gets glued in place. This took about as long as getting the hole right in the brass sheet!

The bed is just about ready for it's basswood floor! I started by cleaning up the remaining side, then cut the floor loose... A bit of Dremel work to knock the excess plastic down to a manageable level... Some serious sanding stick work and this part is now done! Next up was cutting the bed floor loose from the back edge of the bed... And the next two shots show the cutting of the bed floor loose from the sides. You can see how wavy the inside of the bed is here pretty easily, the cut lines make it really visible! Once the floor was cut loose, the smoothing out of the inside of the bed sides started... All cleaned up and ready for the next step!

A quick mock-up on the engine...I've still got to make a flange for the base of the housing, but that should be simple! I'll make the braided line connect to the headers right where the first tube connects to that large curve area.... The beginnings of the water pickup tube for the whole system, it'll go to the back of the boat, close to the edge on the left side. And I dug out a pair of air cleaners, I think these will look right at home on top of this engine!

I finally figured that part out JC, it took me a while though! A buddy of mine over on Scale Avenue gave me a link to boat cooling systems, since this kit doesn't come with one, I have to make my own, Here's the link.... http://www.boatinghowto.com/content/how-boat-cooling-systems-work-240/ So looking at the diagram for Open Cooling system, I'll need a water pump, thermostat above it, and a line for the water from the back of the boat. Then a couple of lines from the thermostat housing to the headers. I've got some stuff to make, this has bugged me for a while now! BTW, I'm planning on using the Open Cooling system just to make it easier, with one small modification because of the headers. After all the work I did to make 'em look right, I'm going to eliminate the risers because I don't want to ruin the look of the headers. But I found a way to get the lines from the thermostat housing to the lower side of the headers, I'll show that later. And here's what I'll be using for the cooling lines! I found that the antenna cables we use for our backup cell units at work is actually a very small coax, so it's a real braided line! OK, here's the pics of what I made to represent the "thermostat housing". I started with a styrene tube, opened it up enough for the braided line to fit in, and took a notch out of the center so I could make it angled to get around the heads. Then I grabbed a piece of parts tree and made the section that goes to the intake. A bit of glue for the notched section, and a bit of sanding, and we have a roughed-in thermostat housing/attachment for the braided lines, probably not 100% accurate, but it'll look good enough for me!

Love it Shane, you've got me wanting one of these kits now!

Jim, the work on that carb is killer! I keep saying I'm gonna add linkage to one of mine, but just haven't pulled the trigger yet. Seeing yours makes me want to just have you do it for me...I don't think I'm ever gonna get mine to look that good!

I started the long process of sanding the side of the bed smooth. I noticed something at this point, the horribly bad "bulging" top rails on the bed weren't the only issue. The sides of the bed are just as bad as the tops! So once the sides are smoothed out, I'll remove the bed floor, and smooth out the insides too. This kit has some serious issues with the tooling for sure! Round one completed. There's a nasty dip at the back edge where the fender goes...good thing the fender will be right up against it, so it won't even be noticeable once it's all back together! Round two showed a bit more sanding was still needed at the top center area... Round three, all is good on this side of the bed! I'll hit it with some 600, 800 and 1500 tomorrow, it's way past my bedtime! And a quick shot from above to show how the side looks so far! This took about two hours total, so I can hopefully get the other side done tomorrow night and maybe get the floor removed, we'll see what happens tomorrow! Something I forgot to post...don't ask, too many glue fumes! I discovered that the prop-shaft should have been glued in place when the two sides of the hull were glued together. I guess that piece of paper in the bottom of the box comes in handy sometimes, doesn't it? It worked out through, since the hole that it passed through was all kinds of messed up, I could get it corrected now! I snipped the prop-shaft in half at the point that it passes through the hull, so it'll work fine. I also got the hole tightened up, so now it doesn't look like the boat would sink if it actually hit the water!

I attacked the unmolested bed....it's no longer unmolested, that's for sure! I started by cutting the fenders off as close to the bed as I could get without actually messing up the bed sides... Next, I cut the bed floor loose from the back edge of the bed very carefully. The plan is to leave the rear piece attached, let's see if I can pull it off! This was all done using the Trumpeter Panel Scriber...much better control and a smoother line! The same was done at the front of the bed, but I finished this cut off with a PE Saw Blade...it was way thicker here! Next up was starting the cuts on the sides of the bed to remove the floor so it can be replaced with some Basswood. I stopped before cutting them loose because I realized I was going to need the structure to have some strength while sanding on the outsides...for once, I actually thought ahead more than 5 minutes! Since I'm also correcting the top of the bed sides, I decided to cut them off. But, in another example of thinking ahead for once, I decided to just cut them flush with the bed sides to make the "fix" for the horribly molded garbage easier to pull off! Like with the fenders, I left a bit attached to the bed. Yeah, it's gonna be tedious sanding it all smooth, but it's better than adding a bunch of unnecessary filler!

OK, time for some more progress on the boat. I sanded down the second coat of filler, and it's looking good in almost all areas now. The crack on the right side of the dash showed back up, so it's a definite fix, and a few pinholes showed up in a couple of spots, but the rest of it is in great shape! This spot's getting a bit more glue, then some acrylic filler, it's gonna stay fixed! These pinholes actually sanded out, so we're all good in this area! These pinholes needed a bit more filler, but they should be fine this time around! Since the newly applied filler is curing, along with the glue in the crack, I decided it's time to get moving on the bed modifications. I hacked the fenders off of the original bed and got them cleaned up for re-installation on the modified bed. The cleaned-up fenders and the unmolested bed in the background...it has no idea how badly it's gonna be tortured soon! I still haven't figured out how I'm going to re-attach the fenders, but that's way down the line right now, I'll figure it out when the time comes!

I finally got some Primer/Sealer on the boat. I'll let it cure for a few days, and see if I have any problem areas to address. Right now I can see a slight run at the top of the dash, but that's a minor issue, everything else is looking good! Well, I sanded down the boat a bit more, applied a bit more putty to a few tiny issues, and decided to tackle the ill-fitting hood on the truck. After trying to get it to fit right, I ended up screwing it up with hot water.... So, now I'm gonna grab a second truck kit to steal the hood from. Since I'm going to get another kit, I figured I could hack the bed up a bit and really get it looking right... Yup, I'm going to really make the bed look good, it's gonna look like it should now...wood bed floor and all!

Mike, as far as I'm concerned, compared to the hood and bed, the grille is fine. I hacked the bed into it's components and re-built the entire thing, and spent a whole lot of time and putty making the hood look right and fit the way it's supposed to!

Jeremy, I've got this one in progress right now. The bed and hood are a real mess, expect a lot of fighting to get the hood looking good, and that bed... I just ripped it to pieces and re-did the whole thing. The engine, chassis and interior are great, and that set of rims and tires pictured on the box are gorgeous though!