Custom Mike

Now that the tail lights are all cut off, I grabbed my trusty sanding sticks and got them knocked down almost smooth with the rear end. Another few minutes polishing them up, a bit of Tamiya Clear Red on the backsides of each lens, and a piece of Detail Master's Krome Foil one the back of each lens finishes 'em off. I had planned on them being flush with the body, but I changed my mind and left enough sticking up to be able to mask them off when painting time comes tomorrow!

I got all four new tail lights made up, epoxied in place, then I cut the excess off of all of them, Next up is the smoothing out and polishing of the new tail lights!

I decided I didn't like the tail lights, so I had to make my own. I had a few different ideas, but finally backed down to a simple one. I drilled out the stock tail lights, and enlarged the holes for some aluminum tubing and clear plastic rod. I have the passenger side started, here's the pics to prove it!

Sorry for the long delay on my part of this CBP, but that's life right? I've got a ton of work done on my body kit to show, so sit back and enjoy, unless you're working on your own, then get back to the bench, you guys have got some great builds going on. I've got a few changes in mind too, I filled in the holes in the trunk and will go without the spoiler after all, it looks better without it!

Nice and classy color for a classy car. I've got a resin Chopped Hudson I'm painting for a friend in a two-tone burgundy nail polish. Some cars just call for certain colors, ya know?

And now for something completely different.... Looks like a great start Chuck, will this one be weathered or nice and shiny?

Love these old Fairlanes, I've got a few more '66's to build myself someday. I did a '66 a few years ago with a two-tone fade, give this a shot!

Should be a sweet Camaro Guy, and something you don't see all the time! I'm with Mike on the grille, it's a bit more work, but sanding sticks work great, especially on this grille. I didn't break a single bar when I opened mine up. Now I've got to build the rest of the Camaro to put it in someday....

Daniel, your Dad had a nice little stash! As far as decals for the Camaro, I'd check with Keith Marks, but I'm not sure he makes them. I do know Model Car Garage makes a PE set for it (I've got one), the only thing it's missing is the 302 scripts. About the only kit in that "gift set" he gave you that would be considered a bad one would be the 70 T/A, and it's a pretty good kit, your Dad has good taste in kits!

Chuck, the Terraplane grille is perfect for this, you've gotta finish it!

The big problem with Jo-Han kits is flash, they rarely maintained their tools like other manufacturers do, they just used 'em and didn't sweat the flash. Probably the reason they went under, among other things. I never bought any Jo-Han kits when I was younger, I wish I had though. They may be light on detail, with promo-style chassis and bad interiors, but their bodies were dead-on accurate compared to the other manufacturers, and they put out a ton of kits that no one else would. With a bit of work, you can put a modern kit chassis under one, and rework the interior so it's presentable, but it's usually more work than most builders want to take on. I know AMT's '71 Charger chassis fits almost perfectly under Jo-Han's '71-74 Javelin kits....now I've got to get off my butt and build one someday!

Great idea David, I just saw one of these with a '67 GTO roof molded onto it, but it looks like the Cutlass roof is a better fit by far! Good idea to reduce the front end length too, it would have been horribly unbalanced if you hadn't modified it!

Great work so far Jake, I can't wait to see some paint thrown at her!

Oh man, that is pretty Thor, the wood looks absolutely real!

Looks like a great start, can't wait for the rest!

Excellent work for a first time build, the paint is beautifully smooth, and you'll learn how not to make the mistakes you have on the hood and fender as you build more. Your attention to detail is outstanding, and the weathering on the chassis is excellent. The interior looks great, and the driver's seat being slightly forward of the passenger seat is a great touch! Once you learn how to do Bare Metal Foil, you'll be a force to be reckoned with, your skills are phenomenal for a beginner! A tip for you on the engine wiring, I always drill my holes in the engine all the way through, so I can push any excess wire into the cavity (hollow part) in the assembled engine, hiding the excess easily.

Very cool idea Chuck, I'll be waiting for updates on this one!

Nice start Michael, I'll be watching for the other two builds also, can't have enough MOPARs!

I'm leaning toward those rims too Chuck, but I've gotta find a use for those funky three-spokes sooner or later! I have my spoiler setup, I carved a pair of holes in the underside of the spoiler, added the mounts from a '71 Duster spoiler, set it at an angle I liked, and that parts is all set! A pair of holes in the trunk, and we're good to go! And a few pics of my body kit around the back bumper. I still have to thicken the bottom a bit, but this part was hard enough to get right, so I'll get to that part this weekend. So far, I'm really liking the look with the new additions!

It's a plastic model, it's meant to be built, not stored in a hermetically sealed chamber, build the hell out of it!

I've got a spoiler in mind, I have no idea what kit it's from, but it looks just right on this baby! A bit more work, my last update for the night. I got the beginning of the rear end started (Which included smoothing out the tail lights and license plate recess), and the driver's side started, enjoy!

After screwing up the paint, changing my mind and going in a different direction, I decided to strip the body and go back to my original idea, so into the tank she went. While it was stripping, I toyed around with a few ideas, and finally settled on a kind of body kit/ground effects for it. I started out with the weird little thing in the first pic, I still don't know for sure if it's gonna end up on here or not, we'll see. I started on the passenger side, cutting out a piece of .030 styrene, shaping it, then gluing it down to the body. I rounded the top edges a bit, then laid down another thin strip of .030 styrene at the very bottom edge, and a .020 strip above that, to give the bottom edge a bit more thickness than the top. Once that was all blended together, a piece of half-round was glued to the very bottom edge, some more fine sanding and a small spot of filler, and this first part is done!

Now onto the interior. Since the paint scheme I've dreamed up is a modern version of the classic AMC Racing colors, I needed some White to go with the Red & Blue. So the seats, console, dash & door panels are White, the carpeting and package tray are Blue flocking. Craft Bond, flocking and strainer, and masked off interior... Craft Bond sprayed onto the interior bucket... And a heavy coating of Blue flocking from the strainer. I pressed it into place, knocked the excess off and... Once very Blue carpeted interior bucket! And we have one very bright Blue & White interior!

OK Chuck, I'm jumping in, with a partially built AMT Matador I picked up for $22. The engine was built in typical glue-bomb fashion, so I decided to glue the hood shut and go curbside. Since I'm going curbside, I decided to say the heck with the suspension, I want this baby slammed! So I added an aluminum tube on the top of the frame up front, and drilled a hole for the wire axle out back. I've got two sets of rims in mind, and two different colors of aluminum sleeves. Rim option #1 (There will be some Pegasus disc brake rotors in these babies too, just not yet!) Rim option #2... The new front "suspension"! And the rear axle. The rear end will still be installed, just so something is visible from behind the car.

I may have one for ya Robert, but it may need re-chroming. I had one of these kits get some water damage, let me see if I have the bumper still...