Custom Mike

OK, update time. I finally found my package of S&S Specialties turned aluminum coils I bought a few years back at a contest (Couldn't beat the 3 for $2.00 price!), and drilled one out. That was a blast, everyone should try it once! After wasting a few bits and painting the little booger Semi-Gloss Black, I had to make a strap for it. Enter my '67 Charger PE fret, I saw the nice, straight pieces near the headlight surrounds and had my strap. I cut a piece off, wrapped it around the coil, then drilled a hole in it. Here's some pics, more in the next post...

Hey Mitch, good to see you too, I split my time between Scale Avenue and here, so I'm still around, don't go to the old place much anymore, but we won't go there. Good to see you're still around, what do you think of Hemi's paint on this baby?

I finally got the body fully foiled, I used Detail Master's Krome Foil, since standard aluminum foil is too thick for fine details like this. All that's left for the body now is the FORD logo on the trunk, the glass, headliner, some PE door locks, and the door handles. I'm going to try to use some of the FORD decals I have left form my '66 Fairlane to do them up right. And the side mirrors are just pinned in place right now, so don't give me grief over the passenger side being sideways!

I love the way you think Peter, this should be a real stunner when you get it finished! This will be a massive improvement over that bloated piece of sheet metal that bears the proud "300" badges. The Chrysler 300 was once a flagship for the company, and when they turned it into that sorry thing that rolls around today, they started on their downhill slide. At least the "Cab Forward" version of the 300 had a presence and style that told you it was something special, unlike that "blingmobile" they're trying to pass off as a 300. Show 'em how it's done brother, I'll be waiting for this one to blow me away!

Man, that just looks so sweet Peter, I've got about 1000 ideas going on right now, I can't wait to snag one of these!

Sweet Fairlane, and an even better avatar! This has become one of my favorite kits, I fixed my ride height up front, but need to do another one like you did, with a huge honkin' Boss 429 shoved between those fenders!

Thanks Steve, I appreciate it. It came out 1000 times better than it's first go-around, that's for sure!

Update time! I finished off my air cleaner by applying some Detail Master Krome Foil to the lid, slapping the 428 decal on it, and calling it good. Then I painted up my radiator/core support assembly with some Semi-Gloss and Flat Blacks, the radiator was painted with some Metalizer Steel, and the Oil Cooler was painted with some Aluminum Plate. Then I got to work getting the engine finished off and installed in the chassis, I hope to get this one wrapped up in the next week!

Jordan, that comes from Commercial Smoke Detectors, the kind that are tied to Fire Alarm systems. I've been working on Alarms for almost 20 years now, and I used to get these 6 inch long, 3/4 inch high pieces of stainless mesh from the high-end detectors. Unfortunately, they stopped using this and went to a cheesy fiberglass mesh, so I'm almost out of it now. I'd love to know where to find something like it in the aftermarket, but nothing I've seen comes close to it.

Since you clicked within 15 minutes, I'm throwing in these 5 last pictures absolutely free! Thanks for looking, and operators are standing by!

This was a first for me, I rebuilt one of my old kits. I've never done it before, because I like to see my progress from kit-to-kit, but this one irritated me to no end. I built it about 5-6 years ago, and it had the best detailed engine I've ever done on a Tuner. The problem with it was a giant (1/16th of an inch!) blob of super-glue holding the rear bumper on (On the passenger side), and the funky Gold trim, don't ask what I was smoking, but it must have been really good! So I found some Purple Pearl nail polish that was a near-match for the engine compartment, grabbed some Crimson Pearl, and started in on it. The body was stripped, the interior was repainted, and the kit glass (Which caused the problems with the rear bumper fitting in the first place) was modified. I cut the side windows off the glass, and trimmed them up so they fit flush in the openings, then painted her all up nice and pretty with a cool fade, and re-assembled it all. The first three pics are what I started with (Blech!), and the rest are of this newly-finished beauty! Enjoy, and as always, there are more pics over on my Fotki page, just click on the links! http://public.fotki....-civic-rebuild/ http://public.fotki....rs/honda-civic/ But wait, there's more.....

Bill, you're blowing me away, and I know you haven't even started yet. This is gonna be great, those extensions down to the fender wells are beautifully done man!

Great work so far, I love anything Javelin/AMX related, so I'll be watching this beauty come together!

Peter, sign me up for one, although as fast as I build, it may be awhile before I get to it. I love the look of what you've come up with, I've never been good at the older style bodies myself, but I think I could do something with a blank canvas as cool as that!

Thanks for the info Bradley, if I ever do a stock version, I've got all the info I need! Pictures of this car on the web are hard to come by, at least ones that aren't grainy. Kind of like trying to find pictures of a '69 Firebird T/A Convertible, they're out there, but they're poor quality. As far as getting the A-Pillar right, I can't take credit for that, Spyder (Jon) pointed out that on my '66 Fairlane. Apparently, some '60's Fords had solid chrome A-Pillars, and being a Mopar/Chevy guy, I was blissfully ignorant of that little detail until he pointed it out, which I'm thankful for. Thanks for all the comments guys, now get back to the benches!

Rick, great minds think alike! I was going to use the 429 out of the '70 Mustang Boss 429 in this one. The kit arrived after getting the chassis assembled and brake lines in place, and I found that it was going to take more work than I wanted to do to get it to fit right. I would have had to scrap the front brake lines and rework the suspension a bit to get it sitting right, so I decided the 428 was gonna stay with this one. It's all good though, I've got another Boss 429 kit to play with!

Dave, if I saw this in a 1:1, I would look at the owner very closely, to see if he was totally insane, or just plain weird. Like you said though, it works for a model, we can get away with a whole lot more than you can in the real world!

And the last update for the night, after some sanding, stripping the chrome (I know, I should have done that prior to actually modifying it, but I'm a bit behind the curve sometimes!) and removing the little "shoulders" that are at the end of the snorkel (Where it meets the air cleaner itself), I laid down some primer, then some Ford Engine Blue. I'm going to mask off the top of the air cleaner once the paint cures, and spray it with some Metalizer Aluminum Plate and buff it up nice and shiny. It should look a whole lot better once I've got it done, that chrome was just too much!

Next, I painted my battery and washer bottle, it's not perfect, but it's good enough for me. When Kevin painted this, he applied some liquid masking to the washer bottle and battery, but forgot to tell me about it. So I applied some DuPont Nason Clear to everything, making that liquid masking very difficult to get off cleanly, hence the rough looking surface on the battery. That, and I really hate using White paint on a model, I never can seem to get it to either cover well, or go on without brush stokes in it. I painted the top of the battery Flat Black, painted the battery caps White, then covered the White with Red, and painted the clamps Metalizer Dark Andonic Gray. I have no clue what that color is actually intended for, but it looks like lead to me! I put the decals on the battery, then I painted the shock retainers Metalizer Steel just to bring some more color into the engine compartment. Next I went to work on the air cleaner, I filled in the opening on the bottom of the snorkel with a piece of sheet styrene, then added a bit of Mr Hobby White putty to fill in the gaps. Here's some pics just to prove I actually did something other than type a lot of gibberish....

Sorry about the long delay on this one, but life can do that to ya sometimes, I've got a nasty pinched nerve in my left shoulder that has got me all kinds of messed up, but I'll get through it, I always do. I hit a snag with the brake booster/master cylinder assembly. When I mocked it up, I noticed that the master cylinder was right up against the shock tower, meaning no brake lines coming off of it. I couldn't allow that to happen, so a buddy of mine on another Forum (Sir Shaggy) suggested I cut the booster down. Here's the original booster assembly, the modifications, and the new, tighter twist brake lines, now we're back in business!

Bill, I don't care how long this one takes, I'll be here to watch a true master ply his craft. I'm sure this will be a stunning model once it's all done, so take your time, we'll all be watching and wishing we could do half as well as you will!

Great recovery Walt, let's hope it keeps going smoothly! I know guys who hate Dupli-Color's White primer, but I'm like you; it always goes on smooth for me!

Jason, I tried the Micro Balloons & Superglue filler before finding this one, and the fact that this stuff strengthens joints was the big selling point for me, along with it's ability to hold an edge beautifully. And Jim's right about the smell, it's awful, make sure you've got some good ventilation when you use this stuff. Thanks Roger, I just hope it helps some of you guys to complete some of those "old" projects we all seem to have laying around!

Thanks guys, I would have left it Silver and Black, but it just looked so plain I had to throw some Purple in to jazz it up. Now onto the foiling, I ran out of Detail Master's Krome foil, and fell back to my old stand-by, MicroScale's Metal Foil Adhesive and cheap aluminum foil. There's a thread over in Rants and Raves about this right now, I'll be showing how I use this stuff fully here. I start out by "painting" the adhesive onto the trim I want the foil on, much like how us old farts used to paint Testor's #1146 Silver onto the trim. I let it dry for about 15 minutes, then lay a piece of aluminum foil on the "painted" trim. I burnish it down good, then trim it as you would with BMF. Once it's trimmed up and I'm happy with it, I break out my Mequiar's #7 and polish it up until it's nice and shiny. Here's the pics, enjoy!

Umm, soap is EVIL? No, that's just what I thought when I was a kid! Sorry to see the mishap, but I'm sure you can recover easily, at least it's just the primer and not a color coat....