Bills72sj

Sam, I just started back into building semis this Summer. I am in the process of building two modified Freightliner COEs. I do not think would be much help identifying little parts but you are not that far from me. I live in Salem, OR. Sometimes it is helpful to have two heads instead of one.

Interesting subject. Following.

It may be too late but may I suggest opening the hood scoop the let your carb breathe.

That is a good tip. I'll try to add that to my builds.

I actually saw a 1:1 of a 57 El Camino in primer like 30+ years ago. The concept blew me away back then. The roofline on that one was close to the Diecast shown above.

I built this model because my neighbor had one when I was in Jr. High. His was orange and had chrome reverse wheels with chrome baby moon hubcaps. Later on he added a 69 Mustang hood scoop with with 351 callouts. It is basically a box stock build with a few minor mods. I built the streetmachine version with the two 4bbls and the chrome headers. The chassis has very roomy rear wheel wells so i opted to clearance them wee bit more for wider rubber. I widened the stock GT rims by adding chrome rings. The decal set is from Keith Marks and includes the rear tail panel grid, the hood scoop air inlet and all the Cobra callouts. The BMF on the front edge of the hood and the trunk lid was quite challenging as I had to cut them freehand. The side marker lights are Ultra-fine Sharpie on BMF. The whole body has been sealed with Future floor wax.

My friends and I would have been members of that club. We graduated in 1979 when most muscle cars were around 10 years old and still cheap to buy and not that hard to work on. Our pack consisted of a 1969 SS 396 4 speed Chevelle, a 1967 Firebird 326 3-speed swapped to a 400 4-speed, a 1969 Mustang Grande with a 351 and a Mach 1 hood, a 72 Plymouth Gold Duster with the leaning tower of power, a 1969 Coronet 440 with a 383, a 70 SS 396 4-speed Chevelle and my 1968 Malibu with a weak 307. My dad used to drag race in the 60's and 70's so I knew enough about cars to be the Guru among my friends.

Very nice Rambler Ramblerman.

This is the kit I built it from.

Above is the link to the AMT transporter rig.

This Mustang?

Steve, I just looked at some of my built A-bodies, The Monte has vertical pleats, A 69 Olds has vertical pleats with a little bolstering and and old 72 Chevelle has the with wider pleats on the outside edges

I like it. Very nice.

This model I am very proud of. I absolutely love the Sub-Lime green paint. It says MOPAR, all the way. The rims are from the kit but I used the 5-holers, intended for the rear, on the front. I widened the rear rims by sanding out the centers of a set of ConvoPros and adding them to the original front rims to make them deep dish. I actually had to narrow the rear tires slightly to get them to fit in the quarter panels. What I like the most is I nailed the stance perfectly. The grille was meticulously hand painted and this is the second model I have ever BMF’d. I tried using the black, Hemi “billboard” decals from the kit which are correct for 1971, but I did not like them the minute they were laid. Instead I had Keith Marks make me up a set of 1/24th 1970 “hockey stick” stripes which I think looks a whole lot better. The interior was painted semi-gloss by spraying Testors Glosscoat over Testors flat black. I duplicates the texture and sheen of vinyl. When the head lights were installed, they looked like binoculars. I ended up setting back a tad to get them to look correct. If I ever win the lottery, I would buy a real one.

I would very much like to get the 74 GTO. Any links or contact info?

Thanks guys, I really need to finish the 2nd KWhopper.

I know. I just tell myself it was freshly wiped with ArmorAll.

Yes, I am on call this weekend so I may not have much free time. But... I will send them out to you.

I agree, that looks like the real thing.

David, The vinyl roof was easy. It is already moulded in. All I had to do was mask and paint,

Buy some 3/8" foam window "packing rod" from Home Depot for like $3. Cut to length and stuff it in the tire. It really helps scrawny AMT tires push the tire bead out to the rim lip. One bag/roll will probably do 4-5 semi trucks.

Skip the tweezers on small decals. Once you see the decal let go of the paper in your water dish, stick you finger on the face and pull it out of the water. Remove the paper and "roll" the decal from your finger onto the surface. Make sure you have one drop of dish soap in your warm water dish to permit you to slide the decal of the surface. Once in place on the model, dab it with a cotton swab to wick up the water.

This model was built to loosely resemble a black over red 70 Grand Prix I owned for a number of years in the late 90's. It started out as a built-up glue bomb purchased on ebay. It was brush painted blue and looked pretty bad at first. After a dip in the "purple lake" I surveyed what was salvageable. The body, bumpers and interior were fair but the engine was a blob. Fortunately, I had a Revell Parts-Pack Pontiac 421. I soaked it in Westly's to dechrome it and sourced the stock air cleaner and other items from the parts bin. I actually made my own wired distributor from supplies picked up at Radio Shack and Hobbytown USA. I used a technique I learned on Drastics about BMFing emblems BEFORE painting and then scraping off the paint on the raised areas to expose the letters. It actually worked quite well. Especially since the "Grand Prix" emblems are separate block letters. It did a fair job on the front fender louvers as well. The interior is pretty basic, with just some minor detailing. The underside being an old MPC offering with chassis screws, is nothing to write home about. I did do my signature red mufflers (a throw back to the Cherry Bomb glass pack days). The engine compartment is anatomically all wrong compared to a real GP. Especially in the fan shroud/radiator areas. I did not have the parts to correct it though, so it is what it is. The mags are Modelhaus Keystone Klassics which have been painstakingly detailed. I performed my signature rear tire widening technique to fill in the rear wheel wells. The tires have been lettered with a "Gelly Roll" pen from a local stationary store. The windows were boogered up but, using progressively finer grit polishing cloths, finished off with a coat of Future, they look as good as new. Sharpie markers applied here and there round out the small details. I am pretty pleased at how my first restoration turned out.

I am building two Freightliner COEs simultaneously. Here is some of the slow progress on the 2nd more ambitious project.