MarkJ

Decided to show the build ready for decals.

Been having a lot of home front issues the last two days involving my pecan tree so I haven't been able to work on the build. Finally added the front spoiler this morning. I had to make one from styrene because the one that came in the kit was too big and too thick and would not have had the right angle if I had installed it. Would have looked like a cow catcher on a locomotive engine. So, I should be able to start decaling this afternoon. I just have to go slow and make sure I don't mess any of the decals up. I get excited putting them on because I want to see the model finished and I end up messing one up. Well, there's no extras on this sheet so I can't do that. They are powerslide so they should work well. They always have in the past. Wish me luck.

Gerald, I'm tuned in to watch this one come together.

Looks very good to me. I know how challenging resin can be. What donor kit are you using?

Totally agree with you David. It's weird because I had a 1979 El Camino but it wasn't anywhere as neat as this little vehicle is. It had a way underpowered v-6 in it with a 2-barrel carb and it was not fun at all to drive. I ended up trading it in for a 1982 Silverado short bed pickup with a v-8. It was a lot more fun to drive but wasn't overly big like the 2020 Silverado I had before the Santa Cruz. Its posted below. I really don't miss that truck at all. Thats before I put the side steps on it.

I was looking at the photo captures from the YouTube video of the race and luckily noticed that the aluminum fairings for the rear bumper were not raw aluminum on this car. They were painted red along with the rear bumper and half of the front bumper, so I went to all that trouble painting them aluminum for nothing. Now I need to paint them red again. Bummer, but I'm glad I noticed it now before the final assembly of the build. After I fix that I can assemble the tub to the body and the body to the frame and then add the tires, front spoiler, and the exhausts that don't hook up to anything, and I will be done with the build and can start decaling. Yay.

Yes, David. The main thing is, it is fun to drive, and people are always staring at it like they want to ask me about my little Hyundai Santa Cruz. They have a turbo version available, but they always come with a bunch of other stuff on them like roof rack, bed rails, and gaudy looking wheels that hike up the price about 10 grand. I drove a turbo, and it was impressive, but I just don't need it for a locally only, around my house driven vehicle. The base engine is peppy enough for me.

I don't drive daily but when I do it's this little baby. I had a big old Silverado pickup but I got to where I hated driving it because it's gotten too big for me. I can't tell if I'm in the lane properly when on the interstate and it's hard to see if I have clearance when getting on or off the interstate. Plus, when I go to get gardening stuff It's hard to get that stuff in the bed because the tailgate is so far up in the air. And it's even hard to get in the vehicle even with side steps that almost killed me putting them on myself. I was so happy to trade that monster in on this little sports car with a bed. I recently put some of that ceramic polish on it after clay barring the hood. It's like a mirror now.

I'm so close to the end now I really don't want to post anymore wips, so the next photos you see will be in the showroom or whatever they call it here. I never can remember.

Steve , Larry has revealed that you were right all along about your decal choices. Thanks for your help and keeping the discussion going till he could help us all find out what we were looking for.

Edgar, you were right about the Kustom Header decal. My apologies for thinking otherwise, but Larry found an actual photo of the car that proves it. Those YouTube capture photos are just too fuzzy to figure out. Thanks again for your help.

I stand corrected. There are Kustom Header decals on the oob sheet that comes with the kit. It's not quite correct but they will get the job done. I have all the other ones. Thanks again, Larry. I don't usually get this kind of information till it's too late and I've already finished the model.

Thank you so much, Larry for definitively figuring out the decals on the fender and door. Thank you so much for posting a photograph of the real car as well. It is so much appreciated that you would take the time to do it. My only problem is I don't have a Kustom Headers decal that I know of. I need to check my stash again and hope I find one. I could make one with the image you sent but I hate to waste a whole 8.5 x 11 decal sheet to make 2 decals. But I might as well just go ahead, and do it if I have to.

Thanks Steve. The more I look at the front fender contingencies I have come to the conclusion that you are right about the Zoom decal being below the Edelbrock and the Jet way is above it. I was letting a photo of the Rebel 400 car mess up my thinking about it. So, I believe the mystery is finally solved and I feel good about the placement of the decals.

Thanks, Steve, but I can't really take much credit for the gauges. It's just a decal that comes in the kit if you want to make a fantasy build. It just happens to line up with the guages molded into the dash so once you get the decal lined up on top of the gauges and use some micro sol that softens it to get it to form fit, you're done. You have to work the brush with the micro sol to get it nice and soft but after it dry's, its seamless.

A few more things done and I made my usual end of the build check list so hopefully I don't forget anything inside the model. That would not be fun.

Steve at this point I'm going to call it a day and use the jet way decals whether they or right or wrong. Thanks again for all your help with this decal mystery. I will probably add the nascar decal under the winston cup decal just because its supposed to be there and I have seen it there on other Allison cars as well as Petty and Pearson.

Steve and Edgar, below is a photo of the decal sheet I'm using. If you look to the very bottom line below the castrol GTX decal you will see the Zoom decal on this car that is above the Edelbrock decal at the front of the fender. Feel free to look over this image of the sheet and see if there is anything else on it that could be the mystery decal. I believe this car probably had hedman headers but there are no header decals on this particular car. I'm starting to think it may be jet way decal. Its right next to Ingersol rand decal on the sheet.

Steve, you are right. that zoom you posted there looks like it could easily be the mystery decal, but I know for sure the one above the edelbrock is a zoom too. I wonder if the car had two zoom decals. I believe the decal below the winston cup decal is a small coke decal. Edgar, that also looks like it could be the mystery decal, but I don't think the car had those kind of headers on it. Thanks for your input though. We shall see eventually what it is if someone could just find a real photograph of this car. I even asked Smyle Media on twitter, who has helped me a lot, if he had a photo of it but he said he did not. Strange that the winning car at the 1972 Southern 500 does not have a photograph somewhere to be found on the internet. If it's a correct photo it will have red bumpers.

Thanks, Steve. Actually, the Zoom decal is above the Edelbrock, and I also thought the one under micro precision was perfect circle, but I wanted to see if anybody else thought so too. I think I will look at the video again without taking a picture of it with my phone. Maybe it will be clearer, and I can make them out better now that I know which ones to concentrate on. Thanks again for your help on this.

Started to check the decal sheet that I bought for this model from powerslide to make sure it has what I need. 3 of my ref photos from the YouTube capture pics are not recognizable and the shape of them looks like nothing on the sheet. I was able to figure that one of them is Edelbrock but luckily, I found some in my decal stash. If you want to help you could tell me what you think the one below the micro precision is. Also, the one below the Edelbrock in front of the wheel opening. Also, the one below the nascar decal at the top of the door.

Thanks, Donato. I appreciate your comment.

Thanks, Jim. I might need to go up just a little in the front. Have to check my ref pictures. Thanks, Kevin. Have to admit it beats oob with metal axles.

Glad I'm not the only one, Carl.

The beauty of gluing the hood shut is that you can cut the tops out of the front inner fenders so I can get the stance right. I had to add some styrene where the holes for the metal axles go through the frame so I will have a flat surface to glue the wheels to. I will also add a little thin piece of sheet styrene to the rear axles as well. If you wanted to have the hood open, you could always reform a top to the inner fender with some sheet styrene. None will be needed in my case. Using the metal axles on this build really makes the model look ridiculous where the front tires end up being. I mocked it up and I will have to check my ref pictures to get the tire placement just right. Where it is right now might be a little too low up front.