MarkJ

I need to get a paint strainer. That gray Vallejo primer has a lot of grit in it. I bought it from micro mark. Maybe it has been sitting on a shelf there for ten years before they sold it to me. Pierre, what brand of primer do you use? Is it gritty by any chance?

Got the primer on. Thinned it 20 percent with distilled water. Seemed to go on much smoother. I think I messed up on the hood and I think I will need putty after all, where the fender ornaments go. Will see how the sanding with 6000,8000, and 12000 goes Tomorrow. And see what needs to be corrected. Will definitely have to put at least one more coat on. Hoping for better results with less overall paint so I don't get rid of detail like the door, hood, and trunk opening grooves.

Wow, you're moving right along, and the cage looks perfect. I don't think the one in Walmart is like this kit.

Loved the movie but the story line and the acting other than James Caan was pretty weak. Caan played Mike Marsh who was in Lorenzen's #28, and some unknown actor played Ned Arp who was in Juniors #27. Mr. Zulu from Star Trek was a crew guy for Mike Marsh. I bet you could get a lot of good reference photos from screen captures from that movie. They had a race car with a camera made into the Left front fender for a camera car at the Daytona 500. Got some real good shots of real Nascar racing with that car. A movie way ahead of its time on the technical side of things. I guess no money was left over to pay for good actors. Even Caan wasn't very well known when the movie was made. The crew chief for Mike Marsh was a well-known character actor from that time but I don't know his name.

That roll cage is looking spot on, Jason. Do you have the box from the kit so we can see exactly what kit it is. Walmart is selling a 69 Charger and if it's the same I will have to pick me up one of those.

The fender flares are finished so I can begin sanding the body. I believe I will do the brush painters sanding trilogy and apply 6000,8000 and 12000 grits before priming. I've already removed all the mold lines and other stuff. I might need to hit it with something rougher first. I shall see.

Thanks, Bill. I have yet to find a good interior shot of Ned's 64 Ford. But I will definitely look into that material. Looks like it would have worked good for Juniors 63 chevy and probably a lot of other cars of that time frame.

I figured you did. You could almost see yourself in that primer and I think it contributed to the fabulous paint job you achieved.

I believe you nailed it, Pierre. I have all of those ingredients for the recipe. Now all I have to do is get it on the model correctly. I'm going to really concentrate on getting the primer very smooth like you did with your Corvette. It seems like any flaw in the primer will show through to the paint. Thank you for helping me out with this. I'm sure mine would not have come out near as close as this does.

If I could just get close to this color, I would be happy. They say its Guardsman Blue. The chip is probably more accurate then the photo of the car. Wherever light hits it, it will change dramatically.

Thanks Pierre and Bill. I'll see if I can google a real car painted in that color and see what it looks like. As usual, every color ref picture I find of Ned's 64 ford looks different depending on the conditions around the car when it was being photographed.

I need to go back and read better. Those funnels and screens are amazing, and I agree, I like the brass color better than silver.

Pierre, I might need some of your expertise with that recipe. I had a pretty good one for the Corvette Grand Sport interior I did. Just needs to be darker.

More work on the fender flares and added putty to them. Most of the putty will be sanded off. They are small lips created to get the tires in place easier. Also sanded down the front fender ornaments. I used them as filler instead of putty. Also finished where the exhaust protrudes through the body. Getting close to primer time and then making a paint recipe for the body. I'm thinking a dark blue metallic, but not a strong metallic just not an opaque dark blue.

Starting on the wheel openings and where the exhaust came through the body. Used a 1/25 scale photo to locate it. you can see the door edges line up with the model. However, the model is a little too short front and rear. nothing I can do about that. Looks like I might have to do a, do over, on the rear wheel openings. They look a little too low. Lucky to have found this profile picture of the car. Too bad I don't know how to make driver figures. I have Ned there from the shoulders up in scale.

Love the screens on the air funnels. Did they come in the kit? That looks like a 1:1 engine I'm looking at.

Mystery solved. I decided to look at my other models and saw the Foyt 64 firecracker winner and noticed the grey rock decal had white lettering and it was rectangular and not big and round like it had been earlier in the season. I studied the photo I made and sure enough that was it. Apparently, sometime in the summer they changed the logo to what you see. I will clean up my earlier decal and print a supplement sheet of them and just not use the Solder Seal decal.

Sounds good. Looking forward to more updates.

Yes, go figure. I'm thinking teams were already getting away from the exhaust through frame deal even before Nascar mandated it. I guess Ned's team decided to wait till they were forced to. My main deal now is finding that mystery decal second from the front on the front fender on the finish line black and white photo. I keep enhancing the photo and right now it looks like a rectangular decal longer then tall with white lettering like maybe a firestone decal, but I can't find any cars from the 64 season with a firestone decal on their front fender. I haven't given up yet. If you'd like to take a stab at it, feel free to see what you can come up with.

Thanks, Emre. I appreciate your interest in the build. I'm learning a lot too. I always thought the Dixie 400 was in the fall.

Bill, the Dixie 400 was just 2 weeks after the 600 so they probably had not come to their findings about the exhaust through the frame contributing to Fireball's injuries from the crash. I'm thinking that was not enough time to change the rule yet. So that explains why Ned's Dixie 400 car still had the exhaust through the frame and the body. I don't think the picture above is from the Firecracker 400 because where Daytona is written, the track is banked and the car in that photo is on a flat straightaway, like Atlanta had at that time. So that blue car above is probably from the Dixie 400. The caption on the photo said it was when I found it.

Thanks Bill. That sure helps clear things up a lot. Let me see if the 600 was after the Dixie 400.

Pierre, you know, I thought the same thing and I have a picture of Ned's 64 Ford at The Daytona 500 and it had pipes under the body, but the Dixie car picture definitely showed them back through the body again, so I don't know what is going on with the rules that year. Below is the side of the Dixie car. No pipes under the car and black holes under the door where the pipe came through the body. Go figure. You can also see very small 410 H.P. on the hood and the discrepancy of the decal placement compared to the black and white photo at the finish line. The photo below shows the Autolite on the door but the other one has it on the fender. The micro precision decal is on the door below but on the fender in the black and white photo. Both ref pictures show the car with the primed left front wheel. Suddenly I notice it looks like Daytona is on the wall below so maybe that's a firecracker 400 picture. The primed wheel might be a coincidence. The races were held less than a month apart so I'm sticking with the decals I made and the placement on the black and white picture. still not sure what the second from the front decal on the fender is on the black and white picture. You can see the black and white photo better on the blown-up photo I have with the wip picture above.

Great idea for exposing the yellow on the heads. I'll be continuing to watch this fine build.

Got the rear panel done. At the beginning of the season this car had the chrome rear panel and full taillights on it. By the time the Dixie 400 ran in June, everything was gone replaced by sheet metal. I wanted to do this car because this was the first non-short track win of his career. He followed this up with the 65 Southern 500 and that was his last non short track win of his career. He was like Rex White, a short track king. Rex only had one non short track win in his career, The Dixie 400 in 1962. Just a couple of fun facts I thought you guys might be interested to hear. I think the only thing left to do on the body is the wheel openings. I'm not even going to try to widen out the quarter panel sheet metal that was done to these cars. One other thing my ref pictures show is that the exhaust comes through the frame and the body on this car, so those ports will have to be added under the doors.