Just Jim

Got the wheel wells and back end closed up and ready for paint! Attached the three fins on the trunk lid and shot some paint last night. Hoping to get updated pics online this week. Currently detailing the jet engines and fabricating the headers. More soon.

In an attempt to give a little back to this forum and the people here who have provided me so many new ideas and so much guidance, I wanted to share the process I used to close up the wheel wells. The picture shows the type of styrene and bondo I used along with my trusty sanding block (I used 400 grit sandpaper). Some of the things I learned along the way in no particular order are: 1. Apply the bondo with a moist (not wet) fingertip. 2. The best way to remove bondo is by sanding. I had a random spec fall on the passenger door and made the mistake of scraping it off with my fingernail which caused a hole in the plastic. 3. If I had it to do again, I would place layers of styrene protruding beyond the body. Although doing so leads to more sanding, it is ultimately easier than filling it. If you look from the correct angle, you can see the plastic over the wheel wells is concave. 4. I ended-up using the baby powder/superglue method to fill the really small lines. I wasn’t able to get the bondo to fill the hairline cracks where the styrene and body met. 5. Be really careful when filing in areas next to lines you want to keep. Once the filler is in a body line, it’s tough to get out. As stated above, this is my first foray into the world of adding plastic so I'm sure I still have a lot to learn. Just doing what I can to try and help the next person looking to jump into the mix.

Makes sense, appreciate the quick reply.

This looks great. Have always loved the 68-72 Chargers. I have the MPC Country Charger kit and was thinking about building it next. Sorry, don't mean to ask a silly question but when you say "after seeing how badly the mod had become" what do you mean? Not sure what you mean when you say "Mod". I have not heard great things about that kit so I'm expecting a challenge. Hopefully I can overcome it.

Great car. Looks really nice!

I'm with Dave, thanks for sharing! Looks like a very cool and ambitious project. Anxious to see how it goes

Very Nice, Looks Great!

Very Cool! Love the color

Very cool. It looks great in primer. I can only imagine how nice it will be with a proper paint job.

A couple of photos for anyone out there who may be looking. Not much progress on this one yet as I had to travel unexpectedly for work. However, I did get some seat time this weekend. Finished the internal combustion engine, began closing up the wheel openings, and cut out the fins. Thanks for looking.

Found my back engines! Not much like the small cylindrical ones on the cartoon car but it's what I have on hand and I think it looks cool so I'm going with it. ?

Apologies in advance to those of you out there who may not be fans of the TV show Futurama. But when I came across this glue bomb Thunderbird with no engine or hood and just a couple of tires, I knew what I had to do. I'm hoping to turn this green mess into something resembling the blue one in the picture. ? This will be my first foray into the world of cutting and adding styrene and body filler so we will see how it goes!

Thanks to everyone for their responses! I love that this forum allows me the opportunity to share my work and receive feedback from somewhere as far away as Australia, awesome.

Great job bringing this one back to life! New kits are great but there is something especially satisfying about restoring one that has seen better days.

Very Nice

In my continuing quest to build cars I thought were cool in my youth, I submit my Isuzu Impulse. Mostly OOB, lowered it as far I could and put it on NASCAR tires with custom Corvette wheels. Nice kit, pieces fit together well with the exception of the straight windshield wipers not really touching the curved window. Instead of using the large wiper meant for the front, I used the smaller ones on the front and back. Not sure why there were 2 smaller wipers but it worked out well for me. The smaller wipers made the fact they didn't touch on the ends less obvious. Thanks for looking.

That is one great looking car! I love the way you did your photos.

Thanks everybody, appreciate the feedback. Captain if you're still following wanted to let you know I picked-up a Starsky and Hutch Torino last weekend. Might be a year before I get to it, but yours has inspired me to greatness. I will do my best to reach out when it's officially a WIP!

Nice work. The weathered engine bay looks especially good

Very nice. I think the view from the side could easily be mistaken for a 1:1 Camaro

Beautifully done. I hope to have one in my collection some day if I can find one at a reasonable price.

That turned out great. I have seen and read about several folks who had difficulty getting the body to sit correctly on the frame but yours looks just fine. Love the detail work on the body with the hand painted black stripe and silver around the wheel wells and bottom.

This was an old open kit I bought off eBay. All the pieces were there as advertised. However, when I went to place the window glass it became obvious it had spent some time under something heavy. Thus, the windshield doesn't fit exactly like it should. Nice kit, easy to build as most of the pieces fell right into place. I was disappointed with how poorly the rear taillight bar fit but that may not have been the case when it was new. OOB other than the lowered frontend. Thanks for looking.

Final 3 WIP pictures. Now it's Under Glass.

Thanks for the pictures. Both cars look good. Are the rear wheels on the white one glued in place or mocked-up? Once they are permanently in place can you post a picture of how you lowered the rear-end? I wanted to lower the front and back of mine but the intricate rear suspension proved to be more of a challenge than I was ready to take on. Would like to see how you handled it.