DJMar

Happy Birthday!

I recently used up my last bottle of my Tenax 7R and Ambroid ProWeld. Sad days! Tamiya Extra Thin and Extra Thin QuickSet are on the bench as the main adhesives now. Of course, there are a few bottles of good old Testors liquid cement (clear bottle, purple label) and some mini tubes of superglue around as well.

I've got a few of the various AMT Chevy kits in the stash & I think I need to add this to my "to-do" list. As a matter of fact, I have a early issue Sportside kit that's just begging to be built. I have ideas!!

That's a bummer about the paint on the cab and gate. On the upside, the bed/bedliner looks spot on!

I'm loving this! Those wheels and tires look great.

That conversion looks great, no doubt a lot of good work right there! ?

Just sort of an FYI, I found this pic. I'm pretty sure that's the top separation line, similar to the AMT kit.

That color combo is spot on, I dig it! ?

I'm 90% sure it is. My memory is a little fuzzy, but I think Monogram originally issued that kit as the coupe & convertible in one box, and later re-pops of the coupe came with the two-piece body.

No worries, it still looks good in the tan!

Not going to lie...I think that red POPS against the body color. It looks mighty, mighty tasty IMHO. ?

I'm loving it! That paint is smooooth, and I really like the black. I have this one in my stash, and seeing this build makes me want to pull mine off the shelf.

I'm loving the new direction. The chopped top and windscreen look awesome!

Really nice job bringing this one back from the scrap pile. I love the paint scheme, those graphics are spot on 90s!

We've got until October to finish, right?

Agreed. If you need a spraybomb, the Testors Purplelicious is a good match to the factory color, especially over a light grey primer. I'll give another thumbs up to MCW paints, in either their lacquer (excellent) or enamel (also excellent if you like painting with enamels).

I'm digging this, it's a nifty build! Also, I love the color. I had an '81 4-door with the 3.8L V6 when I was in college. I still miss that car.

Joe Elmore was a local broadcasting staple in Tennessee, but many of us will know him from hosting Horsepower TV in the early 2000s, along with Musclecar. According to news reports, he passed away at the age of 80. I have many fond memories of watching him on Saturday mornings, and being inspired to work on both real size cars and models. Rest easy, Joe. Thanks for the good times.

Now that is TASTY! ?

That engine looks INSANE in there! Talk about 10 lbs of feed in a 5lb sack... Maybe there's a reason I haven't built one of these kits in forever. I don't remember them being that bad, but then again, my standards were different 30+ years ago.

Yeah, that body line looks like a tough one, no doubt. Any chance you've tried a small triangle file on it? Also, I haven't built one of AMT's '36 Fords in forever. Looking at yours makes me want to pick up that kit again.

All that work on the interior (especially the seats) really paid off. Looks great!

I cobbled together this collection of engine goodies from the parts box for this build. The block and oil pan are from the AMT '34 Ford Street Rod kit. The block is cut up a bit (missing the fuel pump, as well as the locating bosses for the cylinder heads) but it will work. The oil pan is useful because the motor mounts are built in, although I don't know if I'm going to keep the molded-on oil filter. I'm 90% sure the heads are from one of the Revell '64/'65 pickups. All the tan bits are from the AMT '72 Vette Street Machine, circa 1993. The valve covers and most of the TPI unit already had the chrome removed sometime in the distant past. The exhaust headers look a little small to me, but I'll probably still use them. Everything dry fit together pretty well. I still have to scrounge up an appropriate distributor, accessory belt and front cover/water pump.

A little update for today. After letting the paint dry for a week or so, I decided that I was going to strip it and start over. I noticed a few areas of missed bodywork (a dip here, a gouge there) and I really, really disliked the black. It was way too shiny and it just didn't look good to me. After two heavy coats of oven cleaner & some scrubbing, most of the paint came off without too much trouble. Now I'm back to bare plastic. Some side effects of the oven cleaner - it totally eats solvent based putty and even some superglue. This means some more bodywork for me, including gluing the front fender seams together and smoothing out the styrene cap covering the hole in the hood. It's a bit rough at the moment, but I'll be working on getting things ironed out in the days ahead. Right now, the glue on the front clip is drying. Also, after looking through a bunch of old car mags, I came across this Willys in an issue of Traditional Rod & Kulture Illustrated. I like the color enough that I'm going to shoot this in some sort of light/medium metallic blue, this time around.

Welcome aboard!