FenderMender

This is a 1:18 scale diecast Maisto model of an Audi TT convertible that was acquired for $4.94 at a thrift shop. It was missing the upper back seat rest portion of the driver's side seat, the reflective lense of the driver's side mirror and the passenger side mirror. I lowered the car as much as possible, made a mold for the seat and cast the part using water putty and carpeted the trunk. Added some details to the engine and interior and made the wheels as well as the exhaust pipe end openings black. The futuristic-looking 2001 Audi TT was a design award winner. The all wheel drive model featured 225 horsepower, twin tailpipes, no automatic transmission, weighed less than 3000 pounds and was underated as a sports car. It is considered to be one of the most influential automotive designs in the last twenty years, primarily for three reasons. First, the rounded bumpers both front and rear which appear as integral parts of the bodywork. Second, the treatment of the large and protruding fender arches, especially how the front arches merge into the side line of the hood. And third, the wide use of bare aluminum in the interior for trim and to highlight gauges and switches. Thanks for looking.. Before: AFTER:

Model from an AMT 1959 MERCURY PARK LANE CONVERTIBLE 3-in-1 CUSTOMIZING KIT BEFORE PURPLE POWER A 1959 Mercury Park Lane Convertible (AMT 3-in-1 kit model) that was found after 50+ years in the attic in extremely rough shape. The 3-spoke spinner hubcaps are classics, so they might be used on a better quality model than this wreck. A soldering iron had been used to melt gouges and smear chunks of plastic onto the body. Then "decorated" as a race car, "Bill's Esso" on trunk lid and "Powerhouse" on the side. Yikes. AFTER A BATH in PURPLE POWER The red make-shift "grille" of melted sprue became dislodged after removal from the bath and the stock grille now fits nicely in the front cavity. (The missing windshield post was found in the dissolved paint debris.) The black areas are melted black plastic that was used as a filler by the previous "builder" from whom I inherited the glue-bomb. COMPLETED PARK LANE CONVERTIBLE After much filling and sanding, the model was painted in a gray primer to expose othewise undetectable flaws which needed to be filled and sanded again. One coat of flat black was applied to the chassis and body. New windshield glass may be from a Buick as the original glass was beyond a decent repair. Thanks for looking...

Before and After: working man's Cadillac Escalade About a year ago I bought this 1:24 scale Jada Just Trucks 2002 Cadillac Escalade EXT model for a dollar at a Goodwill store. The model was essentially a shell with a dashboard without a steering wheel, no interior or seats, no engine or engine bay, no tailgate and no chassis! It sat on a shelf for a year all the while I had hoped some spare Escalade parts might surface somewhere. This never happened, so I decided to challenge myself to construct a chassis, interior, engine bay with an engine and a functioning tailgate. After having completed this project, I gained a tremendous amount of respect, admiration and appreciation for the truly gifted craftsmen, hobbyists and artists out there who are responsible for a great many absolutely incredible hand-made creations. These folks are true masters and artisans, skilled beyond belief. The diecast manufacturers also garnered a renewed personal appreciation for their models, too, by providing models at very reasonable prices considering all that is involved in bringing them to market. Consider the huge costs of research, development, capital expenditure, tooling, labor, packaging, marketing and transportation. Significant, indeed. BEFORE: My order for getting the Escalade back on the road consisted of, first, making a chassis and putting wheels on it. The initial cardboard template turned into the final chassis with some plastic credit card stock added along the way at key stress points. Many measurements, trial and error fittings and alterations were done to make certain that the wheels aligned properly with the wheels wells, that the wheels rolled, that a cool stance was achieved and that the chassis lined up accurately with the screw holes on the body shell. AFTER: Second, interior work began by making a steering wheel. Then one bucket seat from my very limited parts bin was mounted to a scratch-built plinth. With no rear seat (planned or to be used) as an obstruction, it was easy to carpet the entire floor. My idea for this Cadillac truck was it was to be a single working man's "dream truck" that goes both ways: a roomy work truck and a WIP competition show truck with air suspension. LOL. Third, the engine bay was built onto the chassis and a 2005 Pontiac GTO Ram Air pan engine was installed. The engine, side mirrors and interior foot pedals are from a 1:24 scale Welly 2005 Pontiac GTO custom. Wrapping up the project included forming a tailgate from a small piece of sheet aluminum, covering black cardboard with brushed metallic tape for a reversible tonneau cover, adding a lower rear clip below the tailgate and applying a fifty-plus-years-old license plate decal, "Night Prowlers". Final version of the 1:24 scale Jada Just Trucks 2002 Cadillac Escalade EXT with a scratch-built custom chassis, custom interior and custom 2005 Pontiac GTO Ram Air engine. Thanks for looking....

This is a saved 1961 Chevrolet Corvair Monza "Low Rider Spyder" that was built from fifty year old parts from an old SMP 3-in-1 plastic model kit. The body was stripped of black paint and repainted. Custom grille came from another intact, unbuilt Monza coupe kit. Since I didn't have a hardtop to make a coupe, the Spyder was made. Scratch-built rear valance, steering wheel, windshield glass, and floor shifter. Carpeted floor. Low rider wheels from a diecast Maisto low rider model. Six exhaust pipe system, chrome intake tubes and roll bar were included in the original kit. Thanks for looking... BEFORE____ AFTER_____

Looks great! I like the rust, deterioration and busted parts lying around. What did you use to make the metal corrugated fencing? That is very convincing. Goog job!!

Gravel Point. All the local car-crazies hang out here. They come here to talk shop, look over each others' latest work, shoot the bull, and exchange all kinds of information, be it automotive or personal gossip. The place is named appropriately. All that really grows here is the gravel, a few scraggly cedars, the termites feeding off the dead hardwood trees and, of course, the ever-increasing and constantly exaggerated tall tales of automotive performance and conquest. Take Jethro, for example. He says he bought that '65 Mustang convertible brand spanking new and would never let it go in a hundred lifetimes, no matter what. Claims he's even put a new engine in it about a year ago personally. But now, of all things, he wants to unload it for only $3800. Very hard times must have hit him 'cause he LOVES that car. Suppose with all his kids and everything and that dirt track "racer" that he spends all his earnings on from his saw mill job, doesn't leave him with enough money to go around. Why he spent a barrel full of dough on the "custom scallops" that some up-start kid convinced him to have done. I reckon that he won't be revealing to anyone that the car has a serious case of metal fatigue, or I should say, metal cancer. Anyway, it looks like he might have a worthy and wealthy prospect. That green 'Cuda muscle car owner just might be interested. And he might NOT be just a "MOPAR or no car" kind of guy. If so, Jethro has more than met his match. And we will be hearing from now on, all about how he was swindled and cheated out of his precious Mustang convertible. The diecast cars are 1:18 scale. Mustang by Revell and 'Cuda by Ertl. Diorama measures 18" wide and 28" long.

Some of the main "high priests" of the local Gravel Point Vintage Ford Owners Association got together the other day to work out plans for their up-coming and much anticipated All Ford Show. Members of the "Deuce Group", however, were away in town doing other stuff, like visiting Maxine's Bar. They're not much into all that planning and organizing rigmarole. Yet they had one important representative there, no less than THE "high priest", though, in the form of the owner of the custom '32 coupe- Big Ted. Big Ted started the whole GP Vintage Ford Owners Association way back when. No, he won't be real angry at the missing "Deuce Group" members. How could he be? They all drive '32s too. He knows where his loyalties are. And every one of them, for sure, will be present at the big All Ford Show with their fancy rides. All models are plastic, 1:24 scale, built in the early 1960s. Thanks for looking....

Reminds me of the back half of 1940 Lincoln Continental and the front fenders from some classic '30s car, like a Hispano Suiza, perhaps! Excellent work! Great follow-thru. Fine paint job. The top appears to be a possible Carson top? Congrats on the build and here's to you coming in first at the competition!

With a normal size 1/18 diecast Yat Ming 1957 Chevrolet convertible for comparison/contrast purposes:

With a normal size 1/18 scale diecast Yat Ming 1957 Chevrolet convertible for comparison/contrast purposes:

This 1/43 scale plastic Estes Great Garages kit (includes a red diecast Dodge Viper with opening hood) was bought a few years ago and with the extensive amount of painting and detailing of very small parts that was required to make it look decent, I postponed building it for quite a while. It is finally "finished". My patience had worn pretty thin and mine eyes were a'smarting, but overall it came out alright. There are some areas where the scale has to be incorrect, such as the air compressor hose line and the torch hoses. And some of the hand tools look to be too large. The garage measures in at 7" long, 4" wide, and 3" high. It includes a clear plastic cover. I haven't built the red Dodge Viper coupe that was included in the kit. The black diecast Viper in the pics is a Testors model that has no opening parts. With all the various parts included in the kit, it makes for one crowded garage. I didn;t like the lack of space for hand tools and the two cyclinder heads (stickers), so I fashioned a black work table for these items. There are other items that I would like to include but the garage is just too small for all of them at one time. Thanks for looking....

This 1/43 scale plastic Estes Great Garages kit (includes a red diecast Dodge Viper with opening hood) was bought a few years ago and with the extensive amount of painting and detailing of very small parts that was required to make it look decent, I postponed building it for quite a while. It is finally "finished". My patience had worn pretty thin and mine eyes were a'smarting, but overall it came out alright. There are some areas where the scale has to be incorrect, such as the air compressor hose line and the torch hoses. And some of the hand tools look to be too large. The garage measures in at 7" long, 4" wide, and 3" high. It includes a clear plastic cover. I haven't built the red Dodge Viper coupe that was included in the kit. The black diecast Viper in the pics is a Testors model that has no opening parts. With all the various parts included in the kit, it makes for one crowded garage. I didn;t like the lack of space for hand tools and the two cyclinder heads (stickers), so I fashioned a black work table for these items. There are other items that I would like to include but the garage is just too small for all of them at one time. Thanks for looking....

What some of these model companies do really makes no sense, even from the point of view of trying to maximize profits. Seems to me if Testors really wanted to make plenty of profit on these two, the least they should have done: make the two models accurate within reason to appeal to the cars' respective fans. Above all, put the right wheels on the right car! And by doing this simple thing, would that have been so cost prohibitive?

Simply beautiful !!!!!

Excellent rendition. You did a great job on it. Time well spent. The Renault 5 Turbo is a favorite car of mine because it is THE fastest car in Colin Mcrae's Rally 2.0 computer video game!

Very sharp! Wonderful job on a fine-looking car.

When it comes to diecast or plastic models and kits, be they automobiles, trucks, motorcycles or planes, I am pretty much a sucker for anything. Yet this 1/24 plastic kit by Testors, a Level 2- Moderate, turned me off completely by the very ugly photo of the built Camaro model on the box. I must have seen this kit six or seven times in the same store, with a price that was cheap, too, I believe four dollars. But I just couldn't get over what an ugly-looking model the box photo depicted, so rejecting it was continuous. I like Chevies and Camaros, but this one, my gosh, it looked so pathetic. Finally, one day the darn thing was marked down to only two dollars, so I figured, what the heck, it would be a fun time to try and build a plastic kit after some fifty years. Plus, if I totally blotched it, there wasn't really anything to lose. And I definitely wanted to satisfy my insatiable curiosity: Could the actual model be THAT ugly? Here is a picture of the kit's box: Here are pics of the finished model: (By the way, body-wise, don't the 77-79 Camaros have ram air hoods and slotted fender vents and the 80-81s have cowl induction hoods and open fender vents? The model has an induction hood, slotted fender vents and the chassis has molded in text: 1980 Firebird. Another issue, the rear side markers. On photos of 1980 Camaros, I didn't see any. Yet this model has them. Perhaps this is a Testors hybrid Firebird/Camaro?) Thanks for looking....

Tim, As it stands now, I have about thirty car models that survived. And I'm still fond of them all, so for now, will leave them as is. (I have posted some pics of others elsewhere on the site)

I am fairly new to this forum but I built 1:24 models in the late 50s and early 60s with my brother. I was an early teenager then and I liked the hot cars of the times-hopped up Fords, Chevies, the hot rods and dragsters. Below are two models that my brother and I customized during this time. Just remember that the techniques and materials were quite limited in these early days and that my brother and I certainly were not anywhere close to professional modelers. BUT we did like 1:1 hot rods and custom cars of George Barris, Big Daddy Roth, etc. I hope you will like the images of these two cars. What do you think of these after 40+ years? THANKS http://images.snapfish.com/343%3C446%3B232...B%3C%3B94ot1lsi http://images.snapfish.com/343%3C446%3B232...3C278%3B9ot1lsi http://images.snapfish.com/343%3C446%3B232...3C253%3C4ot1lsi http://images.snapfish.com/343%3C446%3B232...3B%3B8584ot1lsi http://images.snapfish.com/343%3C446%3B232...8%3B34574nu0mrj

A five-window coupe with 1959 Chevrolet Impala fins. Model was built in the early 1960s, using plastic aluminum as body filler. Those who know drag racing well should point out how actually authentic the side markings are or not, and if the lack of a radiator is realistic or not.

Here are a couple of dual-engined dragsters that were built in the 1960s. One was a "stock" kit and the other was custom made. The stock kit black dragster has Corvette engines. The custom blue dragster has two flathead engines. These two have survived for forty years +.

A diecast 1/24 Redbox 1955 Chevy truck pulling a trailer with a '32 Ford roadster almost ready for the drag strip. Trailer and deuce Ford are very old plastic models made in 1960s! Hopefully the dust won't matter to the hemi-powered little Ford when it hits the strip.

Mr. Bastedo, sir, you do have a collection!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

During the late 50s and early 60s my brother and I customized plastic models using plastic aluminum as body filler/putty. Nowadays, what is the preferred brand of body filler/putty? (I would like to find a product that would be applicable to both plastic models as well as diecast models. If such a product is not available, then the best body filler/putty for plastic models) Thanks for your help!

Thanks for the clarifications, men. Obviously I would have preferred the Resto Rod version kit, but for the very low price, I am content with the Rides kit and have no complaints. I think I might have an extra set of skinnies and slicks somewhere. LOL