randyc

Ha! My latest build the 83 Hurst Olds doesn't have a radiator in it. It didn't want to slide up in there like I felt it should. And you can't see it's not there with the shroud and all, so I left it out. Yes it happens to all of us at some point. Randy

I didn't read all 4 pages, but if you are returning a kit to replace, I would go to the service desk where I went to return the damaged one and open the kit in the store and check the body. If it's warped, keep going til you find a good one or give up. Be nice of course - not the employee's fault probably. burn me once... That is a lot of plastic in the Ramcharger body and it probably should have more cooling time before removing from the mold? I've only had a few warped/damaged bodies in my years that were unsalvageable. It's a shame but things do happen.. And btw, who let the person that knows who Deming is in here??? LOL I had to do a QA certification class and his stuff was good, but danged hard to grasp in our quickie class. Ishikawa charts and the like as well. Randy

I have a friend/acquaintance that has the 1:1 sitting in his garage with the tires flat! Next to it sits a first year Viper. A bunch of motorcycles, etc. Shame what people do with their cars. I *think* I would llvoe to try this one, but I do run short of patience and if you didn't have patience with your skils, I would probably fail miserably. Grat looking work and can't wait to see the Mustang project to come. Randy

They look like old bias ply tires. I applied some Shabo dry transfers I found to make them look newer. They are very generic and look tall. On the flilp side, the 72 Olds Pace car tires look short for it. Should have swapped them? Just me. I didn't have my "stash" when I was working on this kit - everything was still at my ex's. I now have all my old tires and stuff but not going through the hassle of making these wheels fit a solid tire. It's done. Thanks all for the compliments. I want to get some pics of this one with my MCSS and GNX. Just need a Grand Prix now... Randy

I don't have it on the hard drive and the bucket won't even let me d/l it. It's probably our net connection here. I think that body was supposed to be the stereotypical "kustom"...so yeah it's modified in many ways. Looks reasonable to me for a Kustom. And way better than me having to attempt those mods on the stock AMT body. I picked up a Jimmy Flintstone body years ago and hated it. Never finished it either. To me, it was too weird. Randy

Dang that's some really nice work. Detailed photos and posts as well as the workmanship. Excellent. Just encouraging you to get on these, like the Dart. It's a shame that MPC went and turned their Dodge trucks into Monster trucks - they made some nice stock Dodge trucks in stock form. I loved them when I was younger - they built easily enough and were durable enough to play with... LOL Yes I'm an old fart - I remember these being the NEW annuals and would buy them, build them, and play with them. Randy

I had absolutely NO problem with mine. I did put the Solva-? (blue label) on the body, then the decal, then the Solva-? (red label) over that. They were snugging down nicely. Haven't been back to the building since I took the photos to see how everything laid down though. And when I did the photos the driver's side wasn't done. But impatient as I am, I had to SEE how it would look and I was tired of looking at it with no decals. Thanks for teh compliments, everyone. Randy

I did the coupe when it came out. years ago, I drew a typical caricature of a Merc for use on my business cards and I built that car to represent that car, which was exactly what I'd want in a Kustom. IF I could get photobucket to cooperate, I'd post a pic of it. Grrrrr....

Great tips and information. I'd hate to have to model my 71 Dart, as over the years I had it, it had bench seat, buckets from a B body (didn't fit right - too wide); and eventually I think it had either buckets or a bench out of a mid 70s 4 door. Can't remember the front, but I know the back came out of a junk yard car and the front edges of the rear bench were more rounded than the stock seat. I want to say that it had buckets at the end, but can't remember. The door cards came out of a Duster - they were white that I dyed black - same door card as the Dart. Mine had a trim strip down the side but it looked more like an add-on than OEM. Stock blue 318. Black vinyl top and bronze body. I put 68 road runner dog dishes on it for a while, but ended up with Rallyes. It was a FUN CAR to play with. Added sway bars. And it had 4 wheel drums. Always an adventure in stopping. Especially if one drum was slightly out of adjustment... I do wish I would have kept that car and properly restored it. I did trade it to my roommate from college, who put a new vinyl top on it and rebuilt the entire driveline, with small 4bbl and duals (tough on a Dart because of fuel tank offset I think). He never did anything with the body and it eventually got pretty bad before he sold it to a guy wanting to make a drag car out of it. You are bringing back fond memories for me and giving me several new tips along the way. Keep on building. I have screwed this reply up in the quote section...apologies. Randy

Thanks. I'm trying to get the foil and paint to be as exact as I can. Have learned that I have to take my glasses off and hold parts about 6" from my face to see that close to get the details. Then watch the brush tip carefully lest I smash a loaded brush into the surrounding area. Otherwise I wear my glasses and a pair of reading glasses to do "regular" model work. And then to find the scissors or knife, back to regular glasses. More time messing with glasses to find the right combination than building some days....

Looks Great! I was going to suggest that the window cranks had a black knob with silver dot in the middle, but a quick internet search shows that in 68, they could be either. My 71 had the black knobs. I did that on mine to add a little more "color" to the interior. You have inspired me to get some embossing powder for my next interior. bought it and immediately lost it. Hope it shows up soon. I think the little badge on the seat backs may be metal? - may want to look it up as your sense of detail seems to be to get it right - I like that about this build. Can't wait to see more as it comes together. Randy

Here's a few more pics of the WIP. I'm not good at thinking to take pics at any given time during a build. Just after I get done with a session I will snap off a few. The decals were still "wet" in these, as was the glue on the lenses. I hope they have settled down some as they dried. The custom parts are from the revell 49 Merc, no big deal there. I really wanted to use the louvered hood from the Merc, but started this one and didn't have access to all my stuff. This may be the first kit I haven't used my airbrush on at all. I look forward to getting that set back up this fall. I was orignally going to sand thru the paint to primer, but think I'm just going to leave it like it is. I can live with it. I'm really impressed with the panel decals - they actuall FIT, unlike some wood decals from the past. The gauge deccals, however, were another story. Would not conform and lay in the bezels. Had to cut them down to round and take the bottoms off to make them fit the molded dash openings. And these gauges weren't made for stock appearance. they are small enough to be okay, though. Kinda rough, but who will notice on the shelf? Randy

Thanks guys. This is how my building is going these days. Nothing too fancy. Wiring engines may be a thing of the past for me. One of my least favorite parts. Just working on paint detailing and making what i can as realistic as possible - sanding down seams, reasonable paint jobs, realistic interiors and such. The bias ply tires are a let down for me on this kit - would really like to have used the old white outline goodyear radials but didn't have them at the time - my ex still had my model stuff. Thanks again for the compliments. Onward and upward, I guess.

Finished. Didn't wipe it down enough to get the dust and that one little hair/bristle off.

Looks good. My great aunt had a 68 or 9 Dart - buttercup? yellow with a black vinyl top. slant 6. I remember how it sounded "different". That's about all I can remember about the car though. I liked it. Just didn't realize at that young age I was going to be a Mopar guy, I guess. I'm watchi9ng - keep building. Randy

Is this the Warren Tope Mustang? I would like to know more about it. Is it hte samed car that gets kinda bad reviews everytime it's released? The road race version intrigures me. Randyc

Ahhh ok. Looks good there. Randyc

Works for me. GReat thing abou thte hobby is you can change things up as you go. Build it the way you want it and have fun with it.

Hey, looks great! One of the reasons your dad may have never used the 2x4 intake on a 318 is that the heads did not breathe well for more than the stock 2bbl carb or a small (650 cfm) 4 bbl. I don't think that Chrysler ever put a 4bbl on a stock 318. So a 2x4 would make performance worse without other work on the rest of the engine. A stock engine with OEM intake was likely a Dual Plane intake, not a single. Single plane intakes not very "streetable" unless the rest of the engine is modified and then usually only for performance. Visually the dual plane is more like what is on your engine. A single plane looks more like the intakes on the NASCAR kits and are usually aluminum. Sounds like your dad's car was a "mainstreamer" that he had plans for. I had a 318 71 Dart Swinger and remember the plans I had for it. Great car, fun car. Mostly stock. Also, I am glad you got the new engine. The original one looked like a weird Ford/mopar hybrid. Exh manifolds defintely look like a Ford set. Is this from the AMT/MPC Duster 340? The LA engines were pretty much identical from the outside. Heck, put a 340 air cleaner on it and unless you really know the stampings, visually not much difference. Had a guy try to sell me a 66? Dart GT once. HAd to check he numbers, only to find out the car was a GT but motor was a 318 with a 4bbl - explained why it din't run all that well. Great work so far. Great idea to put the small block in there. I have the Lindberg Dodge 330 with the slant 6 and was thinking of building a Dart for it. A base model. Would need to fab up a bench seat and some other details. I've built all the Dart kits so far and each one has been a fun project. I also bought some embossing powder the other week to try since it gets pretty high praises for realism. Can't wait to see more. Randyc

Not much for me either. THe display cases - with rounded top corners - will they stack like the old ones? At this point, I've built or seen all the cars that are being reissued and not interested enough to buy again. And still have quite a few unbuilts of them still. Just waiting and building the stuff I already have. Randyc

Looking good. I thought you were building the Grumpy's Toy version. Keep building.

Thanks for tip on the decals. Yes I will likely use them. Interior is painted with Rust or Leather Testors. Been over a year since I painted it and I forgot. Kinda standard colors. I painted the dash body color too. The green is a can of DupliColor I picked up at Auto Zone. Nothing too fancy. Over gray primer.

Yeah these washed up pretty well. I saved the littel parts floating around in the boxes. This is right after the wash the windows were still wet. They were very dusty. Oldest build is probably the NAZCA or the valvoline car.

Next you'll be saying the Monkeemobile and the Musters cars had fake blowers too.... Randyc