Farmboy

A guy shouldn't have this much fun with food coloring! These are the tail light lenses. The red is straight red and future. The amber is a mix of about 7 yellow/2 red drops to a small amount of future. I didn't apply them super opaque as I could have as I'll be puttimg BMF behind them. Thought it may be of interest. Comments & observations welcome.

A couple of more pics, not the finished model but almost there. I have yet to add the tail lights. I'm going to try the Future/food coloring for the transparent and amber. The tail lights are clear so I'm hoping for the best. The wheels in the photos are not the ones going on the car, those ones are currently in a baggie with oven cleaner getting the chrome stripped. The seat belts come from a 'pod' on the inside roof. I found the solution in using the clear curved parts of a pair of google dolls eyes. Glued to the roof with a small slot in them and painted they look great! Once the wheels are on it's engine work. I did forget to add the semi opaque sun strip to the top of the windshield. Guess I was too excited at seeing the tint working out. Anyway, next shot will be the completed car. Comments and observations welcome.

Thought I'd post a couple of pics of a wip I've been fooling with. I tried a couple of new techniques with this one and they worked! The first 2 photos are of the blue tint in the windshield and rear window. Future and blue food coloring did the trick in 4 or 5 light coats. No runs, nuthin'! It looks foggy in the first pic, but believe me, it's quite clear. Must be the bad lighting.. These last pics are of where the interior is headed. I had to scratchbuild the ears on the seat backs for the belts. The belt itself attaches to the roof just aft of the tbar panel. The seat is 3 shades of blue. The plaid was done with high pressure and very thin navy blue/gray. The body will have the correct Z28 blue stripe package (part of the kit). I had a glue bomb of another Camaro that had an automatic shift so I replaced the standard shift. It will also supply me with the brake booster and a few other things. As always, comments and observations welcome.

Finally got this working again. Here's the first test window I did on a gluebomb I got from a friend, my very first attempt. These are the actual windows I'm using front and back. I hope this just wasn't beginner's luck and I can expect results like this every time. Next try is going to be for a more or less opaque green sun shading strip at the top of the windshield on another build I have in progress.

To add my two cents, I just did my windows on a '79 Camaro to match the 1:1 blue tint. I used future and a couple of drops blue food coloring. I set my 2bl action airbrush pressure to 35 lbs, and over the course of 5 or 6 coats in 2 or 3 minutes, had that wonderful thin blue tint I was after. It came out even with no dark spots or runs. This was my first attempt at this and it worked! I`m having an argument with my photo program right now, but I`ll supply a pic if you`d like as soon as I figure out the problem.

Hi Eric. I did a step by step in the Workbench forum under 51 Fleetline. It's probably back there a dozen or so pages by now. I showed the chop in detail It was my first razorback chop.

She's done. She's got a new Ford custom nose, a lengthened and modified hood, a chopped top, radiused front wheelwells, shaved chrome trim, new slanted B pillars and lowerered suspension. I learned a lot building this model, mainly trying a new chopping technique that I think worked ok. I thought this would do well as a daily driver on a budget and that's the finish route I chose. Bumpers come from the parts box. Thanx for stopping by. Comments and critiques always welcome

Nice to see how it goes together. The Revell '79 (same kit?) is my next project. I`m building a replica of my sister in law`s z car as a Christmas gift. Her 1:1 is in my garage. She lives in another part of the country so I'm hoping to pull off a 'giveable' build/replica. It`s the dark blue one with the turbine style wheels. The revell kit has the blue decals but not the wheels however I did find a 'close enough' set in a chevy impala lowrider kit. They`re gold plated, but I`ll strip them and spray them the graphite/steel color. Keep posting your progress, I'll do the same when I start mine. Maybe we can compare notes.

Decals are from the 1/24th Revell McDonalds Funnycar kit. Don't have any in progress photos (I built it quite a while ago). I'll see if I can pull off a couple of thru-the-window shots that would be of any help. I basically walled off the rear seat area right behind the driver's seat and aluminum covered the transmission hump/floor so i ended up with a pretty spartan cockpit.

I had started out building a salt flats screamer but partway thru gave in to the heavyup musclecar theme. The kit chop worked ok for me. I used beer can aluminum to build the interior, tubbed it and left off the fender skirts. Thought you'd like to see:

...it looks pretty gruesome but this is the narrowing required for the wider tires to fit under the front fenderwells so it lowers to match the rear and here's the mockup of how the suspension fits. The rear tires are not attached to the wheel backs and it looks cramped. They fit more comfortably when the wheel back and front are cemented together and narrows each wheel assembly a bit.

Using the kit supplied chrome wheels necessitates using the optional wider rubber tires. I like the look, but even with the dual height choice for the front, it didn't lower the car to my satisfaction. I used the time honored modeler's trick of cutting and re-attaching the wheel backs off center. It's a curbside model so I can do this with a clear conscience! It also presents an interesting problem. The fronts don't set up in the fenderwells very far due to the narrowing area, so out comes the dremel and sanding drum to narrow the tops of the tires -- that area can't be seen from any angle so I'm also confortable with it. I'll have pics after surgery. I worked out the height for the rears by setting the spring mounts on a sanding stick and cemeting the wheel backs (in the tires) to dry in position, that prevents anything but the tires from touching the ground on the completed model. comments and critiques welcome as always. Mike

Here's a mock up of where I'm at with the Fleetline. I decided on a plain maroon type of red for the body and minimal BMF. Much as I liked the fender skirts they just weren't working for me so off they came. The grille is one I removed from an amt '57 vette. It'll be centered vertically when its installed. Glad I saved it! Still to come are front/rear bumpers sourced from the parts box. The headlight pots will have bmf and maybe the bottom edge trim on the hood as well. These shots are before clear and polishing. and the interior is a two tone black. I think it fits well. Just some BMF detailing to add as always, your comments and critiques are welcome. Hope these pics are of interest.

Wish I had had the talent to do that kind of stuff at 13.Good goin' kid!

Sjordan, that's a very good idea. I don't have one, but I just might try to see if I can do a semi decent job of making one when I have her ready for paint.

The mockup. I'm thinking of staying with blackwalls depending on the color(s) I choose. Thanx again for your input and observations. comment and critiques welcome

Here`s the primer queen in her first rough coat. Some finish sanding and the odd touch up and she`ll be ready for paint. I`ll be using the fender skirts and probably chrome wheels/moons that came with the kit. Thanx everybody for the kind words, glad the pics and the process (though I`m not really sure I did it all correctly) were of interest. As always, comments and critiques welcome.

I reinforced the cuts and splices with thin strips of styrene rather than just gluing the ends together. I filed just the smallest amount off the mating edges to allow the strips to friction fit between them and slathered on the tube glue. Solid. Here's a better view of the chop before the angled door frames. This shows the door frames. I had planned to use the originals I had sawn away...cut one of the too short so that idea went south. I did get lucky with a thin strip of styrene with two half-round's glued to it. I think it actually looks better than the kit stuff.

I'd taken enough deep breaths so it was time. In preparation for the chop I've removed the B pillars. I cut them super wide so I can have them to angle after the chop. Notice also I've opened the rear of the front wheel openings Here's the rough cut line i'm going to follow. I've already done the top cut. no turning back now. Here I've put the chopped top in position, made cut lines on either side of the window back to almost the trunk line. After bendng the rear section down to meet the chopped top, I marked how much of the side (sail?) panels need to be removed. I did this by removing a pie shape who's point is at the end of the previously cut lines back to the trunk. Look at the pic a few seconds and it beccomes clear. ...and this is the chop showing the top and sides coaxed in to position with a well worn pair of needlenose pliers. I also bent the bottoms of the A pillars out ever so slightly to meet the uppers. It takes a while but going slow ensures no kinks in the bends. Total time about 90 minutes. Hope it was of interest. I'm sure there are other ways -- better ways -- but I think I'll get what I want without too much fuss. I'll be back when I have the chop smoothed in, or almost so. Comments and critiques welcome.

Here's my primer queen! The front end work is almost done, just some fine tuning to do. I'll modify the front fender openings next and then....the chop. I also have to make a grille opening but I don't have a firm idea on that yet. Anyway, here she is so far with the firewall and fenderwells installed to ensure everything fit. As always, comments and critiques are welcome.

I decided after some deliberation to go with moving the hood forward. I could have left it in it's normal position but I felt it added to the line of the car to move it ahead. I began by tracing the arc of the hood on to a piece of styrene and using that for the joint line. It was then a simple matter of drawing a parallel line with dividers and filing the same arc till I got a snug fit. Bonus! Moving it up allowed me to drop the front of the hood the equivalent of what I would have nosed it. Didn't expect it but glad it happened. Here's the first glue up This is how the added strip looks. I paralleled the hood's arc with dividers and filed till it fit. Also, note the black paint. The hood was wider than the opening due to it being moved ahead on body. I laid the hood in it's future position overlapping the fenders and sprayed the flat black from the underside. What didn't get covered on the edges got filed away This is the final result. Once it's sanded the seam will disappear and presto a longer hood..

She's starting to look a little better. The white curved piece is a styrene shim(one each side)needed to close up the gap at the front of the hood edge. You can also get a better look at the bottom piece required to close off the headlight area. These required beveling one end to better mate with the original shell curvature. The bottom front of the clip has been filled in where I ground through the plastic getting rid of the point. The grind-thru came by filing to create an undercut so the 'shelf' lip continued across the front of the pan.

Thanx for the kind words everybody, so far things are going well. Some define frenching as the term used when the headlight is made to look like it is an actual part of the body/fender. Others define frenching as insetting headlights in to the fender as in a slight tunneling.

Here's a front shot while the fill is drying. I added the clip...and found I didn't have a grille or headlights to go with it. I dug around a bit, and found a custom grille and headlight assembly from a '53 Ford pickup. I removed the bars and used the headlight assemblies. In so doing, I had to enclose the lights. I did so with a piece of styrene to seal off the bottom of each angled housing. It looks rough here but it's early. suffice it to say they now fit. There was also a sort of widows peak to the bottom of the clip. I rounded that off. this is the headlight assembly I modified a quick mock up of the end result. The duals will be frenched.

Here's the clip added to the nose. It'll take a bit of filing and body fill but shouldn't present too much of a problem I have an interesting option. The hood is a drop-on fitting perfectly right up to where the body joins the new front clip, and then it's only a matter of adding some very thin shim pieces on either side at the front to make life good. However where the nose is now about 3/16" or so longer, it would also look good to have the hood moved forward and fill in the back end to to make up the distance. If I do the latter I'll have to narrow the hood slightly along it's length so it fits. I can't remove the material from the fenders because the fenderwell pieces butt right up to the edge. I'm planning on nosing the hood so it gives me a bit of time to think about it.