mrmike

Thanks Charlie! And now for my favorite part of the build...BMF!

Thanks DW! I got the coves of the hood bulges filled in and shaped. The next part has brought me to a standstill. How should I proceed with making the scoops? Out of the several ways I could think of, the most logical one to me, would be to cut into the bulge just where it starts to narrow. Then slice under the tip of the bulge and remove the tip thus creating a hole into the engine compartment just as it is on the 1:1 Mannix Dart GTS. I would then add a piece of styrene extending from the bulge to 1 to 2 mm beyond the original edge of the bulge. This could create the triangular opening on the scoop. Opinions anyone? Mannix will return.....

Thanks guys for the nice comments! No gray primer here! I used Tamiya White Fine Surface Primer, a quick and clean sanding, and then 3 coats of paint.

It's pretty good kit, Steve, considering how old it is! Today, paint was flowing! After all the priming and sanding and priming and sanding again and again, the body and hood were painted with Tamiya TS-54 Light Blue Metallic. Other bits and pieces were painted matt and semigloss black. Engine parts are out of the purple pond and need a little scrubbing. Then I can start on the motor! More to come.....

A suggestion, on the front grille, cut the lower fenders off and glue them to the front fenders and then putty the seam. Then add some sheet styrene between the front valance and the fender lowers to make up for the cut. This will make the front more accurate looking.

Me too! I ended up having to do other things today and I really wanted to get at least one coat of paint on. Maybe tomorrow!

Yes, Mannix was a great show! DW, I got the distributor moved to it's proper position. The motor is now complete and back in the chassis. The rear spoiler is mounted and puttying has begun. This may take a while! Work has begun on the hood. I glued styrene strips into the recesses in the hood bulges. These will be sanded down and puttied. Mannix will return.....

As a member of several forums, I have learned a lot that has helped me make my builds look more realistic. I was a Ford fan for the longest time while being a closet Mopar man. That all changed when I bought a Dodge Dakota over 10 years ago and for me, it's Mopar or no car! After sitting in the purple pond for 5 days and 45 minutes of scrubbing in hot soapy water, the Dart body is ready for bodywork once it's dry. I'll be adding the rear spoiler to the trunk lid, molding it in with putty and scribing trunk lid lines. I have added the exhaust manifolds, valve covers, and rerouted the plug wires under the exhaust manifolds. I am having second thoughts about the distributor location and I'm going to have to change that. Mannix will return.....

Thanks for the reminder DW! That was one of the things that I was going to address on the rebuild of the motor. When I first built this kit 4 years ago, I didn't know about the routing of the plugs wires and IIRC, it did bother me a bit when I did add the plug wires back then and it didn't seem quite right. I realized a short while ago, if I had mounted the distributor on the back of the manifold and changed the decal on the air cleaner to a 340 pie plate, nobody probably wouldn't have noticed that it was originally a 383.

I have repainted the motor Chrysler Engine Turquoise and have started reassembly with the distributor. The trans got a new coat of Aluminium Metalizer. Mannix will return.....

Thanks Gerald! The mold is very crisp, but there are some issues. I have started bodywork by removing any mold lines and the bracing that AMT uses. I also removed the scripting on the C-pillars since they are faint and non-existant in some spots. The hood is a tight fit and I started sanding the sides to open it up. I still have more sanding to do since a couple coats of paint and primer will tighten it up too much. More to come.....

Excellent Daytona!

Thanks Skip and Felix! Skip, the wheels are the same, I painted the spokes with Humbrol Flat Gunmetal.

Charlie, you'll have to share that honor with my wife as she had suggested the same. I'm glad you do, Wayne!

Friday night, I was looking around Jay Leno's Garage ( http://www.jaylenosgarage.com/ ) and discovered his current project, a '66 Galaxie 500 similar to the one his father bought back in 1966. The story I heard many years ago was Jay had pestered his father into letting him pick the motor for the car his father was ordering. 4 weeks later, his father discovered what his son had done, a 7 Litre V8 with muffler delete package. Jay's father was not happy with his son. Jay's project car started as a blue '66 Galaxie found in Canada, repainted maroon, shod with American Racing Torque Thrusts, and stuffed with a Roush 427 big block with 6 speed trans. My build is a little different, starting with an AMT '66 Galaxie 500 kit, the kit 427 CI big block, 4 speed trans, and Cragar SS mags. The paint is Tamiya TS-54 Light Blue Metallic. More to come.....

Thanks guys! Charlie, to tell you the truth, I don't know. Several years ago i tried to replicate my father's maroon '71 Cougar and I thought the Honduras Maroon would be close to the FOMOCO Maroon, and it wasn't. I purchased a can of the Tamiya Maroon and sprayed it over the Honduras Maroon and the color was very close to what I needed. The license plate.....that was how the plate appeared in the movie. It was not a real plate since it had no stickers in the corners of the plate.

Thanks Charlie! I'm pretty sure that was Jeff's Caddy at the Classic Plastic show. What do you think of the license plate? It was one that you had suggested.

Thank you guys! Lee, the Mustang was painted with one base coat of Honduras Maroon and two coats of Tamiya Maroon.

Thanks Charlie, John, and Jason! It is highly unlikely that the motor was repainted while the Dart was at Barris' shop. The Dart joined the series 3-4 episodes into the 2nd season. Given that the lead time between Chrysler delivering the car to Barris' shop, work being done, and delivering the car to the studio, the motor would have remained untouched. The Darts delivered to Barris were red 340 GTS convertibles and it was believed to have been painted with whatever dark green paint was in the shop at the time. I am toying with the idea of repainting the motor with Mopar Hemi Orange enamel paint to be more accurate. Even though the Mannix Dart was powered by a 340, the kit I used came with a 383, so the big block remains between the frame rails.

Nice build Clay! I like the color!

Thanks guys! Jeff, was yours at the Classic Plastic show last month? If it was, it was an inspiration for building mine!

Thanks Mike! My Mannix Dart has been partially disassembled and the body is in the purple pond. I have been trying to find the correct color for the '68 383 CI engine and have not been able to find any consistant information. When I built this kit 4 years ago, I painted the motor red per the instructions and now I'm not sure if those were right. I do need to reroute the plugs wires below the exhaust manifolds. Mannix will return...

Thanks Christopher and Dave! Yes, this is a goofy kit, but after seeing two other Caddies built stock, I just had to put my own twist on one. I need to find a small briefcase for the trunk. Maybe Printable Mini's has something that I can print, fold, and add to the trunk..

Dave, again thank you very much for the hood! I attempted to remove the pieces that I added to the hood for the scoops a little while ago and really messed up the original hood just as I thought I would. Michael, the wheels on the 1:1 are Cragar SS mags. When the car was first introduced on the series, it wore Radir wheels which couldn't hold up to the pounding the car saw during filming. They where replace with Cragar mags during the rest of the car's run. George, thanks but I do have the link to that article and one other article that I found during my research. The owner in the Hemmings article has since sold the car and it was returned to California. MikeD1, the color I used originally is more an olive shade than the color used on the 1:1 on the show. The restored Dart (there where two) is painted a dark green metallic versus the solid dark green that George Barris may have had in his shop at the time.

4 years ago, I built a '68 Dart GTS as the car actor Mike Connors drove in his hit TV series, Mannix. Even after I finished it, I felt as though the model was not as complete as it should be. A couple of months ago, I started talking with a writer who's favorite TV detective was Mannix and this got me into doing some research on the Dart used in the series from 1968 through early 1970. Now that I have much more information, I can rebuild this model to more closely resemble the car used in the show. Here is what I am starting with. This is what I can going to replicate. This is what I have been able to find to bring this project to life. A new hood since I will most likely destroy the original by trying to fix it. A rear spoiler since I built the model without one. A telephone since Joe's Dart had one. The paint will be stripped and the car repainted in a shade of dark green that's closer to the original. Everything else will be refreshed or updated. Mannix will return...