Len Carsner

Applying the waterslide decals will pretty much complete the graphic treatment on our Hustlin’ Hemi. The unknown source decals being used here require individual layer registration. Let’s hope some other decal maker will pick the HH to do in the future. Also note that SLIXX is a great source for those necessary contingency sponsors like the decal sheet shown here. Also note the custom-made side windows in the foreground. The HD kit comes with quarter windows but no door glass. Some of the graphics for the HH are displayed on the side windows. These pieces were cut from .010 Butyrate clear plastic sheet. Then the proper decals were positioned on each window according to references. In this photo, there’s been a lot of activity including painting the headliner, installing the visors, dome light and rearview mirror and temporarily taping the kit glass and hand-made side windows into place. From this point on, clear white glue was carefully applied in a bead around the edges of each section of glass. As promised, the steering column/box (Part 23) has found its way into this 68 HD. For Revell to engineer such a unique piece would have required tooling up a second such part, again, increasing tooling costs. I simply shaved the thickness of the box down with a drum sander in my Mini-Mite until it would slide into place. That area between the front inner fender panel and the left side headers is very tight as can be seen here. Here, the race car shorty pipes with flow-through mufflers are temporarily mounted in place, attached to the header collectors. Paul Richardson says these exhaust system parts were the first thing to be discarded, as NHRA didn’t enforce their use. At this point Bills' car is done and ready for it's beauty shots. But what about my gray car? Stay tuned - one more update and it will be time for the grand finale. Thanks, Bill and Len

Another week, another update as Bill wraps up the build on the Hustlin' Hemi. We're rapidly approaching the end of this project so follow along with this installment and watch for the next one coming soon! Here the front inner fender panels are being mask-off to be painted white. All of Paul Richardson’s racecars had a white engine compartment. Paul says it made keeping things clean and leak free much easier. Strips of BMF were used along the separation line. Then low-tack painters tape was used along with a folded paper towel to finish the job. Here the front inner fender panels have been painted with white automotive primer. Once the primer has thoroughly dried, all the masking was carefully removed. (The whole body including inner fender panels will get clear coated in a later step.) Work slow and very deliberate. Do not yank the tape away. Go very slow. Removing the masking tape too quickly can occasionally result in patches of paint being pulled off. Once all the masking material have been removed, a small amount of adhesive may remain on surfaces like the under hood and front fender and cowl areas. Since the body, hood and scoop will be getting a final clear coat, using a cleaner like Goo Gone just makes sense. Just read the label: Removes Grease, Stickers, Tar, Gum, Crayon, Tape. That says it all. Here the body with final prep for clear coat is being test fit one last time before painting. Be sure to paint the body, hood and scoop separately. Painting clear coat on the assembled hood/scoop may encourage runs and sags not to mention that getting them apart again is darn near impossible. Once the final clear lacquer coat is completely dry, the rubbing out and polishing process begins. Sandpaper in varying grits like 6K, 8K and 12K are recommended. I started out with 4K (too coarse in this application) and spent quite a bit of time getting rid of the minute scratches. Work slowly, deliberately and cautiously. Don’t try to do everything too quickly. Going slow, little bit at a time can mean the difference between success and having to put on additional clear coats and starting the polishing process all over again. Once you’re satisfied with your handwork on the finish, those pesky remains of white polish can be a problem to remove. A quick solution is an old toothbrush and a wee bit of moisture. Carefully work the bristle into the body lines making sure to not apply enough pressure to leave scars in the finish. I noted that the bottom horizontal piece of the vent window frames was absent from the Dart body. An easy fix was to cut some narrow strips of sheet plastic to match the thickness of the surrounding frame uprights. Taper the leading edge, trim to fit and carefully glue into place. Presto! Problem solved. If Bare Metal Foil presents a challenge for you, take heart. There’s only a scant amount of bright work on this spartan, all business race car like the 68 Hemi Dart. There are different approaches to applying BMF. Take time to experiment and settle on the method that works best for you. continued....

That's probably the best explanation of why seams might seem more pronounced in some of our pictures. High resolution digital photography brings out the best and worst in anything you have in front of the lens. Plus we're giving you images that might be two to three times larger than reality. If we gave you pictures like this the parts would be closer to actual size and the seams wouldn't be as noticeable: but the details aren't either. BTW - new updates coming within the next two days, wrap up by the weekend. Len C.

Not sure what happened - I had this as two posts but must have done something wrong. Thanks for the helping hand Mark! This should be the rest of the post: Here are two views of the built Hemi 426 engine installed in it’s proper location in the chassis. It’s always a good idea to do some test fitting along the way to ensure there are no unpleasant surprises when you’re getting down to the final stages of a build like this one. Two views of the new Revell 68 Hemi Dart and GTS 1/25th scale engines. Whether from the front of from the rear, either or both of these engines build into eye-catching versions of these legendary power plants and will look good even if you’re building style is out-of-the-box. The chassis, suspension and running gear for the Hustlin’ Hemi are nearly finished and ready for final assembly. Don’t forget to use some coarse sandpaper on the tread areas of both front and rear tires as shown here. This is no trailer queen show car. This one can really smoke them hides! Here the finished interior, chassis, engine, firewall, core support and radiator are prepared for final assembly. And yes that is the steering assembly deleted from the Hemi Dart version of this fine kit. If there’s anyway to squeeze part or all of this piece into this model we’ll give it a try. At this point, the interior and chassis have been temporarily installed into the kit body to give us some idea what this beast will look like when everything has been painted, decaled and assembled. So far, there appear to be no fit problems, misalignment issues or things that just won’t go together. Here the hood/scoop are in place for a test fit before further primer and paintwork. This fit well. No unexplained gaps or oversized seams. The stance is right by our eye. Anticipation is growing as we move toward completion of the Hustlin’ Hemi 68 Hemi Dart. Check back for the next update around Wednesday. Should be interesting! Thanks, Bill and Len

Another update, this time the engine and drive train are completed, and along with the interior they meet the body for a trial fitting. Moving back to concentrate on the body, hood and scoop requires special attention where the engraving was removed on both front fenders and the deck lid. There are a variety of ways of dealing with this pesky problem. One would be to stick to milder primers and paints designed specifically for soft styrene plastics. These small areas where engraving was removed was carefully wet-sanded with 600 grit automotive sand paper. After close inspection under a bright light to determine how smooth those areas were, many very light coats of automotive primer were applied in intervals. Occasionally, the 600 grit paper was used between coats to make sure no signs of raised engraving or ghosting to be determined. One very good reason for keeping at least a few of the small fidgety parts attached to their respective sprue is addressed here. The coils from both engines, 440 and Hemi, aren’t easily distinguishable once removed from the tree with the kit numbering system. Note here that both coils are quickly identified while being detail painted by referring to their assembly number clearly seen here on the sprue. Understandably, the 440 wedge big block engine has its own set of unique parts and accessories as shown here. The unassembled parts for each engine are being kept in separate zip-lock bags during the building process. In the case, the 440 tranny was spray painted with Testors Metalizer and then masked off so the block etc. could be painted the appropriate color of orange. As the 440 engine assembly is progressing, doing occasional touch up with a fine brush is likely necessary. Once all the accessory parts and pieces have been treated to their proper paint colors, final assembly can begin. Here the final touches have been applied to the 68 GTS version’s 440 four-barrel big block V-8 engine. Instruction for proper paint colors are included in the kit instructions and there are numerous internet, book and magazine sources available for such things as well. Here the 426 Hemi Super Stock engine is entering the final stages of detail painting and assembly. Metalizers were again used on such items as the transmission, headers and the alternator shell. The Detailer black wash was used to bring out the surface details seen here. This is another case for leaving at least certain parts on their respective sprue. There are two engines and of course with four radiator hoses. Without being able to reference the assembly numbers on the trees, identity is a chore. For some additional detail, the exit end of the header collectors were bored out. First a small diameter hole was drilled in the center of each piece. That was followed by a larger diameter bit. The last step was to further ream out the opening with a round grinding bit as shown here in the foreground. Here the finished 426 Hemi Super Stock engine is displayed in all its glory. The colors used came pretty much from the kit instruction sheet with an exception or two. The color was painted light blue and the oil filter was painted gold based on available references. continued...

As promised, the roll bar fire extinguisher was detail painted and once thoroughly dry attached to the interior driveshaft tunnel between the bucket seats as shown here. Other additions include Model Car World resin Dodge A-100 bucket seats and The Model Car Garage photo-etch safety belts as can be seen in these two views of the finished interior. Here the heater motor is being shaved down to resemble the blank-out plate as used on the race car. Note that masking tape has been placed in certain areas to protect those raised surfaces as the hobby knife is being carefully pressed into service. Two of these items will be seen again while one will disappear. This will be the last time we see the battery. All the Hemi Darts and Cudas carried a huge and heavy battery in the right rear corner of the trunk to improve weight transfer and traction. In the background, on the left is the core support, radiator with shroud attached in place and the horn, all painted, assembled and ready for installation. On the right is the Hemi Dart firewall. In place is the modified and painted dual master cylinder for the brakes, the windshield wiper motor and the heater motor has been trimmed down to resemble the blank-out plate as used on the race car as was mentioned earlier. That's all for now. Check back on Friday when the engines go together and the chassis gets its wheels. Thanks for your interest, Bill and Len

Another week, another update. This time Bill works on the suspension and the engine compartment. To get the 8-3/4 in rear axle I needed for the automatic equipped Hustlin’ Hemi and to gain the reduced width afforded by the kit’s Dana rear end, I did some splicing and dicing as it were. First I measured the width of the Dana’s gear housing and then on center, transferred that dimension to the 8-3/4 in axle housing. Then both were carefully cut apart, swapped out and rejoined with super glue. The Dana axle diameter is a bit larger the 8-/34 which necessitated some careful filing and sanding. The results are shown here. From this angle you can see the rear shocks a bit better. Note that in the foreground one unused shock is painted black and one is not. Somewhere along the way I got them mixed up and after assembling things realized one shock was shorter than the other side. This is just a reminder why it’s important to keep track of the part numbers. Here the first complete test-fit of the chassis, front and rear suspensions and driveline are taking place. I must note here that a new drive shaft was made using a length of tubing and the universal joint ends from the kit piece. Matching up the automatic transmission and the 8-3/4 in rear axle required lengthening the drive shaft anyway. I chose slightly larger diameter tubing for the mail part of the shaft. It gives the whole thing a beefier appearance. Looking closer at the revised rear suspension and driveline, matte black, various metallic paint shades were used along with a couple different Metalizer colors to give this assembly some definition. Likewise the same treatment was given to the lower front suspension parts and some detailing on the front subframe. One thing about digital photography, it shows up every little shortcoming. But it’s good to be able to see exactly what needs attention. If you’ve decided by chance to build the GTS 440 street version of this new kit, you’ll need to put some effort into the dual exhaust tips. There are a couple of three ways of doing things but wrapping the tips in BareMetal foil, trimming things closely and adding just a touch of flat black to the opening is a quick and efficient way of doing it. Paul Richardson says a four-point roll bar was optional according to the NHRA rulebook originally. In later seasons as the Hemi Dart and Cudas were naturally running faster quarter mile times, a roll bar was a requirement. The new Revell kit features one as shown here. It also includes an attached fire extinguisher. The Hustlin’ Hemi won’t include a roll bar but we will detach the fire extinguisher and utilize it in finishing off the Dart’s interior. The left door panel is laid aside in this instance so interior details are more visible. Dashboard detailing included a speedometer decal, BareMetal Chrome trim and some small hand-painted details. Both door panels were trimmed out with BMF. Note steering wheel detail painting, the column-mounted tachometer and the turn signal stalk. A small rectangular piece of .010 in sheet plastic was cut out and painted gunmetal. Then it was glued into place as a visible radio delete cover plate. Also, the kit bucket seats were attached to the interior floor with carpet tape. The reasoning is that at a late time if so desired they’ll be easy to remove if the decision is made to use other seats. continued...

No problem and no freak outs here. When done these cars hit a couple of shows for display. They rarely get turned over or have the hoods opened. They then go home to sit on the shelf. If I was trying to do a competitive piece I'd take a lot longer than the time frame we have to get these done. We normally get 4-6 weeks to get these built, working on them between full time jobs. Sometimes we get down to crunch time before we'd like to! Back when I was using 35mm film photography you could hide a lot of "sins" but digital photography isn't as forgiving. Thansk for the comments, Len C.

Bill and I do take them to shows for display, not competition. The first show where these will be displayed will be the Toledo NNL in October. We also display at shows in Indy and Cincinnati, plus some local club gatherings. But no, we do not compete with these cars. We do this to give modelers who might be interested in these kits a preview of what to expect when they open the box and start building. We want to give you a thorough review, along with step by step pictorial instructions, to generate some excitement before the kits hit the shelves. Thanks for the comments and I look forward to your points of interest or concern. That's what I like about these forum building projects - we always look forward to involvement from the people of the forum and we get some interesting discussions going on. Thanks, Len C.

You want goosebumps? Wait until you see it painted! Bill sent me a picture of his painted car on the finished chassis. This is gonna be good! Len C.

Great piece of info - Thanks! Len C.

In that last picture I don't have any suspension under the car - I just stuck the wheels on it, so once it has all of the suspension bits in place it should have the proper attitude. Len C.

We've talked about the seats in this kit before. The kit comes with stock Dart seats. Many have suggested we use the seats from the Little Red Wagon kit as a suitable substitute. ANother suggestion was the seats from the Revell Thunderbolt kit, as the actual cars used seats that were manufactured by the same company (Bostrom). Here we see the seats from the LRL on the right and the T-bolt on the left. Bill will be using the resin copies of the LRL pieces while I'll be using the T-bolt seats. But while Bill made the special seat brackets used on the Hemi Dart I won't be as once the seats are mounted you won't be able to see them anyway. While I was robbing the Thunderbolt kit for its seats, I grabbed the steel wheels too. Here we see them in the tires from the Dart kit. THey may not be exact, but they look close enough for me. And by using Revell pieces we're keeping it in the family. Using the flexible sanding pads and files I removed the fender emblems and front marker lights. I used a little spot putty to fill in a gouge in the fender caused by a slip of the knife (I have a matching gouge in my thumb to prove it). Don't forget to remove the Pentastar emblem on the lower right hand fender. SInce my car will replicate the as-delivered cars with the black fenders I added a cut line at the rocker panel to mark the rear edge of the fender. I still need to finesse the rear wheel openings and a lot of sanding and cleanup before I can paint but I couldn't resist mocking things up to get a feel for what it's going to look like. Kinda looks like a Hemi Dart, doesn't it? That's all for now. We'll have updates on Tuesday and Friday this week. Bill has the chassis, drivetrain, and interior together on his car and we're sure you'll want to see this. Thanks for your interest and comments, Bill and Len

Time for a little update as to what I'm up to with my build, and let's clear up a few points while we're at it. I never got to read the now "vaporized" comment and by now it doesn't matter. Bill and I have asked for no special treatment during these builds and expect none. Constructive critique and discussion of solutions is welcome and is really what we want with these early review and build articles. What's not wanted is an endless litany of "They really blew it" or "I can't believe they screwed this up" with nothing else to offer. Criticize, prove it, and offer a solution. That's what forums like this do best and should be our objective. To do otherwise is counter productive and unwelcome. That being said, what's in the past is over and done, now let's move forward. During our discussion of the firewall it was brought up that you will need to separate the master cylinder from the power booster for the Hemi version of the Dart, This is true and as Dave Zinn pointed out the master cylinder should be mounted on a plate to offset it for engine clearance. I found this picture that clearly illustrates this: But when it comes to the firewall, I have to disagree that there was a special firewall for the Hemi Dart. This original L023 Hemi Dart is in the process of restoration at Mopars by Mosher (www.moparsbymosher.com). This car is going through a complete rotisserie restoration. Here is a picture taken after media blasting. You can clearly see holes for the heater hoses and motor. This makes it look like a dedicated firewall for the Hemi cars was not the case. Here we see the firewalls of two restored cars. Both cars are using plastic plugs to cover the heater hose holes and block off plates for the heater motor. While you might think this is not what would have been done orignally, consider this image: This picture from 1968 of The Hustlin' Hemi clearly shows the plastic plugs in the heater hose holes and a plate over the heater motor opening. Seeing these, I have to respectfully disagree when it comes to Dodge making a specific Hemi Dart firewall. That does not appear to be the case. And I'd have to say that the firewall Revell included for the Hemi Dart is, other than the lack of an opening for the steering shaft, correct. Here's the Hemi Dart firewall from the Kit. What I've done is clip the end of the heater motor off with sprue cutters, the sanded the remainder down until it closely resembles the block off plate used on many of these cars. I'm not sure yet if I will make the offset plate for the master cylinder. Normally I build these kits straight from the box while Bill will add extra details and aftermarket parts. I'll decide that once I get to the point where I'm finishing the firewall for painting. Continued....

Indeed it was Bill Coulter and if you haven't checked the "On the Workbench" forum yet we are building these kits right now. Bill is recreating the Hustlin' Hemi with the new Dart kit, look for a comparison between old and new once we get closer to completion.

We thought the design of the plain-jane trunk panel (for this version) to be pretty ingenious. First tape the panel in place to the rear bumper as shown here. Then temporarily attach the new assembly to the rear of the body shell again with masking tape. Once you’re satisfied with the fit and alignment, apply a bead of super glue to the seam between the deck lid and trunk panel on the inside of the body. Be careful not to flood the area or get the super glue any where near the plated bumper. Note an error on page 9, step B for the 426 Hemi version. In the lower left panel, part 137 is shown upside down. Turn the rear panel 180 degrees and use the tabs to attach the panel to the rear bumper. Setting the body aside, some final hand-work is required on the chassis floorboards. The molded in exhaust locators must be removed for the HD drag version. Len suggested a sprue cutter to clip off the major part of the posts. With that accomplished, carefully slice away at the remainder until it looks like the one on top. This was followed up using a combination of hand tools like those shown here until the surface is completely smooth. To complete the locators’ removal, use Mr. Surfaces to fill in the slight blemishes remaining on the floorboard surface. Note that a double layer of masking tape was applied to the gas tank to protect the surface detail while the hand-work was being performed. Some have questioned the use of the Cragar S/S wheels found in Revell’s 67 Charger kit. After all, as the rationale was revealed, there are markings on the HD decal sheet for the center cap details. Not so! Shown here for comparison are the HD kit tires with both sets of mag wheels. On the left are the 67 Charger Cragar S/S wheels with the appropriate designations on the center caps. On the right are two examples of the new generic Cragar-like mags from the new Hemi Dart kit. You be the judge of which wheels you use on your build of this new kit. Here’s a closer look at the two mag wheels in question and another look at the M&H Dragmaster slicks from the Revell HD kit. You may be the type who wants to thoroughly research the finer points of a model project like we do. We just received a copy of Authenticity Guide 1968 Dart & Barracuda Hemi Super Stock spiral bound book by Jim Schild with Larry Griffith. With just a cursory look through the black and white pages, there appears to be a lot of important information contained here and answers to many questions about these 40 plus year old legendary race cars that will be helpful in building your HD. Our copy came from Mancini Racing, though this item is available from a number of sources as well. That's all for now. Check back later in the week when I'll update you on what's going on with my version of the Hemi Dart. Thanks for your interest, Bill and Len

It's time for another installment of our buildup of the Revell 1968 Hemi Dart. Bill is going to show more of the chassis, rear suspension and a few of the differences between the race and street cars. We'll have another set ready for you by end of the week that will show you part of the process I'm using to replicate the as-delivered cars. Let's get to it... I’ve noticed that Testors Metalizers are a bit touchy especially if anything that’s a bit sticky comes into contact with the treated surface. Masking tape, for instance, will likely lift the Metalizer when tape is applied without a coat of sealer. Try experimenting with different low-tack materials like the Post-it note shown here. Cutting a corresponding opening in the paper sheet the approximate size of the mufflers seems to work well when the need to protect a different shade that’s been sprayed on the tail pipes. Likewise, I’ve had good luck just folding the Post it note over and using it to mask a treated area in preparation for applying a different shade of Metalizer as shown here. Stainless Steel and Aluminum Plate compliment each other when painting exhaust/muffler systems. Here’s a quick comparison of the two rear suspensions available in this new Revell Hemi Dart kit. On the left is the street set-up utilizing an 8-3/4 in. rear axle (dome shaped gear cover) used with an automatic transmission on the GTS version of this kit. On the right is the Dana rear axle that’s part of a four-speed drag racing set-up. Notice the difference in overall width in comparing the two. The 8-3/4 in. (wider) is attached to the outside of the rear sub-frame rails. The Dana (narrower) is attached to the topside of the rear sub-frame rails and is intended for four-speed application. Note here also that the Dana set-up increases the rear ride height and therefore the rear shocks are longer. The 8-3/4 in set-up will bring the rear ride height lower for street application. In this instance, the chassis is being prepped for the GTS street version which uses the 440 engine, Torquefilte transmission, full length street exhaust system and the wider lower rear suspension featuring the 8-3/4 in rear axle. Here the chassis has been converted over to the drag set-up. The Hustlin’ Hemi was a Torqueflite HD with an 8-3/4 in. rear end which is reflected here in this layout test fitting. Before any further paintwork is performed, some tidying up is required. The standard copyright/trademark identification embossing is concentrated in two places, in front to the gas tank and along the driver’s side of the rear floorboards. Using a combination of a hobby knife, sanding stick, sanding needle, a Nick Sander and a Jewelers file, quick work was made of this task. If you thought maybe Revell messed up and put too many firewalls in the new Hemi Dart kit you’d be mistaken. The firewall on the bottom is intended for the GTS 440 version, identifiable by the inclusion of a locator hole for the steering column. On the topside is the HD firewall. Note that the locator hole for the power brake unit has shifted location to accommodate the massive power plant. Revell has omitted the steering column in this instance but we’ll see if we can squeeze part of one into the final version of the model if for nothing but appearance sake. In 1/25th scale you can only pack so much stuff into a given amount of space. Since the Hemi Darts used non-power manual brakes, we won’t need the power brake booster unit that would be appropriate for the GTS 440 version. Here a circular saw blade was used to carefully remove the booster from the master cylinder PS unit. Then the Master cylinder unit was attached in the proper spot on the firewall as shown here. Serious racecars are pretty Spartan rides, sans all the creature comforts to which we’re all accustomed these days. 1968 was no exception. Hurst built these HDs as radio/climate control delete. Remember to remove both the radio and heater/vent controls engraved into the dashboard face panel as shown here. Using a variety of hand tools like those shown here should do the job without damaging the surrounding detail. And yes, I know the heater/vent panel still needs attention. continued.....

Sometimes life just gets in the way of what you really want to do. Check back later tonight.

Glad everyone liked this project. Here's a larger image of the two cars: Thanks for your interest Bill and Len

I was at that show last week and that car caught my eye.Very Nice!

The wheels Bill is using are in fact from the Revell 1967 Charger. The new kits wheels are a new tool wheel but do not have the trademarked cap, most likely due to the old licensing bug.

The first installment of the buildup has been posted to the "On the Workbench" forum. Meet you over there! Len C.

more of the Dart... The standard Dart GTS bucket seats (shown here on the left) once painted matte black will work for the HD for many folks. But, if absolute authenticity is your forte, Model Car World has added this set of Dodge A-100 pick up seat to their fine resin parts line. The A-100 buckets rode on metal rails from reference photos we’ve reviewed. I used narrow strips of .020 in sheet stock, ½ in long to make rails. Each rail was lightened with a series of holes along their length as shown here. This close up shot gives a better view of what the A-100 seat rails look like and how they were made and attached to the undersides of both seats. Removing the standard GTS door panel hardware (window cranks) can be accomplished if you’re careful. I used a No. 11 blade held horizontally and slowly sliced away at each crank until it was pretty much gone. Careful and deliberate work with sanding stick, emory board and medium grade automotive sandpaper cleans up what residue is left. Since I’m building a Torqueflite HD the Revell kit doesn’t present a corresponding floor shift for this application. Once I found a photo of a Hurst Dualgate floor shift on the net, I made my own. The housing is approximately ½ in long by 3/16 in. tall by ¼ in. wide. I then laminated piece of .020 in sheet stock together followed by some sculpting with a hobby knife and jewelers file to get what was needed as shown here. Here I've gathered parts that will be painted with the same shade of black. Masking tape holds them in place on scrap cardboard. Shown here are the big n little front and rear tires provided for the Hemi Dart drag car. The Cragar S/S wheels are obviously of Revell linage but at this point I’m not for sure of which kit they came from. Unlike what we’ve come to expect from Revell when it comes to tire sidewall markings, the Hemi Dart kit is a departure from the recent past. The sidewall lettering is clearly seen in this close-up photo. Since the time when this HD kit was announced I’ve been acquiring the stuff to build one special version. Fortunately, I had a choice for the GM Hugger Orange color I needed. On the left, from the Testors Custom Lacquer System is the base color and the necessary Ultra Gloss Clearcoat. On the right, is a 2 oz. bottle of the required color custom-mixed from MCW. Shown here at the top is the kit’s extensive water-slide decal set. You only have the option with these marking of doing a generic graphics scheme. At the bottom is a water-slide decal set (from an unknown source), for my target build. That's all for now, folks! Hopefully we'll be posting again around the first of the week. See you then, Bill and Len

Well, it's time to kick this buildup into gear. Lots of people have been asking about this kit and are eager to know what it's like, so follow along as we dive into the Revell 1968 Hemi Dart. I referenced a number of photos of 68 Hemi Darts and decided to create my own rear wheel opening template shown here made from card stock. I did allow some influence from a past build. Back in 1969-70 timeframe, I built my first HD using a Charlie Allen Dart FC body and the interior/chassis etc. from a 69 Barracuda. Here I’ve transferred the final opening shape to the new HD body shell. Using a small diameter drill bit I carefully drilled a series of holes tightly spaced along the pencil line as shown here. Revell has been rather innovative on their new Hemi Dart body shell providing a scribed line to help in opening the rear wheel opening. Note that my version of the wheel opening differs slightly with theirs. One of us could be correct, both of us could be wrong or maybe there were slight variations in the over 100 Hemi Darts built for Chrysler by Hurst Corporation in Detroit. Once the tiny holes were drilled, it was a simple matter of slowly bending the piece of fender until that piece was removed. Using a combination of a jewelers file, sanding stick and medium grade automotive sandpaper the new fender opening was cleaned up to my liking. Could be I’ll tweak both openings a tad before I move on to primer and paint. Using the hand tools shown here, carefully remove the engraved GTS emblems ahead of the door on both front venders. You’ll need to also remove the GTS emblem on the leading edge of the rear deck lid. As Len stated earlier, Hurst built four-speed HDs and Torqueflite racecars as well. The Revell HD kit included both the 440 cid BB engine and a brand new Super Stock 426 Hemi. The new release gives you a choice of a Hemi with a four speed attached or if you’d like to build an automatic car like I’m doing, you’ll need to carefully remove the stick tranny from the back of the Hemi block and transplant the TF from the 440 as shown here. If you’ve wanted to build a four speed 440 version of the kit, you’re in luck. Simply move the tranny taken from the Hemi and attach it to the back of the 440 block. Once the engine/transmission combo was cleaned up, it was treated to a few coats Plasti-Kote T-235 sandable primer. That was followed with a couple of generous coats of Testors Metalizer Aluminum Plate. I decided to do the extra transmission while I was at it. Once the Metalizer AP was thoroughly dry, the tranny/bell housing was masked off using BareMetal foil. At this point the exposed engine block etc. was coated with Testors Bright Red spray paint. continued in next post.....

Hello all, sorry about the long time between postings. Things are about to busy with the Dart so I thought I give a quick updatge. A lot of talk about he seats and wheels has been going on so let me add my comments: Dave Dodge at Model Car World is doing resin knockoffs off the A100 seats from the LIttle Red Wagon. Also it was brought up that the seats from the Revell T-Bolt kit might be suitable. After checking them against the LRW seats they have a little more taper to the seat back where as the LRW seat back is a bit more square. But I think they will work well and will probably be my choice for my version of the Dart. As an added surprise I checked the steel wheels in the T-Bolt and they look like they might be a good fit for this car, so I'll rob then from the kit too. Someone mentioned that the scribed line inside the body for the wheel opening may not match the contour that most people are familiar with for the Hemi Darts. In our research we've seen no less that three different wheel opening shapes. Best advice is to use the scribed line as a guide and make a template to match the car you are replicating. Someone asked if you can still build a GTS from the kit - yes, all of the parts to build a 383 GTS are there. No parts were subtracted from the original kit, only parts added to do the Hemi Dart. Now, what versions will we be building? As many expected I'm doing the as delivered car seen here: Bill will be doing The Hustlin' Hemi as pictured here: Bills choice is significant for a couple of reasons. First, Paul Richardson, driver of the Hustlin' Hemi, is a friend of Bills who still lives close to Bills hometown. Second, Paul took delivery of one of the first fifty Hemi Darts produced and still has a wealth of knowledge and information concerning these cars and he has been more than helpful answering our questions. With his help we hope to build these cars as accurately as possible. One other reason for Bills choice: he built these Hustlin' Hemi replicas back in the 1969-1970 era: Bill used the Charlie Allen Dart, plus some 1969 Barracudas, as the basis for these cars. Building one for himself, Paul saw the model as it was coming together and had to have one for himself. Bill was more than happy to oblige. That's all for now. Check the "On the Workbench" forum tomorrow for our first installment of the buildup. Len C.