ian ashton

I think my dad and I will be heading over on Sunday, I haven't been since I was a kid!

Thanks for the info/pics! I'm using a resin copy that I made of the Lindberg Little Red Wagon steelies - no caps, I like the bare look better

Waitig on te Sattelite hood from eBay - if it's workable I might make a mold, I'll let you know.

What do you mean? Like the front K member?

I've started the build of a 1969 Plymouth Sport Satellite convertable, using AMT's '69 GTX Convertable. Some specifics of the car: 18 auto with AC (starting with the '71 Duster 340) Bench Seat from AMT '68 Road Runner (not correct for '69, but close enough) B5 Blue, Blue Interior and Steel Wheels - I haven't decided on Redlines or thin white walls yet - probably Redlines, as I'm saving the white walls for my Slant 6 Challenger Convertable project. Facilitating the project: I found a resin Satellite hood on eBay - I'm hoping it shows up today, I'll post pics as soon as it gets here - that is kind of the key tho this whole project, otherwise I'll be stuck doing a Road Runner convertable, or a Satellite with a Road Runner hood. I'm hoping to use the Photoetched Satellite scripts from ModelCarGarage, or try to get something custom made that says "Sport Satellite" like it should. So, as usual I started with the chassis, and exhaust. I used the kits stock exhaust, and started to fab up the 2-1 collector with some heat and super glue. Coming along pretty well... Painted up chassis, with some details started: My first ever attempt at "bending" exhaust with heat: Running the brake lines, with the chassis painted, gas tank done, with BMF straps: Some interior details: Detail painted the dash: The front bench seat painted up and ready for some seat belts. Hard to tell, but it is 2 tone, as it should be. One of the door panels, again with the correct 2-tone, and some BMF (that rear window crank is giving me a headache, I'll work on that later.) Next up will be some body work. I've got the GTX emblems sanded off, just need to work on some sink marks and all that good stuff.

Thanks for the positive comments guys!

Inspired by the scale Jack Stands thread, I decided to try my hand at building an engine stand, and I must say I think it came out great! I just winged all of the measurements from memory of my real engine stand in the garage. Materials: 1/8" Square Tube Stock Round Tree/Sprue (the stuff you throw away from every model kit you've ever owned!) .0015 Solder or any other kind of small flexible wire 1 small push pin 4 blade radiator fan, or something similar (or flat sheet plastic) CA Glue Tools: Xacto Knife Small Drill Bit & Pin Vice Side Cutters/Clippers First I cut the 4 pieces of Square tube stock, here are the lengths: 3x - 1" .5" Make a "T" with 2 of the 1" pieces and glue. On the opposite end of the T glue your .5" piece, making a sort of upside down "I". From there, glue your other 1" piece at a 90* angle from the middle of the "T". If you did it right, it should look like this: Next, take cut a piece of round sprue at .25" long and sand it so it looks nice and round. Glue that at the top of the 90* piece. When it dries use your drill bit to drill a hole all the way through, length wise. It should look like this: Now we need to make some wheels, this is where I got creative. Cut really small pieces of the same sprue, and sand them up - I just laid a piece of sand paper flat on my work surface, dropped the little round circle on the sandpaper, and gave it a few swipes on each side. When they seem "clean" drill a hole in the center and feed your wire through, making a "U" around the wheel. It should look like this: Make 4 of those, 1 for each corner. Now you need to drill the base of the engine stand so we can attach the wheels. I drilled 2 small holes on each end, really close togather. Once your holes are drilled, trim the wire for each wheel so that the wheels fit nicely into the stand and glue them in. ***Note, you might want to paint your wheels and engine stand before glue, I wanted to see what it looked like first, so I didn't paint this one.*** Bottom drilled, and attaching wheels: Last step is an easy one - find a 'parts box' 4 blade radiator fan, and trim/sand it down (this is a Revell Hemi fan), drill a hole in the center, and put a pin through it. Slide the fan/pin assembly through the hole in the long round sprue at the top of the stand and bend the end down. Trim the end, and you are done! Next to my Hemi Dart: All in all, this cost me $3 for the square tube (which I wanted anyway to build a trailer hitch for another project), and took about 15 minutes, including time for pictures, not a bad little project. Next I'm going to try my version of jack stands.

Sweet, got one of those 340s coming on trade! Perrrrrfect!

...a decent AC compressor, preferably something that will look "right" on a late 60's to early 70's Mopar?

I believe I have a moon tank and zoomies - I will confirm and send you a PM tomorrow to get a shipping address from ya.

Absolutely awesome! I really want to build a quad cab truck. Love where this is going!

For what manufacturer and what genre? Newer car colors are usually available in spray can from auto parts chain stores. I get spray cans of mopar older colors from the dealership. And, if you are looking for something really off the wall you can usually have colors custom mixed and put into spray cans at any full service automotive paint supplier.

As has been stated many times before, very nice work! I can't wait to see the finished product!

I got a reply from SSB resins that they will not sell just their cab. Oh well. Maybe when I get better at my casting I'll buy one of those die casts and try to duplicate it in resin

Very nice!

Let me know if you want copies of what I have, I can scan and email if you like.

I won this kit in the Toledo NNL Raffle, and being that I was having trouble locating some parts for my '69 Satellite Convertible build, I figured this would be a good kit to jump into to try and get some detailing skills back, as prior to this I have only built 2 kits (a Tamiaya S2000, and Revell Magnum) since my 10+ year hiatus. Anyway, I decided that I wanted to build this kit 'as delivered', as an Automatic. For reference material I found the infamous Cars magazine article with the pictures that Charlie Castaldo took upon delivery in 1968. In addition, my dad dug up some Mopar Muscle, Muscle Car Review and Mopar Collectors Guide articles featuring race ready cars, as well as a Mopar Enthusiast Magazine with "How To: Detail Your Hemi..." All proved very useful, as there is incredibly limited information available on these things. I'd like to apologize, as I didn't take many pictures during the build First up I decided to work on the exhaust and chassis – this is where I used some artistic license. Most reports say the cars came with Hooker Headers leading to steel tube mufflers, with dumps before the rear axle – that’s the route I chose to go. So, I used the kits headers, and a combination of the 440 exhaust tubing and mufflers and dumps from the Hemi to come up with a final guesstimate. I think it worked out well. Here are pictures of the buildup of the chassis; Mocking up the exhaust: Exhaust built and working on the paint and photo etched clamps (note, after this was taken I painted the headers black, they looked weird in silver): Working on the brake and fuel lines, after paint: All buttoned up (note: I painted and detailed the trans pan, and have no idea where I put it - anyone wanna send me a spare, lol!) Because the next 2 or 3 builds are Mopars, and I want steelies on all of them, I figured it would be good to cast them, so I bought the Alumilite Super Casting Kit at HobbyLobby, with the 40% off coupon - score! I started with the wheels from Lindberg Little Red Wagon, and while I was at it I casted the seats, as they are also what came stock in this car. Making the mold: And the finished product, with lugs and valve stems installed: Next up was the interior. This was an easy one, as its 2 seats, drivers only seat belt, and a little detail on the dash. I used Kens Fuzzy Fur on the floor, and Model Car Garage photo etched seat belt buckles. One thing the L023 cars were known for is the fact that they had no window hardware, just seatbelt straps with snaps to either hold the window closed, or open. To duplicate this I just used the same ribbon material that I used for the lap belts, and a couple of push pins to mimic the snaps. Since I built this as an Automatic, I had to replicate the "console". I was fortunate enough to find a decent interior picture that showed an automatic L023, so I was able to come up with this - pretty easy, I just sanded the detail off of a car battery, trimmed it up a little, and popped a hole in it for the shifter. I used the kit shift indicator decal: Finished up - I don't know if these cars came factory with a column mounted tachometer, but all of the reference pics I had showed the same tach, so I figured it was meant to be there, so I wired it up for fun: The body painted and Bare Metal Foiled - I later found that the vent window trim was also chrome, so I added it before putting the interior in: Working on the engine compartment, fuel and brake lines coming up from the chassis: I can't get a good picture, but for the rear brakes I just used the kit wheel backs and added some photo etched linkage to make them look a little more like drum brakes (Again, using artistic license.) Up front I used some parts box rotors with Machine Aluminum Specialties photo etched Calipers. I wired up the wiper motor (no idea why these cars came with wipers, despite their lack of heater, window cranks, and any other "luxury" haha): Wired engine in, brake lines connected. I ran the fuel line to the fuel pump (area) and ran a new line up to tie into the carbs, for which I built a nice T to split the line. The box carbs are total garbage, so I ordered a set of resin carbs from MAD - I can't wait 'till they arrive so I can detail 'em up and call this project complete The (almost) finished product. I made little signs that repeat what the cars had on them from the factory. One says "WARNING THIS SUPER STOCK VEHICLE IS TO BE DELIVERED ON THE BOTTOM LEVEL ONLY OF ALL TRUCKS AND RAIL TRANSPORTATION" and the other says "HOT" with what I presume is the VIN, vehicle code (LO23), and to where it will be delivered. On a side note, if anyone has any suggestions for using my Canon Digital Rebel XS to better shoot models please share! I can't seem to get a decent all focused shot of the entire car. Great for details, but weird on the whole car. Comments/Rants/Constructive Criticism/Destructive Criticism is all welcome

I found a resin hood on eBay at the suggestion of someone here - hasn't arrived yet though. I'm hoping to find some photo etched scripts, haven't really looked yet though.

This is my next build, but I'm going to build it as a B5 blue 318 Sport Satellite. I really like that engine stand, did you scratch build that?

A knee issue, destroyed it skiing.

I also have a Solstice that I autocross occasionally. Unfortunately I haven't driven it since July, can't push the clutch

Very good topic! My main interest (that led me back to model cars) is slalom water skiing, wakeboarding, and all things watersports. I severed the ACL and PCL in my left knee and here I am, with 6-8 months before I can do anything athletic. I love spending time on my boat, whether it's cruising the lake, anchored with a book, sand bar with friends, or drivog for skiers/boarders. I also enjoy teaching newbies how to ride. In the summer I'm on my boat every day after work. We (my future wife, Laura) also just bought a new home and spend a fair amount of time on projects - I've found I'm very handy. Aside from that I love car shows, meets, and cruises.

Very interesting... I'm honing my mold making skills, I wonder... Thanks for the info!

I'm lucky in that there are 2 really good hobby shops fairly close to me. For now I'm just building from my collection, since I'm just re-entering the hobby. I presume most of my buying for actual kits will be at hobby shops or online. I've gotten a few kits online recently.

"I DON'T KNOW WHAT WE'RE YELLING ABOUT!"