dragcarz

Ok, so here’s a new one..... I sprayed the Poppy Red with a rattle can, if you read above it didn’t spray and cover liked I had hoped. The paint did seem salvageable, the hood had what I thought was dust or dirt in it, so I lightly sanded it before the clear was sprayed. I also lightly sanded the body to smooth the red a little. I mixed my DuPont Chroma Clear. Being a painter I always spray lacquer thinner through the air brush, making sure it’s clean and spraying well. I shot the clear and set it aside to cure. When I came back to see how it’s doing the hood has metallic in it????? Not the body, just the hood???? I sprayed everything with the same paint. If you look close at the hood pics, those specks aren’t dirt, that’s the metallic sparkling...... I’ve never stripped a model with Chroma Clear applied, normally if I get it to this stage, it’s good to go, so I don’t even know if it will strip. I don’t know if I should just finish it as is or start over? Your thoughts appreciated.

I really like this! Well done.

Cool

Slow progress is still progress. I want to give a big thank you to Plowboy, Roger Hayes for a set of exhaust manifolds. He stepped up and helped my stalled build move forward again, the motor is finished, and the body is polished. I fixed the scratched and dull kit glass, and most of the interior is painted.

WOW, Francis, that’s beautiful! A couple questions, where did you learn your skills? Do you work at a job? It must take hours to make one part! Do you ever just build in plastic?

Reminds me of those late 60s early 70s customs. Very well exicuted. Looks great.

I really try and make as accurate replica as I can, those little things make a big difference to me.

Hard week at work.... only got a little done, engine is painted, graphic decals applied, now I need some warm weather for the clear coat. Then the sponsor decals, and chrome trim.

That’s awesome Joe, looks great and should work well, glad to have you back on this one!

Finally getting to the fun stuff. I re-scribed the panel lines and door gaps, I added the fender lines at the rockers, removed the windshield wipers and added the missing cowl vents, I added the wiper holes as they we’re not filled on the original car. When I was filling the gaps under the rear bumper and realized I was missing a rear bumper. . I had recently scrapped a Revell 68 Mustang and was surprised at how close the rear bumper was to fitting. It would be very easy to make this bumper work, but I did locate a Johan Comet rear bumper that I will use. I cut the hole in the hood and added the hood scoop. i was off work yesterday and it was cool here in Georgia so I waited until he afternoon for the temperature to get warm. I shot the Poppy Red on the body and hood. The first coat looked like it was going to run off the body, so I let it set up and shot the second coat. It looked terrible and I almost threw it into the purple pond. I walked away from it for about an hour, came back and decided to go for broke and put the third coat on it, and it came out very decent, and doable. I’ll let it dry a couple days and do the decals.

I’d like to see a pic of the chassis after your mods. Your build looks great by the way.

Hey Jack, where did you get the decals for your build?

Small update, when I held the rear bumper in place there were large gaps, so I m filling those. I’m really close to having the firewall ready, and I removed the ribs in the transmission bell housing so it looks more like a scatter shield. Paint it red and put a Lakewood decal on it and it should be good to go.

They did a little, I sanded them a little and it fits good.

I like it!

Hmm.... somewhere this went from Pro Stock to Funny Car.......

I thought I was on the right track with adding the fender flanges to make up the space difference in the Mustang engine bay and the opening between the fenders on the Maverick. But the flanges on the fenders looked to be about 5 inches wide in scale. I got on the internet and started looking at pictures of some Maverick’s engine bays and under hood detail. The wide flanges were not going to work so I cut them off and made new ones closer to scale. One of the issues is that with the front aprons glued the the chassis it’s impossible to get it to fit together. The fender aprons have to be installed after the chassis is installed. My thought was to make these look more accurate. There is still a gap, but not as large so I added a flange to the top of the aprons. These will sit under the fender edges when assembled, and be painted semi gloss black along with the aprons. The flanges on the fenders will be Poppy Red, and this should create an illusion that’s acceptable. I added bolt heads to the fender flanges using Plastruct styrene hex rod. I then started filling the cowl area. I try to do as much filling as I can with styrene. I‘m getting closer to paint and working on the final details.

It started out so simple and seemed easy.......

OK I’m interested

I don’t have the Johan firewall, and the portions of the aprons attached to the firewall help to strengthen the front frame rails. Adding flanges to the fenders help, but there kind of wide. The right side Apron sat under the flange and the left one was to far to the right. I filed down the edge of the firewall where it’s against the body, and that shifted everything to the left. It’s better but I’m gonna give it some more thought

Looks great!

So very cool, a lot of work here, and it shows! Very well done, no matter what wheels you choose!

My 1972 NHRA rule book says rear seat optional, so no back seat. My reference material shows a bolt in Lakewood roll bar instead.

Small update.... I’m trying to fit the fender aprons. Apparently the Mustang engine bay is narrower than the Maverick. I had to reshape the aprons as the Maverick fenders slope forward where the Mustang was flatter. The aprons will have to be installed as part of the final assembly. I added ledges to the fenders but it’s still a little narrow. Need a cup of coffee and some rethinking time......

Hey Joe, I could use a little help. I’m doing a similar project, Modified Maverick. I’m trying to fit the Mustang fender aprons, I had to slope them towards the front as the Maverick fenders are more curved than the Mustangs. The engine bay is too narrow now, what did you different to make yours fit?