Rdkingjay

Good evening gents, Just to update you all, last weekend I brought my GL to the MassCar show in Taunton Ma. I was pleasantly surprised to earn first place in the large scale class, as well as grab one of the masters awards for best Dodge. I also got to meet and talk to Mr. "Date Code" and Mopar guru, Steve Magnante. He took great interest in my GL and spent several minutes talking car guy stuff. He was also gracious enough to autograph my build sheet. I guess he was photographing Mopar models for an upcoming issue of Redline Dodge.com. Great guy to talk to and very down to earth. So needless to say it was a fantastic day. I got many great comments on my GL and made some new friends. I also grabbed an original 70's Revell Monroe Handler Mustang from the huge vendor area. I always wanted that kit in the 70's, but didn't have the skill to build it back then. Unfortunately, I am having trouble loading pics from Fotki, all of the sudden, so no show pics. If I get it figured out, I'll post them. Take care all.

Nice job Danno. I built one of these several years ago as a Mass State Police car. Nice kit despite some inaccuracies like the boss 429 and chassis. There's a website called policecarmodels.com that can provide much more accurate scale goodies for you police car projects in the future. Lights, sirens, radios etc. The owners name is Jeff. Very helpful and knowledgeable.

Very nice Greg. Just finished up the same car a few months ago as a Mass State Police cruiser. Any more pics?

Would love to see it on my shelf! Great scratch building on the bed.

Beautiful job. Restoring a Johan '60 Plymouth police wagon now. I hope mine looks as good as yours when its done.

Gentleman, Thank you for you thoughtful comments on my car. After the time and effort that went into it, I certainly appreciate your comments. I apologize to those who asked, but yes, it is the 1/16th version, re-release from MPC/Round 2. I am proud to say that I have an original version still in plastic and hope to display them both together in my man cave. Thanks again. Jay

Nice job.

Beautiful!!

A few more

Finally finished this car. Started in July of 2011. it survived two moves and 5 months of storage without losing one part or damage to one piece. I made a list of the changes that I made to it. Between the body, interior, engine and chassis, the changes, mods, scratch-built parts and sourced parts, the list of changes total 55. For those of you that have not followed this build, please feel free to ask any question you have or refer to the build thread. I plan on showing it a the Masscar show in Tauntom, Ma. this march along with my '46 Galaxy MSP aerosedan. I can't wait. Again, the changes and build details are a lot to re-type. Please feel free to ask anything you would like to know if you are building your own. I have kept the templates for the front wheel well inserts, radiator support, push bar and filler between the grill and radiator support if that helps anyone. Take care and thanks for looking.

Done!! Just a few teasers until I get some more favorable conditions outside to photograph this thing. I'm very proud of this car and can't wait until March to show it. Including five months in storage it took just over two and half years to build. Can you say "separation anxiety"?

Just empty the bottle in a bin and drop the model in? How long on average does it take?

While I'm adding the finishing touches to my big scale GL, I have started prep work for my next project. It is a resto of a Johan 60 Plymouth police wagon that is butt ugly! Glue bomb with a dirty gold and mauve paint job and police decals!! You read that right. Anyway, I need to strip the body and I have frequently heard of the purple bath. What is it? My usual process would have been a days long dip in simple green. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks in advance. Jay

Love it Dave. Great job and a thoughtful gift. The body looks great on that. That'll definitely get added to my cache of future police car projects.

So my first time using alclad appears to have been successful. I swiped a side view mirror, wipers and door handles from 1/18th junkers that I found at a yard sale. The chrome was beat so alclad was my only option. They turned out pretty good. Definitely not silver, but close enough to chrome. Had to scratch build a set of sun visors because the molded in ones are laughable. Also added a dome light. I don't recall where I found the bow and arrow set, but I thought it would make a nice addition to the interior. So all that's left at this point, as the grill is attached and drying, is to build a nice base for the CB antenna, finish the scratch-built piece between the grille and radiator support, maybe fab up a hood latch and attach the roll pans. My next post could quite possibly be the last on this WIP thread! Thanks for looking and Happy New Year to you all.

Fantastic build Ryan. It looks great. Aside from resto's this is my favorite type of build. Replicating someones car as a gift/tribute. Just completed a '59 Impala ragtop for a very old friend. Never get tired of these types of builds!!

So, since Georges '59 impala was completed, it is time to pull this thing from the back burner (again) and try and finish it once and for all. The polishing was completed, followed by a coat of black wash in the seams. My scratch built fuel door was installed next. Then, the rear valence was painted, the chrome strip BMF'ed and R/T logo applied. The tailights look a little out of scale, but after 2 1/2 years of fiddling with this thing, if they fit, they're fine. Also installed the back glass with its scratch built chrome trim piece. I also made door and trunk locks using a thin piece of styrene rod, covered in BMF. Installed them in pre-drilled holes and VIOLA, locks that feel and look like something besides a paint dot. I found a way of mounting the hood so that it would'nt shift around in its poorly designed cut-outs in the firewall, by securing a piece of styrene tubing betwen the hoods hinge pins, then gluing the styrene tube up under the cowl. As a result the hood now stays open on its own, closes securely and the gaps stay the same on the sides and rear. Thanks for looking.

The last few, I promise. I realized I had none showing the engine or photo-etched stuff. The plate is the actual plate on the car at the time of the photos. The rear shots show the P/E license plate frame and trunk emblem. The front shots show the hood emblems and hood screens, which were a b--ch to apply. First time using P/E parts on a kit. Pretty happy with them. Hope you enjoy and thanks for looking.

Looks great! Whats that color on the under carriage?

A few more.

As I stated in my original post in the WIP's section, George restored this car a little over 30 years ago. One of many actually that he did in his back yard shop. A place where I spent a lot of time as a young teen. I learned a lot about old cars and car upholstery from George and also benefitted from a lot of good worldly advice. And best of all, I learned how to do tire vaporizing burn-outs in a '69 396 Chevelle! Anyway, this is the car that I have always gone back to as inspiration when I was restoring cars. My last being a '70 454 Chevelle. Georges wife, Jean was also very gracious to me and I wanted to put something for her into this car as well. They took many trips to the beach in Daytona with this car, so I added a pair of "half scale" flip-flops, a picnic basket and beach towel for her. The newspaper is an actual image of the 1981 Daytona Beach Morning Journal, the day after Petty won the 500. George used to own a '73 Charger painted like Petty's charger, so I thought it would be a fitting touch. Aside from the major mods to the seats and a sprinkling of photo-etched goodies, this kit is right from the box. I hope you all enjoy the pics and I welcome your questions and comments. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all.

The car is finally finished and will be posted in "Under Glass" shortly. Thank you all for your comments during this build. I appreciate them very much. Merry Christmas and Happy New year to you all. Jay

May finish Georges '59 Impala today! Also some tweaking to the display base and if I'm lucky, some work on my long termer, 1/16th General Lee which is getting close after almost three years!!

Got the car BMF'ed last night and to my surprise, it went very well. The thin chrome strips on top of the fenders and center of the trunk do not have a channel to use as a cutting guide like the strips of the tail fins do, so they are free hand. The rocker piece is a piece of strip styrene that I added per the ref photos. The bigger issue for this car during the whole build was how to display it properly. I wanted to show the chassis/undercarriage, so I bought a Testors mirrored display case. But this car sits low. So I had a friend of mine at a local machine shop make these lexan wheel chocks to lift the car up about half an inch. To mount them, I opted to open the mirrored base so that they will be epoxed to the plastic base and not the mirror. As a consequence, this lowered the car about a 1/16th of an inch, but its more secure then gluing them to the mirror and cleaner. Then I will wrap wire around the axles and through holes in the base, just inside of the wheel chocks.

Very clean build Tim. I agree, they are simple kits that are easy to work with.