Maindrian Pace

That actually works! Never in a million years would I have come up with such a combination, but it's cool that someone did.

I can't count the number of times that people have asked me how I profile (add shape to) side trim. Actually no one has ever asked me that, but here's how to do it. Restoring a glue bomb '61 Falcon and the rear 1/4 panel trim on both sides, as well as the 1/4s themselves, have an obvious problem: AMT didn't do such a good job aligning the sliding die components, so there is a misalignment of the trim that can't be repaired because it is at two different levels. The first step is to remove the trim and sand the 1/4 panel smooth, being careful not to nick the door trim. Replace the trim with Evergreen strip of the appropriate width, the thickness doesn't matter as much. Run an Exacto blade over the whole trim at a right angle to scrape it down to the correct height. This trim is wider at the bottom and narrower at the top, so the blade was held at an angle to rough it in. Note that the trim looks pretty close, and wouldn't be that noticeable when foiled, but we can do better. Make a custom profiling tool out of a piece of Exacto blade glued into a piece of Evergreen rectangle stock. The end of the rectangle will act as the guide that you will run under the trim to scrape it evenly. The blade has to be trimmed and rounded to match the contour of the trim. I do that with a sharpening stone, holding the little piece with pliers. Some experimentation told me to add a little CA glue to the plastic guide to center the curve of the blade in the trim. Hold the tool and scrape the length of the trim thusly: Play with the angle that you hold the tool to get the cutting edge right where you want it. The angle shown above worked the best here. Take many light cuts rather than digging in hard to work it to shape. Finished, with a comparison to a second body.

Not at all what I was picturing, very nicely done and what a cool concept.

Actually, that's the way it arrived off the roll back. Those wheels are just rollers.

Nailed it!

Yesterday morning at my local tire/repair shop.

Very nice, really clean and correct job on the conversion.

I've got a short shot if you feel like a little body work.

Might want to joint the FB group Deal or No Deal parts. A built no paint rebuilder just sold there for $75. Rare, but they come up periodically.

Amazing! The display really captures the feeling of the original ad, great job to both of you for such an impressive display.

Sharp! Great body work.

I love it, as I too am a thick-headed cheapskate! And to more or less the same extreme. Combining spare parts into something presentable is a favorite thing for me, and when this is done, it will present as nicely as it would with the original full-boogie chassis - if not better.

Thanks for the nice words, everyone.

The bed and rear section are spot-on, it's coming out very well indeed. One suggestion if I may: you might want to smooth over the XLT front wheel opening moldings, just like you did the rear, before painting the cab. Great job overall.

This is a rebuild of a car that I did when the kit and the car were both new. The back story is in the build thread. Taurus SHO converted to a 2 door coupe by rescribing the door lines, moving the B pillars, and moving the rear portion of the roof forward to shorten the roof and lengthen the trunk. Basically, the bondo shrunk, I stripped it to redo it, and eventually did - 34 years later. Better late than never? In my defense, it came out a little better this time. Paint is Scalefinishes 2F Currant Red, a factory color on the SHO. The black strip on the bumpers and side trim is black Bare Metal Foil - hateful stuff to work with - the chrome is far easier - but it worked well here. These models sit high when built out of the box, so I lowered the front and rear suspension to a stock ride height. Interior tub is shortened to match the new shorter roof, with door panels altered to a 2 door configuration. Headliner and 1/4 windows added, these were never in the original build. The interior was one shade of primer grey, so I added a couple more shades and gloss here and there, and did the carpet in gray flocking to liven it up a bit. The intake tube from air box to throttle body was lost over the years, so I made a new one from heat bent sprue. Engine bay decals added. The rest is out of the box. Thanks for lookin'.

I agree, but the Taurus was only offered in 4 door form, and they probably thought it would take sales from the T bird Super Coupe. Still, it would have been nice to have a 2 door Taurus in any trim level.

I don't think I've ever heard of that swap before. It would be nuts, a cozy little wild thing for two. What part of AZ are you moving to?

Thanks very much for the nice words. I've always said that eventually, I get around to everything. In this case, very eventually.

Once upon a time, Ford decided that it was going to offer the baddest 4 door sedan in all the land. People laughed out loud. They delivered. People stopped laughing. It was a different world back then, but the SHO with it's Yamaha engineered 3 liter V6 was the business, and the sedan arms race started then and there. In those days, the model companies released new models at the same time as the new cars, and AMT dropped their very nice, promo based kit on the market while the cars were filing into the dealer show rooms. I went to the local Phoenix Toys R Us and got the new kit the first day they had it, back when TRU stocked model kits... and existed. I dove right in, originally intending to build it box stock. Like that ever happens. I looked at the well executed body and I thought to myself "I wonder how this would look as a 2 door coupe?" About like this. The only surviving photo of the original build showing what I did; re-scribed door lines to 2 door configuration, moved the posts back, eliminated the rear most stationary glass posts. But there was a problem, the 1/4 windows were too big, it reminded me of a Volvo 242 in that way. What now? I decided to move the C pillars/rear window/back of the roof line forward to make the windows and roof smaller and the trunk lid longer to bring it it into proportion. I shortened the interior shell to match the new green house length, and that was pretty much that. I painted it in some sort of Testors maroon, possibly Model Master, and called it done. I took it to the club meeting, the theme that month was Customs. Only a couple of guys picked up on what was done, others guessed that it was a Thunderbird or a Tempo. When word got out, it won the plaque that day, the same day the above photo was taken. But a few weeks after that, tragedy struck. Sort of. I used 3M spot putty, AKA red lead, back in those days, and as I was in such a hurry to get this car done for the meeting, I didn't allow enough time for the putty to cure - and it shrunk everywhere, revealing all the door lines, the trunk surgery, everything. I was bummed. So I stripped it down, began to reapply the filler, got frustrated and bored, and put it in a box - for 33 years. Fast forward a year and change ago, and the subject of the SHO coupe came up in a discussion with a club member, so I dug around and found it (for reasons unknown) in a '64 Galaxie box. I started fooling around with it, and before too long, the body work was finished once again - in Tamiya filler, no more red lead. The idea this time around was to do what I wanted to do back in the day, paint it in the factory 2F Currant Red, one of three colors offered on that car in '89. I didn't know anything about air brushes then, that came later, and getting factory colors was difficult and expensive. I called Scalefinishes and Jameston set me up with a bottle, not offered on his site, but he will make you up about any color you need for no extra charge, because that's how he rolls. I painted the body and cleared it with Tamiya TS-13, decanted and airbrushed. Masked and sprayed the black trim.

So many great bump/dent side Ford pickups here lately, I hope this trend continues.

Two great new additions, both to be added to the Moebius collection.

What year are you trying to replicate? I don't have any Monogram parts kits, but I do have this US Airfix kit, 1:24 scale. The hood does fit the Monogram '79 body, so the rest can be blended easily enough. If you can use the parts, it's yours.

Wow, I had no idea it had that kind of influence, but I'm glad it did. I did update the thread pics, so here it is: Hopefully the self-hosted pics on this site hold up a bit longer than that other company. If you want any additional pictures, let me know. As for your truck's ride height, I think the front is perfect, it's the back that's too low. All of the AMT kits in this OBS Ford series are tail draggers, if you raise it up about 2-2.5 MM, it should have the perfect stance.

Fantastic job, I love the look of this little car.

Monogram '79 Pace Car. I'll see what I have.