The Great MPC '67 Charger WIP Workbench Thread

[Snake45]

I was amazed at the interest that was shown in Round2's upcoming reissue of the old MPC '67 Charger in a thread down in the kit review section. Many of us evidently have fond memories of this kit. Quite a few said they're planning to buy this reissue (despite the existance of the far superior Revell '67 Charger kit) and several others said they had one or more previous issues of the kit in their stashes.

That thread definitely inspired me to rescue my own '80s issue of the kit from the Shelf of Doom. I'm going to try to drag the sad old crock across the finish line. I invite everyone who wants to build this kit to post their build pics in this thread—maybe we can make a mini-community build out of it. Drag those '67 Chargers out and let's build them! (Please, no Revell kits, or other years of Charger, though if someone wants to rehab or restore an original MPC '66, that would be welcome here too.)

This kit's body is in a little better shape than the MPC '67 GTO, but not much. Mine had several sinkholes, which I started filling a couple decades ago but never finished out. Over the last week or so, I've worked down most of the filler I applied so long ago and had been dreading all these years. It wasn't that bad, and SHOULD be the worst part of the build out of the way.

Both sides have bad sinkholes near the rear ends of the rear quarters. I filled these with J-B Weld for some reason. They were NOT fun to sand, which is why this project ended up on the SOD for years.

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Therre was a subtle but annoying sinkhole running across the width of the trunk lid, about where the forward edge of a spoiler would be. I was able to block-sand this out without filler. In this pic, you can just make out the last vestiges of this trench on the right side of the trunk lid. Looks like I have two or three more swipes with the sanding block to do. (Didn't see this in real life, but it shows up in the pic.)

[URL=http://smg.photobucket.com/user/Snake45/media/Model%20Cars/Mopars/67Charger05_zpstuplkwlq.jpg.html][/URL]

 

There was also a small but deep sinkhole on the top of the left quarter, below the Charger emblem. I considered ignoring this one, then decided it wouldn't be too much trouble to Snake-slap some Sikkens filler in there and sand it smooth. I was right—it wasn't that big a deal and I'm glad I did it.

[URL=http://smg.photobucket.com/user/Snake45/media/Model%20Cars/Mopars/67Charger09_zpswahnfxgh.jpg.html][/URL]

 

There are a couple shallow sinkholes on the tops of the front fenders, just behind the grille. I put the filler on these years ago and haven't finished smoothing them out yet—should be a quick, easy job.

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So at this point I basically have the body ready to BEGIN my normal prep—deepening the door lines, removing all mold lines and flash, etc. Should be all downhill from here, but I always think that and I'm usually wrong.

Pleast post your own MPC '67 Charger build pics in this thread. With my glacier-like building speed, I'm sure some of you guys will have the not-yet-reissued Round2 kit finished before I get this one done. Hey, go for it!

[mustang1989]

Man I've got high respects for folks that do this just simply because I know there's a ton of work to pull something like this off. I've actually got one of these sitting on a separate enclosed shelf and if I didn't have two builds going right now I'd join in here. I will, however, follow along with this because sooner or later down the road I've got plans to bring mine back to life.

Edited August 16, 2015 by mustang1989

['70 Grande]

Snake,

I'll post some pics of my work-in-progress of this kit tomorrow.  Mine has been on my Shelf of Doom for about 3 years now... I think!  My first challenge, actually finding where this old beast is buried!

[Snake45]

Snake,

I'll post some pics of my work-in-progress of this kit tomorrow.  Mine has been on my Shelf of Doom for about 3 years now... I think!  My first challenge, actually finding where this old beast is buried!

Cool, can't wait to see 'em! Today I got the putty spots in the front fenders worked down. Didn't take long. Not worth taking and posting pics of.

['70 Grande]

Well, after 30 minutes of digging in the kit barn, I found it!  Managed to get 4 or 5 pics taken, and then the camera's battery went dead.  I'm recharging it now; will have to post my in-progress pics tomorrow.  I'm glad that I dug this old kit out; now I think I'll be motivated to get her done! 

[slusher]

Snake, is the Revell a little big to scale or is it just me? I have never owned the AMT/MPC kit..

[Jantrix]

The '66/'67 Chargers are my favorite muscle cars of all (the Aussie Falcon XB a very close second) and I probably build five of these as a teen. Here are two survivors from those days. The yellow one was my first dive into serious modeling after discovering my first model magazine. It's the oldest survivor I have. The purple one is from my early 20's. It's got the AMT '70 Superbee pro-street chassis & OHC hemi, which fits like a glove in the MPC body. Some of my poorest work, but I love them. Depending on the options available in the re-released kit, I may just build a new version of the pro-streeter. Hope you don't mind me posting these up in your thread.

[AC Norton]

The '66/'67 Chargers are my favorite muscle cars of all (the Aussie Falcon XB a very close second) and I probably build five of these as a teen. Here are two survivors from those days. The yellow one was my first dive into serious modeling after discovering my first model magazine. It's the oldest survivor I have. The purple one is from my early 20's. It's got the AMT '70 Superbee pro-street chassis & OHC hemi, which fits like a glove in the MPC body. Some of my poorest work, but I love them. Depending on the options available in the re-released kit, I may just build a new version of the pro-streeter. Hope you don't mind me posting these up in your thread.

Rob, they look great, and sometimes looking back at the way many of us enjoyed building, it could be even more fun....those Chargers are cool....the ace....

['70 Grande]

Snake,

Here's my work-in-progress; I don't think I've worked on this one for about 4 years now.  I think/hope this thread will inspire me to get it finished.  

This interior shows my first attempt at using embossing powder for the carpet; I am still pretty pleased with how that came out.  One thing I never did like about this kit was the piece on the chrome tree that was to be installed in the dash for the gauges; it seems really soft on detail, and just sorta "clumsy" to me.  So I designed my own dash gauge's artwork and printed it onto semi-gloss photo paper to replace that chrome gauges piece.

I used the kit supplied 426 Hemi, but added some parts box pieces to it.  I also weathered my engine compartment pretty heavily as I prefer to build what I consider to be "daily-drivers".

Edited August 18, 2015 by '70 Grande

['70 Grande]

A few more pics:

My chassis also has a fair amount of weathering done to it.  I wanted to build my Charger as a early-mid-1970's street machine, hence the shortened exhaust system.

Here's the main reason why I stopped on this build.  I was pleased with everything until I went too heavy with the paint on the body, and got a bit of orange-peel.  I started to polish most of it out, but then got tired of working on it so it went back into its box.  This photo also gives you a better idea of my intended early-mid-1970's street-machine finish. 

Edited August 18, 2015 by '70 Grande

[Snake45]

Fabulous stuff, and beautiful work! I'm doing mine as a late-'70s driver (more or less), so I really smell what you're cookin' with this!

Yes, I hope this thread will inspire LOTS of us to drag these old crocks out and finish them off!

BTW, Jantrix, those are cool too! Any thoughts of doing any updates or revisions on one or both, or are you just going to leave them as "where we came from" time capsules?

[Jantrix]

BTW, Jantrix, those are cool too! Any thoughts of doing any updates or revisions on one or both, or are you just going to leave them as "where we came from" time capsules?

Thank you. Both of those builds represents a time period in my modeling life and I'm very pleased with them no matter how bad they look. So yes, very much an example of "where I came from" as a builder. I'd never rebuild either. 

However, as much I enjoyed this kit as a kid, unless the new release has parts from the early releases of this kit, like '66 parts, clear hood, injectors etc., I very likely will not bother picking one up. But if the '53 Ford Pickup kit is any guage, Round2 understands what we want, and I think we'll likely see those parts in the new release. If that happens, seeing new versions of these old friends is VERY likely. 

[AC Norton]

Thank you. Both of those builds represents a time period in my modeling life and I'm very pleased with them no matter how bad they look. So yes, very much an example of "where I came from" as a builder. I'd never rebuild either. 

However, as much I enjoyed this kit as a kid, unless the new release has parts from the early releases of this kit, like '66 parts, clear hood, injectors etc., I very likely will not bother picking one up. But if the '53 Ford Pickup kit is any guage, Round2 understands what we want, and I think we'll likely see those parts in the new release. If that happens, seeing new versions of these old friends is VERY likely. 

I hope you are correct on the clear hood, injectors, etc.....however I would doubt if any of those annual issue parts will get included in this 67 charger reissue....the ace....

[Jantrix]

I hope you are correct on the clear hood, injectors, etc.....however I would doubt if any of those annual issue parts will get included in this 67 charger reissue....the ace....

If R2 wasn't doing so much reverse engineering of old parts I'd agree with you, but I'm going to hope for the best. Fingers crossed.

[AC Norton]

oh, I would like all those lost goodies in everything included too, Rob. and, as much as I am a ROUND2 AMT MPC fan, we see it in some kits, not others it seems. I think they would be bragging about these parts in the teaser ad we have seen, if they were in there.....hope I am wrong.....the ace....

If R2 wasn't doing so much reverse engineering of old parts I'd agree with you, but I'm going to hope for the best. Fingers crossed.

[Snake45]

Thank you. Both of those builds represents a time period in my modeling life and I'm very pleased with them no matter how bad they look. So yes, very much an example of "where I came from" as a builder. I'd never rebuild either. 

However, as much I enjoyed this kit as a kid, unless the new release has parts from the early releases of this kit, like '66 parts, clear hood, injectors etc., I very likely will not bother picking one up. But if the '53 Ford Pickup kit is any guage, Round2 understands what we want, and I think we'll likely see those parts in the new release. If that happens, seeing new versions of these old friends is VERY likely. 

I hear ya my friend. I have old builds that I'll never re-do for exactly that reason. And I have a couple that I've stripped for rebuilding that I wish now I hadn't.

[David G.]

Looking good, love the interior!

David G.