2007 Ford Interceptor Concept

[Peter Lombardo]

Some of you may remember my “on the workbench†postings of a few months ago for the Ford Interceptor concept that I was attempting to replicate. I began this conversion with an AMT Chrysler 300C because many automotive critics said that the Interceptor was an obvious rip off of the Chrysler, even though it is based upon a Mustang chassis.

You can go back and view the early posts if you desire, but they just show lots of body putty and gray plastic, so here I just want to report on the details added late in the build and the finished model.

I will begin at the front and work my way backward. First, the top coat color is Rattle Can Tamiya Mica Blue, covered with “Do It Best†Lacquer High Gloss Clear Coat. The grill was fabricated from plastic stock covered with Bare Metal Foil. ( I am not thrilled with the result, but that stupid grill, which I thought would be easy caused me many, many headaches) The headlights are clear sprue that I grinded down and glued to a white plastic backing. The lower grill is a piece of photo-etched N scale freight car grating cut down to fit (It was very difficult to cut down as it was so thick), fog lights came from more grinded clear sprue. The Ford Logo came from a new Ford GT decal set.

The engine is the reasonably correct engine for this car, it is the Ford 4.6 Liter from the Mustang GT, but has new head covers that I made from sheet plastic, painted blue and used decals that came from a ’57 Ford decal sheet. I know the car has “silver†Ford logos on the head covers, and have black, but the black stand out better. The “shaker†air intake is completely scratch built and the hood was a major redesign of the Chrysler hood. I opened up the center and crafted the angled side surround to allow the air intake “modified shaker hood†stick through. The hood is set on a “double hinge†hinge to allow the hood to move forward and then hinge up to open the engine bay.

I fabricated the side vents just forward of the front door and added BMF and wire, painted clear orange for the marker lights. The front doors hinge inward kind of like the real doors work and all four doors have tiny magnets in both the door jam and the door, to “snap†the door shut when closed.

The wheels are made from the tires of the Dodge Magnum wagon, with the centers of the snap fit Ford Thunderbird as they are 7 spoke wheels. The spokes were modified as they needed to be wider at the outer end than the inner end. I fabricated “pie shaped†wedges and glued them over the spokes and made the wheel bigger to fit into the Dodge tire. Putty and lots of sanding tied it all together and then I covered the whole wheel with BMF (I am not crazy about them, but they do have the right “lookâ€. Originally I had the 5 bolts on the wheel center but they actually looked better without them, so I sanded them off)

The roof was chopped and narrowed and obviously all four doors were opened. After many, many hours of adjustments, the fronts fit very nice and the backs are just a little out of whack in the rear, but overall fit pretty good. I had a very difficult time setting the rear door windows into the opening, and the glazing is a little “marred†in spots but actually not too badly, but it bothers me a bit. The BMF on the molding around the windows was very difficult, but overall, also not the best job I ever did, but I am living with the result.

The entire interior is completely scratch built. The front seats are made up of 5 layers of plastic sheet and the rear seats have 3 layers. I cut out the 4 air vents in each seat on the top layer. The seat belts are made from masking tape and a photo-etched buckle. The front head rests are scratch built and suspended from the roof, as on the real car. The steering wheel is built from bent plastic coated wire and the wheel center is scratch built from sheet plastic. The dashboard was from a 1970 Dodge Super Bee. It was heavily modified. I took a color picture of the dash gauges of the real car, reduced them down to the proper size, coated them with clear and installed them in the dash. The console was scratch built and uses BMF and paint to replicate the finish. The door sides are heavily modified from the Chrysler and I painted the silver detail to replicate the Ford interior. The dash and seats on the real car have orange piping around the stitching. I used very fine detail wire in orange, a little glue, half of the hair that is left on my head, and a lot of patience to get that done. It was not easy, but it really sets the interior off. The seats were sprayed with Tamiya semi gloss black and the carpet was done with black flocking.

The rear end was carved out of a ton of putty; the taillights were grinded out of the putty, surrounded with wire glued in place, puttied and then sanded smooth. I filled the opening with BMF, and then mixed up a batch of clear epoxy and Tamiya clear red paint. I carefully filled the openings, one at a time, let them set up. Once dry I then installed the trim across the trunk in a channel that I cut into the rear and onto the taillights, and then covered it with BMF. I cut out the exhaust openings, and fabricated the opening out of very small thin pieces of plastic, also covered with BMF.

The chassis is a modified Chrysler 300. I have not seen any pictures of the Ford’s chassis, so this will have to do. The letters that say “Interceptor†on the rear quarter panel came from a decal sheet for HO train car lettering, in silver. They are the closest replication I could find.

Am I happy with the result?……..sure, it was a huge undertaking. I, as I like to do, challenged myself to build something more involved than most builds and I saw it through to the end. Did I get it perfect?........not by a long shot. The overall “look†is right, the color is right, the stance is right. The wheels are a little simplistic and some of the BMF is not perfect, (especially the grill) and the rear doors just don’t fit perfectly in the back edge but, quite frankly, I am tired of this build and I want it done, and I had a self imposed deadline of the NNL East as a completion date, and because I was so close to done, I wanted to finish it. And the best thing of all is that I most likely am the only person, maybe in the world, who owns a 1/25th plastic model of the 2007 Ford Interceptor. Come to think of it, I don’t know of anyone else who has a model of the Dodge Charger concept car from 1964, I have not seen another build of a cut away Corvette racer and I have yet to see another model, other than a Die Cast, of a Mustang Shelby GT500. This is one of the best things about building model cars…..every time we “open the box†to a new kit we have an opportunity to build a unique and very creative piece. I think we all need to let our imaginations run wild. We all need to build wild and crazy stuff mainly because we can. We have no one saying “no you can’t do thatâ€, except maybe our wives…….and maybe ourselves.

[Peter Lombardo]

[Peter Lombardo]

[RodneyBad]

WOW WEEEE!!!

Lot's and Lot's of work and a beautiful ending

That is CHERRY.

Love all the work and Little details.

Lot's of Love there..

AWESOME WORK.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[kk916]

WOW! I don't usually comment unless I really really like something...this car qualifies! Very nice job! I googled it to compare and I'll say it. I'm impressed! You should be proud, I know I would be.

[broch]

Love the work you have done on this car! Have nothing more to say! Just GREAT WORK!

[randx0]

great job and execution,looks fabulous.what's next?

[crispy]

Peter, At first I wasn't sure if it was really close. Well, I went to my pictures of the one I took at the Minneapolis Auto Show and all I can say is WOW, you've really nailed it. I'm in awe at your hard work and scratch building. Totally amazing.

Definitely worth your effort.

Chris

[Peter Lombardo]

Hey guys, thank you very much for the kind words, I really do appreciate it. This project was a lot of work, and like I always say, I build them for my own pleasure, but without a doubt, kind words from guys who know the hard work put into it makes it that much better. Praise coming from accomplished peers is the best reward we can get. Thanks again.

[made007]

Hey guys, thank you very much for the kind words, I really do appreciate it. This project was a lot of work, and like I always say, I build them for my own pleasure, but without a doubt, kind words from guys who know the hard work put into it makes it that much better. Praise coming from accomplished peers is the best reward we can get. Thanks again.

just gonna say, Fantastic!!!!!!!, sorry for the late response, but i took a break of the hobby, and didnt knew you finished it, its awesome A+++