NOT MY BEST - 68 Road Runner

[Kmb0319]

After a run of several builds I was quite happy with, I was bound to have a clunker at some point.  I've seen a lot of the 68 Road Runner, and some VERY nice builds of it...  I've always loved the Road Runner myself (my high school ride was a 73), so the last time I stopped in Hobby Lobby for supplies, I grabbed the kit.  With the pad-printed Goodyears/redlines and the nice builds I've seen on this board, I was excited.

I did some research... I wasn't sure what to do with the car, but I loved the two tone interiors, so that was definitely in the plan.  Color-wise, I bought a can of Testors Root Beer metallic, but wasn't committed.  I also thought about doing my first vinyl top, but wasn't sure.  After looking over the interiors, the two-tone blue was the one that struck me the most, so the root beer lacquer was set aside.  With that interior, I had three choices... white, blue or silver. 

My gut was telling me to do it in white... but I generally don't prefer white cars, so I settled on doing another blue car (I'm in a rut lately)....  I shot the body with Testors Star Spangled Blue.  I wasn't very happy with it....  I've seen a lot of these builds in blue, and while I love this color, it just wasn't "speaking to me" on this car.  But, it was painted, so onward.  Then, I went to shoot clear coat and everything got weird.  My clearcoat that has worked perfectly with model paint, auto paint, lacquer, enamel....  bubbled and looked like curdled milk when I shot it on this body, instantly ruining the finish.  I wasn't too upset, as I wasn't sold on that color anyway.

Then, I got confused again on my direction...  root beer with white/gold interior, or white with the blue interior.  In the end, the low-option nature of the Road Runner got me thinking about white, and the blue interior was my favorite anyway.  I shot the white, wet sanded, clear coated, wet sanded again, polished with compound, and then moved into the rest.  This model, to me, is OK... great subject, not AMTs best effort.  Certainly not on par with the 71 Charger, 70 Camaro, 67 Mustang/Shelby and some of AMT's best kits, but the engine went together nicely and I built up my interior and was very happy.  Everything was going along well until everything started coming together.  As I got into final assembly, I ran into all kinds of problems with parts fitting correctly.  The interior didn't want to position correctly with the body, while the frame seemed very loose.  The firewall/inner fender assembly went together perfectly and lined up, so I don't know why I was having this problem but it was frustrating.  Then, I took everything apart to paint the headliner, laid the body on a polishing cloth so it would be on a nice, soft surface, and when I flipped it over, the roof was all grooved, ruining the finish.  I tried to polish it out, with very middling results, and then had a drop of glue land on the paint anyway.... so it got stripped again.  Third paint job wasn't very good, but I no longer cared.  At this point, I just wanted it done.  Also stealing my mojo were the tires.... this kit comes with the very nice pad-printed Polyglas GTs on one side, redlines on the other.  I had bought a set of BFG Radial/TAs with General Lee wheels from Fireball Modelworks to use the tires for my 72 442 convertible build, but those wheels were just too small and kept falling through the tires.  So, I ended up stealing the tires from this kit for the Cutlass.  That was fine with me, because I could just use the General Lee wheels, since the kit Magnums have such a large lip and weren't in the plan.  Except, while the tires obviously fit the wheels, they were too big for the wheel backs, falling off every time I touched the car.

 

In the end, I threw on a set of MPC Nascar tires and called it done.  In my pics, I didn't have the rearview mirror or exhaust tips on yet..  realized and put them on after.  This isn't a great kit... I may try another and see if I can adapt the 71 Charger's chassis or if any of the 69 GTX/RR from AMT or Johan are better to combine into one detailed car.  I don't think I did this one justice, but it's done.

 

First pic shows the hemi and the tires I was going to use:

 

Interior was the highlight of this build:

 

 

 

 

[hedotwo]

Good description of your frustration.  We all have build stories like this one .

Thanks for sharing!

[GMCMAN52]

I like it, looks good to me.

[Hard_2_Handle_454]

Looks good.  I know the fit with this kit was an issue; I did one awhile back myself.  I had an issue with the tail lights.  They are too small to fit and kept falling into the hole.  I had a similar chassis issue with the Chevelle model they make.  The chassis sat too far back.  I see a bit of the pant issue you were talking about, but your model looks far better than mine did.

[Brent]

Wow this is like looking in the mirror as my last build experience.  To quote you " but I no longer cared.  At this point, I just wanted it done." was my exact feeling on my last build.

Shake it off and get back on the horse ;-)

[DumpyDan]

Looks good to me

[Lovefordgalaxie]

I love when people say "not my best" and post a cool model. 

That proves we are our own worse critics 

[StevenGuthmiller]

I think white is a great color for almost any car!

It's a little more unusual to see.

You see a million of these in every other color, but very rarely white.

Looks great to me!

 

Steve

[Helix]

Looks good Kevin 

[V8 Trucker]

I love when people say "not my best" and post a cool model. 

That proves we are our own worse critics 

That is how I see it too

[disabled modeler]

I like it looks nice to me.  I have has builds/restorations that have challenged my patients and will to get them done before too...think we all have at times. We are our worst critics....the build only has to make the builder happy in the end. 

[Kmb0319]

Thanks, all!! I will tell you, I photographed in certain ways.  If you look closely, the hood won't sit down.  Also, you can't see it, but on the left C-Pillar, I went to touch up a tiny spot at the left corner of the rear windshield with my white Sharpie paint pen, and it malfunctioned, pouring white paint down the C-Pillar.  The windshield wipers are complete slop... but I no longer cared to try to properly paint them.  The frame is sticking out underneath the bumper in back... The Chrome trim rubbed off in places, and worst of all, the finish is very ... how do I say it... non-smooth.

If I really wanted to get it right, I should have stripped it again after the paint pen incident.  I should have done a better job stripping it when the white messed up and not ended up with a lumpy finish.  The white hides some of the issues, at least in the pics.  I was happy with the interior and engine, but then things started getting crazy. If this was one of AMT's really good kits, like the 70 Camaro or the 71 Charger, I would have.  But, I had other projects I was more excited to move to (including the AMT 67 Shelby GT350), and I kind of gave up and just did what I needed to call it done.  It's not the best kit, but I've seen others do phenomenal jobs with this car.  I aimed for the precipice, hit the side of the mountain multiple times, and finally decided to just let myself roll down the hill.  But, in fairness, we all are our greatest critics, so I'll hopefully look at it on the shelf in a year and say "it's not soooo bad"....  then again, maybe not