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Posted (edited)

When I got married, 40 years ago this fall, my wife owned a '76 Volaré she had bought in 1975 when they came out. It is shown below on the city dock when it was 12 years old, around 88. We sold it shortly after.

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I had built a model of it, can't remember when. It has a 318 , buckets and rally wheels. My wife's had a slant six, a bench seat and hubcaps. I can do the six and the seat but it'll have to keep its rally wheels. Somewhere along the way, my wife had tried to scrape a paint flaw on the hood and ended up scratching it. I had filled the scratches and never got beyond the primer. So I will attempt to redo it as close as what ours was. This is what it looks like today.

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Edited by landman
Posted

For some reason the purple power doesn't appear to touch that paint. It did a good job on the glass though.

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Cut out the console and plugged the hole.

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Made a junk benchseat into a splitback seat.

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Posted

Those cars were good looking cars when they came out compared to the Valiant..The problems (rust) they had and unreliabity didn't make them a good purchase..Now they are a desired to the Mopar show car scene..Didn't want one then but wouldn't mind one now..Your wife's was a good looking car with a nice color..You'll do up a nice model I'am sure..

Posted
2 hours ago, moparfarmer said:

Those cars were good looking cars when they came out compared to the Valiant..The problems (rust) they had and unreliabity didn't make them a good purchase..Now they are a desired to the Mopar show car scene..Didn't want one then but wouldn't mind one now..Your wife's was a good looking car with a nice color..You'll do up a nice model I'am sure..

This one had both. It was recalled when the top of the fenders rusted through (no inner fenders) and it kept stalling on left turns. Until the mechanic at the local Gulf station told me to remove the carb and fling it as far as I could then go to the dealer and buy a new one. Apparently they were aware of a built-in problem but kept charging for tuneups while they had the new revised carbs on the shelf all along. Never had a problem after that. The only other rust appeared much later at the bottom of the doors. Visible in the photo. By then it was 12 years old.

Posted

After two days, not much of a strip. Looks like I had painted it dark blue initially then the baby blue to make it look like my wife's car. If the purple juice doesn't succeed, I'll go buy a bottle of brake fluid.

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Posted

The purple stuff is starting to work - the bubbles in the paint.   Put it back in and check it every day or so.  Knock off whatever paint has come loose - keep it soaking.   Eventually the paint will fall off.   May take a week.

Nice project, btw.  Keep the faith.  lol

Posted

Removed the pleats. My wife's car had flat inserts with a hex design like the photo below except in blue/gray & black

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012717-Barn-Finds-1978-Plymouth-Volare-4

Some engine work going on.

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Posted

A great project.  I'll enjoy watching.

A few tips that I learned while I was building the slant 6 Volare-

I believe you are using the engine from the Lindberg '64 Plymouth kit? That is the absolutely best detailed slant 6 ever!  The transmission will collide with the bottom of the interior bucket. I took material off both. 

There are no pedals. I found some in the AMT '71 Duster kit.  The interior door panels are weak. I cut an arm rest out of a wood toothpick, used a resin window crank and added detail with Evergreen strips.  I used the front bench from the Revell  '66 Chevelle wagon.  I cut the split in the seat back and added headrests from my parts box.

Engine bay-  The top of the firewall is absolutely blank.  I added screen detail there, but have since seen the exact parts in, if I remember right, the latest Monogram / Revell Barracuda.

The stiffener bars are missing. Easy to make from plastic rod or wire.  There is no detail in front of the front header, and behind the grill.  I added the piece that was in the same '71 Duster kit I used for the pedals.

Exhaust system -  Same 71 Duster!  I took the dual exhausts and there were enough parts to create a single slant six exhaust. Use the cat converter from the Volare.  Cut the exhaust apart into the same parts as a real one. Then drill out the matching ends and pin it all together. There will be a few pipes you will have to piece together as well. Do not glue until you pin in place under the chassis. That will allow you to adjust parts on just the pins, glue once satisfied.

Here's my album, there's some good reference shots:

https://public.fotki.com/ModelCitizen/model_cars/my_model_cars/primer_projects/volare-messenger-car/

Posted
1 hour ago, Oldmopars said:

I love the slant 6, did this come with the Volare kit? I want one for some future projects.

It is from a Lindbergh Dodge 330. Likely the same as Tom's Plymouth.

Posted

I'm liking this build! The slant six looks great!

I owned a '77 Dodge Aspen SE when it was new. 360 V-8, bucket seats, T-tops. Very neat little car, except that just after the warranty expired, little nagging things started happening to it. After nearly two years, I traded it for a Li'l Red Express pickup!

Posted

Stripping is done. filling the scratches in the hood. Primer.

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Motor is done.

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Second round of filler on the seats

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Added clear amber to the turn signals and some black wash here and there to the grille.

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Posted

I used to work at a Chrysler dealer auto body shop. Spent a good deal of my time doing warranty fender replacements on Aspens and Volaries. Rust city.

 

Posted (edited)

The cars were developing rust holes in the tops of the fenders on cars that had not even left the car lots!

Looking good on the restore! BTW!

That was one of the few body styles of the era that was actually good!

Edited by OldTrucker
Posted
10 hours ago, Jon Cole said:

I used to work at a Chrysler dealer auto body shop. Spent a good deal of my time doing warranty fender replacements on Aspens and Volaries. Rust city.

 

As I said in my March 17 post, ours had that and it was caused by not having an inner fender. I can't remember if they added one or not. By then the car was 3-4 years old and the paint had faded enough that the new fenders stuck out so they painted the whole car. We had to do it out of town as our dealer refused to do it.

Posted
8 hours ago, landman said:

As I said in my March 17 post, ours had that and it was caused by not having an inner fender. I can't remember if they added one or not. By then the car was 3-4 years old and the paint had faded enough that the new fenders stuck out so they painted the whole car. We had to do it out of town as our dealer refused to do it.

Exactly. That lack of inner fender made it a mess. But then again, so many other cars had their faults, not just Chrysler.
I remember there was a lot of Aspens & Volarie's on the road. And now, almost none. Can't remember the last time I saw one go by.

 

Posted

With everything that went wrong mechanically on my Aspen SE, the one thing that never gave me any trouble were the T-tops. They never leaked, even in a high pressure hand-held car wash!!

Posted
55 minutes ago, Jon Cole said:

Exactly. That lack of inner fender made it a mess. But then again, so many other cars had their faults, not just Chrysler.
I remember there was a lot of Aspens & Volarie's on the road. And now, almost none. Can't remember the last time I saw one go by.

 

There is one of those Road Runner versions here in town.

Posted

Added "piping" to the seats to properly outline the insert. the primer can picked a good time to clog up.

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This is how I had done the chassis all those years ago. I'll freshen it up a bit even if nobody will see it.

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Posted

Added some embossing powder to the floor to change the appearance of the "carpet" texture. see floor in previous post.

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