'70 Monte Carlo Glue Bomb Rescue

[Snake45]

Got this one a few months ago at the local toy show for under $10. It was complete and looked like the paint might respond to a light polish. It would have been an easy Snake-fu job except for the hood. It doesn’t really show in the Before pics, but the hood was the most heavily orange-peeled thing I’ve ever tried to polish. I spent two evenings working on it, and just as I got the orange peel down to a marginally acceptable level (about like what’s on the roof now), I “burned through” in several spots, with gray primer of some sort distinctly showing.

Fortunately, the thing seems to have been painted Model Master British Green, which I had on hand. By some miracle, the airbrush-ready batch I thinned at least seven years ago was still usable, needing only a good shaking, and there was just enough of it to get the job done. (We all complain about bad luck on projects. This was some uncommon and greatly appreciated GOOD luck for a change.) I stripped the hood, primed it with Walmart Flat Black, and shot several coats of new MM Brit Green over a weekend.

The paint seems to be a good, possibly even perfect match. (If the paint had been close but not an exact match, Plan B would have been to paint the tops of the front fenders to match it. If it weren't even reasonably, close, Plan C was to paint the hood matte black.)

The rest of the body did, as I expected, respond well to a light polish (Wright’s Silver Cream on a dampened cloth.) Not as good as one of my ground-up paint jobs, but not bad at all.

Lower body trim is Walmart kitchen foil applied with Microscale Metal Foil Adhesive. This was one of those jobs where the cheap foil not only worked as well genuine expensive BMF, it might have actually worked better. The moldings were detailed with black paint with Turn Signal Amber for the front side markers and Red Sharpie for the rear ones.

The headlight lenses had been glued in cockeyed. I was able to pry both of them loose (more rare Good Luck!), clean them up, and reinstall them straight. After that it was just straight-up Snake-fu—detailing the grille and wheels, Silver Sharpie window and wheel opening trim, and so forth.

Not counting the time wasted trying to polish the hood, I have somewhere between 8 and 12 hours on this one—2 to 3 hours a day over 4 weekend days. From three feet out, it looks almost as good as one of my original builds. From two feet, it looks maybe 80-85% as good. Up close it’s only 70-75% as good as if I had built it from new. BUT I only have maybe 20 to 25 percent of the time in it than I’d have in a new build, and maybe half to a third of the money. It fills the Monte Carlo slot on my shelf nicely. Done! As always, comments welcomed. 

 

 

[Lordmodelbuilder]

Looking good Snake! I love those early Monte's

[Oldcarfan27]

I can't tell, is this an original annual AMT or the new tool from the 90s?

[Snake45]

21 minutes ago, Oldcarfan27 said:

I can't tell, is this an original annual AMT or the new tool from the 90s?

New tool from the '90s. And it looks like a very nice kit. At least I didn't come across any issues or problems on this one--maybe the light name engraving on the roof is about the biggest glitch. 

[Gramps46]

It came out very well, responded to your touch beautifully.

[bbowser]

Looks great!  Nice to hear of some good luck on a build for a change .  My only suggestion would be some flat black in the wheel wells.  I had a 1:1 this exact color for a parts car years ago, still have the hood behind the barn.

[Snake45]

2 hours ago, bbowser said:

My only suggestion would be some flat black in the wheel wells. 

You're absolutely right. This isn't apparent in 3D but always seems to show up in flash photography. I gotta start routinely doing this. 

[bbowser]

35 minutes ago, Snake45 said:

You're absolutely right. This isn't apparent in 3D but always seems to show up in flash photography. I gotta start routinely doing this. 

Amazing isn't it?  Things I see in photographs that totally escape me looking at the real thing!

[Hmann68]

Cleaned up nice! Always thought these were cool, my uncle bought a new 454ss in silver. Good work!

[oldcarfan]

Looks good!

[Dragonhawk1066]

Nice save! The added details look great.

[ewetwo]

Well done.

[slusher]

Super nice Monte Carlo Snake! 

[om617]

Nice Monte Carlo,the green is perfect for it.

[El Caballo]

Just like the '70s bro, used to see them in metallic blue too. Popular colors back then.

[Snake45]

Thanks for all the kind words and comments, everyone! 

[KWT]

Nice save! Very nicely done