Tom Daniels Ice T

[Daniel Peterson]

I picked up an Ice T kit at a recent club meeting (best 500 pennies I spent in recent memory) because I built one as a little kit and it was, of course, unpainted and smeared with Testors glue and now likely residing deep in a land fill somewhere in Jersey. I would really like to take a run at the kit with my moderately improved skills but have one burning question....

Has anyone here removed that stupid fixed tailgate and either closed off the back of the body or fabricated a hinged gate? The roll pan with the taillights is mounted to the chassis pan while I would much prefer to integrate it into the main body. Anybody have any ideas from their own experience on how to to this? It looks like I will have a little bit of a compound contour to contend with, and want to use as little putty as possible. Is ther a donor tail gate out there, or other body panel I could scavenge from a scrap body? I think the model would look so much cooler with the gate closed off because of that great bob-tailed look it has in profile.

And, I haven't decided if it would be best to go with a "stock" build, or black primer (lose those side-mounted tanks) with chrome reversed wheels, flat head mill, pie plate slicks and white walls, or update it with a blown Hemi, F/C rolling stock and eyeball searing green or blue metal flake or pearl paint.

[lizardlust]

Whichever genre you choose to build it in, be sure and give a nod to nostalgia - use LOTTSA nasty tube "gloo" to secure the the clear iceblocks in the cargo area!!! I think that was my fave feature on that kit(dumb kid!)!!!

[Daniel Peterson]

Geez...now that I actually look at it, I think I can cut the "tail gate" off of the chassis platform and use that to close off the body. It'll be a little flatter than I like, but I'll sort out the details.