Johan 1962 Dart convertible

[ewetwo]

I have this Johan 1962 Dart that has these 2 indentations on each front fender. I not that experienced in anything out that gluing kits together. Some painting disaster but neve body work. I’m stumped as to what to do. I bought some Tamiya putty thinking I have to fill them in. Most of what was in there was removed. The thing is I think if I fill it in with putty to make the indentations away. I’ll loose most of the script just below it. What would you do or suggest. Thanks guys.

[espo]

I would lay a couple of pieces of masking tap over the script. Maybe even one layer of tape and then some thin cardboard like a business card and then another layer of tape. 

[SfanGoch]

Get some Magic Sculpt. It's a two-part epoxy clay which is water soluble. Mix the resin and hardener, fill the indentations with small amounts of the Magic Sculpt, use a water moistened fingertip to smooth it out (Use a wet Q-tip to remove any which might have covered the scripts. It'll come right off.) and when it is cured, you can carefully sand it to match the contours. Magic Sculpt is better than solvent-based putties because it doesn't shrink nor does it attack the underlying styrene. I fabricated an entire left tailfin on a Johan 1960 Desoto Adventurer with Magic Sculpt.

[ewetwo]

Thanks guys. I think I’ll try the magic sculpt. 

[Tommy124]

I had the same problem on an resto model... I believe the denting was even a bit worse on mine. Anyways, I decided to sand down the emblems and fill the dents. IMHO, the kit emblems are way too wide compared to the real ones. Plus a lot of the cars don't even carry them.

 

Edited November 12, 2019 by Tommy124

[ewetwo]

Your Dart came out beautiful. I wonder what the indentations were from. Faulty molding or injection? 

In the kit were these 2 folk packs. One marked A and the other B. Do you think this might be like Magic Sculpt?  I opened A as you can see. But not B. Both are not hard but not really sort either.  

[Mark]

That A and B filler looks like the packets that came in the AMT/Ertl Customizing Series kits in the late Eighties.  If so, that stuff is 30 years old, I'd be surprised if one half of the material hasn't morphed into a concrete-like state by now.

As for the sink marks on the Dart body, they look to be in an area where the plastic is extremely thick, like where the radiator bulkhead meets the fender.  There is a small amount of shrinkage, so where the plastic is thickest it will shrink more.  It seems like it shrinks even more so when a thick area like that is adjacent to a much thinner area.

[ewetwo]

I was wondering what that stuff was. Both are soft. 

It's funny because I got the Dart hard top and convertible as a package bid on eBay. The hard top doesn't have the sink holes but the convertible does. 

Is this the Magic Sculpt I should buy?  Found this on ebay. I didn't want to buy a pound package as I would most likely never use it that much.

[SfanGoch]

Aye, that it be. Trust me, it's great stuff.

[ewetwo]

On it's way. Thanks for the tips guys.

[Mark]

How does that stuff sand compared to the adjacent plastic?  We're all familiar with various fillers that are either much harder than, or way softer than, the surrounding plastic which can make it difficult to not end up with high or low fill areas...

[SfanGoch]

Magic Sculpt is great to work with. It can be easily sanded, carved, scribed, ground, etc. It feathers nicely into the surrounding plastic. I modified the body, rear fenders, front end, spoiler and tail of this RoG reissue of the Protar Ferrari 250 GTO with it. Zero shrinkage. Try that with solvent-based putties.

Edited November 13, 2019 by SfanGoch

[ewetwo]

Nice.

[Mark]

The feathering (more precisely the lack thereof) is often am issue with epoxy-type putties.  I do like catalyzed automotive filler, but look forward to trying this product.  First experiment might be on filling molded-in exhaust detail from the top side in preparation for removing said detail.