ERTL '69 Charger

[Snake45]

Didn’t know this one existed till I spotted it at the local toy show. Pretty obvious that it had once been issued as a DoH car but this one was tied to the movie Death Proof. It’s 1/25, overall shape looked pretty good, and the price was right, so I’m in.

Didn’t know at first what I wanted to do with it. I gave some thought to trying to alter the skull on the hood to Old Velvet Nose, the logo of the late great Warren Zevon, but decided that wouldn’t work and/or exceeded my skill level. So I removed it with Walmart non-acetone nail polish remover, which I also used to clean some sort of gunk off the roof. That done, I gave some thought to using the satin black paint as a primer for something shinier, but then spotted a very sharp satin black ’69 Charger on the internet and decided that would look good on my shelf.

This one would have been a quick, easy Snake-Fu job except for the windows. They had to come out to fix a couple of issues, and unfortunately, ERTL liked to attach them with (evidently) Kryptonite rivets. I’ve dealt with these before and knew that the best/quickest way to get rid of them is with a cutoff wheel in a Dremel, using it like a grinder. There was absolutely no representation of the chrome trim around the backlight on either the body or the window, so I scribed the outline of the backlight onto the plastic with the back of an Xacto blade, removed the glass, and used the scribe marks to lay out razor-cut masking tape. Then I applied the border trim with my beloved Silver Sharpie.

The other window problem was the grossly over-thick vent window frames (see the pics above if you didn’t already notice them). It took me about an hour to file the rear edges back to a more reasonable dimension with a medium-sized triangular file. Decided not to push my luck by trying to file the forward frame (i.e., inside the window). It’s not perfect but it looks better than it did.

The taillights were molded in a strange reddish-brown solid plastic. I painted them Model Master Stop Light Red.

From that point, it was pretty much standard Level 1 Snake-Fu: sand the tire treads; detail the grille with flat black and steel; hit the wheels with flat black between the spokes. I painted the front side markers Testor Orange and the rears Stop Light Red, which doesn’t show up well at all on the black paint. Oh well.

Certainly not the finest model on my shelf, but I have to say I had $10 worth of fun with it, and it’s at least $10 worth of good-looking on the shelf. Thanks for looking and as always, comments welcome.

[Hmann68]

Looks great Snake! The pic of the real Charger in satin black is fantastic, no wonder you decided to replicate it. Nice work again ?

[Snake45]

15 minutes ago, Hmann68 said:

Looks great Snake! The pic of the real Charger in satin black is fantastic, no wonder you decided to replicate it. Nice work again ?

Thanks, Hmann! 

[donb]

Another nice restore job Snake. Looking good 

[Snake45]

18 minutes ago, donb said:

Another nice restore job Snake. Looking good 

Thanks, Don! 

[OldTrucker]

Looks great to me!

[Bucky]

Great save! I like what ya did with the vent window trim and the backlight trim. One way I address side markers at times, is to put a bit of BMF down first, then hit it with stop light red, or turn signal amber.

[57peppershaker]

Looks good. I love satin black 1;1's when done right, that Charger looks very nice.

[Snake45]

9 hours ago, OldTrucker said:

Looks great to me!

Thanks Old Trucker! 

[Snake45]

8 hours ago, Bucky said:

Great save! I like what ya did with the vent window trim and the backlight trim. One way I address side markers at times, is to put a bit of BMF down first, then hit it with stop light red, or turn signal amber.

Thanks Bucky! Great tip. I might go back and do that to this one. Would sure make those rear lights stand out a bit more. 

[Snake45]

42 minutes ago, 57peppershaker said:

Looks good. I love satin black 1;1's when done right, that Charger looks very nice.

Thanks 57PS! I like satin black too. Almost everything looks good in it, and it's so easy to do, I have to avoid the temptation to have a shelf full of nothing but. Didn't especially have it in mind for this project, but after I found those pics of the real one, it just looked so badass I had to do it. 

[Zoom]

Yes, you did a nice job on this! 

[DPNM]

Really nice turnaround on this one Snake. It should sit well on the shelf with your collection.

I am so glad you resprayed the hood as the skull and crossed lightening bolts on the Charger are a pet peeve of mine. I built the DP Nova. It has the skull, cross lightening bolts and the duck ornament. I've had the DeathProof Charger (and Challenger actually) about half way done for years. The Charger had the duck hood ornament but no skull with crossed bolts.

I may add the Charger and Challenger to your bring out your dead thread at some point.

Sorry to rant in your post.

[Bills72sj]

13 hours ago, Snake45 said:

Thanks Bucky! Great tip. I might go back and do that to this one. Would sure make those rear lights stand out a bit more. 

When I do side marker lights It is BMF then filled in with red or amber ultra fine point Sharpie. Very easy to control when filling in. The transparency of the ink makes them more realistic.

[Snake45]

14 hours ago, Zoom said:

Yes, you did a nice job on this! 

Thanks, Zoom! 

[Gramps46]

The Challenger came out of the treatment very well.  I am surprised you kept the roll cage though with the stock wheels.

[PappyD340]

Nice save, looks great from where I'm sitting!!

[spencer1984]

I think the only problem I have is that your work is so clean, it's impossible to appreciate how much you fixed unless you know what the "before" looked like. Awesome job as always!

[Snake45]

16 hours ago, DPNM said:

Really nice turnaround on this one Snake. It should sit well on the shelf with your collection.

I am so glad you resprayed the hood as the skull and crossed lightening bolts on the Charger are a pet peeve of mine.

I may add the Charger and Challenger to your bring out your dead thread at some point.

Sorry to rant in your post.

 

Thanks for the kind words. I didn't respray the hood, just removed the tampo graphics with the nail polish remover. 

Don't worry about the rant. Almost any discussion is good discussion! 

Look forward to seeing you in the BOYD build at some point. 

[DPNM]

17 minutes ago, Snake45 said:

just removed the tampo graphics

And this was the important part. My user name stands for DeathProofNovaModel and the cars from the movie can be a sore spot with me done incorrectly.

Both of my BOYD cars need painted. It got too cold, too soon here in the 'Burgh for me to spray. Gotta do it outside. I have the Mustang also, it has not been started. 

[Snake45]

16 hours ago, Bills72sj said:

When I do side marker lights It is BMF then filled in with red or amber ultra fine point Sharpie. Very easy to control when filling in. The transparency of the ink makes them more realistic.

 

I've done that sometimes, too (and sometimes with Silver Sharpie). Didn't this time because the '69 Charger side marker bezels aren't chrome, they're body color. (I believe the same is true of the '71 Cuda. I'll shortly be posting up my own '71 Cuda, where I handled this a different way.  )

[Snake45]

22 hours ago, Gramps46 said:

The Challenger came out of the treatment very well.  I am surprised you kept the roll cage though with the stock wheels.

To be honest, I just didn't do anything at all to the interior. Maybe I'll take the roll cage out sometime. Thanks for your kind words! 

 

22 hours ago, PappyD340 said:

Nice save, looks great from where I'm sitting!!

Thanks, Pappy! 

[LL3 Model Worx]

One of the best 1:1 satin paints I have ever used or seen is pretty hilarious as it is Valspar tractor and implement paint bought at Lowe's...

We used it on ALOT of 1:1's as not only tough, it has the right sheen with no need for any topcoat of any kind.

It beat any of the top "automotive" stuff we used (Duplicolor, Dimensions, PPG, etc...) at a fraction of the price.

So, if you ever need satin black on 1:1... get some Valspar at Lowe's.

Forgot to mention that is very nice work Snake, glad you got rid of the Skull n Bones...

Edited November 30, 2019 by LL3 Model Worx

[ATHU]

Super nice!!

[Snake45]

On 11/28/2019 at 12:33 PM, spencer1984 said:

I think the only problem I have is that your work is so clean, it's impossible to appreciate how much you fixed unless you know what the "before" looked like. Awesome job as always!

Thank you so much, Spencer. The kind words are especially meaningful coming from you.