IMC/Lindberg Cougar II Glue Bomb Rescue (Attempt)

[Snake45]

Bought this one at the local toy show last month. It seemed to be complete—some parts were separated , but it looked like everything was in the plastic baggie. The paint looked fairly good—at least workable—and I liked the color, which I thought might have been old AMT Burnt Orange Metallic, which would have made this an original IMC issue, which of course would have been cool. (I found out later that, because of the tires, it’s a common Lindberg reissue. Oh well.)

It came apart pretty easily; even the windows came out cleanly and undamaged. Next order of business was removing all the bogus decals. My favorite go-to method (scraping with a fingernail under hot running water) wasn’t particularly effective, so I let the body soak in hot water for an hour and tried again. Again, some of the decals came off, but not all, so I let it soak some more. I repeated this five or six more times and still didn’t get everything off. At this point I escalated from my thumbnail to a plastic spoon. This got the last of the decals but also unfortunately took off some of the paint as well.

Almost as bad, many of the decals had done something to the paint underneath them, leaving the finish with a slightly different color and “sparkle.” At this point I was a bit disappointed and disgusted. The body really needed a complete stripping and repainting, and if I did that, I’d feel obligated to go through and update and improve the entire chassis and interior, and the whole job (which had started as a quickie “rescue,” remember) would end up taking two or three times as much time and effort as it would take to build a new kit out of the box. The effort would be justified if this were a rare kit, but since it was reissued by Lindberg, it’s not rare at all.

So I decided to just Snake-slap it back together and treat it as if it were one of my earliest builds I was trying to preserve as original as possible. I did take the time to fit both doors, which had never been trimmed properly to fit well into their openings. They do now. I also broke out and refitted the headlight doors. 

Reassembled (with, I admit it, a certain amount of Tacky Glue and masking tape involved), I discovered that Testor One Coat Flaming Orange was a good match for touchup, and was probably in fact the original paint type. Touching up this much bare plastic with a brush would never look “good,” I knew going in, but I did the best I could and it only looks semi-vomitatious. Heck, in a couple spots, the touchup was so clean you can hardly see it. But mostly, not so much.

So it’s on the shelf in all its hideous glory. I didn’t even try to do anything with the wire wheels, every one of which had glue damage. I couldn’t think of anything I could have done to them to make them look any better—or worse, for that matter.

Oh well, it is what it is. I did learn that this was a pretty cool little kit, and that the car looks great in this color. When I get around to building the new one I have in the stash, I’ll probably do it in the same color. Thanks for looking, and as always, comments welcome.

[Hmann68]

Looks like that was a tough one to deal with! Sure looks better now that you removed those decals. I’ve never seen this car before, kinda reminds me of an avanti ?

[LL3 Model Worx]

Nice rescue Snake.

Have you ever tried lighter fluid to take off old decals? It has worked for me before... maybe give it a try if you have some stubborn ones.

As always... test on junk first as I'm certain all lighter fluids aren't created equal.

Mine is Zippo branded.

[Snake45]

13 hours ago, Hmann68 said:

Looks like that was a tough one to deal with! Sure looks better now that you removed those decals. I’ve never seen this car before, kinda reminds me of an avanti ?

Thanks for the kind words! 

[Snake45]

1 hour ago, LL3 Model Worx said:

Nice rescue Snake.

Have you ever tried lighter fluid to take off old decals? It has worked for me before... maybe give it a try if you have some stubborn ones.

As always... test on junk first as I'm certain all lighter fluids aren't created equal.

Mine is Zippo branded.

Interesting idea. Haven't tried lighter fluid for that. I think it would probably damage paint, and I know it does strange stuff to plastic, but there might be some application where it would work well. Thanks! 

[LL3 Model Worx]

59 minutes ago, Snake45 said:

Interesting idea. Haven't tried lighter fluid for that. I think it would probably damage paint, and I know it does strange stuff to plastic, but there might be some application where it would work well. Thanks! 

No problem.

I've used it to take decals off surfaces painted with enamel... and it hasn't had any negative effect. I just spray it on and the wipe it off real fast and usually pulls decals right off. If it doesn't just dissolve them immediately.

But yea, in any case test first lol.

[cobraman]

Cool, that's a fairly tough kit to build IMO. I have been wanting to get another one of these kits ( never finished first one ) and try to convert it to the Bordinat Cobra Concept.

[stavanzer]

Snake, great rescue. The car now looks like a cleaned-up Barn Find. You know, when they pull a Barn Find out, and wash it up before the auction. The faded spots and paint changes all make it look like a survivor.  If I wanted to create that look, I could not. And you nail it!  Good Show.

Edited December 21, 2019 by alexis
spelling

[Oldcarfan27]

On 12/20/2019 at 8:21 AM, LL3 Model Worx said:

Nice rescue Snake.

Have you ever tried lighter fluid to take off old decals? It has worked for me before... maybe give it a try if you have some stubborn ones.

As always... test on junk first as I'm certain all lighter fluids aren't created equal.

Mine is Zippo branded.

Sounds to me like someone's one step away from using firecrackers on his kits again. ?

I only remember using lighter fluid to FINISH THEM OFF, not improve them!

LOL 

[LL3 Model Worx]

23 minutes ago, Oldcarfan27 said:

Sounds to me like someone's one step away from using firecrackers on his kits again. ?

I only remember using lighter fluid to FINISH THEM OFF, not improve them!

LOL 

Naw, the lighter fluid definitely works for decals in my experience.

I believe the slot car guys use it to remove the 3M spray adhesive as well....that may be where I first saw it used that way.

[Snake45]

20 hours ago, alexis said:

Snake, great rescue. The car now looks like a cleaned-up Barn Find. You know, when they pull a Barn Find out, and wash it up before the auction. The faded spots and paint changes all make it look like a survivor.  If I wanted to create that look, I could not. And you nail it!  Good Show.

What an interesting and cool interpretation. Thanks so much and model on! 

[vamach1]

It is a neat kit and you can still find them once in a while for $40 and even less for the Testors ones.