"Lee 1" wreck -- DOH

[James2]

Ambitious? I'd say so. Nice start and technique...

[ranma]

If I recall correctly the car was supposed to be a race car driven by Richard Petty. And the boy's only wanted it for the racing engine for parts (which wouldn't be nascar legal) .  In the real world that car would have been stripped of useful parts, which would inclueded the engine/Transmission........

Edited March 28, 2020 by ranma

[Andrew D the Jolly Roger]

ROLL CAGE

Tip: Do NOT use the roll cage from the MPC "General Lee" for this project.  Wrong style, wrong design, wrong size.  

I also found some drawings online which purport to be the actual design sketches for the original.  They do match what I see in all the photos.

[Andrew D the Jolly Roger]

Here's how the scratchbuilding went, using 1/16" rod for the frame and tubing fitted over the rod for the padded sections around the driver's side:

[Andrew D the Jolly Roger]

Finished roll cage:

Edited March 29, 2020 by Andrew D the Jolly Roger

[misterNNL]

Ingenious technique to accomplish a difficult task! BY eliminating the center of all those areas you were able to retain the integrity of the body profiles.Outstanding work indeed. Thanks for sharing your talent with us.

[Dann Tier]

Realism at its best!!!!

[Andrew D the Jolly Roger]

Thank you!

FRONT BUMPER

Need the front bumper to look like bent metal, and not a bent plastic model part.  Made an aluminum foil cast of the central section; removed that plastic, attached the ends to the foil cast. 

Very carefully bent and dented it to match the photos.

Filled with CA glue with wire reinforements for the structure.  Primed, will be coated with Alclad chrome tomorrow or Thursday.

[Andrew D the Jolly Roger]

Final bodywork touchups and priming, and ready for paint.

Tough to match the exact color, since in the episode (the way I'm making it) it was disguised/obscured with gray scratchwork all over it, and the recovered wreck was apparently quite weathered and faded.  Did the best I could.  Finally settled on a mix of 5 different blues and greens.  It's actually darker than the photos show....

I settled on: 2 parts Testors Gloss Dark Blue (#1111); 2 parts Testors Dark Beret Green; 1 part Model Master Dark Sea Blue; 1 part Testors Gloss Green; 1 part Gloss Light Blue.

[disconovaman]

l'm loving this project! I've seen this kit built as the Ace Parker Car before but never at this level of detail... it's gonna look so correct to the real car.

I talked to Rich Sephton at a reunion years ago and he said they scraped cender cement blocks down the side of the car to represent contact damage. I'm thinking the story I heard that it was used in another movie before returning to the Georgia set to film episode 4 for the show.

There are alot of Duke's urban legends so who knows? but it's so cool to see it being built here... I've always wanted to recreate the car in it's glory before it got raced and wreaked.

[Andrew D the Jolly Roger]

1 hour ago, disconovaman said:

l'm loving this project! I've seen this kit built as the Ace Parker Car before but never at this level of detail... it's gonna look so correct to the real car.

I talked to Rich Sephton at a reunion years ago and he said they scraped cender cement blocks down the side of the car to represent contact damage. I'm thinking the story I heard that it was used in another movie before returning to the Georgia set to film episode 4 for the show.

There are alot of Duke's urban legends so who knows? but it's so cool to see it being built here... I've always wanted to recreate the car in it's glory before it got raced and wreaked.

Thanks! Yes I'd also heard about the cinder blocks being scraped, but the problem is all the primer-colored-scraping so visible in the episode is gone in the actual wreck....this leads me to think maybe the light gray scrapwork was really gray paint brushed on, and washed/wore off as it sat in the junkyard for decades?  Maybe the cinder block story was not necessarily a paint damage thing, but a structural damage?

[David G.]

Your interior work is very convincing. I especially like your weathering on the exposed chassis in the rear passenger area.

I've known for quite some time about the use of foil for simulating damaged body panels and I've always wanted to try it. One of my main concerns was the structural integrity of the work after completion, your use of CA and styrene strips is a great response to that concern. Thanks for sharing it.

I'm absolutely going to give this technique a try. After all, as the saying goes: "Nothing looks more like metal than metal."

David G.

[Andrew D the Jolly Roger]

[wrenchr]

That is looking the part for sure Andrew. I might try that technique on a stock car. 

[David G.]

Wow! You are killin' this, excellent work!

David G.

[Andrew D the Jolly Roger]

Grateful to have finished this beast in record time...

Re-chromed the bent bumpers and other parts with Alclad, and was lucky to have located the proper wheel hubs.  Also broke the right door handle to match the real thing.

Wide tires from the MPC Sheriff's Dodge Monaco.

Windows tinted with Future floor polish and food coloring.

Sheet metal for the front and back from a disposable roasting pan from the Dollar Tree.

Airbrushing dust and dirt all over the chassis and bottom of the body.

Only regret is the wide tires stick out too far....and yet wide tires were used....but I just draw the line at redesigning the suspension that drastically.  Enough is enough.

[Oldcarfan27]

On 3/27/2020 at 5:43 PM, Rotorbolt73 said:

They restored that real car ..which I thought was a mistake since so much had been replaced that little of the actual original car that to made that iconic jump  is left. Shoulda left it as it was in it's "petty stock car" configuration . 

Reminds me of the old joke:

"I bought the original axe that George Washington used to chop down the cherry tree. The antique dealer told me that the handle had been replaced a couple times, and the blade was replaced once, but it's the real deal!"

I read that story too. It seems they "restored" (replaced) everything on the gutted shell of a car except the bent frame sections, SO THEY WOULD HAVE THE ORIGINAL PARTS FOR FUTURE REFERENCE!!!!

All new sheet metal, grille, bumpers,  engine, interior suspension, paint - everything except the cracked windshield and the weakened chassis, "so the car could still be driven around".

They proclaimed they had saved the original #1 General Lee.

I still can't stop laughing about that rationale. ?

[Mattilacken]

Awesome!

[David G.]

Well done!

David G.

[Rotorbolt73]

13 hours ago, Oldcarfan27 said:

 

I read that story too. It seems they "restored" (replaced) everything on the gutted shell of a car except the bent frame sections, SO THEY WOULD HAVE THE ORIGINAL PARTS FOR FUTURE REFERENCE!!!!

All new sheet metal, grille, bumpers,  engine, interior suspension, paint - everything except the cracked windshield and the weakened chassis, "so the car could still be driven around".

They proclaimed they had saved the original #1 General Lee.

I still can't stop laughing about that rationale. ?

Yeah. Having worked in the auto restoration field professionally , I've seen cars come in where things were replaced needlessly , sometimes well over 3/4 of the car would be new reproduction aftermarket parts...personally, I try to keep as many of the actual original parts as possible..flaws and all. Many cars are over restored..looking better than they were originally new. It's a misconception these things were perfect off the line..they were not originally show cars..but production cars.  Next time you're at a car show and looking at those beauties, think and ask yourself: how much of what I'm looking at is original vintage stuff that physically existed back in that time is was made? How much of that car was recently manufactured and put together? It's possible now to build a new 55-57 Chevy and not one bit of the car even existed in the 50s. Same goes for a 32 Ford.  So the " Lee 1" charger is actually gone. What's left is just some pieces of it on another car.

What they should have done is kept it and preserving it as is. Maybe using other original general Lee pieces scavenged and saved from other chargers from the show used to fill in the blanks..like the missing door on it..keeping it as original tv car . 

By the way, you did an excellent job on your build here..especially that teal paint color..I've got a glue bomb general Lee that I've been considering re building in this version..just not wrecked up..

[bobthehobbyguy]

Amazing work. Lots of creativity to get the end result.

[beeRS]

Amazing techniques used here for creating the best dented up body I've ever seen in scale. Genius!