My oldest NASCAR model 1983 Wrangler Thunderbird

[THarrison351]

I found this today on a treasure hunt in my storage area. I knew it was somewhere, I just couldn't find it. The suspension was loose, the windshield too and it was filthy. I remember in the early eighties when Monogram released their NASCAR speedway stock cars and they were leaps ahead of the old MPC stock cars. I bought two, a Dale Earnhardt Wrangler car and Bill Elliott Melling car. I bought them because they were Fords. They also had an UNO Buick, and a Mountain Dew Buick. Somehow,  I've managed to hang on to the Wrangler car as it was built, sort of. The next year (1984) Monogram released a new version of the Bill Elliott car in his Coors sponsorship so I built that. Meanwhile, Cale Yarborough switched to Ford from Chevrolet, but kept his Hardee's sponsorship. So I took my Elliott Melling car and using the AMT Snap Together Monte Carlo Hardee's car decals, made my own Hardee's Thunderbird car. Now for some reason I swapped the chassis around on the cars. The Wrangler car has now the Melling car's chassis, hence the red window net and bare white plastic exhaust. Anyways, I glued the suspension back together, the headlight door, and windshield, and gave it a good cleaning and polishing. It's got some patina, but  for 37 years old, it's not too bad.

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[PappyD340]

Very nice!

[slusher]

Looks very very nice for 37 years!

[randyc]

Looks great! 

[dragcarz]

It looks great, I thought I was the only one that had built models that old. My oldest is from 1971.