Glue Bomb Rescue Candidates

[Snake45]

Went through a couple big boxes of glue bombs in the Snakepit the other day, looking for something easy and fast to “rescue,” or at least something inspiring. This was the best I found at the moment.

'66 Olds 4-4-2: This one's complete except for three headlight lenses (I can probably find some). The dark red paint is in very nice shape EXCEPT for a huge glue booger on the right side of the roof. If that glue booger were almost anywhere else, I could sand it off, airbrush some gray primer over it, lay on a few more random primer spots, and do it as a mid/late '70s driver or High School Hot Rod. But it's hard to conjure up roof damage that would justify primer in that area, so I'll have to fix it. The paint MIGHT be good old Testor #4 red; if it is, I can sand off the glue booger and airbrush in a touchup (I've done it before). If it's not, looks like my only option is to mask off the rest of the body and give it a black vinyl top. I guess we'll see what happens.

 

'70 Challenger: This one's complete except for a missing left taillight, which I can scratchbuild. The paint (a nice color) turned out to look much worse in real life than it did in the plastic baggie it was in when I bought it. I don't think it's fixable. The paint is thick, runny, and has pinholes. If I could fix it at all, it would take much more time than I want to put into it. (I have at least one unbuilt kit of this car if I want to do a “nice” one.) So I'm looking at stripping it and repainting. But I want a simple, low-effort paint job. Neither gray nor black primer particularly speaks to me for this one, so I need something that will lay down out of the can with a decent finish. The Snakepit coughed up cans of dark blue metallic, dark green metallic, and gray metallic that might work—I'll spoon test them all to see which looks best. The fallback would be Testor Mythic Maroon one-shot lacquer, which is a pretty easy paint to use. Or perhaps Root Beer.

4th Gen Novas: I think I have a total of $7 in all three of these. This is NOT a “quick rescue” project, more like a complete rebuild,but something I want to do despite the bit of effort that will be needed. Looks like I can easily get one model out of the three, and with a little effort, maybe two, but almost certainly not three. I think these are all MPC kits—two say “Nova” on the rear license plate and the third says “1977.” Here's what I have to work with:

3 bodies--1 good (“Radar 37”), 1 with repairable damage on the roof (the red one), 1 with probably irreparable damage to the B-pillar area (and front fender) (the black and white one).

2 hoods (both with pro stock-style scoops glued on).

2 grilles, one with round headlights, one with square.

1 rear bumper.

0 front bumpers.

At least 2 usable chassis, perhaps all three.

At least 2 usable interiors, perhaps all three.

2 sets of clear glass, plus 1 set painted black, perhaps strippable/restorable.

2 full sets of taillights.

2 full sets of good wheels/tires.

Dunno what the engines look like, but they're easy to scrounge up.

I don't have enough stuff to do a stock build, so I'm looking at a couple of '80s-era street cruisers or high school hot rods.

Anyone else have any interesting glue bomb resto/rescue/rebuild projects coming up soon?

Edited October 21, 2020 by Snake45

[charger74]

I posted one last week, a 1972 Roadrunner glue bomb that i will restore slowly. I find it fun restoring a kit and bringing it back to Life

[Bills72sj]

I vote for Vinyl top on the Olds.

[Snake45]

9 hours ago, Bills72sj said:

I vote for Vinyl top on the Olds.

After some testing, the red paint does appear to be Testor #4, so I'm trying to airbrush a touchup. But black vinyl top is definitely Plan B if that doesn't work out for some reason. 

Meanwhile, the Challenger body and interior are in the purple pond. Soak 1 took about 95-98% of the paint off, Soak 2 will get the rest of it, I hope. 

Edited October 21, 2020 by Snake45

[doorsovdoon]

I look forward to seeing updates on these, Snake, interesting stuff. I've never restored a kit, though I have been mulling it over on some promos I've seen for sale.

[Snake45]

Work on the Olds: 

The roof glue booger pried off like a big plastic scab, but it left some damage/pitting underneath. I covered the area with superglue, let it dry for a day, and then filed/sanded the area smooth. 

I smeared some Testor #4 red on the back of the firewall, and compared it with the existing paint. I thought it looked like a match and The Lovely Mrs. Snake agreed that it did. In these pics, the body looks slightly "purpler" than it does in indoor lighting. 

So I started airbrushing #4 red onto the area. It seemed to match the body paint in my paint shop, but the paint was noticeably lighter/brighter in the bare (gray) plastic area. I laid on about six or eight coats (cut with lacquer thinner, so it dried very quickly), then came back about 4 hours later and did another six or eight coats, eventually covering about 2/3 of the right side of the roof. I thought it might need another series of coats today, but this morning it seemed to be a uniform color. Now the trick will be polishing the roof out to some sort of uniform texture/sheen. 

 

[Scott8950]

Cool projects, what ever happened to your awb falcon rebuild?

[slusher]

Looks great snake!

[Snake45]

9 hours ago, Scott8950 said:

Cool projects, what ever happened to your awb falcon rebuild?

It's now eligible for the "Bring Out Your Dead" build. Sometime. 

[Scott8950]

1 hour ago, Snake45 said:

It's now eligible for the "Bring Out Your Dead" build. Sometime. 

?

[Snake45]

On 10/20/2020 at 11:39 PM, Bills72sj said:

I vote for Vinyl top on the Olds.

You won. After two days of trying and failing to get the right side of the roof to blend in even passably well with the left side, I gave up, masked the body off, and just shot the black primer for a vinyl top. Will probably shoot the satin black later this afternoon. 

[Bills72sj]

Paint is fickle. Besides vinyl tops are nice color contrasting feature.

[Snake45]

Finally got the 4-4-2 rescue finished. I have somewhere between 12 and 20 hours in it, FAR more than I expected it would take. Much of this was spent trying to match the paint on the roof, which I failed to do, hence the black vinyl top. Repainted the interior all black. Touched up the wheels. I also filed down the thickness of the wheel rims so they'd sit farther into the tires instead of sticking out. Haven't found headlight lenses yet but I'll eventually add those at some point. I was able to polish some flaws out of the windscreen, but couldn't save the backlight and ended up having to scratch one up from some clear plastic packaging. In addition to my standard beloved Silver Sharpie, the side trim was done with the Deco-Color Premium marker from Walmart, which looks about 95% as good as Molotow but dries in an hour or two, is more durable, and costs about 1/3 as much. Not my best/finest/proudest glue bomb rescue, but it doesn't look too bad from two or three feet away and it goes in the 2020 Finished column. 

 

Meanwhile, I stripped the Challenger body and interior and have repainted them already. With a little luck, I can have that one back together later this week. 

Last Sunday I picked up a couple more "easy rescue" projects, and here's the next of them--'67 GTO. It's complete and the paint seems to be savable. But it's not a factory color, so I'll have to do it as some kind of "Day 2" project--maybe a mid/late '70s high school hot rod or street cruiser. 

[TransAmMike]

The 4-4-2 "restoration" looks great Snake Richard??    Now make that GTO proud!!

[doorsovdoon]

Looks great now, especially with all the chrome trim done. The vinyl roof was a good choice, that colour was a bit much over the whole car. Very nice.

[Oldcarfan27]

On 10/20/2020 at 11:49 AM, Snake45 said:

Hello Mister Snake,

Do you have any plans with those 3 Novas? I've been looking for parts for a couple months. Posted in "parts wanted", but got no response. 

LMK.

[Snake45]

On 11/4/2020 at 12:28 PM, TransAmMike said:

The 4-4-2 "restoration" looks great Snake Richard??    Now make that GTO proud!!

Thanks for the encouraging words. Any ideas for the GTO? 

17 hours ago, Oldcarfan27 said:

Hello Mister Snake,

Do you have any plans with those 3 Novas? I've been looking for parts for a couple months. Posted in "parts wanted", but got no response. 

LMK.

Yes, I have plans, as I posted above. I see you're looking for a chassis and interior. I'll keep you in mind after I get these broken down and figure out what I have and what I need. In the meantime, I've decided I'm looking for a pristine AMT '76 Nova kit. These were apparently reissued not THAT long ago and so aren't really rare, so I hope to find one at a decent price. 

[TransAmMike]

Well Snake, as for the GTO, I'm far from the accomplished model builder that a lot of guys' on here are, but that paint looks pretty thick so that's where the resto starts in my humble opinion.

Day two is definately in the cards for that one!!

[Snake45]

23 hours ago, TransAmMike said:

Well Snake, as for the GTO, I'm far from the accomplished model builder that a lot of guys' on here are, but that paint looks pretty thick so that's where the resto starts in my humble opinion.

Day two is definately in the cards for that one!!

The paint's not thick. In fact, I don't think it's thick enough for a vigorous polish, though it will probably take a light polish. Biggest problem with the paint is a subtle run glob on the hood. I THINK this paint MIGHT be the same Testor blue that I just used on a '66 Mustang build. If it is, I'll strip the hood and repaint it. If not, I might try to sand and polish the run out, or I might just live with it--it's a little on the subtle side. 

Trying to decide on wheels/tires. Since I'm going for Day 2, don't want to use the Rally IIs, which aren't that great anyway. It's not a nice enough model or a good enough project to use a set of "good" wheels on. I'll have to see what I can come up with. 

Edited November 7, 2020 by Snake45

[TransAmMike]

Man I know what you mean about the wheels. My favorites are the 5 spokes (Crager and Torque Thrust) and my stash has dwindled.  I'm needing a set for the Cutlass I'll be building.  

[Snake45]

Challenger's done!  More work than a normal "rescue," including stripping and repainting both the body and interior. I see from the pics I forgot a couple final details, like painting the sun visors and doing the fender nameplates, but those aren't big deals. Anyone got a spare convertible boot, or spare taillights? 

[Scott8950]

The challenger turned out nice.