Tom Geiger Posted January 9, 2021 Posted January 9, 2021 (edited) The Jeepster trio is finished and I took some time today for photos! The Jeepster is a 1969 MPC kit that was started a long time ago and completed in the "Bring Out Your Dead" board challenge. The Jeep CJ5 is the MPC "Mork & Mindy" kit, that was a glue bomb in my Jeep junk box. The trailer was from the Fireball 500 kit, with many mods. Jeepster was done with the pickup version and removable hardtop. Bumper was from the Safari version of this kit. I way overcomplicated this build! I cut the bed away from the interior, added sidewalls and molded it into the body for a more realistic look. I added ribs on the bed floor. Trailer hitch was scratch built from a few pieces of Evergreen, a round head shirt pin and a short length of heater hose. I did drill holes to replicate the top snaps. I swapped in a Jeep 4 cylinder base engine, instead of the kit's V6. That led to complications with the chassis and mods to the interior floor. As I worked on the Jeepster, my Jeep parts box was open and I started fiddling with an old glue bomb while I was waiting for glue to dry. It had no hood, windshield or tailgate, and the fender was broken. The idea of a project car on a trailer popped into my head! It was built pretty much stock from what I had. I did make the tail lights from Evergreen tube, wired the engine and added seat belts. All in all, it took about 2 weeks. The trailer was pretty toy like. It had options to build as a single axle with the axle too far forward so that the rear dropped, or as a hokey dual axle. I chose to remove all of that and move the axle rearward. I concealed the wire axle in a piece of channel, added fenders from a Monogram Green Hornet and the custom tail lights from the AMT 53 Ford pickup. The wheel fronts are still on the bench, and I need to make a trailer license plate. The Jeeps are registered as my final two builds for 2020, completed on New Year's Eve. I did fiddle with them a bit this week and will correct a few small things I see in these photos. The trailer could be called my first build of 2021! There were times I hated this project, but I'm pleased with the end results! Time to find another house to flip! Edited January 9, 2021 by Tom Geiger
Fish_65 Posted January 9, 2021 Posted January 9, 2021 Very cool Tom! Don't see that early MPC Jeepster built too often and you did a great job with it. Nice work ?
89AKurt Posted January 9, 2021 Posted January 9, 2021 Appreciate the work on this. Congrats on getting over the hurdle! ?
BeakDoc Posted January 9, 2021 Posted January 9, 2021 What a cool project! Everything about the CJ5 looks “just right” from stem to stern. I can’t imagine any wheels looking better on it than those steelies. I also really like the weathering on the project Jeep- convincing, but not over the top. This build has all the signs of a labor of love. Kudos, Tom!
bill lanfear Posted January 9, 2021 Posted January 9, 2021 Excellent work Tom! Both are "spot on" and the weathering on the CJ5 is outstanding!
GLMFAA1 Posted January 9, 2021 Posted January 9, 2021 Nice job on the jeeps. Wasn't the trailer originally in the AMT Corvette kit in the 60's. Back then I used mine as a car lift with a Lincoln log as the hydraulic center lift. greg
Tom Geiger Posted January 9, 2021 Author Posted January 9, 2021 19 minutes ago, GLMFAA1 said: Nice job on the jeeps. Wasn't the trailer originally in the AMT Corvette kit in the 60's. Back then I used mine as a car lift with a Lincoln log as the hydraulic center lift. Could be.. I found mine in a Fireball 500, but no doubt it came in other kits since it's on it's own sprue. It was fenderless,had no lights and came with styrene two part tires too. The wonky part of it was that the tongue had a peg sticking down from it instead of a receiver. The hitch that came with it had a hole in it instead of a proper hitch ball set up.. toylike! And of course we couldn't have any of that so we fixed it.
mchook Posted January 9, 2021 Posted January 9, 2021 That's some cool stuff right there! It looks great.
NOBLNG Posted January 9, 2021 Posted January 9, 2021 Good work Tom! Those both turned out beautifully. All the little details are spot on. I like the hood hinges and busted fender flares on the CJ.
Plowboy Posted January 10, 2021 Posted January 10, 2021 (edited) Very cool! I always appreciate seeing one of these old Jeepsters get built! The beat up CJ is cool also! Edited January 10, 2021 by Plowboy
Bainford Posted January 11, 2021 Posted January 11, 2021 Very cool project. The two Jeeps look great together. Nice work.
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