Chrysler 300c

[gotnitro?]

I'm currently serving a mandatory 14 day lock down, so decided to build something different.  I spotted the build, an AMT 57  Chrysler 300C . I recently found an interest in the big fin cars...caddy, impala, and this was another one that seemed to fit the bill. 

My plan was a serious bump up in HP(not an LS )  bigger tires all around, and dropping the stance without major surgery. I already had purchased a base Hemi engine w Hilborn injection from Action Modeler , and had chrome shorty stacks from Detail Master ordered . The steel smoothie wheels w dog dish caps are from ebay. 

The color was very important on this build, I finally settled on Tamiya gunmetal.  I wanted the mobster vibe,  but knew my painting skills weren't ready for a glossy black finish yet . 

The build 

The wheels going on would require the normal grinding excess plastic from the wheel wells, quick work w a dremel round burr . The wheels I'm using for this Mopar 

A quick mock up showed the ride height wasn't gonna cut it..not dragging frame low , but dropped . 

adding a mm lift block to the rear springs and adjusting the front control arms had it sitting low like I envisioned. 

a quick squirt of primer after sanding away the mold lines had this build moving forward quick  ! 

Turning to the front , the Hemi actually dropped right into the stock mounts.

I was disappointed when opening the bottle of hemi orange to find it had dried out..so I mixed up some orange color and painted the block.  Valve covers were done in semi gloss black . I still have to wire the mags , and touch up a few items .

I've only dabbled w bmf, and wanted to try a technique I read on here . Applying the foil before paint , then sanding off the paint to reveal the chrome underneath.  I applied bmf to the large side trim and trimmed away the excess 

 

Jeff

[stitchdup]

Cool project, just subtle enough to hide the power upgrades

[StevenGuthmiller]

Looking good to this point, but I did want to let you know that the “foil under paint”, (applying foil before paint) is generally reserved for small items, such as scripts, badges, door and trunk locks, etc. 

There are a couple of reasons why it’s not generally used for larger pieces of trim such as this.

First, it makes for a fairly large section of paint to remove.

Second, if you’re going to “sand” the paint off, it’s going to be a virtual impossibility to remove the paint from any recesses on anything other than completely smooth, flat trim.

Third, body trim should reach all the way to the body surface. Sanding is only going to remove paint from the top portions of the molding and not all of the way to the body surface, at least not without adding a great deal of difficulty and the very real possibility of damaging the paint. If the paint is not cleaned down to the body surface, it will give you the undesirable effect of the paint “crawling” up the outside edges of the trim.

These are just a few issues that I thought that you should be aware of.

Foiling the trim exactly as you have over the primer, but performed over the paint instead will give you a much nicer looking job with a heck of a lot less work.

 

 

 

 

Steve

[Zippi]

Your build is coming along pretty good.  I like that 300 body style. 

[gotnitro?]

Thanks everyone! I usually build big trucks so tinkering w cars is a fun change . Really glad this build goes together well,  and the fit is really positive 

Steve - thanks ill pull the bmf and reserve that for smaller parts lol 

[cobraman]

Looking good already.

[StevenGuthmiller]

39 minutes ago, gotnitro? said:

Thanks everyone! I usually build big trucks so tinkering w cars is a fun change . Really glad this build goes together well,  and the fit is really positive 

Steve - thanks ill pull the bmf and reserve that for smaller parts lol 

Don’t want to dictate what you should do, but I think it will work out better for you.

Just speaking from a lot of BMF experience.

 

 

 

 

Steve

[gotnitro?]

Steve  - not at all glad ya chimed in with your advice ! I didn't consider the depressed areas causing grief sanding.  Worked out as good practice anyway lol

Once the paint arrives ill get some color on the body 

[slusher]

Really nice work so far…

[David G.]

Looks great so far!

I have tried foiling larger trim pieces prior to painting with some bit of success. The way I did it was to remove the paint from the trim after each coat with a Tamiya pointed micro swab lightly moistened with lacquer thinner.

That way you can work down into the recesses a bit to remove the paint. It's a lot of work and I was only able to achieve results that were fair at best. The main issue I had was that the paint line along the trim sometimes got messy looking, probably from uneven removal of the various coats and interaction with the thinner.

Regards,

David G.

[espo]

I have used your method on small trim items and the lettering in a tail gate or two. This has worked well for me it will be interesting to see how this works on a large body trim part, 

[gotnitro?]

Thanks everyone! I ended up removing the bmf along the sidetrim, and will reapply it after paint . Steves mention of it appearing like paint was creeping up sides made the decision easy. 

I worked on the interior yesterday,  simple semi gloss interior w selected parts chromed w pen . Photos showed these interiors were pretty basis , like today's cars lol. The paint used was tamiyas sg black, after drying gives a very scale vinyl appearance I really like . The seats have beautiful stitching thats this paint still shows too

I painted the leather wrapped area of the steering wheel w flat black for subtle contrast, since the exterior will be dark gray

I lightly sanded the 300 emblem , just to make it pop . Wow the camera really shows my crooked paint lines oops 

Looks like my gunmetal paint is being shipped soon, so I'll be able to lay down some color hopefully this wknd . 

Thanks for any feedback or comments 

[StevenGuthmiller]

3 hours ago, David G. said:

Looks great so far!

I have tried foiling larger trim pieces prior to painting with some bit of success. The way I did it was to remove the paint from the trim after each coat with a Tamiya pointed micro swab lightly moistened with lacquer thinner.

That way you can work down into the recesses a bit to remove the paint. It's a lot of work and I was only able to achieve results that were fair at best. The main issue I had was that the paint line along the trim sometimes got messy looking, probably from uneven removal of the various coats and interaction with the thinner.

Regards,

David G.

That’s the way I do it for small items like badges and scripts.

In my opinion, it works better than sanding.

You have more control with a small conical swab and even a sharpened tooth pick dipped in thinner than you do with sand paper, and you don’t have the possibility of sanding through the foil itself.

 

 

 

Steve

[Ceaser_Salad]

Super clean interior! Looks pretty good so far. I always have problems with BMF, so good luck. Will be watching, nice job so far

[doorsovdoon]

Lovely looking colour. Nice fine detailing on the door cards and dash.

[gotnitro?]

2 hours ago, doorsovdoon said:

Lovely looking colour. Nice fine detailing on the door cards and dash.

Thanks , I tried to keep the lines tight but see a few wiggles lol

I just received my chrome hilborn stacks from Detail Master and rumor is the exterior paints almost here horray !  Decided to plug the 2nd hole in heads for double mag layout..seems ridiculous now .

[gotnitro?]

My paint order arrived today and couldn't wait to apply some color . I'm using tamiya TS-38 gunmetal , w testors wet look clear . Normally I'd sprayed in the booth, but temps outside was perfect for painting . 

3 coats later I had a even color and was ready for clear . I pre soaked the cans in a bath of very hot water to achieve a smoother finish 

Moving everything back inside to cure , I snapped a few inside photos ..when the accident happened. 

I was so happy w the color.  , I was moving the body and separate hood onto my drying shelf when I hit elbow and the hood flipped in the air ...I caught it upside down and left a finger print in the tacky finish..hopefully after curing I'll ba able to wet sand it back and buff away

Thanks for looking 

[moparfarmer]

Tough break on the hood.."Oh Oh better call Maaco...Let it dry and slowly work it out with wet till smooth then try polish..Won't be perfect but you can display car with hood underneath and show the engine or put hood on a stand..People won't notice unless you tell them..If they do, so what..You at least tried..

 

[David G.]

The paint looks great, it's a bummer about the hood though.

It's probably better that it happened to the hood rather than the roof or somewhere else on the body. In a worst case situation, the hood would be the easiest part to strip and refinish if it came to that. Hopefully it won't.

David G.

[espo]

That's a shame, may have to go in the purple pond and repaint.  

[doorsovdoon]

Yeah, I'd redo the hood while the paint is still relatively soft, much easier to remove and won't take twenty minutes to re paint.

[gotnitro?]

I actually stripped the hood last night down to primer and plan to reapply it tomorrow.  I'll watch the coats closely to hopefully avoid having a noticeable color difference.  

Really excited to see this together,  the color combo should look good 

[mustang1989]

You'll have that repainted in no time Jeff!! That is some crisp work in that interior and a good looking paint job so far!! Just beautiful work. 

[David G.]

As I said earlier, better the hood than the roof or elsewhere on the body. 

A minor setback in the grander scheme of things.

David G.

[gotnitro?]

Well, im actually very surprised.  I ended up sanding hood down to bare plastic after spotting faint ghosting in my new primer coat . Knowing this could be highly visible under the clear, and likely to annoy me more .

A quick spray of tamiya fine red , then 2 even coats of gunmetal resulted in a sigh of relief.  Checking the color against the car body showed I was there , and could clear it . My biggest concern was the metal flakes laying down the same. 2 coats of wet look clear had everything blending , and satisfied I could polish away any orange peel . ! 

I'll give the hood a solid few days to cure then start assembly!  Thanks for all the feedback  assuring me this could work