1966 Mercury Comet

[MarkJ]

2 hours ago, Pierre Rivard said:

Lots of scratch building on the interior and it look mighty good. That's where the fun is with these "converted" 60's cars.

Thanks, Pierre. This car had tuck and roll seat and left door panel. The right door had no panel. It's good that the left door had a panel, so I don't have to do a complete 4 horizontal bar cage with vertical supports. I just have to show them going under the panel as you can see depicted here.

[MarkJ]

[MarkJ]

I finally found a photo of the area behind the roll cage. It also shows me what the head rest looked like.

[gks1964]

Nicely done Sir!!!!!

[MarkJ]

Thank you, Gerald. Those 1/16 inch rods are painstaking to put in place to achieve the look of the real seat and left door panel. 

[MarkJ]

Seat is almost finished. Just need to make a headrest and brackets to mount the seat to the floor and have a place to mount the seat belt and shoulder harnesses.

[Pierre Rivard]

Great work Mark. It's great to see your research and dedication to replicate the specifics of the actual race car.

The essence of scale modeling.

[MarkJ]

13 hours ago, Pierre Rivard said:

Great work Mark. It's great to see your research and dedication to replicate the specifics of the actual race car.

The essence of scale modeling.

Thanks, Pierre. Most of the reference for this model comes from a car featured in a Hot Rod magazine article that says that the car in the article is the actual car that won the 1966  Southern 500. The more photos of the real car from 1966 is starting to show that, that is not exactly true. But you use what you have, so the interior of the model will be like the car in the article, whether they are correct or not. My guages will just be what I came up with because some of the guages in the car look like post 1966 guages. The headrest in the hot rod car is big and square but the actual headrest was triangular in shape and not quite as big. So, the model will really not be correct but good enough for me. Finding good reference photos of cars from the sixty's is getting to be quite a task anymore. I already started looking for reference for a 1964 Ford I'm thinking about doing with not much luck.

[Pierre Rivard]

10 hours ago, MarkJ said:

Thanks, Pierre. Most of the reference for this model comes from a car featured in a Hot Rod magazine article that says that the car in the article is the actual car that won the 1966  Southern 500. The more photos of the real car from 1966 is starting to show that, that is not exactly true. But you use what you have, so the interior of the model will be like the car in the article, whether they are correct or not. My guages will just be what I came up with because some of the guages in the car look like post 1966 guages. The headrest in the hot rod car is big and square but the actual headrest was triangular in shape and not quite as big. So, the model will really not be correct but good enough for me. Finding good reference photos of cars from the sixty's is getting to be quite a task anymore. I already started looking for reference for a 1964 Ford I'm thinking about doing with not much luck.

I agree, we aim for accuracy but depend on what info can be verified. Might be fun if we both built 64 Galaxies at the same time after you finish this one and when I'm done with my current build.

[MarkJ]

1 hour ago, Pierre Rivard said:

I agree, we aim for accuracy but depend on what info can be verified. Might be fun if we both built 64 Galaxies at the same time after you finish this one and when I'm done with my current build.

Are you talking about doing the same one or two different ones? you would probably finish yours in half the time I will take. By the way, what is your current build and is there a wip on it? 

[Pierre Rivard]

3 hours ago, MarkJ said:

Are you talking about doing the same one or two different ones? you would probably finish yours in half the time I will take. By the way, what is your current build and is there a wip on it? 

Thinking we each build our own but share info/tips along the way.

Currently starting work on Accurate Miniatures Corvette Grand Sport. No w.i.p. yet

[MarkJ]

9 hours ago, Pierre Rivard said:

Thinking we each build our own but share info/tips along the way.

Currently starting work on Accurate Miniatures Corvette Grand Sport. No w.i.p. yet

That should be a great wip. I wished that I could have gotten one of those kits instead of what I did to the amt kit. Sounds good on doing the 64 Ford at the same time. I will try to keep up with you.

[MarkJ]

These should be the last two things I need for the interior. I will have to figure out a place to mount the fire extinguisher. None of the ref pictures show where it goes. But I know the car had to have one. The car did not have a strut going from the middle of the rear of the cage to the right side under the dash. So I have no idea where they mounted it.

[TransAmMike]

Yer killing it Mark!!??

[james220]

The head rest is killer How did you do that?

[MarkJ]

Thanks, Mike and James. James if you go further back in the wip you will see how I lined up pieces of 1/16 inch styrene rods and glued them together to make a faux tuck and roll seat, door panel, and headrest. You just put them down on 2 sided tape to hold them in place and  paint the plastic welder glue on like it was paint. then you shape the ends with needle files. The headrest started  off as a square and then it was shaped into a triangle with xacto knife and belt type sanding stick. Not perfect but kinda looks like the stuff the real car had, that may or may not have  been  the real car. Photos of the 1:1 car are in the wip. 

[gks1964]

Excellent work!!

[MarkJ]

On 5/24/2022 at 5:43 PM, gks1964 said:

Excellent work!!

Thanks, Gerald. I finally finished the last two items for the interior. I just need to figure out where they mounted the fire extinguisher. I had to copy what Smokey Yunick used in his 66 Chevelle because I could find no reference for it for this car. 

[Pierre Rivard]

Beautiful fabrication as always. I'm sure it takes time and patience do scratch build all these components and you should be proud of the results.

[MarkJ]

Thanks, Pierre. I'm just glad I can finally prime everything and get it painted so I can finally assemble this project. it seems like the older I get, the longer these projects take. But that's okay. What's the rush anyway. There's no boss standing over me saying, when is this going to be finished? It's not just getting to the destination, it's the journey along the way. But there's nothing like getting it all assembled and adding the wheel /tire assemblies to finally get it sitting and looking like a car.  The decals are just the frosting on the cake.  It's weird how so many people rush to paint the body and apply the decals first and then never actually finish the build. 

 

Edited May 27, 2022 by MarkJ

[Pierre Rivard]

20 minutes ago, MarkJ said:

Thanks, Pierre. I'm just glad I can finally prime everything and get it painted so I can finally assemble this project. it seems like the older I get, the longer these projects take. But that's okay. What's the rush anyway. There's no boss standing over me saying, when is this going to be finished? It's not just getting to the destination, it's the journey along the way. But there's nothing like getting it all assembled and adding the wheel /tire assemblies to finally get it sitting and looking like a car.  The decals are just the frosting on the cake.  It's weird how so many people rush to paint the body and apply the decals first and then never actually finish the build. 

 

I could not agree more. I take the body on and off so many times as I work ride heights, wheel openings and overall integration. Then I move on to paint and of course decal day is the best!

Take your time and enjoy the ride on your build. There's no deadline.

[MarkJ]

Thanks, Pierre. if i try to hurry I make lots of mistakes which makes the process longer so it's faster for me to go slow. if that makes any sense.

[MarkJ]

Got most of the stuff primed. I'm trying to get the right color for the interior. Its brighter than the outside of the car according to the reference I have. So far, I'm using 7 drops of flat red and one drop of white. It's still coming out too pink. I tried using crimson, but it is really an orange color. Those are the only Vallejo red colors my Hobby Lobby sells. I have a Creatix red but the Creatix paints are very thin like they already have thinner in them. They don't cover well with a brush like Vallejo does.

[Pierre Rivard]

4 hours ago, MarkJ said:

Got most of the stuff primed. I'm trying to get the right color for the interior. Its brighter than the outside of the car according to the reference I have. So far, I'm using 7 drops of flat red and one drop of white. It's still coming out too pink. I tried using crimson, but it is really an orange color. Those are the only Vallejo red colors my Hobby Lobby sells. I have a Creatix red but the Creatix paints are very thin like they already have thinner in them. They don't cover well with a brush like Vallejo does.

White will turn red into pink. I'd try to add some yellow to the red.

[MarkJ]

2 hours ago, Pierre Rivard said:

White will turn red into pink. I'd try to add some yellow to the red.

Thanks, Pierre. Sometimes I overthink things. I just tried straight flat red and it's a great match for what I need for the red in the interior. I had in my mind that I had to lighten it even before 
I tried it. I wish hobby Lobby would offer more color choices from Vallejo.