Polar Lights 1969 Cale Yarborough Mercury Cyclone Spoiler II

[THarrison351]

Oh, where do I start. Polar Lights had something that could have been so good. A subject that builders wanted, and it looked on the surface to be well detailed. Somewhere it was lost in execution. It’s not the kit is unbuildable, it just takes a lot of patience, knowledge of the subject, and good building practices. I was fortunate enough to find some information that still existed on the web to guide me through the problem areas. It took every bit of my fifty plus years of building to get through this. One, the Boss nine engine is too wide to fit. You must either relocate the under-hood roll cage or grind it down. Also, the upper A arms must be ground for clearance. Two the hood is incorrect. I do not know how this made it into production completely wrong, but there it is. Both the Cyclone II and the Talladega used the stock Montego/Cyclone and Fairlane/Torino hood with the corresponding leading chrome trim removed. The Fairlane/Torino hood has a relatively flat leading edge. The Montego hood has a raised center section, and it extends out forward and slopes off at the front. This center prow is about an inch and a half forward of the rest of the leading edge of the hood. I’ve attempted to duplicate this with plastic, filler, and a lot of patient sanding. Three, the front fender openings are huuge! Like dirt track huuge! More plastic, filler, and sanding. Four, the instructions where items are located are just vague or incorrect…Good thing I have some knowledge about stock cars. Five, there’s probably more that I missed, but there's lots of massaging of parts to make them fit. AMT, old Revell, and MPC kits are cake compared to this.

Info on things I used. Paint is Tamiya TS26 pure white, the red is Tamiya TS21 gold, TS74 clear red, and TS65 pearl clear. I sprayed the top colors one after the other only long enough for them to flash dry. The simulated Zolatone is a cheap gray primer with white and black paints sprayed from a distance for affect. Decals are mostly Power Slide with a few from the stock Slixx in the kit. I should have used the Power Slides because the Slixx were as usual, brittle. But the Slixx were prearranged and I’m lazy. Hood pins are Pro Tech and excellent! The tires are stock, terrible, and wished I’d used PPP, but I’d already spent too much money on this thing. I doctored them with a blue gel pen and Power Slide decals.

I’m glad it’s done, and I sold all the other one’s years ago on eBay. My son gave me the rereleased fictional Bobby Allison Coca-Cola Cyclone Spoiler II a few years ago…Well, at least I’ll know what I’m getting into.

Thanks for looking!

Over twenty years to finish, but it's done. I must have tossed it in the box out of frustration.

I cut the back glass to fit flush in the opening

Hosted on Fotki 

The Box Stock compared to some diecasts I have on hand. On the left is a GMP 1969 Spoiler II and on the right is a University of Racing Legends 1968 Bobby Allison Cyclone

The Allison hood isn't quite right either

Hosted on Fotki 

My inspiration

Hosted on Fotki 

Way too wide

Hosted on Fotki Hosted on Fotki

Much better

Everything is freshly painted and out of the incubator

Not perfect, but better than box stock

Comparing to the 1968 UoR diecast

Ready for final assembly

Stock compared to racing

Edited October 17, 2022 by THarrison351

[afx]

Very nice.

[TooOld]

Very well done Tim , your extra effort to correct the kits problems have really paid off !  Just correcting the hood makes all the difference in the world , along with the wheel openings and other details this is a first class build !

[Dave Van]

Very nice work!!!!!!

[Pierre Rivard]

Very nicely done Tim. This is a hard kit to work out into a model that really looks like the real car. So so much better than my own effort ( the 2 I have built are now in the scale model graveyard)

Beautiful detailing and paint finishes.

[TransAmMike]

Very cool and well done Tim!!

[steveracer]

Wow, I would say you salvaged a challenging kit pretty darn well.  Good job and congrats, it looks better as the race car than the die cast street car....

[HSCHMIDT]

Looks great, nicely done!

[THarrison351]

On 10/18/2022 at 5:44 AM, TooOld said:

Very well done Tim , your extra effort to correct the kits problems have really paid off !  Just correcting the hood makes all the difference in the world , along with the wheel openings and other details this is a first class build !

Thanks Bob! I never realized these were problems when I purchased the kit along with the #98 LeeRoy Yarborough car years ago. The kit had other issues that made me put it away and then when I pulled it out to complete it, I found a few other builders had fixes and had shared via the web. I don't regret selling the #98 and all the Talladegas I never started. I got pretty good money off of eBay for them.

On 10/18/2022 at 5:24 AM, afx said:

Very nice.

Thank you JC!

On 10/18/2022 at 7:01 AM, Dave Van said:

Very nice work!!!!!!

Thanks Dave! 

On 10/18/2022 at 7:20 AM, Pierre Rivard said:

Very nicely done Tim. This is a hard kit to work out into a model that really looks like the real car. So so much better than my own effort ( the 2 I have built are now in the scale model graveyard)

Beautiful detailing and paint finishes.

I appreciate that Pierre! Sorry to hear you didn't have good luck with yours. I can understand though. It is a frustrating and poorly engineered kit.

On 10/18/2022 at 12:08 PM, TransAmMike said:

Very cool and well done Tim!!

Thank You Mike!

On 10/18/2022 at 3:27 PM, steveracer said:

Wow, I would say you salvaged a challenging kit pretty darn well.  Good job and congrats, it looks better as the race car than the die cast street car....

Thanks Steve! It was a challenge, definitely!

On 10/19/2022 at 6:09 AM, HSCHMIDT said:

Looks great, nicely done!

Thank You Harold!

[PappyD340]

Very nice, well done!

[THarrison351]

12 hours ago, PappyD340 said:

Very nice, well done!

Thanks Larry!

[Toys4Don2]

Those kits can be a real bear, but you really pulled it off. Your body modifications are excellent.