My long-term (not by choice) project - 1963 F100 Unibody

[tim boyd]

On 5/6/2023 at 5:11 AM, midlineqb said:

I"m in process of finishing a 63 Ford Fleetside that I had put in a box probably 30 years ago. I've shortened the bed and am putting a Hemi engine in it. Also is going to have a custom interior with bucket seats. I don;t have any pics of it at this point in time, but will be posting some.

Buddy....any updates on your project that you can share here?  Thanks...TB 

[tim boyd]

On 4/7/2023 at 3:58 PM, CabDriver said:

I'm going to bet one shiny penny on this kit getting one of Round 2's retool / reissues, as a variation on the '60 truck that has already been announced. 

I will bet another shiny penny on Tim Boyd completing this long-term project by the time the reissue comes out....and I hope I win on both bets

JIm....take a bow on the first bet....second one, not so much.  But a fun thought, anyway!  Thanks...TB  

[tim boyd]

On 4/23/2023 at 3:28 PM, foghorn62 said:

Hi Tim, is that Mr. Color GX100 Super Clear that you are using?  How do you like it?  What did you use for your base coat under it?  Did you use the leveling thinner?  I have some of that clear, and I struggled with getting it to go on wet enough to flatten out the last time I used it, but I think I know what I was doing wrong.  I had been spraying water base acrylics through the airbrush that I was using, and I don’t think it played nice with the clear despite my best attempts to clean the airbrush before switching paints.  I have been determined to use acrylics for all of my color coats, but I’m still using solvent base for clear.  I have since bought new tips for my airbrush that I use for acrylics, and a new airbrush to be dedicated to solvent base clears.  I really like the way the acrylics lay down nice a flat, and with the right clear coat, they look very nice.  I see that Createx has come out with a high gloss water base clear, but I haven’t tried it yet.

TS

Tim...doesn't look like i ever responded to your questions above.  Sorry 'but that! 

Yes, it was the aerosol version of the Mr. Color Super Clear.  I do like it.  It seems to combine some of the better traits of a combo of the Tamiya TS-13 Clear and Testors Welt Look Clear, without some of the drawbacks (ie. the TS-13 can draw basecoat paint away from cutlines, while the We tLook Clear seems to stay a little soft a little too long.   As for the primer coats I used, it's been a long time but as I planned to use the Testors and Tamiya lacquers, it was probably Tamiya Fine Pigment Gray primer.  I do suppose that part of the problem may have been that the prior seller had used some sort of paint remover, and my experience has been that some of these do weaken the styrene underneath (tending to make it more brittle), and maybe that same effect caused the styrene to wrinkle when the new paint was applied.  Oh well...

Hearing good things about the Createx, too!  May have to give that a try.   Thanks for sharing on this. 

Hope all is well and that you are keeping warm up in Vermont!  Best...TB 

'

 

[foghorn62]

On 2/14/2024 at 9:31 AM, tim boyd said:

Tim...doesn't look like i ever responded to your questions above.  Sorry 'but that! 

Yes, it was the aerosol version of the Mr. Color Super Clear.  I do like it.  It seems to combine some of the better traits of a combo of the Tamiya TS-13 Clear and Testors Welt Look Clear, without some of the drawbacks (ie. the TS-13 can draw basecoat paint away from cutlines, while the We tLook Clear seems to stay a little soft a little too long.   As for the primer coats I used, it's been a long time but as I planned to use the Testors and Tamiya lacquers, it was probably Tamiya Fine Pigment Gray primer.  I do suppose that part of the problem may have been that the prior seller had used some sort of paint remover, and my experience has been that some of these do weaken the styrene underneath (tending to make it more brittle), and maybe that same effect caused the styrene to wrinkle when the new paint was applied.  Oh well...

Hearing good things about the Createx, too!  May have to give that a try.   Thanks for sharing on this. 

Hope all is well and that you are keeping warm up in Vermont!  Best...TB 

'

 

Thanks for your response Tim.  I wasn’t aware that Mr Hobby had their clear available in rattle cans.  I probably won’t run out to get it though since I have become quite used to using my airbrushes.  You always were partial to those rattle cans from what I remember.  I’m not sure I could get a decent paint job out of a rattle can anymore no matter how hard I tried.  I’m really loving the results I have been able to get using the Mr. Color ts100 Super Clear, over Createx Colors water base acrylics.  I’ve had good success wet sanding the Mr Color clear, and polishing it out with a polishing pad on my Dremel using Meguiar’s PlastX polish.  I have tried the Createx High Gloss water base clear, but so far not had great success with that.

BTW, I have been able to track down Dave Barry.  Like many of us, he has been away from our hobby for many years, but has recently retired and is getting back into it.  He was out at GSL last May, but didn’t realize you were there.  I had to chuckle.  You guys were probably standing next to each other and didn’t know it.  He asked about you the other day.  I gave him some contact info that I have for you.  I hope you don’t mind.  You may hear from him soon.  I think he lives fairly near you.

All good up here in the great north woods.  We are still waiting for Winter to set in this year.  It has been very mild.  I hope all is well at your place.

TS

[tim boyd]

Brief update....back at working on this one again....comparo to the new Round 2 tooling of the same subject....

Thx for checking it out...TIM

[stavanzer]

I like that  Green Colour on the original kit, Tim.

Is that a Tamiya or Testors Colour?

[tim boyd]

On 6/27/2024 at 10:31 PM, stavanzer said:

I like that  Green Colour on the original kit, Tim.

Is that a Tamiya or Testors Colour?

Hi Alan...its the early 1990s Cayman Green Metallic from the Testors Car Colors Lacquer paint series...now sadly discontinued.  Many of my cans of this paint series have suffered oozing from the bottom of the paint cans, but at least with this particular paint can, it still words fine. 

The second color is Tamiya Racing White, which is very close to Ford Wimbledon White....

Thx for the comments...Tim  

[leafsprings]

Looks great, tu tones were very popular choice in the 60's.  '63 Custom Cabs without the moldings used a chrome plate under the outside door handles. A great item for the aftermarket resin people to offer?

 

Edited July 4, 2024 by leafsprings

[tim boyd]

5 hours ago, leafsprings said:

Looks great, tu tones were very popular choice in the 60's.  '63 Custom Cabs without the moldings used a chrome plate under the outside door handles. A great item for the aftermarket resin people to offer?

Thanks Tommy.   Did not know about the above factoid.  Fascinating. 

I suppose the following is of note for those following this thread: I researched the two=tone paint break line as shown above, which was different in 1963 than previous.  Also noted that the cab drip moldings were body color, not chrome. 

Since my build is a semi-custom I am going to leave off the door moldings shown above, but what I really would have liked to do was save the bodyside molding.  I couldn't do that, as the original annual kit molding engraving on my kit body was a disaster.  Fortunately, the newly tooled kit molding (which can be seen in the background) looks great....TIM 

[von Zipper]

On 4/5/2023 at 7:47 PM, tim boyd said:

Ever since I traveled the "thumb" area of Michigan (anyone remember the Ubly Dragstrip of the 1960's???) 

 

I remember the Ubly Drag Strip very well , my grandfather was from the "thumb " area so we went to the drag races in the summer when we went to see him .

On 4/5/2023 at 7:47 PM, tim boyd said:

 the most I've ever spent on a model kit) on a pristine unbuilt AMT 1963 F100 customizing kit at the old Herb Jackson/Bill Enders store in Farmington Hills, MI.  

 

I remember Herb Jackson also !

His store was around 10 mile and Middlebelt in a little strip mall . One day i went there to look at models and the place was a SUBA diving supply , thats how and when i learned he had passed. That was a long time ago.

[dino246gt]

I've been on a rebuild kick lately too, I love saving old glue bombs!

Here's a '62 I did, was already heavily customized so I had a rough time trying to make it stock, so...............

I made a new customized version!

Used the Foose Caddy chassis.

 

[tim boyd]

29 minutes ago, dino246gt said:

I've been on a rebuild kick lately too, I love saving old glue bombs!

Here's a '62 I did, was already heavily customized so I had a rough time trying to make it stock, so...............

I made a new customized version!

Used the Foose Caddy chassis.

 

Dennis....fascinating.  When I had the Foose F100 chassis out trying to make it fit the AMT unibody F100, I also had the Foose Caddy chassis out for trial fits under early 1950s GM cars like the Revell '50 Olds.  But I never thought of trying the Foose Caddy chassis under the Uniside body.  Will be really, really interested in seeing your yours turns out!   Cheers...TIM 

[dino246gt]

Tim, here's the thread of my build:

[tim boyd]

3 hours ago, dino246gt said:

Tim, here's the thread of my build:

If anyone reading this thread has not already viewed Dennis' build thread, you need to check it out now!   TB 

[tim boyd]

Well, this project is finished; you can see it in the May/June 2025 issue of the multi-genre model magazine that just hit the newsstand.  But before you do that, please check out the new #226 issue of Model Cars, which among some very cool articles and builds has another pickup contribution from yours truly, this a post-WW-II 1937/29 Model A Pickup with its roots in the reissued Round 2 "Mod Rod" (originally Ala Kart Trophy Series) kit... thanks in advance for checking both of them out...TB 

*****************

PS - the other article in the other mag doesn't mention my one of my biggest goof ups ever....when polishing out the paint on the roof, I picked up a tube off the shelf of what I thought was Tamiya Fine Rubbing Compound (the middle of the three grades) and applied it to the roof.  When I started polishing, it seemed way too thick and stiff.  Then it wouldn't polish out, instead sort of digging into the paint.  Then it got worse; much worse.   What the heck?  I was confounded.  Then I looked at the tube again.  Tamiya body putty, not polishing compound!   aAAARRCCCCHHHhhhhh.  Dumb, dumb, dumb!  That goof sent me back several months alone....TB

Edited March 30 by tim boyd

[tim boyd]

On 4/5/2023 at 7:47 PM, tim boyd said:

Ever since I traveled the "thumb" area of Michigan (anyone remember the Ubly Dragstrip of the 1960's???) as the Ford Sales Zone Rep during 1979-81, I've been fascinated with the 1961-63 Ford Unibody F100 pickup.  So much so that I spent $40 (in 1980 Money, the equivalent of $146 today. the most I've ever spent on a model kit) on a pristine unbuilt AMT 1963 F100 customizing kit at the old Herb Jackson/Bill Enders store in Farmington Hills, MI.  I actually planned to build it but it never happened.  Probably around 20 years ago I bought a second kit -the reboxed 1964 release - in a partially built form with some body damage and the like.  

Sometime in 2021 I set out to actually build the second kit.  I'll save the envisioned build details for later, but the bottom line is this one has been a struggle almost from day one. 

I spent months fixing the damage, and more profoundly, fixing all the imperfections (sink marks, crooked side body molding, et al.) of the original AMT body shell.   Then the paint...including multiple mishaps that again I will explain later, most recently a severe case of orange peel from an application of Tamiya TS Clear over well dried Testors Coat Lacquer. 

I do still work on it from time to time, but guys this one has been discouragement city!  Anyway, shot a couple pix of it today in its current state.  

Thanks for looking and listening to the summary of my sad, sad story on this one!  Cheers...TIM

PS - and yes, there is a reason (to be revealed later, but hopefully not too far in the future) why I am showing this one at this time ..TB 

 

OK...finally(!!!) you can see the result/finished project  posted elsewhere on this MCM forum here as well as in the current (May/June 2025) issue of the magazine that covers all genres of scale modeling (as a how-to assembly story).

Thanks all for yor ongoing interest and patience in waiting to see the final outcome...TIM