AMT 1968 Fairlane 500 Junkyard Rescue

[LennyB]

17 hours ago, customline said:

Len, I had to do that on the Edsel. The kit had no provision for the trim on the outside of the grille opening (horse collar) so I just used foil - seemed fine.

Well I just got some of the matte aluminum, I’ll have to give that a try.  

[spkgibsonfirebird]

Now I'm really inspired to start restoring my '68 Torino glue bomb, could you tell me exactly how you made the front bench seat, I have just a few spare back seats to work with. I actually am going to have to make two of them, one for the '68, And one for my resin '69 Cobra formal roof. 

[LennyB]

Reminds me that I have to get back to this one

Basically I found a seat back in my parts stash and glued that to the backside of a rear seat. Had to trim it down a bit to fit. Filled in the gaps on the ends with some scrap. Then I scribed a separation line in the top to show the front seat split and trimmed the sides with some scrap styrene to represent the trim.  
 

I’m going to be doing the same with my 67 Galaxie shortly. In the process of casting another rear seat to work with. 
 

[LennyB]

Not sure why but the Fairlane keeps getting pushed to the back of the workbench. In the back, in the corner, in the dark. Dug it out this weekend and made some progress on the interior. Removed the clutch pedal and cleaned up some mold impressions on the floor and finished up on the door panels.

I sanded off the Torino door panels and converted them to Fairlane. Vertical ribs were represented with the use of some Tamiya masking tape. The moldings were made from some strip styrene and I printed up the woodgrain inlay that I scanned from a sales brochure. Only problem is I forgot to paint the trim before gluing the panels into place. I will now have to do it after the fact which will be a lot more difficult. Unless I tear the interior apart again. 🙄

I made up arm rests from some scrap and created some window cranks from straight pins that are no longer straight and styrene rod.

I found a steering wheel for a 68 Torino in the parts box. Technically the Fairlane center emblem is different, but as AMT screwed up and molded the emblem upside down we are far from correct anyhow.  I could theoretically remove the horn ring and reattach it 180 degrees out. But I'm not putting myself through all of that. For the most part all Ford vehicles in 68 used the same steering wheel just changed out the center emblem. '69 wheel was the same ,but the pad was changed as well as the emblem. I added a shifter and turn signal lever to the steering column. The gauges in '68 are black with white lettering, in '69 they changed the background to silver. You can get preprinted gauge faces for the '69 but they are not correct in this instance. So these were detailed by hand and then a drop of epoxy over the top to represent lenses. You can get a good shot of the ashtray on the back of the front seat here. If you recall I fabricated the front seat from a spare back seat. I made castings of the new front seat of which this is one. I've saved the master as I'm sure I will need another bench at some point.

 

Also got the glass installed. I still want to make rear side windows for this. BTW that is not a smudge on the windshield, that's on the bench down below. Thought I got my bloddy fingerprints on it again didn't you, not this time. Maybe next.😯

 

That's it for now. Hopefully there will be more progress soon.

[customline]

20 hours ago, LennyB said:

......That's it for now. Hopefully there will be more progress soon.

 

I sure hope so, Lenny, cuz there ain't much happening around here 😴

[Bainford]

This is shaping up to be a fine looking Fairlane.

[NOBLNG]

Coming along nicely Len. I like that yellow on it.😎 The window crank idea is really cool!

[LennyB]

9 hours ago, Bainford said:

This is shaping up to be a fine looking Fairlane.

Thanks Trevor, it’s actually starting to come together.  

7 hours ago, NOBLNG said:

Coming along nicely Len. I like that yellow on it.😎 The window crank idea is really cool!

Thanks Greg, I find lately I’m using pins for a lot of things.  Including sticking myself🥺

[LennyB]

Little by little been nibbling away at the ol' Fairlane. Working on some more details for the interior. In 1968 the Fairlane had a 'floating' rear view mirror that was attached to the windshield. Figured I would give a shot at creating one of those. Took a random mirror to start with to adapt for the cause.

Filed off the mounting nub on this, removed the chrome, added a stud on the backside and painted it black.

Initially I tried to glue the flat of the stud to the inside of the windshield but that was a failure. Found it impossible to hold the mirror in one place long enough for the CA to cure. Ended up cleaning up my glue smears on the 'glass' before taking a second go at it. This time I mounted a pin in the stud and then drilled a small pilot hole in the backside of the 'glass'. Not all the way thru mind you.

I was then able to mount the mirror with no issue at all. Kinda hard to see but there it is floating in place. Still want to make up a dome light.

Along with this, the chassis work has been crawling along. If you remember when I started this the objective has been to use parts from the scrap bit. So it's finally time to start assembling the collection. Don't know where the exhaust came from but it fits the chassis quite well. Added pins the the front end of the pipes for when I'm ready to add the front end of the exhaust system. Likewise I don't know where the rear axle and springs are from but they will hold up the ass end quite nicely. Shocks are on order from parts bin 16.

The front end has been cobbled together with various bits and now we need to make up some front spindles.Starting out with some scrap sprue seems a good place to start.

Cutting down to size here I've overlapped the two to make sure they are of equal length. Hopefully the car sits level after this.

Once the height is established I drilled a hole straight down the middle.

Here is a mock up.

I shaped the spindle a bit to square up the vertical section and filed out an opening in the backside. I plan on running a styrene post through the center and this will allow me to glue it in place at the middle so the top and bottom are free to turn. Might not make sense now but you will see when it comes together.

Spindle needs to attach to the center link so some small square styrene was added for that purpose.

Then I overlapped that with another section of square and shaped it to look more like the real thing.

Next I decided the Fairlane would have drum brakes on all fours so I cast some backing plates to add to the spindles. The one on the left spun a bit while drying so 12 O'clock is a bit past noon. Oh, well.😕 Before I move on the resin has to sit and soak before I can paint it.

A while back I had decided on a set of rims and I wanted to do Red Lines. Unfortunately I couldn't find a nice set of 4 tires in my parts box. So here they are mounted on some AMT Firestone white walls.

I bought some new AMT Red Line tires but they are too large to fit the rims.

 

 

So either I get some different rims I like, or find some more vintage Red Lines, or maybe we just stick with the WW's

 

Anyway, that is where we are for now. Catch ya on the flip side.

 

[Moparman18064]

Nice work on the mirror and scratch work on spindles!

[LennyB]

7 hours ago, Moparman18064 said:

Nice work on the mirror and scratch work on spindles!

Thanks Rich. It’s tedious but fun.