Cyber punk ‘88 Dodge Daytona/Mercedes C9 kit bash

[Steve H]

Hi all, with summer winding down, and fall upon us here in the Pacific Northwest, it’s time to get a bit more active at the hobby desk.

I’ve been missing my forum friends!
First,  a bit of back story on the inspiration for this build. When I started my ‘70 Cadillac pro touring build in Jan of ‘23, I did some online searches for inspiration. One of our fellow members here, Russell Cook, (“Russell C”) shared a web address with me on the WIP thread. Well, down the rabbit hole ?️ I went, for several hours. Thank you Russell, I got soooo many ideas, which led to more searches, more rabbit holes….. ?️ ?️ ?️ 

A screen shot of that fateful exchange.

A couple of screen shots from the rabbit holes… 

 

I knew I definitely needed to build something like this, but I wasn’t EXACTLY sure where to start. I had no shortage of ideas, just needed to figure out a starting point.

Jump ahead to our local model show in early spring 2024. Local model builder Martin Aveyard brought his incredible MR2 cyber punk car. Martin, as most of you will know is on the forum here (“Stoke”), and has also been a regular contributor to the magazine. If you have not seen Martin’s models, take some time and check out his builds, they are nothing short of extraordinary. His photography is absolutely stunning too. I asked Martin for a little guidance on chassis ideas, and he was more than happy to point me in right direction. As there was a swap meet at the show, I left with kits and a new thirst to build one of these beasts. THANK YOU MARTIN!!
Here are a couple of photos of Martin’s incredible MR2, currently in the under glass section. If you haven’t already done so, check it out!!

 

So, before I go any further… my build will NOT be nearly the work of art that Martin has created, but the overall look will be similar…(ish). I wouldn’t dare compare my builds to Martin’s.

With all that said, here is what I am starting with. I picked up a few endurance cars at the swap meet. Some were missing tires, or decals, etc. and were cheap, which was perfect for my project. I decided on using the Tamiya Sauber Mercedes C9 kit as the chassis.  I have never even looked at these types of models before, so should be interesting.

I had so many different ideas for bodies, from trucks, to muscle cars, you name it, I probably considered it. While digging in the stash for a suitable donor, I stumbled upon a small bag of red styrene bits. What you see in the next photo is all that’s left of an original issue Dodge Daytona. Thankfully, it’s about all I need!??

 

So… I will leave it there for now, and stop babbling. The styrene dust has flying at my hobby desk, and I  have made some reasonable progress with this build, so I will add some updates soon. Lots of modifications, and scratch building on this one… Thanks for having a look, and as always, all comments welcome.

I’ve got some catching up to do on the forum here, you folks have been busy! 

Cheers, Steve

[Ace-Garageguy]

This should be interesting...   

[Mattilacken]

Cant wait!! Love Martins build and that style of build is super cool! Some thing i have wanted to do as well. 

[Misha]

Hi Steve, looking forward to your build as it is a very intriguing combination. Planning to drive out on Sunday to see what you’re up to for the SPAM meeting and Show’n’Shine!

Cheers Misha 

[Chuckyg1]

Oh boy! This'll be fun.

[espo]

Looking forward to seeing this build. 

[Steve H]

21 hours ago, Ace-Garageguy said:

This should be interesting...   

Hi Bill, I think I can keep it interesting. I’ll give it my best shot. Thanks for checking in sir.

11 hours ago, Mattilacken said:

Cant wait!! Love Martins build and that style of build is super cool! Some thing i have wanted to do as well. 

Hi Anton! Good to hear from you, it’s been a while. Yes, Martin’s build, (well, ALL of his builds actually) are very cool. This style really caught my eye, and my imagination, so I’m excited to see how it comes together. 

10 hours ago, Misha said:

Hi Steve, looking forward to your build as it is a very intriguing combination. Planning to drive out on Sunday to see what you’re up to for the SPAM meeting and Show’n’Shine!

Cheers Misha 

Misha! Excellent news, I’m so glad you’re coming down on Sunday. Look forward to seeing you and catching up. The weather looks promising for a mini show and shine.
So far, it’s been fun blending these kits together. The endurance cars are very different from anything I’ve built before, so I spent more time than usual looking at the instructions. 

6 hours ago, Chuckyg1 said:

Oh boy! This'll be fun.

I think so John! It will be fun for me, hopefully it doesn’t put you to sleep… Thanks for having a look.

4 hours ago, espo said:

Looking forward to seeing this build. 

Thank you David. Nice to hear from you. It looks like you have been very busy. I’ll try and get caught up on your builds. Your WIP’s are always enjoyable and informative. 

[BK9300]

Steve, sounds like lots of scratch building ahead of you!

[Steve H]

As I mentioned at the end of the first post the styrene chips, and dust have been flying at my hobby desk. I added the sunroof filler piece. The first major task was some surgery on the body. 
First step was to remove the back half of the body. Very simple task. I cut the lower angle to follow parallel with the back edge of the door. The upper portion of the cut followed the back window edge.The masking tape on the front fender is a guide for step 2.

 

Second step was to liberate a portion of the front fenders. Then add some filler pieces to the body, so that the fenders can be reattached. 

The fenders received styrene strips across the top, and on the bottom edges at both sides of the wheel opening. This will allow some more track width at the front, and give the car some attitude. The upper piece is longer than the fender at the trailing edge which made it look a little less chunky. The fenders have been thinned considerably on the inside as well. The styrene was thick!! The first 2 photos the fenders are not glued, and were taken before fine tuning the shape along the top.

 
In the above photo you can see I opened up the grill. Probably won’t be much to see behind there, but hopefully the rad will be visible… Not sure if I will be able to find the kit headlights, but I will figure out something when I get there. 
 

The fenders are now glued in place, with some VERY preliminary body work. My kit had huge sink marks at the front corners of the fenders. I’ve got that mostly blended in now. The inner front fenders have also been removed. I will build a “trunk” under the hood later in the thread. 
The fenders were attached about 3-4 scale inches higher so I could achieve the stance, and overall look I am aiming for. I debated whether or not to leave the belt line on the raised fenders since they no longer lined up with the body line. This is visible in the first picture below. As you can see in the second photo, I decided to remove the belt line from the fenders, just felt it looked cleaner…

 

If you look close in the last photo, you’ll notice there is roof scoop. Being rear engined, no need for a hood scoop!!? Next update will show some of the chassis work done so far. Still a long ways to go, but the pieces are slowly coming together. 
That’s it for this update. Thanks for having a look.
 

Cheers, Steve

 

[Steve H]

10 minutes ago, BK9300 said:

Steve, sounds like lots of scratch building ahead of you!

Yes sir! Well… a fair amount anyway. Lots of modified kit pieces too. My last build was mostly “out of the box” so I’m enjoying being back at my kit bashing antics. 
Thanks for checking in!

[Chuckyg1]

And off we go, adventure awaits!

[chris chabre]

this is gonna be killer!!! Ill send over some photos of a build Im doing

[rv1963]

Ok this looks very interesting already, I al following along.

[Bullybeef]

Interesting concept, I’ll follow along. 

[Steve H]

On 9/25/2024 at 11:26 AM, Chuckyg1 said:

And off we go, adventure awaits!

Haha! Yep, this one is a bit of an adventure for sure. Stay tuned John.
 

 

23 hours ago, chris chabre said:

this is gonna be killer!!! Ill send over some photos of a build Im doing

Thanks Chris, let’s see what you got! Share here or a PM. Thanks for having a look.

[Steve H]

For the chassis…..

After a quick mock up, I determined the front track width needed to be 10” narrower. So I cut off the front, and removed 10mm of width. The best part is that this really doesn’t impact anything else in the build. No engine to fit in later…

 Before any cuts…

front of chassis removed, plus the narrowing…

With that part done, more mock ups revealed I needed more room inside. So chassis was cut, 10mm added to the wheel base. This allowed more room inside, but also added some needed room in the engine bay out back. Again, quite easy as there is no trans tunnel, frame, and such to deal with. So here it is back together in one piece. The front portion of the chassis plate was also extended and shaped to match the front profile of the Daytona. The chassis plate was also narrowed along the sides, full width left at the rear. Still some fine tuning to do in that area as I progress.

 

That’s it for this round. Thanks for taking the time have a look. More soon…

[Steve H]

On 9/27/2024 at 3:54 AM, rv1963 said:

Ok this looks very interesting already, I al following along.

Thanks for joining in the journey Robert. 
 

 

On 9/27/2024 at 4:30 AM, Bullybeef said:

Interesting concept, I’ll follow along. 

Good to have you on board Bil. Thanks for having a look. 

[Steve H]

As part of the mock up to establish track width, I needed to have wheels and tires sorted out. I started with some wheels from another endurance car. These came from a partially started Nissan kit purchased at the same time as the Mercedes. 
 
Here’s a look as they were…

After a bath in some easy off, they were cleaned up and primed. Valve stems were added. Then the rear wheels were modified to fit with some aluminium sleeves from Scale Production. The fronts needed some mods to fit the tires I chose, then the outer portion of the rim received some BMF (done AFTER paint) to match the look of the rears. Yes, the wheels are painted in what will be the body colour. Silver base, Tamiya metallic orange, then Tamiya clear orange, finally Tamiya clear.

Here is how they look now…

What I’m aiming for with this build, is sort of a futuristic street freak. Like a,  “more refined” Mad Max type of thing… 

work on interior has begun, but nothing to show yet.

Thanks for having a look, cheers, Steve

[BK9300]

Geez those valve stems are small in the pics - can't imagine keeping track of them till you glue them in place - wheels look great!

[Steve H]

23 hours ago, BK9300 said:

Geez those valve stems are small in the pics - can't imagine keeping track of them till you glue them in place - wheels look great!

Hi Brian, ya, the small parts get attached right away or they disappear… Thanks for checking in. That plow truck you are building is absolutely amazing, very nice work. 

[Steve H]

A bit of progress on the interior. Just sorting out some of the pieces that will be used.

The plan is to use the factory door cards, but they will be somewhat modified. The passenger side has been shaped to fit with the chassis, not shown is the rear bulkhead/firewall that the door cards will butt up to. There will be some carbon fibre details, and new photo etch power lock/window switches. I deepened the door pull on the passenger side too, although hard to tell in the photos. This will be done on driver side as well, as you can see, I haven’t started shaping the driver side yet..

Obviously, a bunch of work to do yet, especially at the bottom. Not sure how the re-release of this kit will be, but ALL of the panel lines inside and out are very shallow on the Daytona. I’ve spent a lot of time scribing the panel lines deeper.

The dash will be completely re-worked. Top will be smoothed out, I think I will scribe in some defrost vents, not 100% on that yet though. Gauge faces will be different as well. Seats are from a Tamiya Subaru WRC , and I’m almost done with the scratch built console. I have scratch built a shifter, and Hoonigan style hand brake. (No photos yet…) Haven’t started the steering column yet. The pieces are slowly coming together.

Thanks for having a look! 

[BK9300]

All these modifications inside of 25 (or so) square centimetres!  Great to watch.

[Mattilacken]

Neat work there!

[chris chabre]

sweet!!

[Steve H]

On 10/8/2024 at 6:42 PM, BK9300 said:

All these modifications inside of 25 (or so) square centimetres!  Great to watch.

Hi Brian, it’s a small space for sure. I’ll see what I can do with it. Not going to get TOO carried away on details with this build, just enough to keep,it somewhat interesting… if you’re into this sort of thing…??
 

 

On 10/9/2024 at 3:43 AM, Mattilacken said:

Neat work there!

Thank you Anton! Always good to hear from you sir. Loving what you have planned for your Grand Cherokee build.

3 hours ago, chris chabre said:

sweet!!

Thanks Chris, hope all is well with you my friend. 
 

 

I appreciate the comments guys, should have some bench time this weekend. Hope to have another update soon ??