1972 Bobby Allison Southern 500 winning Coke Chevy

[MarkJ]

Got back to the grille. Looks like it will be a complete do over.

[MarkJ]

Just a little more to do and grille/front bumper assembly will be done.

[MarkJ]

Just need to add the park lamp covers to the bumper and I will be ready to paint the grille/bumper assembly. Then I can start on the engine.

[MarkJ]

I'm going to say I'm finished with the grille /bumper assembly. The fit is not perfect by any means but a lot better than you get making the model oob. If you do it that way you get a huge gap between the hood and the grille when the hood is completely shut on the sides. Really bad engineered kit but I don't think they wanted you to build a real Nascar cup car from 1972. More like a local track Saturday night special. For that purpose, it is just fine. On to the engine and eventual completion of this build.

[MarkJ]

I missed a touch up spot on the right side next to the right headlight cover. Will fix it before I clear the model.

[Rattlecan Dan]

I know you will. Looking great so far.

[MarkJ]

4 hours ago, Rattlecan Dan said:

I know you will. Looking great so far.

Thanks for dropping by, Donato. I really appreciate that you're staying in tune to the build.

[MarkJ]

Did some brush painting of various parts that can't be airbrushed. The 1/4 glass fairings , the rear bumper fairings and the door handle depression covers. Also, the windshield and back glass moldings and the rear glass blow out straps. Also had to paint a bar on the interior floor where the cage attaches to the floor. Painted the pads and headrest on the cage flat black to differentiate them from the cage. Need to finally get around to the engine and also need to do the seat and shoulder belt harnesses and hardware. I probably should just glue the hood shut, clear the body and put this baby together and move on to the next build.

[MarkJ]

I've come to an epiphany. I was thinking how I ended my last take above and I believe I will just glue the hood shut paint the belts that are on the seat and just add the oob stuff to the interior and finish this thing as quick as possible. I really have no idea what the actual interior or how the belts look or anything about how it looks under the hood. So, I'm basically just wasting a lot of time. Main thing is to get the stance right, clear the body, decal it and future it. Then I can move on to my next build that I have always wanted to do and I will build it the same way. Hood glued shut and no extra extraneous stuff that takes a lot of time.

[MarkJ]

I glued the hood shut and heard that the African dust cloud is coming for most of next week so I real quick got the body ready for the tamiya x-22 clear and shot it this afternoon. Came out glossy enough that I won't have to polish it. if you look closely, you can see the reflection of the gum cleaner brush in the sides of the model. I can't get over how good the acrylic gold paint turned out. Really happy with it. The tamiya clear works really well too. You can get really close and shoot it wet but not enough to let it run and it dries glossy with the home-made flow improver I added to the mix. a little dawn dish detergent and a little acrylic retarder. just 10 drops added to the 10-gram mix of clear.

[slusher]

Mark,you have done some great work and made great progress since my last visit.  Beautiful paint and I see your respraded the roll bars. I enjoy your work Mark…

[MarkJ]

Thank you, Carl, for stopping by with a comment. By not leaving the hood open I will be able to finish quicker than first expected. I do need to make a window net and add the gauge decals to the dash. I will also have to make a shifter. Somehow I lost the one that came in the kit. Thanks again.

[Pierre Rivard]

She is looking mighty fine Mark. I love the idea of a curbside (gluing the hood shut) from time to time. Some engines are unique and deserve the pain of fabrication and detailing, some do not seem worth the effort. I like your call on this one. Decal day is coming. I love decal day!

[MarkJ]

3 hours ago, Pierre Rivard said:

She is looking mighty fine Mark. I love the idea of a curbside (gluing the hood shut) from time to time. Some engines are unique and deserve the pain of fabrication and detailing, some do not seem worth the effort. I like your call on this one. Decal day is coming. I love decal day!

Thanks, Pierre. That's what I was thinking. The engine under the hood of this car was really much ado about nothing and I did not have actual photos, so I did not see the point of wasting time under the hood. Yes, decals are fun but scary at the same time if you mess one up. And I do that a lot with these old hands and eyes I have. Plus, this decal sheet is very hard to find now.