My tribute to the Jim Keeler “Dodge Fever” 1968 Coronet

[LDO]

I had not planned on doing a WIP thread because of my history of projects that drag on forever. Jim Keeler’s ‘68 Coronet is so cool, I think it could give me the momentum to see it through. This will not be an exact replica, but a tribute with changes for artistic license, practicality (it could be tough to track down all the original parts from late 1960s kits), and a mistake or two from not noticing small details in the old magazine photos. It’s easy to miss things in 56 year old B&W photos of a white car body. I’m starting with the body.  Anyway- 

Pic 1: mock up of extended nose. These parts are held in place with blue painter’s tape. The side extensions are three layers of laminated .030” Evergreen styrene. I did that so I could bend them to match the cross section of the body at the cut. The top piece had to be replaced because I got the angles wrong. 
 

Pic 2: Blending the extensions into the door. They transition to slab sides at the front. They are 1/4” longer than Jim Keeler’s measurements from the how-to articles. That was a Charger body, so there is a bit of the artistic license. It has the replacement top piece in .080” Evergreen styrene. 
 

Pic 3: The underside of the roof. I made an error in the roof cut. There was a gap of about .060”, so I filled that with a strip of Evergreen styrene. That led to problems in the next step. Jim used a heated small spoon on the bottom of the roof to angle it down a bit. On my attempt, the Evergreen expanded and “bubbled up”. I had to file it down. My guess is this happened because it is softer than kit plastic. Jim used “Sprue Goo” as body filler. I have never tried it, but his looked better than mine. 

 

 

[LDO]

Pic 1: Top side of the roof, after filing down the bubble that happened when I tried using a heated spoon to bend the roof down a bit. 
 

Pic 2: The inside of the body has a strip of .020” Evergreen to make it the same thickness as the extensions. There is another strip to help hold the two together. 
 

Pic 3: The vertical pencil mark (one on each side of the body) is to to make sure both side are the same length. The horizontal mark is the center of the the new  nose side profile. 
 

Pic 4: Left side. Starting the shaping of the nose. 

[TooOld]

Great idea Lee ,I'll be following along for this one .  I remember drooling over the original when I picked up that issue of Car Model at the corner store .

I have scans of all the Car Model issues if you need more pics , including his article on how to build your own Dodge fever .

[ColonelKrypton]

Jim Keeler's Dodge Fever was one of those pivotal articles in Car Model that provided much incentive to young pre-teen model maker.

I think I tried at least four times to make my own version of Jim's Dodge Fever using whatever model car bodies I could scrounge. I used a Dodge Charger body twice, a Chevelle, and a Mustang. The last two wouldn't have been a Dodge Fever of course but I tried to follow the basic concepts of the build and use what I had. Pocket money didn't amount to much in those days and beggars couldn't be choosers.

My attempts resulted in four different builds each ending in various stages of completion but in the end none where completed or even resulted in "rolling chassis" builds.

Never the less, it was fun, educational, and a creative challenge I have never forgotten about. I have just been thinking recently of having another go. I might just do so now that Lee's build has got my creative juices flowing again.

cheers, Graham

 

 

[Codi]

Any pics of the real thing?  I've never seen this before.  cheers, tim

[ColonelKrypton]

There is one here:  https://themodelcarmuseum.org/jim-keeler/

and some recent video of Jim and some of his builds

 

cheers, Graham

 

 

[meechum68]

Following! 

[LDO]

A little progress tonight. I don’t get much bench time on weekdays. Anyway- roughing in the nose. Strips of .080” and Tamiya liquid cement. When it sets up, I’ll use a big file to get it close, then sanding sticks to refine it. Not pretty, but I want to show everything, warts and all. 

[LDO]

A little bit of work tonight. 
1: I wanted a bit more curve in the transition to the slanted nose. It can be hard to gauge progress on this white plastic, so I scribbled pencil lines on it to make sure the filing was in the right area. 

2: Close to what I was looking for. Refined it a bit with a 220 grit sanding board .

3, 4, & 5: Tamiya spray can grey primer to get a better look at it. There are some gaps that need to be filled, but that will wait a few days to make sure the liquid cement doesn’t cause sink marks. The side profile reminds me of the Plymouth Superbird. That was not intentional. 

 

 

Edited Thursday at 11:54 PM by LDO

[LDO]

On 6/10/2025 at 6:19 AM, ColonelKrypton said:

Jim Keeler's Dodge Fever was one of those pivotal articles in Car Model that provided much incentive to young pre-teen model maker.

I think I tried at least four times to make my own version of Jim's Dodge Fever using whatever model car bodies I could scrounge. I used a Dodge Charger body twice, a Chevelle, and a Mustang. The last two wouldn't have been a Dodge Fever of course but I tried to follow the basic concepts of the build and use what I had. Pocket money didn't amount to much in those days and beggars couldn't be choosers.

My attempts resulted in four different builds each ending in various stages of completion but in the end none where completed or even resulted in "rolling chassis" builds.

Never the less, it was fun, educational, and a creative challenge I have never forgotten about. I have just been thinking recently of having another go. I might just do so now that Lee's build has got my creative juices flowing again.

cheers, Graham

 

 

The WIP thread is here for two reasons; a way to keep me motivated on one project and see it through, but also to let others have an idea of what to expect if they build something similar. A good example is do not use Dodge Daytona cut measurements on a different car. Even though I caught that, I still cut incorrectly on the roof. I hope you start one of these. You may do some things differently than Jim did in 1969. For the skin of the monocoque chassis, he used aluminum printers plate and punched rivets in from the back side. He then glued that to sheet plastic. I’ll just glue tiny plastic rivets onto sheet plastic. 

[LDO]

On 6/10/2025 at 5:47 AM, TooOld said:

Great idea Lee ,I'll be following along for this one .  I remember drooling over the original when I picked up that issue of Car Model at the corner store .

I have scans of all the Car Model issues if you need more pics , including his article on how to build your own Dodge fever .

I have the five how-to articles from 1969. I would love to see October 1968 with the MPC contest results. I think it’s fascinating to read about where the hobby was a long time ago. 

[TooOld]

8 hours ago, LDO said:

I have the five how-to articles from 1969. I would love to see October 1968 with the MPC contest results. I think it’s fascinating to read about where the hobby was a long time ago. 

Here ya go Lee !

https://public.fotki.com/TooOld/models/misc-/magazine-articles/car-model-dodge-contest/

[LDO]

3 hours ago, TooOld said:

Here ya go Lee !

https://public.fotki.com/TooOld/models/misc-/magazine-articles/car-model-dodge-contest/

Wow. Thank you. I didn’t realize until now that the nose of my model is a lot longer than the original. 

[TooOld]

1 hour ago, LDO said:

Wow. Thank you. I didn’t realize until now that the nose of my model is a lot longer than the original. 

It is longer but I'd go with it , you're not building an exact replica and the longer nose looks good !

Did you notice the Fourth Place winner ?  It's a 14 year old named Timothy S. Boyd .

[LDO]

A little more work tonight; putting on the cowl/top of the doors. I decided to go with a windshield that will be curved at the bottom. The opening is too far back. After gluing it in place, I see that the windshield would be nearly vertical. I’ll have to figure out if I should cut the roof back a bit or open the base part farther forward. 
 

1: The filler piece before opening up for the windshield. If it looks slightly angled at the top, good eye.  It needed that because the top of the nose extension was at a slight angle. The vertical line is the center. Horizontal line is just a mark that is parallel to the back end. 
2: marking out the shape. That ellipse was too small. I ended up using the next larger size. 
3: The final shape for removing plastic. 

4 & 5: Where I’m stopping tonight. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited Sunday at 02:57 PM by LDO

[LDO]

I couldn’t leave it alone. I’ll do the cutting tomorrow, but I couldn’t go to bed with that issue unresolved. 

[Ulf]

Very nice build.

“I couldn't go to bed with that issue unresolved”, it felt very familiar.

[LDO]

I looked at the old how-to articles and decided to go with a more square windshield. 

1: The little circled marks were made with a caliper, measuring from the panel line between the door and the rear quarter panel. This keeps everything square, assuming that the door lines are consistent. 

2 & 3: After the cut. The roof is also getting squared at the front. 

[LDO]

I got home late tonight. Not much time at the bench.

My attempt at bending the roof down by heating the inside with a hot spoon did not work. I cut across it with a razor saw, then made the cut a little wider with a Tamiya scriber. I laid a strip of Evergreen .020” in the groove and secured with Super Glue. This held the downward slant. The filler piece on top of the doors was filed and sanded. I used a Dremel to dig little trenches for putty. Will add that later. 

The Tamiya scriber arrived in the mail today. My Excel brand hobby knives have been breaking. I realized it’s from putting a lot of pressure on them when scribing thick plastic. This new scriber should do a better job and extend the life of hobby knives and #11 blades. 

 

Edited 19 hours ago by LDO

[absmiami]

The Tam scriber tool served me well for years - but don’t be afraid to splurge on their scribing tools with thinned blades - the ones that need to be inserted into handles or holders - they are really good …. Hope J Keeler takes a peek at this …

[LDO]

36 minutes ago, absmiami said:

The Tam scriber tool served me well for years - but don’t be afraid to splurge on their scribing tools with thinned blades - the ones that need to be inserted into handles or holders - they are really good …. Hope J Keeler takes a peek at this …

I will definitely check out their other scribing tools. Thank you.