1968 AMC Javelin street machine

[Quiet Eric]

I teased this one in the Mock Up thread a while ago. '68-'70 Javelins are one of my favorite cars. And the one in this ad from the Corporation itself is the bee's knees! So thats what I'm going to build. It'll be suspension, wheels/tires, giant blower sticking through the hood, and of course the zoomie headers. I'll probably do something similar with the interior too, but just by painting the floor grey, adding the one racing seat and a roll bar. I'm not sure about the center instrument panel.

 

This is my first venture into a 3d printed kit and parts. Modeled by Andrey Bezrodney and printed by Brian Dutz. My observations so far...the detail, while amazing, is going to be really hard to bring out through layers of paint. Mostly the door handles and side marker lights. And similar to a resin cast part, anything flat or near flat has warpage. The chassis has an upward bow through the middle which I was able to correct mostly, and once it's assembled some glue will easily keep it in place. The hood however was pretty bad and in my attempts to fix that I snapped it in two. Brian has been helpful in sending me another one. In my attempt to get the front suspension parts off of the support structure, one of the strut rods immediately snapped, and then later I broke a rear leaf spring trying to tweak it just a little. So now I've learned exactly how fragile these things are compared to a plastic kit! So, moving forward.

I've sanded the body down, it wasn't too bad except for a lot of waves in the roof, but its smooth now. These wheels and tires are from Mean Machine Models. The centers slip into the wheels and the wheels slip into the tires...but not tightly, so it's difficult to mock anything up. I'm going to go ahead and paint/detail these and glue everything together, then I'll be able to make the suspension modifications I want. I might end up gluing the hood shut if I can't get the warp out and cutting a hole for the supercharger...more "curbside". I think the color is 1969 "Big Bad Orange" but I don't need anything else from Scale Finishes so I'll just grab something close from the LHS.

Edited Saturday at 02:38 PM by Quiet Eric

[Zen]

Cool project! Too bad on the warpage, how did you try to fix the chassis?

[espo]

Paint it "Big Bad Orange" bumpers and all. 

[Quiet Eric]

5 hours ago, Zen said:

Cool project! Too bad on the warpage, how did you try to fix the chassis?

I ran it under hot water while flexing it the opposite direction, then ran it under cold water to help it hold the "new" shape. It kinda worked.

[Quiet Eric]

4 hours ago, espo said:

Paint it "Big Bad Orange" bumpers and all. 

Looks like it's getting a coat of Testor's Flaming Orange, because that's what I came home with! And the bumpers will get a coat of Revell Chrome or Fusion Firm.