stewart Posted February 8, 2011 Posted February 8, 2011 (edited) I am now between projects (Very unusual LOL ) and was trying to pick out another build. Some of you probably do this as well but when I have a good idea for a car or when I am just tired of building and need to get some of the creative juices flowing, I plan out the next build – or two, or four – or 20 in a notebook However, none of the one's I had planned out seemed like ones I "felt" like doing at the moment or I didn't have the parts yet. So I began rummaging through my kit stash and found this. This kit brought back some ideas I had when I got it. So I pulled out a 21 ft galaxie trailer I had and I was ready. This is going to be a shop/parts van for my now imaginary but soon to be started custom car shop and showroom. I am now in the process of building vehicles for it i.e. a small tow truck, a car transporter, a race team, and a bunch of Mopar show cars. The van is going to have a 6.4 liter hemi (the new kind. I am now doing research) and allison tranny (scratchbuilt) ladder bars and airbags out back, a custom dash, race seats, and a bunch of shelves and cabinets for parts in the back. The trailer will have a few tools, more room for parts, and enough room for a small car. Pic of the engine from the Revell Dodge Challenger The wheels. Lower ones are the fronts, uppers are the rears STewart Edited February 8, 2011 by stewart
RodneyBad Posted February 8, 2011 Posted February 8, 2011 O man, that's the van I'm looking for. Even tho they are mostly the same. I'm rebuilding mine but I cut the hole (must've used a Hack saw back then) and installed the glass panel. Looks like it's gonna be a cool project.
stewart Posted February 8, 2011 Author Posted February 8, 2011 It seems like the van thing is a "on" right now So I figured I would get in on it with this. STewart
stewart Posted February 13, 2011 Author Posted February 13, 2011 I have most of the body work done on the van. I removed the "gutters" around the top, most of the trim. I am going to remove the cutout for the moon roof and I ordered a PE saw set from Detail Master for removing the hood and doors. I began work on the frame. I removed the front clip and replaced it with styrene strip. I will be using the i-beam front suspension from the Ford F350 and a Ford 9 inch for the rear. I put the engine together temporarily with super glue. The valve covers need reworking to look like the 6.4 Hemi. I am going to need to lengthen the transmission tunnel because even the 6.1 Hemi's tranny does not fit. Work on the scratchbuilt Allison will begin soon. STewart
Foxer Posted February 14, 2011 Posted February 14, 2011 This sounds good .. I'll be watching closely.
stewart Posted February 15, 2011 Author Posted February 15, 2011 I decided not to go all out and completely scratchbuild a tranny. Didn't want to go to all the work. However, I wanted a much beefier tranny than any I had in the parts box but not one as big as an Eaton fuller . I have a couple extra viper engines and I like the looks of its tranny so I cut one of the engine and placed a thick piece of styrene in between the halves. I sanded it even with the rest of the tranny and then put an oil pan underneath to complete my heavy duty transmission. I also carved a much larger oil pan from some styrene. To make room for the much larger that stock transmission, I cut out a section of large brass tubing I had, cut out a section of the floor, and superglued it in place. STewart
stewart Posted February 18, 2011 Author Posted February 18, 2011 I have completed all of the bodywork except for opening the doors and moonroof. Still waiting for the photoetched saw blades to get here. I cut of the rear of the interior bucket because I did not want tuck and button sides and carpet-textured floor. I put down diamond plate on the rear floor and partition wall, added walls, and took some bigger wheel wells from the parts box for the wider wheels I am using. I found some parts box seats that will be painted leather. They are from the Revell '06 Dodge Charger kit. The gauge panel is finished and will be installed as soon as the dash is painted. I used an MCG moon eyes photoetch set mounted on a chrome-painted piece of styrene. I really like the look of the gauges. It is the first time I have used them. I am using an axle that was resin cast by Alan from the Ford F-350 duallie kit. I added mounting plates to it for the air bags. Engine is mostly complete. I modified the valve covers to look more like the 6.4 hemi and will print some 392 hemi decals to put on it. Still have to decide where to go with the intake. I thought about doing a direct fuel injection kit but you would only see a little bit of it. I might just go with dual K&N filters on either side of the engine compartment. Enough talking!! Here are the pics. Sorry about the poor quality Air bags Cab/rear partition Rear Axle Seats Interior. Not enlarged transmission tunnel. Engine and tranny Gauge cluster STewart
Chuck Most Posted February 18, 2011 Posted February 18, 2011 Must be a "Dodge Van Fever" going around. I'll be keeping a sharp eye on this one for sure!
stewart Posted February 18, 2011 Author Posted February 18, 2011 Count Chuckula Icon Posted Today, 11:00 PM Must be a "Dodge Van Fever" going around. I'll be keeping a sharp eye on this one for sure! Yes except I think the others are chevies.
Chuck Most Posted February 18, 2011 Posted February 18, 2011 Yes except I think the others are chevies. I can think of at least three Dodges going on currently (four counting yours)... that's got to be an all time high for Dodge van WIPs in model car message board history!
stewart Posted February 18, 2011 Author Posted February 18, 2011 Well maybe I haven't seen the others. I will have to check them out. STewart The two others I know of are both chevies.
stewart Posted February 20, 2011 Author Posted February 20, 2011 I spent most of the evening with an airbrush and metalizers painting parts for in the van. I started painting the interior bucket and finished the first coat of Model master leather in the front of the cab. I am going to do body colored accents in it to break the monotony. More shelves will be installed in the back and perhaps some cabinets. The basic engine is complete but I am waiting on some aluminum pulleys and air filters for the intake. I added brackets for the ladder bars to the frame, finished painting the rear axle, and installed the airbags. I am not sure if the ladder bars are long enough. They are fairly short. Does anyone know how these things work? I am trying to complete the bodywork but every time I primer and sand, there is another spot. Hopefully I will get my detail master order soon with the PE saw blades to cut out the doors because my headway is fairly limited until then. STewart Parts for in the van Interior-seats Dash- I plan on adding a few more auxiliary guages Cab Rear
RodneyBad Posted February 20, 2011 Posted February 20, 2011 Van is looking perty good. Tranny hump came out great. Engine is looking good. Good looking Cargo area Nice rear end with air bags. Funny thing tho is you put the shelving on the side the sidedoor opens up on. BTW: My Dodge Van build http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=39661 Dodge Van Truckster(?) build http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=41093
Foxer Posted February 20, 2011 Posted February 20, 2011 This keeps looking better. The one big problems with vans is the engine is very difficult to see, even with the hood open. I'm leaving half the top detail off on my GMC van since I didn't feel like prolonging (is that possible with me?) the build by opening the hood. Are you doing anything to see the engine better? I especially like that diamond plate floor and those boxes of metal parts are sparkling!
stewart Posted February 20, 2011 Author Posted February 20, 2011 (edited) Thanks all for the comments. Zukiholic Icon Posted Today, 12:03 AM Van is looking perty good. Tranny hump came out great. Engine is looking good. Good looking Cargo area Nice rear end with air bags. Funny thing tho is you put the shelving on the side the sidedoor opens up on. I realized that this would be a problem so this van does not have a side door. Makes the build a little easier. Foxer, I am planning on opening the hood. However, I am leaving off detail on parts of the engine that will not be seen. As far as the rear suspension, I have entered the build in the truck CBP and was told the the ladder bars are much too short which is what I was afraid of. However, DoubleD suggested that I use a Nascar setup so I am going to ditch the ladder bars and try that. STewart Edited February 20, 2011 by stewart
stewart Posted March 4, 2011 Author Posted March 4, 2011 I filled in the passenger side rear doors so I would have more space for shelving. I found the paint for it and got flocking for the interior. It will probably be boyd's orange pearl but I did get a solid orange color that I might put under the pearl or use for accents. I gave up on waiting for the PE saws to arrive from DetailMaster and just used a #11 knife and scribed out the doors. When I did that, I realized that the primer I used (plastikote primer/filler) was about a 1/32" thick. Way too much. So I am going to have to find another readily available, cheap primer because this stuff goes on way too thick (or maybe I just use way to many coats[]) It is now covered in EasyOff to remove it. When it comes out, I am going to redo some of the rather sloppy bodywork and I will have to reinforce the front end with some metal strips. I got a upholstery leopard decal from Scaledreams as an accent for the seats. I will probably paint the center section of the seats orange and put the decal on over it. I also received in the mail today a set of spun aluminum exhaust tips. Here is the beginnings of the new suspension. I will probably add shocks as well to this setup STewart
crazyjim Posted March 4, 2011 Posted March 4, 2011 Instead of the primer/filler, you might want to think about Plasticotes sandable primer #235 or 237. It's thinner than the filler stuff.
stewart Posted March 5, 2011 Author Posted March 5, 2011 I will look for it. I have been getting this stuff because its at Fred Meyers and really easy to access. They might have that stuff too. STewart
stewart Posted March 5, 2011 Author Posted March 5, 2011 Tomorrow I am going to go get some new primer and get some manicure supplies to try custom Mike's fingernail filler. Mine isn't doing too great. STewart
stewart Posted March 6, 2011 Author Posted March 6, 2011 The van is nearly completely stripped of the primer. However, cutting out the doors before stripping the paint was a bad idea. The loss of supporting material greatly weakened the body and several parts, including the front clip, broke off. This morning I went very early (before very many other people would be around ) and went slinking around the manicure department hoping nobody would notice me. Unfortunately, it took me 10 minutes to find it but I did eventually. STewart
stewart Posted March 15, 2011 Author Posted March 15, 2011 (edited) I was able to secure a new dodge van kit to replace the broken body and have started the body work on it. There were a lot of places that required smoothing or filling and filling the side door panel lines is a pain. Unfortunately, it is not the same kit and the grille from the original does not quite fit the new body. However, I was going to modify the grille anyway. I cut out the middle with the headlights and replaced them with the units from the other kit. I am going to try to scratchbuild an aluminum billet grille using round styrene rod. I have mostly completed the rear suspension. It is from a Monogram Nascar kit. I punched out some plastic discs for mounts and glued on the airbags. The frame has been slightly notched to allow for axle travel with the lowered wheels. I scratchbuilt a panhard bar from a section of aluminum tubing. I epoxied 00-90 brass nuts on the end and used a small bolt to secure it too the suspension arms. I have nearly completed the interior. I used some of scale dreams leopard skin decals to make the pattern on the seats. The decals work great! No trouble at all laying them down. I painted Boyd's orange pearl underneath. This will be the eventual color of the whole body. I also completed my first flocking job. The cargo area only needs a few more pieces added and it will be complete. I built a set of shelves for it last night. STewart Edited March 15, 2011 by stewart
stewart Posted March 15, 2011 Author Posted March 15, 2011 (edited) I also figure out how to get clear pics with my camera. I just need to make sure I have strong lighting and the pics will be clear. Edited March 15, 2011 by stewart
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