Lindberg's Petty Plymouth

[Scottnkat]

Thanks, Ian - I appreciate the kind words.

[CorvairJim]

I'm enjoying watching this one coming together. "The King" was my second favorite race driver ever - Speed Racer was my first! This car was sllightly before my time, but only slightly. I first got into NASCAR when I was 8 or 9 and he was driving the STP Charger for the first season. To me, that first-year STP Charger had one of the best looking paint jobs ever to compete in NASCAR.

(Ian commented about your kids not eating model parts: Seems to me that at just 8 years old Gennie knows just what to do with modfel parts already. MAN, does that kid have talent! You should post some of her stuff on here too! )

[Scottnkat]

Thanks, Jim. This car was a little before my time, too, but I thought if I'm gonna build a half dozen of Petty's cars that I think were important (which is my plan), then I'd have to start with the first one he won a Championship in. Future builds will include the STP Charger, the Superbird, and even his Plymouth Barracuda drag car (that one I am still working on in my head to figure out just how I wanna do it).

Regarding Genevieve, yes she does have talent. This thread is about this car, but maybe I should start a thread with some of her work for other people to see. That's not a bad idea.

[Harry P.]

Nice work so far.

And a big "thumbs up" to you and Kathi for even attempting operational hood pins!

[Guest Johnny]

I did the hood pin trick on a 64 Ford Modified Stocker back in the 70's! I found flat sequins the right size at a fabric shop and raided the wife's sewing box for the needles and craft wire for shaping the clips.

Got the ide out of a model magzine but cannot remember what one back then.

[Bartster]

Man I love this car! I KNEW I shoulda typed in hood- pins also! This is making me want to start my old JO-HAN kit, but I'm trying to sit on it. I sure hope the '67 Belvedere & '71 Satelite are on yor build list, those are 2 & 3 in my book! I love the sequin idea, I might have to borrow that one! This is coming on nicely, Scott. Love it!

[Scottnkat]

Well, sorry for the delay in posting anything. I am not very good at doing Bare Metal Foil and I had to do the same spots a couple of times. But here it is all foiled up and ready to go:

[Bartster]

I think it looks great. I'm scared of BMF. I got some, but never used it.

[Scottnkat]

Oh yeah - I also finished the hood as well (look behind the car).

I've only used BMF a couple of times (including this time) so I am nowhere near a pro. The way I do it is to cut a small piece just big enough for what I need, then I rub it down with my fingers so it doesn't move. I then use a toothpick to rub it down into the corners really well. Finally, I use an X-Acto knife with a brand new #11 blade to cut along the edge I just rubbed down, then peel off the excess. I go through those blades pretty often (I used two brand new ones just doing the windows), but as long as I go slowly it doesn't seem to work too badly. Hope that helps, Bartster - maybe some day you can just take some bare-body and give it a shot for yourself.

[Scottnkat]

Okay, time to make some hood pins. Here's the things we will need:

Sewing needles, jewelry wire, flat need nose pliers, round needle nose pliers, and a hole punch.

Basically, the eye of the needle is just a little too small, so we use the hole punch to make the eye just slightly larger. Careful with this - if you stamp it too hard through the eye, you will simply break the needle - these don't bend much at all. Once you have the eye large enough for the wire to fit through, the needle is done. Now we need to shape the wire. Use the round tipped pliers to make the "S" shapes in the wire, then turn the wire back to run beside the wavey "S" side, then clip it off. It should look something like this:

Now use your flat pliers to get this wire back into shape and flat. When you're done, it should look like this (or something similar):

Finally, feed the needle through the hood or trunk, use your newly made clip to hold it in place. Here it is on the trunk - since the trunk doesn't open, we didn't have to worry about making these ones functional like the ones for the hood, but the same process will be employed for those as well. These have been superglued into place and once it's dry, I will just clip the needles below the trunk and that part will be done.

[Scottnkat]

Okay - final update for the night (now I am going to rest). Here's how we will make the hood pins functional. I had drilled out three holes on the hood, but what you may not have noticed is that there are also three holes in the support beam under the front of the hood - this is where the needles will go:

You wanna make sure that the wire goes through the needles very easily - you don't wanna have to fuss with it once it's all together (imagine the needle swaying in the breeze):

We then snip a bit of wire and put it through the needle eye - this will help hold the needle up and will be used for a slight adjustment that I will mention later. We then put the needles through the holes in the hood:

Make sure that your needles go through not only the hood, but also the support beam below:

Alright, that picture stunk, so here's another one that shows how the needles go through both the hood and the support:

Once it's all set, you want the needles to be raised slightly (no need to treat your model like the car you had 20 years ago where you had to push on the hood to get the hood pin through the rod). Rotate the wire to slightly lift the needles up just a touch, then support that with a small bit of tape:

Now superglue the needles to the support (not the hood - that would be bad). Let it sit for the glue to set, or use some accelerator. While this is sitting, you can take a few and make the pins as mentioned above. Voila!! You've just made functional hood pins.

[Scottnkat]

Okay, time to finish up the hood pins. First, I drilled three small holes in the grill.

Now we're going to use that thread you saw in the earlier picture. This is silver thread that my wife picked up at Walmart - it's pretty cheap, and it is an actual silver color instead of just a grey. We need to cut a few lengths of thread and tie a knot at the end:

Run the thread through the holes in your grill so the knot catches the back of the grill. Glue this in place - I used Gator Glue, but you could use whatever glue you are comfortable with. Now you have the cables for your hood pins:

Sorry, I know it's tough seeing the threads when the green mat has white stripes on it as well, but you can see them coming out of the grill where we drilled the holes earlier. Now the only thing left to do is make three more clips (as shown above) and tie those new clips to the threads. Make a knot and cut off the excess. This is best done when you are getting pretty much all done so you can make sure that the length is correct. Kathi just added to put a little dab of glue on this knot as well so it doesn't come undone - yes, she is helpful

And as a final update to the previous post, once the glue has set and the needles are all set in place, simply clip them off below the support. Your hood pins are now ready to be used:

Now I have the car body drying (after putting on a clear coat). Next we have to mate the body to the chassis and put on decals. We're getting to the end!! Woo hoo

[caine440]

WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That is outstanding work!

[1zebra3]

WOW!!! This car looks great Scott. Petty is the KING ya know. I'm planning on building this car soon. Have to finish a few builds I'm working on first. Hope mine turns out as well.

[Scottnkat]

Thanks for the comments, guys - I really appreciate it.

[Scottnkat]

Well, I put the body on the chassis to get an idea of how it would look - here's the engine bay (I think this will work).

Edited January 12, 2012 by Scottnkat

[Scottnkat]

Last update for the night - how's the stance?

[Bartster]

That's looking wickid, It's almost a shame to cover it up with numbers.

[Scottnkat]

Thanks, Bartster - I appreciate it. Not sure I'll get time to do much today - I just got home from work and the wife is not feeling well. I'll post any update that I do get done.

[440 Dakota]

_{very nice Scott the hood pins are an incredible detail and the BMF looks great}

[Scottnkat]

and an update on the Belvedere:

Bumpers are on - hood pins are tied to the strings and the strings cut - I'm not sure, but I think all that's left is the door handles and then it's decal time.

[Scottnkat]

Thanks, Ian - I'm hoping to get most of this finished this weekend.

[Scottnkat]

Well, started doing the decals on the Belvedere now. Once that's all done, I'll just need a nice clear coat to protect everything. Then, I've gotta get some pics that I can use for the display case (needs something appropriate). Once I am done with the decals, I will post a progress photo.

[Bartster]

I still bet it's hard to cover up that beautiful paint with #s! OFF the charts! Please do the '67 & the '71 ! Thanx,

Bart

[Scottnkat]

Those are both great cars, Bartster, and those are planned to be done as well. I'm just not sure when yet. I was thinking of doing a dual build next of the '69 Talladega and '69 Torino, but I'm not sure.

I've got the decals done - just a little bit of touch up and then it's time to post this over to the completed builds forum.

One other thing to note - I always put the cars I build into display cases (I hate dealing with dusting). I decided to make my own backdrop for this car within the case. I wanted something related, so I have decided to use this:

I know it's the wrong era for this car, but all the pics I found that were from that time were black and white. But I think this one is appropriate since I decided to use the sponsor decals from the Daytona race - When it's all done, I'll post pics of the car by itself and in the case with this background.