slusher Posted February 11, 2013 Share Posted February 11, 2013 Wow, excellent detail.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Custom Mike Posted February 12, 2013 Author Share Posted February 12, 2013 (edited) Ira and Carl, thanks, I wish the boots wre smaller, but being only my second try at 'em, I'll take it. I'll make 'em smaller every time until I get 'em right! Thamks for the tip Curt, I'll find a yelow Sharpie and give it a shot! Edited February 12, 2013 by Custom Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lanesteele240 Posted February 12, 2013 Share Posted February 12, 2013 Nice build mike. You going to Richmond. I may. If i have money Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IMPALA SS 427 Posted February 14, 2013 Share Posted February 14, 2013 Amazing job blending the two, looks very cool. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albie D Posted February 14, 2013 Share Posted February 14, 2013 Great build Mike. That engine looks like it could be fed some hi-test and rumble to life! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wraith Posted February 14, 2013 Share Posted February 14, 2013 WAY COOL!!!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Custom Mike Posted February 14, 2013 Author Share Posted February 14, 2013 Thanks guys, I'm slowing down due to lot of hours at work, but at least i have work, right? Gary, when is Richmond, I'll see if it's something I can do! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lanesteele240 Posted February 15, 2013 Share Posted February 15, 2013 It is on the 23 of feb. check out the tread in the contest and shows section. Im should be able to go. The wife wants to go so i was like heck yeah. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rustybill1960 Posted February 18, 2013 Share Posted February 18, 2013 Getting god at interiors?!?!?!?!?!!! That is some of the best BMF trimming I have seen in a l-l-o-o-o-o-n-n-g time! Seriously, You have some "very" sharp blades, where did You buy them? Thank You for sharing Mike Great looking build, Sam is gonna be very pleased. . . . . uhm, if not . . . . . . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wrecker388 Posted February 18, 2013 Share Posted February 18, 2013 I love it Mike. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Custom Mike Posted February 18, 2013 Author Share Posted February 18, 2013 Russ, I use Hobbico #11 blades, I buy 'em in a pack of 100 once every couple of years, and they work great for foil. And Sam better like this, otherwise it'll stay with me! Thanks Riley, I took this one on to see it finally get finished, I did the bodywork way back in '07, and Sam's had it all this time, so I begged him to let me finish it. I'm going to do a second one (But this time I get to modify the rear wing height) for another member over on Scale Avenue, I'll probably do a WIP on the bodywork so everyone can see how I do it. I did get a bit of work done on this tonight, but no pics, since my battery is dead. I modified the interior panels and rear seat so it'll all fit nice and pretty like it's supposed to, I'll post up some pics tomorrow, gotta get my butt to bed! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Custom Mike Posted February 19, 2013 Author Share Posted February 19, 2013 OK, I finally got around to getting the pics I took the other night off of the camera, so let's do a bit of updating, shall we? I put my interior panels in place on the chassis, and marked where the new rear wheel wells land with a pencil. I carefully followed the pencil line with a #11 blade, then followed that line with my Trumpeter panel scriber. Once it was thin enough, I snapped the excess off, trimmed up the cut area, and tested my fit, and they both fit fine! Stock door panel on the left, modified on the right... Cut line marked with a pencil and ready for removal... Lightly scribed with a #11 blade... And deepened using the panel scriber, ready for the excess to be snapped off! Next up is the back seat. To mark this, I used my modified door panels as a template. Once again, the line was marked with a pencil, but the cutting was done with the #11 blade only this time. Once the cuts were made, I discovered I was going to have to remove some plastic from the back side of the seat and the wheel wells to get it to fit properly. I didn't get any pics of that process, but I'll snap some later if I get to the bench. Stock side of the back seat... And how much has to be removed to get it to fit in the new Pro-Street chassis. Amazingly, it looks good once the door panels are in place. I need to mock it up with a spare Duster body just to check clearances, but so far it looks fine! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Custom Mike Posted February 21, 2013 Author Share Posted February 21, 2013 OK, I've got some more updating to do, I got the interior mocked up to check the back seat's alignment (Along with the door panels) and the modified chassis. It fits great, here's some pics to prove it! Here's the minor mods needed to the wheel wells and back seat to get it to fit properly, just a bit of plastic removed from both... And the interior mocked up with a spare Duster body. The gap between the package shelf on the back seat and rear window opening is fine, the rear glass is pretty thick! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Custom Mike Posted February 21, 2013 Author Share Posted February 21, 2013 Next up, a bit of masking was done to the body so I could paint the headline and under-hood areas Black, some Black embossing powder was added to the floor pan, and the interior assembly was started. I stopped here for the night, I'm sick as a dog, and I need some drugs and sleep! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rustybill1960 Posted February 22, 2013 Share Posted February 22, 2013 You are turly a Master Craftsman Mike!! I really am enjoying Your work! Thank You for sharing Later Russ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Custom Mike Posted February 22, 2013 Author Share Posted February 22, 2013 Thanks Russ, the interior is now done, but it's in the spare body to keep it all squared up while the glue dries. I got a bit more done, starting with making a new driveshaft. I chopped the universal joints off the kit part, added a piece of aluminum tubing, and we have a driveshaft that fits! Next up was a minor fix to the back wheels, the inner wheel backer was not as big as the rim, so the tires were looking slanted toward the axle. A strip of styrene around each one makes the tires look like they should! Once it's painted, you can barely tell it's there! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Custom Mike Posted February 22, 2013 Author Share Posted February 22, 2013 (edited) This part tells me why Sam didn't want to build it, the Challenger T/A exhaust wasn't exactly designed to fit a Duster. This took a bit of heat, a whole lot of eyeballing and test fitting, and a couple of pieces of beading wire to hold the modified exhaust together. First up, the stripped exhaust in it's original size on the chassis...yeah, that's not gonna fit! The exhaust itself lands right at the back corner of the door...not the best placement! A bit of heat was applied to the exhaust tips, a bit of pressure, and we have tips that are better aligned. I also cut a section out of the center, and bent the pipes going up to the engine so they would line up with the location that the Duster's exhaust took over the transmission crossmember... 4 holes were carefully drilled in the modified exhaust, and a bit of 24 gauge beading wire was added to each pipe on the rear half... And a bit of Tamiya Extra Thin cement was added to the joint. Once it's cured, I'll work on making the seam disappear, hopefully making it look like a kit part! Once all of the repairs to the exhaust are done, I still need to make it play nice with the exhaust from the engine, which should be a real joy...I'm not looking forward to it! Oh, and then I need to find a way to get the exhaust secured to the chassis! Edited February 22, 2013 by Custom Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Custom Mike Posted February 22, 2013 Author Share Posted February 22, 2013 And one last pic for the night, a quick mock-up shot using the spare body, I think I have the front wheels where I want them now! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Custom Mike Posted February 26, 2013 Author Share Posted February 26, 2013 Ok, time for a bunch of updates, I worked my butt off on thsi one over the weekend. First up, we'll show the completed interior. I screwed up on this, after making up the under-dash gauge sets, I forgot to put them in. Now, since I did such a stupendous job gluing it together, I had to add the set of three gauges AFTER everything was assembled. I also forgot to paint the Duster badge on the driver's too, so that had to be done also. Let's start with the pics of the not-quite completed interior, then we'll get into the adding of the gauges...I'm a goober! Now comes the part where there was a very high chance of screwing this interior up. Trumpeter Panel Scriber to the rescue! I love this tool even more now, it made this possible with the dash glued solidly in place, thank God! I picked a spot for the gauges (Right above the ashtray), and started carefully scribing a line in the front side of the dash... Once I had the front side started, I went at it from the back side also... At this point, I had laid the gauge set on the back side of the dash to see how long the hole was going to have to be, then continued scribing the hole The hole is all the way through now, just a bit of clean-up, and the gauges can be installed! The gauges in place, almost like I never forgot them! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Custom Mike Posted February 26, 2013 Author Share Posted February 26, 2013 The next headache on the road to completion, the 383 Sam sent, of course was not the engine designed for this chassis. So when I tried to slide it into place with the exhaust installed, I found the oil pan was hitting the inside of the K-member. A quick couple of passes with the X-Acto knife solved this one... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Custom Mike Posted February 26, 2013 Author Share Posted February 26, 2013 Now onto more of the exhaust system. I got it all together nicely if you recall, added a bit of Mr Hobby White putty, but it just wouldn't fill the cuts properly. Here's the glued exhaust, the gap has gotta go... A bit of Mr Hobby White putty, a bit of sanding.... After hitting it with some Metalizer Stainless Steel, it just didn't look good enough... At this point, the pipe going up to the driver's side had snapped off at the joint. Now I had to strengthen the joint, a small piece of strip styrene was added to the back side, A bit of shaping to hide it on the sides... And a quick test-fit on the chassis, this is where the inspiration hit me, I had a way to hide the joint! Here's the fix, and a way to attach the exhaust to the chassis all in one! I grabbed some more .010 strips styrene, and glued a piece to the underside of the exhaust... A second piece was glued to the flat side and pushed down with a piece of sprue right against the exhaust, causing it to go vertical... Once the glue had set, some more glue was applied to the exhaust itself, and the strip was held down until the glue set, then the first step was repeated until I had a clamp/hanger assembly... A bit of trimming of the new hanger, two holes drilled, then mocked up on the chassis. Once I had the exhaust where I wanted it, I marked where I wanted to cut the pipes to join with the engine and drilled a hole in each to accept the beading wire in the exhaust manifolds... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Custom Mike Posted February 26, 2013 Author Share Posted February 26, 2013 Now we show one of the biggest headaches so far, the exhaust manifolds for the 383(496). Once again, I used some beading wire at the ends of the pipes to secure the exhaust to them, but I also added some on the engine side to make sure the stay put. This is where the nightmare started. Here's what they looked like when they were installed, all nice and pretty! Beading wire installed on the pipes, I added some to the head sides too, look at how straight those pipes are.... I did a quick test fit in the chassis, and the pipes were nowhere near where they needed to be, and the driver's side was hitting the tie rod. So I broke out a lighter, and spent the next two hours carefully applying heat and bending the pipes (Four bends on one side, five on the other) while they were attached to the engine.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Custom Mike Posted February 26, 2013 Author Share Posted February 26, 2013 Sam, I need to tell everyone, I know now why you never attempted this one, you must have known it was gonna be a nightmare! Another test fitting once it was all done (I think I test-fit this engine a good twenty times throughout this process) shows the pipes are finally where they needed to be! Now onto the next engine-related headache, the radiator. The Duster, as far as I know, was never available with a big block, so I should have seen this coming, but I didn't. I got the engine in place, and tried to put the radiator where it belongs... Guess what's in the way? If you said the fan, give yourself half a cookie, because the entire belt assembly was also in the way. I hacked the fan off, this baby will never run.... This is how much I had to remove from the fan shroud to get it to fit, even with the fan gone... The heavily modified radiator shroud, smoothed out and repainted. At this point, I also discovered that the lower radiator hose inlet on the engine is non-existent, and no way to drill for one, so another reason this is a Trailer Queen! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Custom Mike Posted February 26, 2013 Author Share Posted February 26, 2013 Now onto a couple of things that went right. I got the fuel line connected to the fuel pump with ease, and made a new upper radiator hose from 18 Gauge wire and got it installed! I also got the grille made up and installed in the nose! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Custom Mike Posted February 26, 2013 Author Share Posted February 26, 2013 Here's another headache, this one's related to the engine too, the exhaust manifolds are just way too wide for the inner fenderwells of this kit, so I had to do some serious work to get the engine in place without damaging the body or paint. I started by cutting out the sections of the fenderwells that were the biggest part blocking the exhausts... That still wasn't enough, so I sanded on the remaining part that was in the way, thinning it by half it's original width. The left side is where I stopped, then I matched the right side to it... A shot from above, now the right side is the one to match, I sanded it down until I got to the dimple for the shock mount... A quick test-fitting shows I still have some more to remove.... And here's where I stopped on it last night, it fits with just a slight gap around the exhaust. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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