Nice kitty...

[charlie8575]

The home-town crowd (Mike, Mike and Albie) know my attachment to odd-ball, rare and long-gone kits and the cars they tend to represent. The support and interest is both humbling and gratifying. For that matter, anyone who reads my posts and thoughts here knows my tastes tend towards things that are different and interesting.

One quick update- I just tried moving stuff around on the chassis, and the soapy water appears to be working somewhat, I'm going to give it a little more time to see how it works in the end, probably fully overnight.

I'm still standing ready with razor saw, chisel blade and some other stuff in case it doesn't work.

Charlie Larkin

[Tom Geiger]

Charlie I don't think that length of time in the freezer matters. Once it's frozen solid, that's as good as it gets. The whole idea is to wet it (maybe even soak it in water overnight) so that water gets in every seam. When you freeze the model, hopefully the water that's in joints you wish to break will freeze and that expansion will push the two parts apart to weaken the joint. I think you'd be better off repeating that process every day, than keeping the model in the freezer for three days.

[charlie8575]

Thanks for the tip, Tom. I'll admit that the only part of physics I ever caught on to was mechanics and not the rest of the stuff, and as for chemistry....hah! Well, I do know enough to never mix sodium or potassium with water.

Part of my thinking was also that the continual cold might simply make the glue more brittle, but you might have a point...perhaps we both do.

Given this, I might as well go inspect progress now...

Charlie Larkin

[charlie8575]

*Queue urgent-sounding news music*

FLASH! Wildcat escapes anchorings! Pictures to follow!

It appears I'll have to do a little repair to that cross-member, but the freed engine is a major hurdle.I suspect the soapy water being frozen expanded enough to loosen things up and the "wetter water" made it happen.

Charlie Larkin

[1930fordpickup]

Great news Charlie.

[Chuck Most]

Well, she's back in pieces now... the fun can officially start.

[slusher]

Charlie, sticking with it paid off. Did you get the glass out.?? Looking forwaed to your progress...

[Foxer]

Cool ... cooler, actually! I'm going to have to remember the wet water trick. Makes sense to me. Good to see it's coming apart. You may have gotten me to try getting some more glue bombs apart.

[charlie8575]

Charlie, sticking with it paid off. Did you get the glass out.?? Looking forwaed to your progress...

Not yet, Carl. That will coming later today, I hope.

Charlie Larkin

[slusher]

Hang in there Charlie, l am enjoying watching you working on this classic..

[mnwildpunk]

Some of those parts look like they were is the attack on heroshima as melted as they are

[charlie8575]

Although not a huge update on progress, I did want to share a small update.

While looking for some reference pictures for painting, etc., I ran across these instruction sheet photos for the convertible kit, which might prove handy. http://www.carsandracingstuff.com/library/w/wildcat_1964convertiblecustomizingkit.php

It did allow me to discover I'm missing another part- the washer fluid bottle, which I can probably make with a little tubing and some flat sheet.

I also scrounged some parts from another 7th-grade build that didn't go well- in this case, a 1966 Wildcat. This will allow me to get the intake manifold, air cleaner, front cover and belt assembly, The '66 engine depicts a 425 cu. in. Wildcat 465, which had the dual 4-bbl. carbs. I also have the heads and exhaust manifolds. As I don't have the stock '64 manifolds, I'll have to try to modify these, or use the ones from the '62 Electra, depending on which parts fit better.

Due to a different design of the block/transmission from the other kits, I'll have to re-use the block/transmission.

I'll post up pictures of pieces a little later tonight.

Charlie Larkin

[bisc63]

Looking forward to your progress on this cool Buick! If you aren't sold on that chassis, why not substitute an AMT 58 Impala, 62 Impala, or Revell 63-64 chassis. I do believe the Wildcats shared wheelbase/chassis with their full-size Chevy cousins.
On another note, I'd kill for a resin copy of your front bumper/grill and back bumper/chrome pieces to cut and paste on a 65 Skylark scratchbuild I'm gathering pieces and references for right now. VERY similar shapes, just a bit wider, but a great starting point. GOOD LUCK!!

[bisc63]

Oh yeah, and don't forget the newer tooled 66 Riviera for a SWEET engine, and the older 65 and 69 tools have some nice-for-the-time Buick goodies!

[Greg Wann]

http://public.fotki.com/drasticplasticsmcc/mkiba-build-under-c/amt-instructions/automotive-cars--pi/buick/amt-64-buick-wildca/

Hey Cjarlie,

Try this Drastic Plastic link to the hardtop.

[charlie8575]

Looking forward to your progress on this cool Buick! If you aren't sold on that chassis, why not substitute an AMT 58 Impala, 62 Impala, or Revell 63-64 chassis. I do believe the Wildcats shared wheelbase/chassis with their full-size Chevy cousins.

On another note, I'd kill for a resin copy of your front bumper/grill and back bumper/chrome pieces to cut and paste on a 65 Skylark scratchbuild I'm gathering pieces and references for right now. VERY similar shapes, just a bit wider, but a great starting point. GOOD LUCK!!

Hi, Rusty.

While the Wildcat and the 1961-64 Chevies were all "B" bodies, there are differences with the wheelbase. The Buick is four inches longs (123", shared with the Olds 88) and it gets into the splicing and dicing I really don't want to do because I'm not a good kit-basher.

The Modelhaus does have a resin copy of that bumper/grill assembly. They're about $4.50 or $5.00, and as I'm sure you know, you cannot go wrong with Don Holthaus. I like the idea of a Skylark- that'll be a nice build.

Charlie Larkin

[charlie8575]

Oh yeah, and don't forget the newer tooled 66 Riviera for a SWEET engine, and the older 65 and 69 tools have some nice-for-the-time Buick goodies!

I'm actually in the process of trying to piece back together a c. 1988 (I was 12-13), maybe as late as 1989 (high school freshman) '65 Riv that needed a lot of cleaning up. Progress will be posted on that sooner rather than later, I hope.

The problem I'm running into with this paricular car is that the engine and transmission have different extensions off of them that will force me use the base crankcase/transmission, again, without doing lots of plastic surgery that I neither enjoy nor can do well, I'll stick with those and hodge-podging my other compoents as needed. I will, however, look at some of the Riv parts (I plan on making the Riv a curbside because the engine is horrible) to see what I can make work.

http://public.fotki.com/drasticplasticsmcc/mkiba-build-under-c/amt-instructions/automotive-cars--pi/buick/amt-64-buick-wildca/

Hey Cjarlie,

Try this Drastic Plastic link to the hardtop.

Thanks, Greg! Much appreciated.

Update- does anyone have a spare rearview mirror, round exterior mirror and radio antenna they can spare? PM me if you meet that description. Thanks!

Charlie Larkin

[bisc63]

Hi, Rusty.

The Modelhaus does have a resin copy of that bumper/grill assembly. They're about $4.50 or $5.00, and as I'm sure you know, you cannot go wrong with Don Holthaus. I like the idea of a Skylark- that'll be a nice build.

Charlie Larkin

Thanks for the heads-up on these pieces; much appreciated!!

[charlie8575]

A short update as promised earlier.

The parts from the '66 Wildcat that will probably be used large portions of the restoration work.

A little closer view.

As you might have noticed from the background, I went to Classic Plastic's show yesterday (well, officially yesterday now as it's 12:41 AM) and was talked into entering the disassembled mess into the "Work in progress" category. Well, it is certainly that, if nothing else!

More will be coming this week.

Charlie Larkin

[charlie8575]

So, with today being fairly quiet, I decided to take a little time this afternoon, and see what I could do with things.

It was pointed out to me Sunday that there is quite a bit of roof-melt from all the glue used on the window. This is a putty-sand-prime-repeat job, I think.

I began by running a knife around the approximate inside of the window unit. I say approximate because the glue made the beginning and end of the parts indistinguishable in several areas.

On the bright side, the firewall was barely glued it. Kid must've run out of glue.

The body is now sitting in soapy water to allow it to more fully penetrate the seams, and hopefully release those hideous decals.

The chassis is turning into quite a pit of vipers.

It appears that the glue solvents caused the plastic itself to aerate, almost making it into a brittle, crumbly, Styrofoam-type material, espeicially around the exhaust where those dumps were attached by wanton cementing.

I cleaned things up as best I could with a #11 and #17 chisel blade and some sandpaper. I'm going to continue to work on it, and see what I can do.

Re-examination of the parts in '62 Electra found that the engine/transmission will indeed fit the '64 with the way the parts are designed, with a couple of small modifications. I will still be using the 1966 front cover and alternator, though, at they're better-detailed and more correct.

Charlie Larkin

[slusher]

Charlie l have not seen glue look buble like what is on the chassis. l have not work on many glue bombs either. Glue must have been stronger then. I hope you can get the glass out...

[charlie8575]

I don't recall ever having foaming glue like that, either, Carl, and I've seen some pretty messy resto projects over the years. I suspect the original builder simply used too much of it. I'm not entirely sure what type of glue was used, because there were some pretty strong ones then. I rather doubt that Duco cement would've caused that; that tends to get brittle and simply lose grip.

There were also a lot more varieties of glue- Testors, Revell, Ambroid, and a few others.

As I write this now at 4:04 AM, the body is still sitting in the tub, I'll probably pull it and bag it later this morning after I get some sleep (what a novel idea...), and see if I can get those decals off, as they don't appear to be budging (boy, this kid made a mess of this one), a quick re-soak, and in the freezer it goes.

Charlie Larkin

[Foxer]

You're a Savior, Charlie ... gonna have to get you a Red Cross Medal!

[charlie8575]

You're a Savior, Charlie ... gonna have to get you a Red Cross Medal!

I don't know if I'd go quite that far, Mike, but I approach restoring these poor glue-bombs like researching a grad paper, teaching a class, setting my business up for operation, or anything else...care, patience, perseverance. Does it always work? Of course not, but I owe it to myself and those counting on me when applicable, to do that.

Charlie Larkin

[ChrisBcritter]

I run into that bubbly business on pretty much every gluebomb I've worked on, especially when two parts aren't quite touching and the glue fills the gap. Maybe clean it up as close as possible, then weather the rest to look like dirt and rust?

Good luck with the windows; will a new set from an AMT '63-'64 Impala interchange?