1969 A12 Super Bee, "El Camino" style...

[fun9c1]

this is beyond cool! I can't help but wonder if you could graft in the bed/side walls from a 66 elcamino, or the 65 elcamino to help ease the transition from bed floor to back window? just tossing it out there as it popped into my mind.

the addition of the bit of deck lid on the rear rail of the bed is pure genius, looks awesome.

Thanks! Originally my plan was to take the bed of the Dodge Deora kit and use that bed, but it turned out that it was not big enough and trying to modify it would be as much work as scratchbuilding one. Only thing I ended up using off it was the C-pillars and back half of the roof. I might have tried using an El Camino bed if i could bring myself to sacrifice an El Camino kit but I can't! I am enjoying the challenge of scratchbuilding a bed.

Cut the back half off the interior last night and made a new "back" for it, and got rid of the rear window cranks.

[fun9c1]

This is cool. i did the same thing to a 68 Dodge Charger myself

Thanks, hey is that Charger on here somewhere? I'd love to check it out!

[fun9c1]

If anyone has any suggestions on how to smooth up the putty in the concave area at the bottom corners of the rear glass area I would love to hear them!

[1/24DragAndStreetCars]

What about the rampage?

[Jeremy Jon]

Unique build project Rob, shaping up nicely! True, mother mopar never did have (to my knowledge) a "ute" based on any of it's RWD car platforms, only the Rampage (as mentioned) which was based on the FWD K-car platform. Looking forward to seeing more!

[fun9c1]

Oooh- I like the name Rampage! I remember seeing those little things back in the day but never knew (or forgot) what they were called. Probably due to my lack of interest in wrong-wheel drive cars with half and engine (actually I did own an '89 K-car with a 2.2 for a litte while and I have to say it was a good car).

Anyway, in my model's phantom world, it would be very conceivable that this would have been named a Rampage (the name fits this thing alot better than those '80s ones) and then Dodge recycled the name in the '80s. I like it. I think I may go with that!

[TheRX7Project]

Or instead of "Super Bee" it could be "Worker Bee"

Neat build!!!

[Peter Lombardo]

http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=12923&hl=%2B1971+%2Bplymouth+%2Bpickup+%2Btruck

This link should bring you to a similar build done many, many moons ago.

[chunkypeanutbutter]

Or instead of "Super Bee" it could be "Worker Bee"

I like this idea.

[Russell C]

I'd bookmarked the illustration below a year or three ago out of this old 2006 DodgeCharger.com thread post, where some guy had apparently found the illustration somewhere else. Does kinda point out how an overly flat front bed wall is a potential distraction. Seems the illustrator just sketched in the tailgate lines at the top, but who knows how that would work. Not sure if the large rear window is a choice I'd favor.......

[TheRX7Project]

I'm thinking you almost need to go with earlier (66-67) Belvedere/GTX taillights to work with a tailgate, or even '68-69 Road Runner lights. Dodge truck taillights of the same era are tall and narrow as well.

The other option would be to go to rear bumper mounted taillights ala 1970's El Caminos. If you look at the rear of El Caminos or Rancheros they almost always look a little odd due to the necessity of a tailgate. If you want to keep the stock-ish Dodge taillights, mounting the stock signals in the bumper would probably look pretty decent and would keep the car "correct" to how Ma MoPar would have likely made it.

[TheRX7Project]

http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=12923&hl=%2B1971+%2Bplymouth+%2Bpickup+%2Btruck

This link should bring you to a similar build done many, many moons ago.

Wow that looks fantastic. Hit the nail on the head for what I imagine "would have been".

[fun9c1]

Looks like the tailights from the Revell "Special Edition" '68 2n1 Dart might work perfect. I hate to make a kit incomplete, but I already had the kit and opened it up to see if they would work, and was totally psyched to see that there are two sets of tailights. So if I do use ones from this kit it would be the ones meant for the drag version as I plan to build this Dart mostly stock someday, plus it's less cutting. If you're not familiar with this Dart kit, the tailights themselves are the same between the two versions (stock), but the drag version does not have the stock rear valance between the lights.

Using the stock SuperBee tailights would look cool and it's tempting to just do that, but it would not be realistic as a 1:1 factory version. I'm thinking I might cut the "DODGE" insert out of the SuperBee tailights and insert that into the tailgate.

I also just ordered some resin Dodge "steelies" and I'm working on creating some redline tires. More on that later!

[tim boyd]

Rob...congrats on pulling this one out of the box and getting after it again...just ran across this thread, and will now be watching with considerable interest.

In case you are interested, here's a link to my Fotki file with two similarly themed builds, one I did in 1970-71, the other about ten years ago. The latter was a two parter article in Model Cars mag a couple of years ago (let me know if you need the exact issue numbers/dates). http://public.fotki.com/funman1712/tim-boyds-124th--12/boyd-1950s1960searl/page3.html

Best regards and good luck with your project! TIM

[fun9c1]

Thanks Tim, those look great! And I thought I was the first one to think of it! I don't have that issue so I tried on line but no luck. Is there a way?

So it is decided- the tailights from the '68 Dart will work perfect!

After cutting the lights off the bumper just to give a basic idea what it will look like:

Now since I've expanded the height of the quarter panels, I need to drop the locating holes for the bumper, so a filler piece is made. These two pieces will be laminated together. The notched piece goes directly under the current tabs and the other piece will be used as a backing to "sister" the notched piece to the supplied one.

Now I need to drill holes in the bottom of this piece for the bumper to locate on.

[TFchronos]

This is way to cool! As a serious Mopar fan I like what I'm seeing, these "what if" type builds are always fun to watch. You are doing an amazing job on this!