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AMT 'Super Boss' Barracuda Funny Car! Update! #16: 3/23/15


Speedfreak

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All right, Let's see what's happening with this restore; The body is cleaned and ready for prep work. Continuing with the disassembly, now working on the chassis. Same story, seems this kit was glued together while the paint was still wet, and , in some cases it almost looks as though the original builder used paint as glue? hmmmmmmmmm. :wacko:

It looks like I might be able to get the body, and , chassis painted Thursday/Friday if all goes well, AND , I get all the body prep done. The temperatures are suppossed to be in the low 50's, yes! Here's a shot of the basic colors for the body, if I can pull off a two-tone paint job, it will be my first real attempt. I've done a couple of dabbles at it before, so , my experience is minimal. I'm thinking black & white with metals for the inside, maybe one other primary color (?) Tell me what you think:

Rustoleum 'Maui Blue/Krylon Short Cuts 'Chrome: the chrome as a lot of yellow/gold tones in it, which I think is cool.

HHcolors-1_zpsf3f7bf22.jpg

And now for the not so pretty:

HHfrontend-1_zpseeebefeb.jpg

Rear Spring Mount:

HHrearspringlocater_zps90b5c693.jpg

Rear Spring: (The other spring is still stuck on the sub-frame :angry:)

HHspring_zpsc5a9c182.jpg

And the tie rod end: How exciting is this? I mean really!

HHtierodend-1_zps0091f303.jpg

And so the journey continues in the restoration of the 'Super Boss' Hemi Hustler. Thanks for looking.

Edited by Speedfreak
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I don't know where your scratchbuilding level is, but making new springs seems the easy way out with some plastic or aluminum tubing, and then wrap some wire around it. Better detail too. Also remember that every part you have is a pattern to make a replacement part.

Love the choice of colors.

Model on Pal, Model on !!

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Thanks Joe, glad you like the color choices because I'm sticking with the silver and blue, the silver on the sides of the car. I probably could scratch make some spings, but , I don't know , my goal at this point anyway, is to use ' all ' of the original kit parts, call me obsessive. I'm cleaning up the front suspension now, well, trying to get it apart, by going back and forth between hot sink water and the freezer, to minimize carving and prying. I've almost got the tie rod completely prepped and ready for primer. I need to start prepping the body as I've only got two days before the weather will be right for painting. :D:o A short window of two days.

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I would raid the HUG reissue for a many parts as possible. Model glues are really solvents, and the solvents 50 years ago were much stronger. Also, many young builders in the day had no concept of the word "sparingly". They would use at least a half of a tube or more on each model. Lucky for me, I had a 2nd Grade teacher that taught us when it comes to glue, "a little dab'll do ya".

Great work so far and at least replacement parts are not made of unobtanium.

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Marc, thanks. The Chezooom kit has the same parts, I have one of those.

Ya, I think whoever built this did it 'fast' like a weekend perhaps and they got paint almost everywhere and then glued it together before the paint was dry, as you can see in the pics.

I'm tempted at this point to use the new parts, but, I haven't broken down yet. :rolleyes:

Edited by Speedfreak
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Carl, I'm sticking with the silver, but , I've changed my mind on the blue. I've decided to go with Tamiya ' Racing Blue ' because of all the shades you can get with it depending on which base coat you use, and , since I'm using that silver I can just shoot the whole car with it and then mask off the sides and spray the blue over the rest. I really like the Racing Blue, it's closer to what I had in mind for the car, AND , it looks great with the decals.

I've got a coat of Tamiya gray surface primier on the body now. My only concern is with putting the Krylon Short-Cuts over the Tamiya primer and then under the Tamiya Racing blue. I'm hoping that if I let things sit for a day, or , so between paints that all will be ok.

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I have thought of that, and , I have some Silver Leaf. We'll see, I need to do some more experimenting with spoons. Thanks.

Update: Carl, I think you're right about the Silver Leaf, I don't wanna have to strip this thing again, no way.

Edited by Speedfreak
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I know you're trying to help Carl, no problemo, I appreciate the input :) I've spent the last couple of days doing the prep work, sanding/filing etc,.. lot of work in some places. The last thing I did tonight, which I could have left but couldn't was the panel line that goes from the bottom/front of the vent window to the top of the door. The kit mold had that sealed off so I brought it down so the two lines meet, yikes. I already had the panel lines done with some MIG wash, (the Cruz method!) and , one coat of primer on the body. So now I gotta touch up those two places with wash and let that dry good and it's ready for a final wash (I've already sanded everything else) and then, and then,...........a coat of Tamiya Mica Silver, which will work as the base coat for the Racing Blue and serve as the secondary color for the sides. I found it tonight at my LHS, it's got that slight hint of yellow/gold in it that I was looking for. I was kind of torn for a minute about whether I should go ahead and use white on the sides like the box art, but , I think I'm going with the silver. If the weather is as predicted I should be able to paint the Silver Saturday. I will post pics of the body as it is before I start with the color, it looks diffrerent then it did.

(Almost forgot, I used the sanding wheel of my new Dremel Micro (Christmas gift) for the first time on the inside wheel wells of this body (yikes!) and didn't shrew anything up! weeeeeeeeeeee! Came close a couple of times but I pulled it off!)

Edited by Speedfreak
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Well, mother nature has permitted me to put the base coat on the Hustler. All went well until I was walking back into the house from the front porch and I literally saw this speck of dust fly up and land on the hood of the car! It's not big and I could leave it but I won't. So now it's wet sand and another wet coat, if the weather holds for the next couple of hours, if not I'll have to wait. I show what the car looked like with just primer and then the coats of paint.

Primer:

barebody-1_zps6llcyjit.jpg

Primer rear:

barebodyrear_zpsr7cy9gjf.jpg

Primer Drivers side:

barebodypass_zpszdzdmsme.jpg

Inside the body, (I took out a lot of plastic inside the wheel wells) :

barebodyunder_zpsgtjsa6pe.jpg

First light coat of paint:

onecoat_zpsyq2sb4ym.jpg

Wet coat after two light coats of paint:

wetcoat_zpsdwmwepko.jpg

The front (Like I said, you can't really see the dust specks, but , they are there):

suezcanalshot_zpsxtv16tcy.jpg

A bad picture of the wet coat:

wetpasscoat_zpsa18yjzgu.jpg

Well, It's on to the wet sanding now!

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I think I may have pulled it off, 55 degrees and 42% humidity, but , it's Tamiya paint, very forgiving and easy to work with stuff. I'll have a couple of pics of the body shortly. Thanks for looking!

And here they are: Success!

car-1_zpstsggwz78.jpg

car-5_zpsgk601gbs.jpg

car-4_zps1hu8tog8.jpg

car-2_zps6nhdqapu.jpg

And now onto the hard part, (at least for me :unsure: ) painting a two-tone paint job. The sides of the car will remain silver and the main, or , center part of the body will be top coated with Tamiya Racing Blue, which is a metallic paint. And, what do you do with the inside of the wheel well lip, let it be two-tone as well? I've got both thin and wide Tamiya masking tape, so that's what I'll be using to mask things off. I'm not quite sure where I should make the division line coming over the side; right at the apex before it goes into the concave cove, or , where the flat part of the cove starts. Seems it should be at the apex, which means the line will have to be incredibly sharp and 'any' bleed through will most definately show. I'm stressing, but , man this is fun! Any help, or , suggestions for how to go about this will be 'greatly' appreciated.

Edited by Speedfreak
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Well Gene, I think if you do it exactly where the box art lines are, you'll be fine. I'm assuming you have or can get matching silver touch up paint. It would be under the recess. Less noticeable and easy to sand / blend / polish the touched up area.

If worse comes to worse, you could always apply a thin pinstripe. I'll bet there's a real close silver out there somewhere.

If that fails, pack the whole mess up and ship it to me. I'm thinking strip the thing and go orange with purple polka dots.

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Relax Gene and take your time. I keep my hands washed when masking off the body. I like to burnish down my lines so they don't bleed thru. You do very good work I really believe you can pull this off. You did a great job getting your base coat down. I like what you have accomplished so far....

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I make burnishing tools from toothpicks. Cut half of the tip off, about 1 or 2 / 16ths. Then use the toothpick to mix up some epoxy. Do not wipe off the excess. Put it in a clamping tweezer and hang it off the edge of your work desk / table to let it dry on there. Repeat as needed until you have a nice little teardrop on the end. Let it dry overnite and JOILA! Instant burnishing tool.

If you are really in a hurry, the pointy end of a small paint brush will work in a pinch.

Edited by Nitrozilla
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Cool, thanks for the tip Joe.

Another thing I've been thinking about is how long to wait to peel the masking tape (Tamiya) off after the second color has been applied. In my Pat Covert bible he just says to let the paint 'dry. So for enamel we're taking several hours and for lacquer, (which I'll be using) , we're talking an hour, at the most two , before you peel the tape off? I know I should be practicing, but , it's kind of hard to practice when it's 40 degrees outside. Anyway it is what it is, looks like I'll be putting the second color on Tuesday if the weather is as predicted.

Edit update: I've also decided to scrap the idea of using 'all' of the original parts from this car, the frame/chassis convinced me of that last night. After having spent 'hours' trying to clean the thing up it is still warped in a way that just can't really be fixed, so , I'm using the frams/chassis from the Chezooom kit! AND, I'm also going to use some of the other suspension parts, I'm tired of cleaning those funky old crummy, maligned parts! So, where applicable I will use nice 'clean' parts on the chassis. Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! I'm free!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Believe it or not the Chezooom chassis/frame was misshapened too, but , not in a permanent way. After close inspection I found the main problems were the cross beam supports were thicker on on side than the other, so that when you looked at the chassis from the front it appeared to be badly warped. I just evened them out from side to side and then had to 'twist' the chassis/frame around the rear spring mounts a little and waalaa! nice little piece. The saga of the Hemi Hustler continues.

Edited by Speedfreak
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