68 Dart DONE

[mustang1989]

Very good progress and paint work Johnny!

[mustang1989]

That orange is looking good. I'm always amazed at how you guys can get such a nice gloss coat.

I got a schecter hell raiser diamond series and your right about them pickups.

It's not all in the painting process Clint. Some of it is as far as how smoothly it goes on and all but I'd say that there is ALOT to be said for the body prep process . It's got to be really smooth even after a primer coat. After the color coat shot it's still down to how smooth it can be made and that is attained through the wet sanding process. I usually start with 4000 grit and work my way through 6000 then to 8000 and then wrap up the sanding with 12000 grit. Then the same thing goes with the gloss coat. If there is orange peel or any dust flakes they can all be smoothed out with the wet sanding process that I described here. After the wet sanding, it's time for the Novus polish treatment (or whatever polish one prefers.) I use Novus 2 with a chamois for the polishing cloth. You just can't get much less abrasive than cow skin for a perfect shine. After the Novus 2 then I break out the Novus 1 to put a final shine on it. The most important tool you can bring to the table is PATIENCE. Glass shines are attainable by anyone....but it's the patient ones who get the best shines.

[keavdog]

So... the paint turned out terrible but I'm pressing on. Started decaling and getting it all together. It looks like a Dart!

[LyleW]

That, it does! I like it.

[mostrich]

Like me some Dodge.

[mustang1989]

Don't do anything else yet John. Gimme a few shots of that car body the way it is. I've got a spare set of cals if you are interested in saving that paint job. Looks like a very do-able thing from the angle I'm seeing. Looks like alot of good work went into this car.

[keavdog]

I put down a pretty heavy coat of future and it helped a bit. Ah well - powering on with this one, thanks for the offer mustang. Had a couple other mistakes as well. Closing in on the finish. I'll most likely do another one of these kits. Goes together nice and you get quite a lot of spare parts, including an entire 440 magnum along with the 426, stock wheels, interior - tons of stuff.

[mustang1989]

That looks pretty dang good to me John.

I've got this kit in the stash and I am really considering building it in 2021. Got my Maverick to finish and another one in que (pro touring Dart) for the end of the year and then I'll more than likely build one of these cars.

[keavdog]

Nah - the paint is really, really bad. It's a good kit for sure. I suppose I got to comfortable with Tamiya going on near perfect. I shot Testors go man go out of the can and got a pretty heavy pebble finish. I've got all the stuff to polish paint, but I cut through on the high spots so often I find it frustrating. Next one of these I'll do with one of the Slixx options - leaning towards Hustlin' Hemi

[keavdog]

Just added the grill and front bumper and hood trim... there will be a lot of work to get this to sit right from what I see. If you build this, sort all of this out before paint. Also... due to the narrowed rear for the drag kit vs stock, there's stuff to fill where the leafsprings go and exhaust mounting holes to be removed - this isn't called out in the instructions until late.