SPA Modeler

So, what is with the clear hood?

It's something that I liked as a kid. I'm putting it as it was just for the nostalgia. In all out honesty the engine looks like crap to me but through a blurred out image through that hood it doesn't look as bad. lol

You know, initially I had no interest in this car. I had all of them out of that room except this one and at that time I didn't care whether this thing got thrown out or whatever. Then for some reason I had envisioned a resto on it and wanted it back. I aint gonna go crazy with this thing as I don't want to alter it.......that much. I am putting new bumpers and wheels on it from the newer kit. The fronts will be OOB Cragars and the rears are deep dish Cragars that I robbed out of a Barris T Buggy kit. The rear tires will be new from the newer boxing and look superb and the fronts are skinnies from the Motorcraft T-Bird Pro Stock kit. I'll be replacing all of the door handles and rear deck latch and stop lamps as well. Engine will stay the same except for the supercharger intake. That thing just has to be replaced!!!!

Speaking of wheels I tried a trick that I didn't know anything about until about a month ago. I painted the chrome on the wheels with Tamiya Smoke X-19 thinned heavily with 70% ISO alcohol to produce a subtle , yet noticeable effect.

In the picture below , the wheel on the left has been given the "smoke" treatment whereas the one on the right is straight OOB. IMO it gives it a more realistic look.

Check it out:

It does certainly look much better! Still shiny, but not any longer sort of "plasticly" shiny.

- Kari

Thanks Kari!! I'm looking to get the chassis completed this week. I'll have this one done by the end of the month provided I get adequate bench time.

Nostalgia is as a good a reason as any! like the trick with the wheels, too.

Got the wheels and tires installed. A little flat clear on the tires helps with the realism effect. Refer to the post above for where are the wheels and tires came from. It's the perfect match up to me though. Rollin' chassis aside from bumpers is done....

A couple of test fit shots. I have a lot of work to do to get this body to fit right on the chassis.

Man - I'm lovin' the thin blue whitewall stripe on the rear tires.

Thanks Tom! What's funny is that it's ironic that years later I'd be using tires from a re-issue of the kit that matched my paint job on this thing. There was never any call outs for blue when I built this originally. I just wanted it in blue. lol

The more I look at the glass hood on this thing the more out of place it looks on two fronts. First of all there aint never been no gasser that ran with a glass hood and secondly it really detracts from the rest of the build. Be looking for a replacement.. ...........

mustang1989 wrote:Thanks Tom! What's funny is that it's ironic that years later I'd be using tires from a re-issue of the kit that matched my paint job on this thing. There was never any call outs for blue when I built this originally. I just wanted it in blue. lol

The more I look at the glass hood on this thing the more out of place it looks on two fronts. First of all there aint never been no gasser that ran with a glass hood and secondly it really detracts from the rest of the build. Be looking for a replacement.. ...........

Yeah I can see what you mean, although this is just a tidy up of an old build for a bit of nostalgia (and it's really cool you still have these old kits to do that), it would almost look better with no bonnet..um hood at all - it really does distract the eye from the rest of the build.

Great stuff as always!