If there was ever a model from hell this was it! This started out as a
rather
straightforward conversion of the AMT kit to a vintage stock car model. It
was originally
supposed to be the 1963 black and gold Smokey Yunick Chevy of run by Johnny
Rutherford in the Daytona 500. I made the mistake of using a batch of old
primer that
took it time in going bad under the paint job until I had already painted
the black and
gold and decaled it. I tried in vain to save the paint job that started to
go bad under the
black. So I decided to strip the paint and redo it as the all white Junior
Johnson car of
the same year. I had some old JNJ decals that someone had given me and I
knew these
decals were old and suseptable to cracking, so I doated them with
Microscale clear
dedcal film as a precaution. As it turned out they needed more than one
coat. When I
tried to apply the front fender "Chevrolet" decals they cracked and the
edges would not
stick no matter what I did to save them. I had to order some Yesterday's
decals of the
car that eventually I used with the exception of the three main numbers
with I did use
from the original JNJ sheet which I feel were more accurate than the
Yesterday's sheet.
I had to scratchbuild the roll cage and interior area and the dash panel
which was pretty
easy. I usedresin after market wheels. One of which I ruined when I glued
them to tne
inner wheel off center by mistake and destroyed trying to remove it. I had
to buy
another set to replace the one I screwed up. Like I said the model from
hell!! After all
the trials and tribulations, the result was very nice all be it a bit more
plain than the
original Smokey car. I also had to convert the 409 motor into the "Mystery
429" by
modifying the vlave covers and scratchbuilding the exhaust manifolds.
Fortunatley I
was able to download a photo of that motor to use as a guide.
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