General Lee.....ish Charger-Completed-12/28

mustang1989

No sir I am extremely happy with Wet Look clear as long as I dispense it and shoot it through an airbrush. If something is working for me I aint about to change it.

Wasn't suggesting any such thing. I was more picking your brain for a side-by-side comparison.

I gotta try that stuff.

No worries Greg. Sorry if I my response sounded a little short as it wasn't the way that I intended it. Hard to get the spirit of the message sometimes through text. Yeah this stuff is da bomb!! 

Here we are after a good wet sanding and polishing session:

I'm currently working on the chassis and suspension. Before I go too far with the painting I've gotta get the stance set up. One of the good things about going with the Revell kit for a Lee build is that it has ALOT more detail packed into the kit as well as (and this is a definite plus) posable front wheels. I've been spending the last three days cleaning up all the chassis and interior pieces of all flash and mold seam lines. It's not tooooo awful bad really but it's been some work.

Gonna mirror this for the undercarriage color coating...with orange of course....

Beautiful work Joe. Did you get that gloss straight from a can or did you use a polishing system? Fun to watch this come together.

Bakster

Beautiful work Joe. Did you get that gloss straight from a can or did you use a polishing system? Fun to watch this come together.

 

Bakster

 

 

Bakster

Beautiful work Joe. Did you get that gloss straight from a can or did you use a polishing system? Fun to watch this come together.

 

 

 

 

Dang it, I missed your dialog about polishing. Nevermind. Looks great though.

 

 

Man, that looks great. The polishing really makes that paint look incredible. Very nice.

BK

'Preciate that Brandon.

I've been working on the chassis, rear suspension and exhaust system.





Applied a subtle wash to the undersides to bring out some of the details and add some depth. I also hit up the leaf springs and differential edges lightly with a silver lead pencil:

As usual, another absolutely stunning finish on the body paint. Nice work on the chassis. That'll look sharp matched up with the body finish. It's all a wonderful thing.

Thanks Joe! 

In my opinion, there's three major things to get right with a General Lee build: 1.) The car body-It's gotta look the part and it's gotta be near perfect in regards to the look and finish...……….and 2.) The stance, which I mentioned the previous post and 3.) The wheels. If the wheels are a flub job then the whole thing looks off balance. I've got one of the rear wheels pretty much completed and I feel pretty fair about the outcome. The rear wheels will come from the Eckler Corvette and are a little wider/ deeper for a more aggressive looking Lee. I stuck the tire on a 14mm deep socket (next time I'll use a shallow socket for more control and less wobble) and spun it up on a drill with the tire on some sandpaper to achieve the worn tire tread look.

mustang1989

Sorry if I my response sounded a little short as it wasn't the way that I intended it. Hard to get the spirit of the message sometimes through text.

It didn't. Plus I know you and you isn't the snappy type.

Undercarriage looks great. Interesting what you did regarding matching the paint booth pic.

Thanks Greg. 

That's pretty much how Dodge painted the undercarraiges from the factory.

Yeah I keep all that drama crap out of the picture. I came here to build and have fun....not fight with my fellow modelers. I have been known to throw some water on the occasional bully that I see picking on others though. 

I remember holding tires in my hand while I sanded down the tread way back in my highschool days. Using a drill looks much easier and less painful on the fingers. It looks spot on.

BK

Thanks Brandon. It is easier and gives it more of an evenly worn look.

Ok.....this may not seem like a whole lot of work but believe me....after FOUR friggin' paint strippings to get these wheels right I finally got it done. Additionally I sanded off all of the mold seams on the tires with 1000 grit sanding sticks and worked my way to the 12000 grit range and then chucked 'em up in the drill and spun 'em up with the sidewalls held against my blue jean pants to polish up the sidewalls. After that these two tires got a treatment to some BFGooodrich Radial T/A decals. This deep dish rear wheel/ tire combo really benefited from the white letters and it's gonna look great on the car:

You tires looks awesome.

Thanks Bakster! 

Did a mock up to see how it's all gonna look and was pretty pleased with the results. I'll have to move the front tires just a smidgen more under the fenders but other than that it's sitting exactly how I want it. The decaled white lettering and staggering the tire sizes to wider tracks in the back as well as dropping the whole car a scale 2.5" all the way around were well worth the while and gave the car the more aggressive stance and look that I was seeking. I ended up using the deeper Eckler Corvette wheels all the way around.

Those wheels and tires are absolutely dynamite looking Joe. The meticullous work paid off immensely. I really like the stance you were wanting to achieve. Looks all boss and stuff.

Dude... so good.  I'm going to try to get kinda close to your build.   I hope I get 1/2 way there.  

Bakster

You tires looks awesome.

 

Yep. Can't say it better than that.

Thanks guys.

John: I have no doubt that you'll pull off a great build.

This'll be my second go round with these door panels as I didn't prime them before painting the first time and the paint lifted when I tried to apply the BMF to the trim areas. Bummer! So I stripped them and began with priming this time but ended up using Molotow Chrome the second time instead of BMF.
Picked up this new acrylic primer from Badger called STYNYLREZ. It's an acrylic polyurethane primer and I was pretty impressed with the results.

Just apply in thin coats and it goes on smooth as a baby's butt:



Finished door panels. I used RLM 79 with some shadowing here and there and chromed the details and trim with Molotow Chrome:

Got the console about 95% of the way done. Still need to install the shifter but I've got to do some clean up work on it first.

Coming along great! Saw some reference material to get the, ahem, "weathering" correct

Hey Joe, its fun to watch you work on this.

Regarding the STYNYLREZ, did you thin it all? I have watched some videos on the stuff and straight from the bottle it appears thick. Funny thing is I purchased a bottle a few months back and I have yet to try it. I hear a lot of good things about it.

mississippivol

Coming along great! Saw some reference material to get the, ahem, "weathering" correct

 

I love that intro song to the show. Boy, does that bring back memories. 

Bakster

Hey Joe, its fun to watch you work on this.

Regarding the STYNYLREZ, did you thin it all? I have watched some videos on the stuff and straight from the bottle it appears thick. Funny thing is I purchased a bottle a few months back and I have yet to try it. I hear a lot of good things about it.

 

mississippivol

Coming along great! Saw some reference material to get the, ahem, "weathering" correct

 

mustang1989

 

 

Bakster

Hey Joe, its fun to watch you work on this.

Regarding the STYNYLREZ, did you thin it all? I have watched some videos on the stuff and straight from the bottle it appears thick. Funny thing is I purchased a bottle a few months back and I have yet to try it. I hear a lot of good things about it.

 

 

 

 

Thanks bud. You don't have to thin it at all but from what I hear you can't wait long to use it once its out of the bottle but it goes on really smooth.

 

 

Not a problem at all.

Got the interior carpeted, seat belted and mostly underway guys.

Beautiful work Joe. Very very nice. You got skill brother.

Thanks Bakster! I think it's Steve....right?

Ok folks I've got this part finished and will be moving on to the engine firewall and then interior fit into the body which doesn't look like it's gonna be that fun. But in any case....the completed dash: