30 year old Monogram Challenger Re-Build Finished

Thanks Joe! More to come regarding wires and hoses..................

Looking forward to that. Given your prowess for wiring engines this ought to be epic.

Was going to use copper wire stripped from some automotive electrical wire I had laying around extra and even did the initial bends:

The I figured it would be tricky to paint all this and still have to do the finishing bends to fine tune all these in place and still have to work with paint. Soooooooooooooooo.............. 

I opted for this:

and then I ordered this for later on down the road with this build:

Good call on both the pre made ignition wires and on getting yourself the Novus polishing set. I only have the #2 scratch remover but, it has been a life saver. Especially on clear parts.

Well here we go. I started on the coolant bypass hose and heater hoses today. I cut and bent the bypass hose, then painted it flat black. The hose clamps are made out of automotive electrical wire strands painted gunmetal for contrast.

a little closer....(these stupid macro pics are really starting to get on my last nerve. The friggin dust particles look like somebody threw pancakes at the engine and it stuck!) I guess I outta at least blow the drilled plastic shavings off of the motor. 

Then there's the dilemma of the tires. They were the same size all the way around the car originally and in my opinion too small in the rear. I looked all around the internet for tires for this thing and finally reached the conclusion that I just can't put any more money into this build. I had resolved myself to using the original tires which wasn't a terrible thing but then I had a thought! 

 I started sniffin' around in the garage in my "deep freeze" stash and found this jewel still wrapped in plastic with a Hobby Lobby pricetag that had been marked out due to the fact that it was a Christmas present pretty close to 20 years ago. I had never opened the box! 

When I opened the box I found not one but TWO sets of these!

They were PERFECT!!!!

The rear tires are the same height as the OOB Challenger rears but one helluva lot wider!

The front tires out of the Mustang kit where smaller than the tires on the OOB Challenger which again is PERFECT because its gonna give me exactly the look I'm after.

Like this:

The hoses look great Joe. As you know, It's only the fact that you're super magnifying your pics, that you even know that there is pancake debris on your paint job. With the naked eye it looks as smooth as can be. It's all good buddy. Let it go. Fortuitous find with the tires there. Gotta love that. Say, if that Shelby still has the other set of tires and you're just going to re-retire it to the deep freeze i might just have an idea as to where you can send..I mean..umm..stash it. Just sayin...

Thanks Joe. I cleaned it all up and re-shot some pics:

For today I painted the air cleaner. Will have pics up of that later.

I also took the rear tires and started working on the tread wear. I grabbed my Makita , a 12mm deep socket, slid the tire over the end of the socket and spun it up slowly on some medium grit sandpaper. Like such:

and the results:

Hello!

Nice job on the tires! The motor block also looks nice, the close-ups  almost have a cast-feel to them sometimes! Good luck with your rebuild and have a nice day

Paweł

Thanks Pawel. Waiting on spark plug wires which will hopefully be here tomorrow....................

nice work. one really can get a lot of mileage by adding detail to auto kits.

Thanks Octane! Well.................................I'm tryin' !

Joe, I've got some news for you. You're not tryin'. Nope, not at all. But , what you are doing is succeeding! And rather well I might add.

Who loves ya baby!

Thanks Joe! I'll be finishing this up in the upcoming "Red Hot and Rollin' " GB

Well folks after what started out as a one week ordeal and turned into FOUR months of fun filled building, this sucker is now finished!!! The short version of the story is that I built this car about 30 years ago for my little brother. It stayed at my parents house for years after I built it and I finally took it , cleaned it up a bit and gave it back to my brother for Christmas about 5 years ago. The car took a fall about a year into its stay there and the hood and a few other parts were lost. I took it back again, eventually found most of the parts, cleaned it up, put it most of the way back together and put it up on the shelf for the last 4 years. About 4 months ago I took it down to replace the hood and rear spoiler from a new kit that I bought. What happened next is a build that ran itself and told me how it was gonna be. The car body is original and the interior is all original except for the shifter.  I have had a lot of fun with this build and am happy to have it back on my shelf with a new look.

Joe, That is absolutely AWESOME!!!!!! The time and effort you have invested into this has paid off in some really remarkable dividends. The paint job is exceptionally sharp and clean and the detailing is truly jaw dropping. This stunning gem was worth all of the extra time and elbow grease you have put into it. You need to be really really proud of yourself my friend because I sure am. Now, enough fun, get that bf 109 cranked up.

Thanks a lot there Joe!! I appreciate the good word Reverand!!  Umm....you should check out the 109GB if you haven't already. Just sayin.....

Very well done Joe!

Why thank you Lee!

Great job! Love the paint!

That paint does look good

Thanks RX! Would you believe that it's only clear coat over molded plastic?

Nice Work!!

Thanks Bruce!!

Well folks I've been out since Friday to the IPMS Modelmania show in Houston. What a show it was too.

I took two awards from that show for this car

Hello!

Congratulations! But you knew that model was something special even before the awards - didn't you?

Good luck with your next builds and have a nice day

Paweł

  Congratulations on receiving those awards; they look good next to the car

Thanks Pawel and Steve!!! I appreciate the comments guys!