30 year old Monogram Challenger Re-Build Finished

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.

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

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:

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

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

Whoa! Magnificent work on the engine Joe. Love the wiring harness. That is bad A.

Ok so we continue on with the engine. I was at the point of deciding whether or not to add power steering to this thing:

But I opted out because I've seen a ton of 340 Challenger engine bays without P/S and I don't feel like adding P/S lines at this point. Got other plans though for detail.

 Here I painted up the rocker covers that USED to be chrome:

and installed them:

and treated the whole engine to a light coat of dark wash to give it that slightly used look and to highlight detail and painted some of the detail on the rocker covers

Here I've got the starter, transmission bellhousing and transmission painted up and weathered.

I started installing a wire harness and initially used heat shrink to contain the alternator ckts but the heat shrink was WAY too big.

So I opted for the usage of telephone wire insulation with the core stripped out. The alternator is from a newer version of the Revell Challenger that there's no way in Hell that I'll ever build. It has a mounting bracket on it so I get to display and alternator that's not suspended in animation on the belt. I painted the belt and pulleys flat black and applied future over the pulleys for that gloss look and dry brushed ground up black pastel over the belt for the dead flat look on the belt.  I inserted the alternator output and field wire into the phone wire insulation and painted the insulation black for the wire shrouding. I also drilled holes for the heater hoses and spark plug wires that will go on here. 

 Then I painted the carburetors a mix of aluminum tinted with some gold and applied a light wash over these prior to installation. Here the wash is still wet but dried with just the right amount of shadowing.

Thank you Joe!

Steve: LOL .... That Chrome Silver paint job I put on that thing was dam near chrome for sure......but still it must have been accurate!!! ?????

Great job of work on that engine, but you are really sure about that classy chrome oil pan ? It came with the kit so it must be accurate--- isn't it??

Sweet looking work on the engine Joe. That bugger is going to look sharp when you're done with it.

Thanks pawel! I had a couple of seams and gaps here and there that I've filled since the pics but its still coming along.

Hello mustang1989!

I like what's happening with the engine here - good luck with it and have a nice day

Paweł

Okay. Here's what I took out of the car. It's actually a fairly cool build if youre 14 years old in the 80's! lol

 This is what the real thing is supposed to look like:

I think there's a little change that needs to happen here, soooooooo..................................................

We start over:

What is it with Monogram's two piece engine / transmission assys? A BIG and NASTY gap that needs some real attention here.

I puttied the crap out of it and  moved on to primer. My approach here is similar to what I do with military modeling. I start off with a  black primer to make sure the shadows in the nooks and crannies are going stand out some.

and then start making acrylic orange passes until I get the color that I want.

First few passes:

Things were starting to get a little better on the bottom end but still had some seam work to do. The chrome oil pan and transmission were appealing in the teen age years but are not accurate which is what I'm after in my...........um.................40's.

a few more passes with the orange are starting to bring it to a more acceptable shade of orange.

Thank you Joe. Yeah this thing has been through alot sto say the least. More on the way soon.

Your Challenger restoration is really awesome Joe. What a great project. Pretty amazing that it held up so well given it's history. You're just the person to do a right justice job on it.

The answer is yes. In staying true to the initial build I will leave it this color as it's the about the red it's supposed to be. The engine will get a drastic change though.

Hello!

Is it staying in clear-coated plastic? Good luck with your build and have a nice day

Paweł

Update time! Sheesh it's been a while since I've posted anything on this build here. So the next step was to get this sucker polished back down to the bare plastic using different grades of sanding/ polishing pads. I took the next level of sanding down to 3200 grit and progress upward to 12000 grit.

Starting point is here:

all the way up to the 12000 grit here:

and then after that and cleaning everything up it was time for the gloss coat on last Friday:

Finally got a real close look at it today to see a speck in the middle of the drivers door and a paint run on the R/H rear quarter. Will have to do some repairs. Yuk!

Thanks Pawel,

I progressed on to the decal/ clear coat removal process.

Thanks pawel! I've got about a month and a half. I'm sure I can pull a rabbit outta the hat!

Hello!

I've had that feeling many times, man! That's why I rebuilt several of my old models in the last years. I also have the Challenger, built it about twenty years ago, it's a great car! Funny thing, Monogram forgot the shocks on the rear axle - I added them in my model after seeing the real thing in Australia. Good luck with your (re) build and have a nice day!

Paweł

Alright, I just couldn't stand it anymore. I started looking at the decals, the decals, the DECALS! I just felt the need to fix it and why not? I have another kit, soooooooooooo................................................

So this is where we are as of now. Not really in all that bad of condition for a 32 year old build that has survived falls and being displayed out in the open with no case or cover. She cleaned up rather nicely I think. I should have taken the "before" pics when half of the suspension was in pieces and two of the wheels were broken off.

The fresh air intake is missing, I think its somewhere still in my brother's closet .....soooooo, we're starting from scratch on the whole hood. I didn't really care for the paint job on the original hood anyways.

and we're cleaned up, trimmed up and primed this morning. I'll be ready for paint hopefully by tomorrow.

I've still got plenty of work to do on this thing. I have to paint and re-install the missing rear spoiler, add the "Six Pack" decal to the air cleaner, re-install the missing brake master cylinder,  add side rear view mirrors, add black to the exhaust pipe outlet area, straighten up that crooked azz L/H rear wheel and some other minor things to get this thing whipped back into shape by Thanksgiving hopefully. There are things that I wished I would have done differently during the original construction of this build but hey, I was only 14. lol 

I have a little "lag" time between now and Jan 1st to tinker a bit so I've brought this one out of hiding to "restore" it to its original condition to when I first built it and maybe add a couple of things to it. It's been a LOOONG time since I've done anything in the car model department. I managed to scarf up an additional kit to help me with the missing parts. I'll see if I can work any magic here.

Thanks for the comments  Allan!  It's gotta be to survive everything its been through! lol

As tough as the real thing.  :)

Thanks PJ! Bandai..................now that's a name in modeling I haven't heard for a long time!

Great story Mustang! It's great to hold on to some of the older stuff we had when we were younger years ago . Even though it's not a car, I still have my Bandai 1/24  Jagdpanther I built in 1977. I will eventually re do it and improve it up with better details.

Thanks Lyle! I'm looking forward to restoring it back to the build that it was pre-drop era!!

great story and neato model.