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

Thanks you guys.

Today saw the completion of the engine bay prep. The one thing I couldn't get over was the clear windshield washer bottle out of the box. A little weird but I guess they were trying to appeal to the average modeler.





I made the necessary corrections to it and managed to finish up the engine bay today. Shock studs and retaining nuts were added to the shock towers, brake lines were fabricated and added and I brought out the highlights of the steering column with a silver lead pencil. Anyhow ....here's the engine bay all prepped for that 440 engine to be installed hopefully shortly....

Super paint!

You have made some really impressive progress Joe. I am certainly glad that you managed to get the interior in without any major mishaps. Looks amazing with those sharp wheels on. And lastly. very nice progress on the engine. I always enjoy your work in that area.

Looking sweet!

Thanks guys.

Engine is ready for the assembly process (which I've already started):



I've already got one of these same 440 engines painted up for use in my sons 1970 Superbird. Everything looks like it'll fit fine in there:

Hmm;

 That looks like the car those over-exuberant boys drive ,,fer sure!

Looks sharp!

Okay......I managed to get the hair raising task of installing the wheels all done. Sounds simple but I made the wheel mounting holes on the rims an oval so I could get this one just wee tad lower. Had to get all the wheels at just the right height so I wouldn't wind up with a "3 wheeler". The stance is now locked in.



I also got the back panel all painted up, detailed up and bumpered up and installed. I hit the body with a little more polish but can tell I need to do it again just to get it just right.

 

First off.....I worked on the battery a couple of days back and decided not to go with real cables for this one. Gonna concentrate most of my efforts on the brake lines coming off of the master cylinder and more so on the engine which I still haven't decided which way to go with yet.

Secondly.....If you wanna know about stress...…I can tell you about that. I have never seen an interior that fought the whole way going into a car body before. I just knew one of the windows were gonna pop out or that there was going to be an interior side panel pop out of place or something was gonna break while installing it. I can't really turn the car body upside down to do all of this either due to all the flocking going everywhere during the popping and all from fitting this interior up into the body. I had to do all of this with the body upright which made things really hard to do. But............…I got it. Thank God-I got it.

Thanks Mississipp,  Johnny, Lee, Compressor and Joe! 

You should be more than "pretty pleased" with that effort. You should be fist pumping out on your front lawn.

Your interior is looking great but is that a standard shift shifter? I had thought The General was automatic (I always wanted it to be standard though). 

Looking great. Nothing wrong with not adding the roll bar if you are not building it as a replica from the show. I guy just donwn the road from me did a full scale general Lee and his has no roll bar but it's still a beauty.

Understood 

I was on the fence about the roll bar. I had it out all ready to paint it up and install it. I even cleaned it up of all the seam lines and all but.......................I've been wanting to build a Charger R/T for a looooooooong time now and wanted to build this as a Lee...ish build. Dropping the stance and making this car an R/T version was the first vision that I had, then the deeper wheels and wider tires came along as all too enticing. Next up will be a 440 engine. She'll be a Lee alright....but a slightly modified one.

No trouble at all Greg! 

Well I've officially completed the interior tub today. All that's left is installing the door lock knobs into the holes that I drilled in the top of each door which will happen after I've got everything installed neatly and securely up into the body as to avoid damage to the knobs during the interior install.
Revell really did everything right on this kit. If you look up under the dash on the passengers side you'll see the HVAC case. AM items include the seat belts and buckles, PE foot pedals, PE steering wheel spokes, PE keys and key chains and of course the carpet/ flocking. All chrome was applied with a Molotow Chrome pen except for the chrome endcap on the rear of the console. I'm pretty pleased with this.

Thanks for the info on the flocking, Joe.

So glad Badger tossed in that bottle of Stynylrez.

Thanks Joe!! I've just got my system down these days. I need to jog things up a bit to keep it interesting.

Wondeful, wonderful interior Joe. I always enjoy the attention to detail you give your interiors. They are always about as close to realistic as anyone could ever achieve. It is a remarkable trait you possess. 

Thanks Nick, Steve and Greg.

Greg: I used flocking from the Model Car Garage. It's called Bisque Tan. I just put some white glue down after painting the floor tan and sprinkled the flocking on and matted it down some with my finger. I found out about the Stynylrez when I bought my new compressor from Badger. The rep just threw a bottle in with the order. I'm glad he did because the stuff works like a charm with acrylic paint.

Awesome interior. Can you tell me how you did the carpet? It looks smashing.

Surprised you just discovered Stynylrez, but glad you did. It's great stuff.

mustang1989

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

Buddy--just when I thought the carpet was outstanding--you go and do the dash. This is stellar work. This model is gonna be a beaut when done.

I just noticed that you put keys in the ignition! LOL. That is awesome! Wow! I expect this car will drive if given a chance.

Beautiful job nice color combo this kit brings me back to 1978...

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:

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

Not a problem at all.

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