Paul Goldsmith's '64 Plymouth Belvedere Stock Car.

[Mr.409]

OK Let me start by saying that this model was finished a couple of years ago, but I thought I could post my WIP Pictures and descriptions in here before posting the finished product in On The Shelf. At least when I do it this way, the project can't be stalled and you don't have to wait months for next update.

So I got this Lindberg/Model King '64 Belvedere kit as a Birthday Present in December 2012. The kit looked pretty good so I started building right away. My plan was to build a Stock Car pretty much out of the box but with some extra detailing.



One problem I found out was the kit tires. They looked way too small to me so I decided to replace them with tires and wheels by Plastic Performance Products items that I bought from Daytona Beach a year before.



Here you can see a comparing picture of kit tire and PPP tire...Kit part on left, PPP tire on right.



Those PPP tires and wheels are very nice.



I painted the wheels with Revell Gloss Black and a brush.



Some molded in wiring was removed from inner fenders on front. After sanding them away I had to finish some spots with a little putty...




Body was pretty clean and it needed only minor sanding to eliminate mold lines. After that I wetsanded it lightly and sprayed on some primer from Maston.




I'll post more pics later...Stay tuned.

[harron68]

Those big ol' Plymouths were something to see way back when! Thanx for brightening the holidays with this one! There were so many cars in so many colors that builders have not yet done. This is one we should remember!

[Mr.409]

Thanks Harron! Even if I'm not really a Mopar guy, these early to mid sixties Plymouths, or actually all Mopars from those years are very good looking cars and it's always nice to see them built as models too.

Here's a bit more:
Engine halves were easy to put together, the fitment was great. I painted it with Revell orange and added spark plug wires on it as always. Transmission was painted with Revell silver.




This is not the best picture ever, but wheels and tires were finished at this point, too. Wheel centers were painted with Metallic Grey as well as those wheel bolts. Nuts were painted with brighter silver... Yes, the wheels are so nice that when painted correctly, even those wheel bolts and nuts look like separate parts! Tire decals came with those PPP tires.



Door panels had some ejector pin marks to be removed. After roughly removing them, I finished areas with a little putty.



Next step was painting the chassis and body with Maston red spray paint. They turned out pretty good actually.






And a couple of engine parts were painted & glued on too...

[Mr.409]

Gas Tank was painted with Revell's silver and after that I added some semi gloss black to the brackets. A simple fuel line was made from carburetor to fuel pump too. I used Detail Masters' Braided Line on this and I kept it very simple as it will be hidden under air cleaner anyway.




Then I continued working with the chassis. Front and rear suspension parts were painted and assembled. Everything fit very well on place and only minor extra work was needed with those aftermarket wheels and tires to make them fit to Lindberg axles. Nothing major on there though, just a little filing and sanding. Brake lines were added too but they're not connected yet as brake master cylinder wasn't on place yet. Rear shocks were not in place yet either.






And here is the start of the interior. Interior floor was painted gloss white and seat is semi gloss black. I used kit's seat belts as I didn't have red seat belt material anywhere and I didn't want black belts to this one.



Next I added fire extinguisher and made new brackets to it from metal wire. That ugly super glue mark on the seat was fixed after I noticed it in this picture!



Kit's roll cage didn't have a proper crossmember where seat belts could be mounted in, so I had to make one. A short piece of styrene rod glued on place did the trick, then just some gloss black paint to the cage, semi gloss to roll bar padding and the cage could be installed. Then I mounted seat belts to the crossmember I made.





Next the engine was glued to chassis. In these pics firewall and inner fenders are not in place so that's why all of those wires etc are still waiting to be connected into something.






And then some BMF was added to the body...

[Mr.409]

Next step was to put decals on. Kit's decals were pretty nice, but the ones that needed to be installed over that side trim were not easy to get right. I managed to attach them somehow to the body though.






Then the body was clear coated and I moved on to the interior.

On top of the dash there was a long sink mark so what I did was covering the whole dash top with putty and then I sanded it smooth.




Then the dash was painted gloss black. Cauge panel was glued on place and I added some flat black to the cauges and then when the paint was still wet, I wiped it off from the letters. Steering wheel and steering column were attached at this point as well.



Door panels were painted with Revell silver and window cranks with Humbrol Polished Aluminum that is a bit brighter shade. Those panel lines were highlighted with Tamiya Panel Line Accent color which is a great product! Then I just put the whole interior together. Note that the door panels in this kit have that factory stock upholstery on other side, while the other side is sheet metal.







Then when clear coat was completely dry, it was time to polish the body. This needed a bit more polishing than some other ones before as the clear coat had a bit of orange peel on it. Fortunately polishing came out pretty good though. Not my best job, but decent anyway (Naturally my skills have improved after this build so nowadays I can polish a lot better than I did on this. But I was quite happy with this back then!).






Firewall, radiator wall and inner fenders were painted body color and detailed by painting molded in wires with different color. I kept carburetor linkage very simple because air cleaner would hide it pretty much, so all you can see is if it is there or not, but there's no way you could say how good or bad it looks when air cleaner is installed. I had to scratchbuild battery cable connectors from pieces of sheet styrene as I ran out of photo etch parts. Then some details were added in the engine bay at this point.








Alright, the next update will be the last one before finished shots...Stay Tuned.

[harron68]

A few comments, very excellent work throughout. Body shine is almost too good! One thing I've noticed as the hobby has changed, the engine fan blades are thick on all kits. There are photo etched ones, but a simple thinning of the edges helps a lot. I dunno what they used back in the day (I have books, but haven't checked) for holding the batteries in place. Most likely a rod up the open wide side to a narrow strap across the top would be a guess. As to the tires, I agree the new ones look better, but being larger, I hope it won't have the car seem too high.
None of these minor points should detract from the superb work already done. Thanx for excellent work and clear close-up fotos. I truly wish this one will inspire more models of "forgotten" old era NASCARS.

[Mr.409]

Good points Harron, thanks for them !

You're right that those fan blades are usually too thick and require some trimming. Looks like I should have done it on this one as well. Nowadays I've been doing it regularly on all of my builds as it's true, it looks so much better that way. I've seen those photo etch parts as well, but never got around buying them though. Maybe I should try getting one of them out of curiosity, even if those blades look pretty good with just basic thinning.

And yep, you're right that I forgot to install battery mount on this back then. I don't know for sure either what they used on these Stock Cars, but I've added one usually to all of my builds and it's a good looking detail that sure makes a difference.

Surprisingly I didn't have to lower the suspension at all even if those tires are a bit taller. I did a mock up before gluing anything on place and it looked pretty good. I wonder how low it would have been with those kit tires then as it looked pretty good to me with these tires...

You're right, it would be great to see more of these old Stock Cars built. I have a Model King '69 Torino and Jo-Han '72 Torino Stock Cars that are still waiting for their turn in the stash. Some day I'll get around building them too.