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Little Deuce Restoration


TooOld

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After being absent for more than a year I finally have one on my bench !  I picked up this Little Deuce last November with plans to restore it back to original form .

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Disassembly was about as expected with the only casualties being one exhaust manifold and the front axle .

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It took two days and a couple of trips to the purple pond to get the parts to this point . Some of the paint is being really stubborn .

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First order of business is to replace the broken bumper mounts . I used a part from a reissue as a pattern and traced the shape onto some plastic .

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After some grinding with a Dremel I used a small file to fine tune the shape of the mounts .  Also some notches were filed in the ends of the frame .

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Here's the new bumper mounts glued in place .

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To be continued . . .

Edited by TooOld
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The remaining paint basically flaked right off and then everything was cleaned and prepped for paint .

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Two coats of Duplicolor White Primer . . .

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. . . followed by two coats of Tamiya Bright Red .

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It will get cleared after the decals are applied .

Edited by TooOld
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On 12/18/2016 at 10:23 PM, junkyardjeff said:

I am suprised it did not come molded in red like the big version,I have the 70s black version that I need to rebuild.

Who knows why it's not molded in red .  As much as I hate kits molded in different colors , these old Monogram kits look great when the plastic is polished and cleared .

I have another Little Deuce that was built up white . . . just doesn't look right to me .

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Next up is to repair the front axle .  Both stubs are broken off and the spring is missing where it glues to the chassis .  I'm using the spare axle for reference to get the width right .

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The center of the spring is replaced with a small block of plastic . Nothing fancy , it's just adds a little support and it won't be seen after the axle is installed. 

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Adding poseable steering is a snap on these kits , just reshape the ends of the axle and drill them to accept a straight pin . Then I like to use a solid block of plastic to cut the knuckle from , but they could be made with 3 separate pieces glued together .

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After the final shape is achieved it gets drilled and a stub axle made from .062" rod is glued in place .

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The result should be an axle with the same track as the stock axle .  Unforunately this one ended up a bit too wide so I need to redrill the axle and make new knuckles . . . and the one on the left could better .

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More to come . . . 

 

Edited by TooOld
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There's just something about bringing an old basket case back from the dead, isn't there? I have a shelf full of unbuilt, new-tech Corvette kits, but I'm spending most of my modeling time these days trying to breathe new life into a bunch of old original AMT glue bombs. I don't know why. I don't worry about it anymore. I just enjoy it.

Model on! B)

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Thanks guys  !

The original headlight lenses are glued in pretty good and will be ruined when I get them out so I grabbed the lenses from the Blue Bandito kit , they are the exact same lenses !

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After drilling a hole and applying some pressure the lenses popped right out .

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Instead of using the Blue Bandito lenses I decided to cast my own .  I used some mold putty to make a quicky mold , and some clear casting resin to make the lenses .

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Once completely dry the flashing is easy to remove .

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After clearing the original decals they went on without a hitch . They did need to soak for about 5 minutes each before they would release from the paper ! They were followed by two coats of TS-13 .

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Edited by TooOld
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There's just something about bringing an old basket case back from the dead, isn't there? I have a shelf full of unbuilt, new-tech Corvette kits, but I'm spending most of my modeling time these days trying to breathe new life into a bunch of old original AMT glue bombs. I don't know why. I don't worry about it anymore. I just enjoy it.

Model on! B)

You are absolutely right !  I've always enjoyed super detailing my builds , but lately I've come to enjoy rebuilding old glue bombs even more ! :)

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