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1957 METEOR RANCHERO – Rancheros were always amongst my favourite vehicles but I guess I was waiting for a new tool kit to come along and was not interested in the chopped version I occasionally saw at swap meets. Recently a friend for whom I had built a model of his Shelby GT350R a number of years ago asked me to build a model of the vehicle he used to tow his racecar with back in the day – a 1957 Meteor Ranchero. [Meteors were Canadian Fords sold at Mercury dealerships]. Who knows how long it will be before a new tool Ranchero is available so I acquired two previously started stock roof height 1/25 original 1960 tool Revell ’57 Ford Ranchero from one of my car modeller buddies. One was in pretty rough shape but the other was not too bad at all and it is always great having extra parts. All things considered I am pretty impressed with what is essentially a fifty-year-old tool. The chassis actually has separate rear leaf springs, axle/differential and driveshaft. The dull exhausts are molded in. THE BUILD - I resisted the temptation to take apart the largely assembled body, as I feared something would break, although I did manage to reattach the taillight area. - I started by smoothing the front fender tops where the join was uneven and the ridge left something to be desired. I added a new ridge of Evergreen Styrene half-round - I de-chromed some parts and was surprised to find the plastic under the chrome was clear. As a result I lost the piece that surrounds the rear window. Thankfully I had a spare. I removed the bars attached to the longitudinal bed trim. The window trim and bed trim were glued to the body for chrome foiling after painting. - Because this was going to be a Meteor, scripting was removed from the body. I also removed the door handles, which had poor definition to be replaced with separate items after painting. - The model was engineered with the pickup bed attached to the interior door panels and wheel-wells part of the chassis. I decided to attach the pickup bed and wheel-wells to the body. In addition I made the tailgate non-functioning. - The front bumper was incorrect so narrowed front bumper and gravel pan was acquired from an AMT 57 Ford as is hood ornament and engine - Narrowed Torque Thrusts from AMT 49 Ford - centers will be grey, polished rims to be added later - Headlights and taillights from AMT 57 Ford - Fender skirts fabricated from Evergreen Styrene - Meteor grill from AMT ’57 Ford with fabricated wrap-arounds - Side trim made from Evergreen Styrene - The paint scheme will be blue and white - While I have it, the GT350R requires from freshening