1979 Mustang (Pace Car?)

[retriever]

Every now and then I come across a build up glue bomb of one of my favourite late model cars.

A case in point is this Mustang which I picked up for $6.50 U.S. plus shipping (that's always the killer!).

While not too bad. the assembly had been a little less than accurate as you can tell from the chassis picture above.  However, as the model had not been painted and the only visible glue "blob" was a minor one on the roof(?) I figured it would be an interesting rebuild.

The first order of business was a total disassembly of the model.  While this looked fairly simple, it wasn't until I got into the front and rear suspension that I realised that the glue monster had struck!  Big globs of the stuff surrounded every mounting point.  I had to take a razor saw to each one and then hack the rest of the way with an old trusty #11 blade as best I could.  Fortunately I was able to carefully remove the "glass" pieces without cracking them.  The front valance was on crooked, so I removed it and reset it properly,


"Fox" bodied Mustangs with this style of grille were built between late 1978 (1979 models) and 1984.  It is not easy to tell by looking at the body, which year specifically this model is.  Fortunately, when I removed the chassis from the body, I found that the model was copyrighted in 1978 by "Fun Dimensions".  I seem to remember that "Fun Dimensions" issued MPC models and were owned by one of the cereal companies.  I'll have to look that up.

So this model is of a "1979" Mustang.  That suits me down to the ground as I had been trying to obtain a model of the 1979 Mustang Indianapolis 500 pace car but price wise they were out of my league..  After some research I found that this is actually the MPC (Fun Dimensions) 1/25 scale 1979 pace car kit.  All I need now is a set of Pace Car decals.....  Help, anyone?

I have all the parts stored away the a Ziploc baggie.  Some parts are missing... such as the exhaust system, fuel tank and rear seat, Hopefully I might find another parts car with those missing parts?

Tony

[Can-Con]

Atta boy, nice work so far.

Edited February 4, 2018 by Can-Con

[vamach1]

I would consider a trade for some or perhaps all of what you see here.  I have the Monogram and MPC Pace car decals plus the Cafe Race kit which was probably modified from the Pace Car.  PM me if you have anything unique to trade.

[retriever]

That's definitely an interesting thought   What type of models are you particularly interested in?  I have a large stash so I'm sure there's something in there for you.

I'm particularly interested in the MPC Pace car and parts... but would also like the Café racer if we can find an interesting trade for you.

Tony

[Snake45]

Monogram did a '70 Pace Car, too, but in 1/24. I knew immediately that this wasn't that because the Mono kit has the sunroof. In other words, you probably don't want Monogram decals for this MPC kit, as they won't fit. 

I had a real '79 Mustang Pace Car. 302/auto. Only new car I've ever owned, or probably ever will, at this point. What a pig it was. 

I have a Monogram kit, which I got about half-built back in the day, and then the decals got ruined for some reason and I lost interest in it. 

Good luck with your build. These were sharp LOOKING cars, anyway, even if they couldn't get out of their own way. I look forward to seeing your resto/rebuild. 

[retriever]

Thanks Richard.

I would have preferred to Monogram 1/24 pace car kit, but prices on those have gone sky high.  I have other built Monogram Fox bodied models, so 1/24 would have been better suited to my collection.

Having said that. I have an unbuilt MPC 1987 Mustang GT kit, so I checked it to see how similar the parts were to my 1979 model.  As I suspected, the kits are almost identical....  apart from some cosmetic upgrades to the 1987 body style, etc.  So I'm now using the 1987 chassis, suspension and other components to put under the 1979 body.  I can still build the 1987 kit later using the discarded parts from the 1979 car.  Out of interest,  you may already know that the three pace cars built for the Indycar race all had T-Tops but the replicars delivered to dealers were equipped with the sunroof. 

Although I have solved my immediate problem by switching between the two MPC kits, I'm still interested in the possible trade suggested by Rex, especially the 1/25 pace car decal sheet.

Tony

[Gerrys68]

Did you ever find those decals? I just found out that the decal kit I have here for my '79 Pace Car are too old to use. I tried using clear coat on them to solidify but they just exploded when I tried to apply one.

[vamach1]

52 minutes ago, Gerrys68 said:

Did you ever find those decals? I just found out that the decal kit I have here for my '79 Pace Car are too old to use. I tried using clear coat on them to solidify but they just exploded when I tried to apply one.

Looks like Rayskits.com has them "coming soon" but with shipping from Europe it could take a while.  I was surprised I did not see them on Keith Marks Fotki page - he does a lot of different Mustang decal sets.

Edited April 20, 2020 by vamach1

[myelo2]

There is a set in eBay. https://www.ebay.com/itm/1978-Indy-500-pace-car-Mustang-Decals/124053137640