Barracuda (or Valiant) Speedster

[Tom Geiger]

Just playing unsupervised in the parts box and had an evil epiphany..  

Take one old Hemi Under Glass with a broken roof and size it up next to the Fireball 500...

A bit more gnawing on plastic and some sanding.. this might just be fun.

[GoodbuildNY]

Awesome Idea!!! That should look great. Are you keeping both humps and seating positions or are you going to make it a mono with driver only?

[misterNNL]

When I first saw the magic word speedster I was half expecting you to cut it in half front to back and narrow it into a single seater. With outside mounted wheels that would make it a true speedster. Oh go ahead..I double dog dare you ?

[Tom Geiger]

Sorry Tom, I had this vision for a quick project!

 

I glued the two parts together and filled in some gaps with scrap Evergreen plastic. Once that all dried solid, I applied some putty...

Let that dry overnight. Been busy today, may do a bit of sanding tonight.

I have a vision of making this a 66 Valiant instead of using the Hemi Under Glass Barracuda grille. I do have a pair of resin 66 Valiants, guess I could borrow one.. will check with caster to see if he can hook me up..

Edited February 5, 2021 by Tom Geiger

[Tom Geiger]

 

A bit more playing today...

[slusher]

Neat idea Tom, that’s going to make a great looking project..

[Tom Geiger]

A bit o primer just to see the imperfections.  Another round of putty coming up!

[alan barton]

This is one of your best ideas ever! But wow, you must be up kinda late for a school night!

Cheers

Alan

[Spottedlaurel]

Coming together very nicely. Any thoughts on colour yet?

[Snake45]

Very interesting and kinda cool! Just yesterday I picked up a cleanly built Fireball 500 at the toy show; should make a good rescue project. 

[Tom Geiger]

8 hours ago, alan barton said:

This is one of your best ideas ever! But wow, you must be up kinda late for a school night

Thanks Alan!  Yea, when you’re working on something you cannot put down, time does get away from ya!

7 hours ago, Spottedlaurel said:

Coming together very nicely. Any thoughts on colour yet?

Not yet! Open to suggestions!  

[Bullybeef]

16 minutes ago, Tom Geiger said:

 

Not yet! Open to suggestions!  

Something about this colour seems right??‍♂️

[espo]

This color would look good alright. I don't remember this color on the Valiants, that doesn't mean they didn't have it, just don't remember ever seeing it. This looks a lot like the 1965 GM color Iris Mist . 

[Snake45]

2 hours ago, Bullybeef said:

Something about this colour seems right??‍♂️

 

Doesn't do a thing for me. There's a restored '66 Cuda in my area painted this color. Everything about the car is magnificent except the color, which nearly turns my stomach. 

[slusher]

Coming along nicely Tom,  have you decided on a color yet?

[Snake45]

Got a tip for you, Tom: I just disassembled the F500 I bought and discovered that interference between the chassis and the interior tub in the driveshaft hump area keeps the body from sitting as low on the chassis as it should. I spent about 15-20 minutes filing on the top of the hump on the chassis, and the channel in the underside of the tub, and now have the tub sitting flat on the chassis, and the body sitting much lower. Give it a try--I think you'll like the results. 

[cobraman]

I'm thinking it would look better in a bright color. Just one guys opinion ,.

[Tom Geiger]

8 hours ago, Snake45 said:

Got a tip for you, Tom: I just disassembled the F500 I bought and discovered that interference between the chassis and the interior tub in the driveshaft hump area keeps the body from sitting as low on the chassis as it should. I spent about 15-20 minutes filing on the top of the hump on the chassis, and the channel in the underside of the tub, and now have the tub sitting flat on the chassis, and the body sitting much lower. Give it a try--I think you'll like the results. 

Ha! I spent time today on that very same issue! I thought it was because of my slice and dice, but I tried it with a spare kit with same results.. sanded a bunch on both interior bottom and top of chassis. Still not happy with the fit. It may wind up with a Duster chassis.

I still have no idea about color. It may get that Signet two tone with silver on lower edges. My 1:1 had that 

Edited February 9, 2021 by Tom Geiger

[Snake45]

12 minutes ago, Tom Geiger said:

 I tried it with a spare kit with same results.. sanded a bunch on both interior bottom and top of chassis. Still not happy with the fit.

Sand the driveshaft hump on top of the chassis flat until you can start to see light coming through the plastic. Then start sanding the inside sides of the interior tub channel, especially where it widens out at the front, again until you can just start to see light. At that point the interior tub should fit flat to the floor, or darn close to it. The chassis will tuck up into the body and the whole car will have a very nice little rake. I was going to re-drill the front axle locating holes, but now that won't be necessary at all--it's perfect as is. I DO need to make some rear inner fender walls, though, or you can see straight through the thing at the wheels in the back. 

BTW, here's the built F500 I've started with. You can see how high the front end sits. Last pics taken immediately before I disassembled it. By tomorrow I hope to have the body "rescued" enough to start laying clear lacquer on it by Wednesday or Thursday. 

Edited February 9, 2021 by Snake45

[Tom Geiger]

Thanks!  This is becoming a project! I’m building mine curbside since the HUG hood was molded in. Still will assemble lower end of engine but just what can be seen from bottom. I will watch the rear wheel wells

Funny aside..  AMT put the Hemi in the kit.  The real car has a bone stock 273, the hood was never opened in movie. 

That F500 looks great! Someone did a nice job on the paint!

Edited February 9, 2021 by Tom Geiger

[Snake45]

9 hours ago, Tom Geiger said:

That F500 looks great! Someone did a nice job on the paint!

That's what I thought, too, when I bought it. It's not as nice when closely examined. 

The finish is very orange-peeled/pebbled, though very finely. Looks like OB painted the read part first, then laid on the white in the Tim Boyd two-tone fade technique. The white covered the red pretty well (very little if any "bleed"), but there are tiny white spatters over almost all of the red. These aren't immediately obvious to the naked eye but are apparent on close look. The white spatters actually show up more prominently in pics than in real life for some reason--you can really see them above. 

In disassembling the thing, I had to scrape some small glue boogers off here and there, especially where the windscreens were glued on (as you can see above). I'll have to carefully touch these areas up with brushed red before I can start trying to smooth out the orange peel with several layers of clear lacquer. 

[Tom Geiger]

Ha! Now I see the white spatters.. I thought it was metal flake!  May be able to polish it all out. 

Decals look ok, but if you damage polishing and need a set, let me know, I have extras

[Snake45]

I'm good on decals but thanks for the offer. I bought two or three of these things when they were cheap at Walmart just for the trailers and Radir wheels. The ones on it are pretty well set into the finish--OB must have used a setting solution of some sort. But they still covered the door lines (a modeling pet peeve of mine). Yesterday I sliced through those lines and hit them with Solvaset, and they look 100% better now. 

Not gonna try to polish out the white spatter, just gonna clearcoat the whole hot mess and polish that out. As I said, the white spatter is almost invisible to the naked eye in 3D but shows up much larger in the pics for some mysterious reason. 

[Tom Geiger]

The trailer that comes in the kit..

I have a few of these too..

Lotsa mods here.. moved axle back so it isn’t rear heavy, added fenders and lights, better wheels and tires. Also created hollow beam axle to hide the wire one! Big issue is that the whole idea of a hitch is backwards.. a peg on the tongue instead of a receiver and a hole in the hitch provided! Had to totally redo that!

[Tom Geiger]

I actually forgot I had a workbench thread going for this one! Above is a photo with all the bodywork done better than I thought I’d get it.

The voices in my head insisted it needed to be a two tone. I taped it off using Tamiya Tape for the critical line, then finished up with painters  blue tape (for those guys who claim Tamiya Tape is too expensive).

And I’m quite pleased with the results! I had a little paint lift off with the tape, but fixed it. Shouldn’t notice once the clear is done. Paint is all Duplicolor rattle can.

The interior is done too, I just haven’t taken any pix. Right now I’m drawing up Valiant logos for decals. Fun fun! 

Edited April 23, 2021 by Tom Geiger