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Cross Kit General Lee 1969 Charger-Progress-01/22


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I'm building this one as part of a Group Build that I've got going on elsewhere.  I'll start with an MPC General Lee kit which I'll be using bits and pieces from to include decals and the parts necessary to make this a General Lee. It's not going to be a completely genuine "Lee 1" build as I'll be making it an R/T and changing some things up here and there. I also want to say that although this will be decked out with all the decals that came on the GL that I'm not going to be centering my build on that which causes alot of stir up. I'll be concentrating on the build itself rather than any politics surrounding it.

I merely enjoyed the show as a kid and even built a GL when I was in the 6th grade. It didn't turn out the way I'd hoped but I get a second chance to build a car that I've always wanted to build since then.

I picked this kit up for $10 at the last show I went to in San Antonio back in February:

 

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90% of the build will be from this kit which is a far better offering than the MPC version ever thought about being and I picked it up from an Austin Show in 2015 for $10 as well:

 

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and to put a little bit of a spin on this car to get it to look the way I want it to look I'll be using the wider wheels from the AMT Eckler Corvette

 

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Edited by mustang1989
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Found the paint that I want to use. I've been eyeballing this color anyways because I've seen a few of the newer Chargers painted this color and I have developed a liking to it.

 

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Here we are all cleaned up and primed. Still gotta do a teeny bit of sanding but it went on really smooth:

 

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Edited by mustang1989
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Managed to dispense and apply the paint. This stuff went on really good. I'll start the wet sanding process in a few days to smooth everything out that much more before I start with the decaling and clear coats. We'll be using the "Wet Look" clear on this one so it'll really pop.

 

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I spent a lot of time wet sanding the imperfections out of the paint and then applying Bare Metal Foil around all the window trim and drip rails and today...the decals. Here's a couple of shots of how it sits now. Still got the flag decal coated with Microsol to help it all lay flat onto the roofline. Had a couple of areas on the edges where it didn't want to lay down flush. Now to let the cals dry and then off to the gloss coat....my favorite part.

 

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Today was Gloss Coat day soooo......I broke out the Testors "Wet Look" Clear ….the ONLY way to go for supreme gloss finishes in my experience. I dispensed it into a paint jar, let 'er gas out for about 5 minutes while I was removing whatever dust particles I could find on the body and went to work.


Couldn't be happier with the results. Now...……..to let it cure out for a couple of days before a nice wet sanding and polishing.

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Thanks Tony!

 

Used this picture for reference with the undercarriage color coating...with orange of course....

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I've got just about everything base coated and test fitted here in this picture but I still needed to deepen the effects here. Didn't want to keep it too boring under there.

 

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Applied a subtle wash to the undersides to bring out some of the details and add some depth. I also hit up the leaf springs and differential edges lightly with a silver lead pencil:
 

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In my opinion, there's two major things to get right with a General Lee build: 1.) The car body-It's gotta look the part and it's gotta be near perfect in regards to the look and finish...……….and 2.) The wheels. If the wheels are a flub job then the whole thing looks off balance. I've got one of the rear wheels pretty much completed and I feel pretty fair about the outcome. The rear wheels will come from the Eckler Corvette and are a little wider/ deeper for a more aggressive looking Lee. I stuck the tire on a 14mm deep socket (next time I'll use a shallow socket for more control and less wobble) and spun it up on a drill with the tire on some sandpaper to achieve the worn tire tread look.

 

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Thanks for the interest and reactions guys.

This'll be my second go round with these door panels as I didn't prime them before painting the first time and the paint lifted when I tried to apply the BMF to the trim areas. Bummer! So I stripped them and began with priming this time but ended up using Molotow Chrome the second time instead of BMF.
Picked up this new acrylic primer from Badger called STYNYLREZ. It's an acrylic polyurethane primer and I was pretty impressed with the results.

 

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Just apply in thin coats and it goes on as smooth as a baby's butt:

 

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Finished door panels. I used RLM 79 with some shadowing here and there and chromed the details and trim with Molotow Chrome:

 

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This is really lookin' good. Seriously good!  The keys are a really nice albeit tiny touch.  :mental:

 

Also nice to see that I'm not the only one who uses the Badger Modelflex paints.  I've had really good luck with those. :thumbsup: 

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Thanks Tommy.

 

Well I've officially completed the interior tub today. All that's left is installing the door lock knobs into the holes that I drilled in the top of each door which will happen after I've got everything installed neatly and securely up into the body as to avoid damage to the knobs during the interior install.
Revell really did everything right on this kit. If you look up under the dash on the passengers side you'll see the HVAC case. AM items include the seat belts and buckles, PE foot pedals, PE steering wheel spokes, PE keys and key chains and of course the carpet/ flocking. All chrome was applied with a Molotow Chrome pen except for the chrome endcap on the rear of the console. I'm pretty pleased with this.

 

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Got some done on the engine bay this morning. Again, the newer Revell kits seem to include more than the average bear (but then again.....this is a Pro Modeler kit) Steering columns are not usually present in auto kits. I've got the holes drilled in the shock towers to install the retaining nuts and studs for the shocks later.

 

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First off.....I worked on the battery a couple of days back and decided not to go with real cables for this one. Gonna concentrate most of my efforts on the brake lines coming off of the master cylinder and more so on the engine which I still haven't decided which way to go with yet.🤔

 

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Secondly.....If you wanna know about stress...…I can tell you about that. I have never seen an interior that fought the whole way going into a car body before. I just knew one of the windows were gonna pop out or that there was going to be an interior side panel pop out of place or something was gonna break while installing it. I can't really turn the car body upside down to do all of this either due to all the flocking going everywhere during the popping and all from fitting this interior up into the body. I had to do all of this with the body upright which made things really hard to do. But............…I got it. Thank God-I got it.

 

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As it turns out......I did forget to put the inside rear view mirror on. Not a total deal breaker for me though and besides.....here in the state of Texas you only need one mirror installed to pass the Vehicle State Inspection requirements so I'll be sure to install the outside rearview mirror.😃

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33 minutes ago, spoly said:

Movie and TV cars never have a rear view mirror, so don't worry about it.

LOL!!! Never thought of it that way. 

 

Okay......I managed to get the hair raising task of installing the wheels all done. Sounds simple but I made the wheel mounting holes on the rims an oval so I could get this one just wee tad lower. Had to get all the wheels at just the right height so I wouldn't wind up with a "3 wheeler". The stance is now locked in.

I also got the back panel all painted up, detailed up and bumpered up and installed. I hit the body with a little more polish but can tell I need to do it again just to get it just right.

 

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